Blaze of Glory

Blaze of Glory is an odd take on the superhero story, one that shows lots of promise but doesn't really get there.

In this world, superheroes and supervillains are essentially all one big act. Oh, their powers are real, but as soon as they're discovered, they're snapped up by the Agency, a Men In Black-style government organization that separates supers into villains and heroes, trains them, and puts them in front of the cameras for epic battles to benefit North American viewership. Sort of like pro wrestling - the wrestlers are eminently capable of doing their jobs, but all the moves are scripted.

All well and good, but when an alien attack turns out to be entirely unscripted, and begins slaughtering supers by the dozen, everything turns upside down. Especially for Surf, a.k.a. Jo Tanis, a Canadian superhero with the ability to manipulate electromagnetic energy. Bereft of her Guardian, sidekick and sometime lover Metal Mike, she finds her way back to Toronto, where she begins to map out her plan to defend the world from the mysterious attackers.

There are a lot of elements that should work in this story. Jo herself is a good protagonist, a mixture of toughness and a fierce determination to fight for what she holds dear. The unusual setting of the novel allows for some gentle slagging on the superhero genre, and the author succeeds in turning the superheroes and villains into plain people caught up in something bigger than them.

Unfortunately, most of it falls flat for a variety of reasons. First is the gaping plot holes in the underlying setting. While the capturing and training of supers is eventually explained, the televization of it is not. There are also handwaves as to how the supers are captured and kept captive, despite the obvious advantages they have in getting loose. Some superpowers featured in the book seem to defy putting on a show at all - for example, one man can melt things with his hands, which seems to be ineffective at long distances and instantly lethal close up, and another has mind-blast powers, which can't be captured by cameras.

Another problem is the lack of an appreciable villain. For most of the book the aliens are enigmatic ciphers who give no reason for their attack. Once the veil is lifted, though, they're still more of a force of nature and less of a villain. While Surf and co. obviously need to complete their fight, it's hard to root for them fully when we can't really tell who or what they're up against.

In general I just had a hard time getting my mind around the "soul" of the book; it kept slipping and sliding out of my hands, and all I was left with were words. Perhaps it even had something to do with the font the book is printed in, which is colder and more clinical than most books. But by the end of it, I didn't really feel I'd been part of anything.

It definitely has a kickass cover, though.