Hey guys. I've been going through a lot of superhero novels (there's a shitton on kindle), and I was wondering if anyone had any spesific ones that I don't have that they recommend. I've gone through

Other People's Heroes by Blake M. Petit (Amazing)
Paranormals by Christopher Andrews (Not Bad)
Masked (Collection of em, some were hit some were miss)
Ex-Heroes by Peter Clines (Can't say enough good things about it)
Confessions of a D-list Supervillain by Jim Berenheimer (Alright)
Axiom-Man by A.P. Fuchs (Meh)
Soon I Will Be Invincible by Austin Grossman (Pretty Good)
Playing for Keeps by Mur Lafferty(Good)
Demigod by Jason Lee Knuth (Started strong, ended weak)
Devil's Cape by Rob Rodgers(Good)

And I'm working though In Hero Years I'm dead by Michael Stackpole, Superpowers: A Novel by David J. Schwartz, and From the Notebooks of Dr. Brain by Minister Faust.

Anyone got anything else?

 

I remember a book called Those Who Walk in Darkness... it was pretty good from what I remember...

From your list, I can attest that Soon I Will Be Invincible and Dr. Brain both are good, solid reads - though not anything epic.

 

Freshmen (although a comic) is worth downloading/finding. Over the top silliness, but a sorta 'what would happen if first years at college got superpowers...'.

There was a great one I read a few years back in the local library. It was a tenns book, and had a really plain cover. Every thirty years or so, five individuals get given superpowers - telepathy, superstrength, superspeed, flight, invisibility.
Things go to hell really quickly though. Superspeed ages you. You'll be dead within ten years. Telepathy, you have no control. He makes a tin-hat and lives in his attic to avoid the screaming noises of everyone's thoughts. One of the others has a middle-eastern family, and gets abuse from society based on that. One of the others is gay.

Great book, but can't remember the title, or author. Also, it is NOT a happy read.

 

I enjoyed Ex-Heroes. The sequel Ex-Patriots is due out soon, I believe.

I've read Wearing the Cape by MG Harmon. It's pretty good, with some nice world building, though it might be a little on the YA-ish side for your tastes, but I enjoyed it. There's also Charlotte Powers: Power Down. I haven't read it yet, but it seems to fall along the same lines.

Glad I rated an "Alright" on your scale.

 

George R R Martin and Melinda Snodgrass edit Wild Cards, an extended collection of superhero short stories based in the same fictional world. The ones I've read have been pretty good. (Disclosure--I started reading the series when a friend of mine was invited to contribute a story to their next installment).

 

I've tried to read Wild Cards multiple times, with several different books, but never could go beyond ten pages.

Dunno why.

 

Tried to read Wild Cards. Got somewhat into it but, then it just lost me. Not sure what the problem is, as I usually like Martin's stuff.

Also started Those who walk in darkness. So far, it's meh.

I did stumble across How to Succeed in Evil by Patrick Mclean. It's about an evil consultant who only wants to make money by financing evil supervillain business plans. And apparently Giant Space Lasers aren't very cost effective. About halfway though, and while it's dry in certain places, it's still a solid read.

 

In an attempt to revive this thread, and get more recs. I just finished Soon I Will be Invincible and by far it has been my favorite of any superhero novel. I like the conflicting view points and the way it tries to explain cliches that is uses. I've also start an anthology called Masked edited by Lou Anders and the story I finished so far is amazing. One of the grossest and coolest powers I've ever seen. I'll leave better reviews for both when I'm off my phone.

 

Trying to revive this thread again so we can get some more superhero recs a reviews. I just finished Nobody Gets the Girl by James Maxely and I though it was a pretty good read. It was short but exciting and fast paced. I also finished Jberns book D-List and loved it. Even if it was short it had great characterization and made me fall in love with the characters. I'm just starting Super Human by Micheal Carroll and so far I'm in the iddle about the book. Some parts have been really good but others seem pretty boring and kinda glossed over. I'll have to see how he finished it to give it a rating.

 

Jim Butcher's Spider-Man novel, The Darkest Hours is pretty good. He writes Spidey very well, the plot's not bad and there's even some characterisation for the Rhino.

 

Jim Butcher wrote a Spider-Man novel? :awesome Gotta look into that. I'm going to see Amazing Spider-Man in a couple hours, so I'll probably be on a Spider-Man trip (regardless of how good the movie turns out) for a while afterward. Coincides perfectly.

I'd hope Butcher writes Spidey well, considering how similar he is to Dresden in a lot of ways (the smart-assery, how he gets his ass kicked and his life shit on so often, etc.)

 

I'm raising this thread from the dead to leave a brief review of a relatively new superhero novel.

I picked up Prepare to Die! by Paul Tobin at the library today. After reading the thoroughly satisfying Ex-Heroes, I decided to give another superhero book a spin. And I half-regret it.

Taking place in a world where Cold War research lead to the rise of super-powered humans after the Cold War, the story focuses on Reaver, a man who is returning to his origins after he has been given a two week stay of execution by the dominant villains group.

The good thing about this novel is that it created a bunch of cool super-powered individuals. For the most part, it made sense why a cop couldn't simply shoot the villains in the head. The background of the world was also fairly well done. And I did like some of the plot twists at the end.

On the other hand, the writing itself was pretty bad. Flashbacks were rampant, present in virtually every chapter. Furthermore, the flashbacks were continuous info dumps which I found myself frequently skimming. The relationship between Reaver and Adele (which was probably the largest focus of the story) reminded me of a clumsy fanfic to a degree.

In short, at only 292 pages, if you're looking for a quick read, it might be worth borrowing from the library. Not worth your purchase though.

Addendum: On the back cover there is a quote from one Jim Bernheimer. It wasn't until I was halfway through reading the story that I made the connection to Jbern.

 

Yeah. One of the editors at his publisher contacted me and asked if I'd do a jacket quote for him. I liked it, but thought there was just a little too much emphasis on extraneous sex. I did catch a pair of major plotholes when I read it and let the author know. One they already knew about, but the other was pretty big and hadn't been noticed to that point. Hopefully, they were able to get it removed before it went to press.

I do agree how the relationship between Reaver and Adele was kind of thin, but it's a superhero novel, so I wasn't expecting much on that end. I do recall that the fight scenes were pretty good.

Were I reviewing it on Amazon, I'd have given it a 4 out of 5. Ex-Heroes was a better read and Prepare to Die was about on par with Wearing the Cape. I haven't had a chance to read Ex-Patriots and I still haven't gotten to Nobody Gets the Girl.

Guess I should pick up a copy of Prepare to Die sometime, but $20 for a hard cover is a bit pricey. Heck $7.99 for the Kindle is kind of iffy as well.

 

Well I would up reading that Spider-Man novel. I second the recommendation. Butcher does write Peter well (no surprise, as I was saying before), as well as his relationships with MJ, Black Cat and the other side characters. He even gives some mildly surprising attention and depth to Rhino. The story relies on an arc in the comics involving a bad guy named Morlun and surrounding events, but he covers what happened well enough in this book that you don't really need to go out and read it.

Of course he can't resist throwing some magical elements in there, such as the aforementioned Morlun and the mythos surrounding his race, as well as a few neat appearances from Doctor Strange. These fit well, despite Spider-Man typically (though never exclusively) being a more science-oriented character.