The Law of Superheros. It’s Time To Get Your Geek On!

Long time readers may be asking, “You’re back, where you been”. Well, it’s a long story, not one I really want to bore you with. Let’s just say it involves a love gone wrong. What kind of guy dates a woman for 2 years only to tell her, his feelings never really developed.? That he loves her, but not in the way he had hoped. Sigh. I spent a few months getting my head straight, oh and I graduated summa cum laude. So not all was lost. Now I am in graduate school; yes, me, who would of thought?

Anyway, I am back, but before I jump back into opining and ranting, I have a few promised reviews to finish. I hope you enjoy this one.

Get your smart geek on! Another fun mashup of comics meets real life “laws”.

First it was the Physics of Superheroes where the laws of physics is explained using the world of superheroes. Now comes The Law of Superheroes by James Daily and Ryan Davidson.

Would Mutants have civil rights? Could masked heroes be allowed to hide their identity in court? Who is libel for the damage superheroes cause?

If these and questions like them keep you up at night, or if these are subjects you debate over with you friends, then wow, do I have a book for you! Daily and Davidson explore the laws and rights regarding Superman and the like. They come up with questions I would have never thought about, yet they leave some unanswered, so we geeks can continue to debate over them, yet this time with knowledge of the law.

Take for instance the question of The Superhuman Registration Act and Draft. The constitution says congress has the authority to raise armies for the protection of the people. Its power to do so is extensive, so it would not be fantasy to say they could compel superhumans to serve. They go into great detail on how this legally can be accomplished and what it would mean. But, what if a superhuman did not want to serve? Could a superhuman be a military objector? This was a question I came up with after reading this chapter.

The book is easy to understand, though it sometimes delves a little to deeply in the weeds of law and becomes wonky. The nice thing about a book like this is that you can just avoid the wonk, and just enjoy the chapters you are interested in. If you know someone who is studying law, this would make a great gift. For everyone else, read it so that you come out on top on those late night nerd fests. You know who you are!

The Map of the Sky. Finally I review again

The Map of the Sky: A review at last!

1898,New York socialite Emma Harlow agrees to marry millionaire Montgomery Gilmore, but only if he accepts her audacious challenge: to reproduce the extraterrestrial invasion featured in Wells’s War of the Worlds.

I was thrilled at the opportunity to visit Palma’s world again. Thanks to Atria Books, I would be once again reading and reviewing one of the literary world’s best kept secret. Felix Palma proved himself to be a master storyteller with his English debut The Map of Time.  You can read my review here: http://wp.me/p28tJt-d0

With The Map of Time, Palma almost reinvented the omniscient narrator. His narrator turns to the reader in a way that pulls us deeper into the story. He makes us feel as if he is telling this story just to us. As if the lone reader is his only audience. It connects us to him so that when we realize we have been conned, our anger is at our self, not him. Oh, he gets us all right, but we laugh because it is a con within a con. The Map of Time is layered with twists and turns. The three novellas come brilliantly together to form one rewarding novel. In the end we are happy we bought into it, and if the reviews are to be believed, we also happily bought The Map of the Sky, his second in a trilogy.

What science fiction fan wouldn’t pick up a book whose main character is H G Wells, with Poe showing up in the first story? That it is a love story first, is inconsequential, the action is what pulls his readers in.

The first story is one of action and suspense, more of a horror story than sci fi, but oh is it good! An Arctic expedition is stranding in the frozen wasteland where a terror beyond anything they could imagine awaits them. This is Palma at his best.

The other two stories however, do not seem to live up to his first novel. Oh, the storytelling is wonderfully done, and his characters are compelling, yet some how it fell flat. I think it is because these two stories are really one long  “run for your life” tale; it was to long. And as with most time traveling tales left me with some unanswered questions.

This is not to say I will not be reading the third one. Oh, I will eagerly await it. Palma is truly a gifted storyteller that I will not let my small disappointments cloud my judgment of him.  I just hope his next installment leaves me in as much awe as his first.

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