Tor, 2011
304 pages
Fantasy
3.5/5 stars
Source: Library
Genre is a little tricky for me to define here as in many ways main character Celia still acts like a petulant teenager yet she is supposed to be in her mid-twenties. Of course, her life has been difficult in that she's the only child of two of the greatest superheroes yet is completely without superpowers and is the favorite hostage of villains.
I thought this concept was fantastic and that's why I picked this book up. I continued reading because it was pretty easy reading and there were some cool ideas about the nature of superheroes: born or made? The information about their powers and how they strove to serve the city was very interesting. I always wanted more about them as well as the villains menacing the city. Additionally there's a bit of a mystery as Celia uses her accountant skills to investigate money and paper trails to uncover secrets, which was pretty cool.
However I didn't much like Celia, who whined A LOT. I had some sympathy for her at the beginning but she grew on my nerves even as she worked out some of her issues and matured. Her relationship with her parents was incredibly strained as she always felt less important than the city and that she was a huge disappointment. I also didn't really like her romance; there were some elements that skeeved me out but apparently it works for her.
Overall: Great concept, pretty good writing but altogether it didn't quite cohere for me.
I agree that an unsympathetic main character can ruin a potentially good book. Even more than that, it doesn't seem like After the Golden Age even has that much going for it, other than the premise (which isn't even that original a premise either). I like the idea of using accounting skills for, well, anything, but it seems like After the Golden Age might have had a better blurb than it had content...
ReplyDeleteThis book has a great premise, I can definitely agree here, and since I actually love superhero movies and am getting into comic books big time, I'd love to read this. But I guess the character of Celia is an unfortunate element of the book... Well, at least it deals with superheroes and villains.:)
ReplyDeleteThis sounds like something I would enjoy. I'm a bit hestitant though after your musings on the main character and her romantic interest. Hmmmm.... still very much a maybe...
ReplyDeleteYou're totally right when you say that it's hard to love a book when the main character gets on your nerves! I've never been the biggest fan of whining, so a whining character bothers me tons, too.
ReplyDeleteThe premise sounds awesome, though! :) You always write great reviews!
I don't know if I ever heard of this book before, but the premise does sounds very good. Too bad about the whining girl. ;)
ReplyDeleteI remember reading this one some time ago and I have to agree with you, the Celia character was annoying like hell most of the time.
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