David John Schwartz

Superpowers is a truly mediocre book: it definitely isn't good, but it's certainly not bad enough that I could enjoy hating it. It's just…a read, which is too bad because there's a lot of potential in its concept (namely, what happens when five college students wake up and discover they have superpowers? Screw the "how did they get them and who are the supervillains?" stuff—what are their moral obligations? Do they tell their families? Help the cops? Are they responsible when they hurtg show more innocent bystanders while aiding others?)

Unfortunately, Schwartz is not talented enough to pull this concept off. The main characters are literally indistinguishable from one another—each has one defining physical and one defining emotional/familial trait, and that's it. I had to bookmark the page where they were introduced in order to remember who was who…and kept referring to it all the way up to the final page of the book. Schwartz also introduces a plethora of secondary and tertiary characters who are even less well-defined than the leads and contribute nothing to the story outside of word count.

Finally, the narrative contains two major flaws. The first is that whenever a hero's family member discovers that he or she has superpowers, said family member comes to terms with it within the space of a sentence or two. Every single time. This is hardly what one would expect from a realistic superhero story, especially one that aims to deal with the personal fallout caused by superpowers. The second is the truly inexplicable and gratuitous insertion of 9/11 and its aftermath into the final fourth of the novel. It neither forwards the plot nor adds anything to readers' understanding of that day's horrible events.

Schwartz wraps up the narrative in a trite slap-dash fashion that isn't terribly different from the standard superhero narrative he set out not to write. According to the back cover, he's penned several short stories, and I get the feeling that many sections of Superpowes would have worked reasonably well as such, but they don't succeed in novel format. Final verdict: not a horrible book, but not one that contributes anything to the reader for having read it. It'd make a decent book for air travel or daily commuting, but that's about it. show less

I can't rate things with six stars and that thought is very annoying right now. Diverse cast, excellent protagonist, ease with perspective shift, awesome world-building (the kind that is not overly descriptive but also not so vague that you don't know how anything works). I had a lot of fun reading this book, and am willing to admit the fun I was having may have colored my impression of things like plot cohesion and pacing. But the fact that it could do that was enough. Do yourself a favor show more and read this. show less

There was way too much story for this book. That isn't to say that I didn't like it, because I did. I liked it very much. I had fun with it. But there was so much going on, so much to do in the book's universe, that it couldn't be accomplished in the space and format allotted.

I like what the book and the author tried to do. I'll read the sequel I'm assuming will exist. But I really, really hope the next book is tighter.

Superpowers was nominated for a Nebula, and deservedly so, though it didn’t win. It’s a "realistic" take on superheroes, focusing on the personal. In the story, having super abilities isn’t a boon. The five main characters were all richly conceived. I disagree with some reviewers who took issue with the number and quality of secondary characters. I thought they added quite a bit to the story. Unlike a lot of superhero fiction, the conflict is primarily that of self-doubt and that doubt show more is not caused by facing a nemesis. It’s also a pretty quick read. show less