A Once Crowded Sky: A Novel

Yet another great premise killed by lousy writing. Couldn't finish this, which pisses me off, because it was a great idea, and with some cool graphic panels thrown in, just like a comic book, it looked like it was a well-thought out package.

Then I started to read it.

In the 56 pages I read, it felt like King randomly forgot sentences or paragraphs. There was a whole lotta missing context at times. I'm sure he thought this was edgy, or mysterious, but it was simply annoying.

However, the final nails in the coffin arrived with two lines of narrative that showed up within pages of each other, and, on the last one, I literally closed the book and said, "Nope. I'm out."

The first was, Felix hasn't touched a drop of alcohol since his last show more drink.

Not the stupidest line I've read in a book... that would be a toss-up between Tom Clancy's The sun rose promptly at dawn, and Lee Child's It was as distinctive as the most distinctive thing you could think of.

Seriously. He hadn't touched a drop of alcohol since his last drink of alcohol? Seriously? Like, I haven't gone swimming since the last time I went swimming? Isn't that what "last time" means? Lazy ass writing.

Then, a couple of pages later, we get, The cry cries again. Jesus. Let's ignore using the same word twice in a row, but how in the holy hell does a cry cry? Can a singing sing again? Can a scream scream? No. The person making the sound can make it again, but a verb can't verb again.

So, I'm out. I have no idea what the next 300 pages held, but with writing like this, I really don't give a shit anymore. show less

I don't think it's any surprise around here that I love comic books. They captured my imagination when I was a kid, and 30ish years later, they still capture my imagination. Over the years, the stories have grown up too (at least, I think so), and characters and trends have come and gone, and my interest has waxed and waned, yet I always come back to them. And I hope that they continue to capture my imagination far into the future, because they can seriously just be so much damned fun!

So, when I first heard about A Once Crowded Sky, I couldn't wait to get my hands one it. The book blurbs had said that Tom King, a former CIA agent who also worked as an intern at Marvel Comics and DC Comics, has written a book that takes everything that's show more great about comic books and put it into literary fiction. And you know what? They were right.

A Once Crowded Sky is the story of PenUltimate, the last existing superhero in Arcadia City, the only hero to still have his powers and who would still be able to play in the great and wonderful game of superheroes and villains, if there were any left. But, there are not. He is the last. And why is he the last, you ask? Well, all I can say to that is, "Spoilers!". I actually can't go into a whole lot of the plot or storyline in the book, for just that reason. The story plays out as it needs to play out, and I'm afraid that if I were to give anything away, I'd be ruining something. So, I'll just talk about my feelings during and after reading.

First off, King plays by the rules of comic books in his story. The heroes fight the villains, fight amongst themselves, save the day, do the impossible, and start all over again next month. In this world, the rules of the comic book and the monthly publishing timeline work to their advantage. This is something that I particularly loved about the book, their inner knowledge that this is how things worked in their universe. All the superheroes understand this, and that's part of what is hard for them, now that their powers are gone. They're very self-aware of their part to play in the grand scheme of their universe, and now that it's gone, they are trying to piece their lives back together as best they can.



King does such a great job of writing this as a comic book come to literary life, that when I was reading it, I had the same feeling of "so much damned fun" that I get when I'm reading a really well written/drawn comic book. He understands the pacing needed to make a good comic, and translates it perfectly into literary form. As more of what is happening in the background of the story and more is revealed to what the whole story was about, that feeling just continued to grow. Everything about this book is just "so much damned fun"! However, the great thing about this book is that King has written it in such a way that even those who are not fans of comic books could enjoy it.

I'd really like to see more form Tom King in the future. If this is what we're getting from him on his literary debut, I'm anxious to see what he can do next. show less

Most people who know of Tom King are probably familiar with him from his work writing for comic books (Batman, Mister Miracle, etc.) I have found King's stories written for comics some of those that I enjoy the most, and I expected the same when I started reading this A Once Crowded Sky. I can say that King's skill and experience as a comic writer are uniquely displayed in the text. This however, is not necessarily a positive thing, as the book is written an out line for of a series of comics, written in a third person present tense style, which is uncommon and comes off as odd. Admittedly, this choice in writing style does have a reason but is not apparent until the late chapters, but that doesn't help for the first early chapter.

As show more for the plot itself, the first portion is enjoyable with a classic "who done it" sort of story that does draw the reader in (even with the odd style). However, interest may wain in the later parts of the story as it becomes more meta-texual. Having some familiarity with common superhero tropes and King's graspable explanations do keep thing for becoming overly confusing though). As for the ending, well without giving it away is a pretty big downer but not the worst I've read.

Overall, King makes some interesting choices in A Once Crowd Sky. A fairly average novel that I might recommend for afternoon reading for those looking for something different or have a deeper familiarity with comic books, and do emphasize comics books, rather then superheroes to achieve the greatest amount of amount of enjoyment. show less

When I read the cover blurb for this, it sounded like something I would really like--an examination of super heroes, power, failure and redemption along the lines of Watchmen, but in prose. It is all that. But it takes a while to get there. And the reader is required to put in some effort to jump into a story in progress and hold onto the disparate story threads until they are woven into something more coherent.

The writing is good, if at times a little stylized, written in the present tense like a comic book. This keeps things moving. The characters are many and varied and have realistic, for the story world, reactions to things.

What ultimately disappoints is that the story feels like it wants to be epic. The characters and setting show more demand and imply it. But it's not. It's a little thin and repetitive where it should be dense and action packed.

I think comic book fans will be intrigued enough by the premise to push through and enjoy this book. Fans of literature might also be interested enough to see how this experiment turns out. I doubt that others will find enough here to captivate them through the end.

[Disclosure: I received a free copy for review.] show less

To save the world the superheroes have to give up their superpowers. And such is the premise of this story. But what happens when a new villain threatens their city and world?

I like comic books, although not a big superhero fan, but liked the premise of this story. But once I started reading it, it didn’t feel good to me. The superheroes, now living as humans do didn’t create enough excitement in caring about them. I did like the structure as if each chapter was a different issue of a comic book (But this is not a graphic novel). The characters’ development was repetitive (I know he was trying to make a point about comic book heroes), but as a novel I wanted to see it move forward. The ending was unsatisfying and it is what it is. show more Either you like it or don’t. I didn’t. show less

Originally Reviewed At: Mother/Gamer/Writer
Rating: 3 out of 5 Controllers
Review Source: Publisher
Reviewer: AimeeKay


I’m torn with A Once Crowded Sky.

The story itself kept me reading it only because I really wanted to find out what happened in the end. I wanted to see who the bad guy was and what twists and turns were going to be thrown into the mix. I liked the idea of seeing how superheroes react to losing their powers and how they try to acclimate back into non-super human society. Also, there was just the right amount of plot twists without it becoming terribly annoying or confusing.

However, even though I was interested in the story, I just didn’t feel like I connected or really even cared about what happened to the characters show more themselves. Maybe because of how the story jumps back and forth between different characters? Or how it jumps back and forth between the present and the past. I really can’t put my finger on it…but even by the end I didn’t care who lived or who died, I just wanted to see the whole reason behind The Blue and to see how the author tied everything together.

The book is solid. It’s well written. The action scenes are good and there is enough moment between them to keep the reader reading. There didn’t seem to be any obvious plot holes and there was lots of background on at least the main characters. There’s even some awesome comic art as well. But, it just seemed as if there was something missing. Maybe it’s just me. I’m giving it 3 controllers out of 5. I think it was mainly just me not being able to connect. So if the book itself looks like something you would be interested in give it a shot. As I said before, it is well written and I can’t find any real flaws with it, it just didn’t pull me in.
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King's novel delves into the superhero psyche.

What creates a superhero? What does a superhero do once he or she can no longer regularly save the world? And what happens when nearly every superhero in the world has sacrificed his or her powers to save the world - and then another supervillain begins attacking the city, specifically targeting former heroes?

Only one man still retains his superhuman strength - Pen Ultimate, a former sidekick who walked away from hero-ing years before the sacrifice was required to live a normal life with his beautiful wife, and who must now struggle between his promise to his wife to remain safe, and the fact that he is now the only person capable of performing the superhuman feats required to help show more others.

Overall, this novel is an interesting work. The writing is interspersed with comic book pages of the superheroes & supervillains about whom you are reading. The writing itself is written in a serialized fashion, drawing attention to the comic book world about which author Tom King is writing.

I definitely recommend this novel to people who grew up or are still enjoying reading comic books. It will provide a different perspective, though, and I do want to provide the warning that the novel is rather dark. Also recommended for readers who enjoy experimental novels. Also, because this review is rather late (I received an ARC), the novel is available for sale now! show less