All Those Explosions Were Someone Else's Fault

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By James Alan Gardner

Publisher Description

“A very smart, funny, thrilling, and quite original science fictional treatment of magic by a master of both, featuring an irresistibly appealing heroine.” —Spider Robinson, Hugo and Nebula Award–winning author

Monsters are real.
But so are heroes.

Sparks are champions of weird science. Boasting capes and costumes and amazing super-powers that only make sense if you don’t think about them too hard, they fight an eternal battle for truth and justice . . . mostly.

Darklings are creatures of myth and magic: ghosts, vampires, were-beasts, and the like. Their very presence warps reality. Doors creak at their approach. Cobwebs gather where they linger.

Kim Lam is an ordinary college student until a freak scientific accident (what else?) transforms Kim and three housemates into Sparks—and drafts them into the never-ending war between the Light and Dark. They struggle to master their new abilities—and (of course) to design cool costumes and come up with great hero-names.

Turns out that “accident” was just the first salvo in a Mad Genius’s latest diabolical scheme. Now it’s up to four newbie heroes to save the day, before they even have a chance to figure out what their team’s name should be!

“Snappy dialog, madcap action, and real suspense.” —Cory Doctorow

“Read this! It’s brilliant, fast-moving FUN. The writing just POPS. A witty, wild ride.” —Ed Greenwood, New York Times–bestselling author

“Gardner is a genius. He always knocks my socks off with his inventive use of language, wild imagination, and engaging storytelling, and this novel is his best yet. You’ll love it—it’s an absolute joy, managing to be funny, moving, and exciting all at once.” —Robert J. Sawyer, Hugo and Nebula Award–winning author

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33 Reviews

4.0

Ashley

Created about 1 year ago

Gentry Atkinson

Created over 1 year ago

Kraig Hill

Created over 1 year ago

alexander shay

Created about 2 years ago

“When I found out about this book, I was intrigued: Canadian author, Canadian superheroes, a world in which the supernatural/paranormal of all kinds exists at the same time as superheroes. I was certain it hadn't been done before (at the very least, I haven't encountered another book that does so). When I began reading the book, I got even more excited because the main character, Kim, is queer. The only thing it's missing is that it's not horror, but I accept the superhero thing in its place. Then as I got farther into the book, I started to cringe. The characters are enjoyable and I think I kept reading mostly for them. Though I confess that Kim, being a first person narrator, takes a rather observatory role in the story. Granted, Kim's powers basically make them the perfect movie camera, but it defacto keeps them watching the action instead of contributing. As a character, Kim is cool, and I really liked the nerdy geology offshoots. But as a superhero, Kim felt lacking. They pulled off what they needed to when it counted, but most of the book felt like I was watching Kim watching everyone else, and the remove was awkward and pretty boring. The other thing that made me a bit eye twitchy was the whole thing about luck and coincidence. In terms of the actual story, I don't know that it occurred all that often, but it was mentioned multiple times how Sparks (and Darklings) effect things like odds, chances, coincidences, etc. The Light and Dark craves chaos, ergo coincidences and luck are much more likely to occur for them. While this, to a degree, feels like a poke at the various superhero tropes (villains being defeated by dumb things, deus ex machina endings, people showing up to save you in the nick of time, etc), it was also embraced as a "Law" within the world of the novel. That in itself is fine, but the way it was worded and the number of times it was brought up just felt cheap, like lazy writing or at the very least a cop out--characters literally tell each other "don't think about it too hard" because physics means it shouldn't be happening but somehow it still is and it somehow isn't magic because only Darklings can magic. Given how often that applies in other superhero stories, I was willing to accept that. But then the super powers/abilities (Sparks and Darklings alike) kept piling on and/or revealing themselves at perfectly convenient times (that luck/coincidence thing I mentioned?) and it got a little ridiculous. It felt silly, more so than the already light tone of the book would have you expect. I couldn't tell if the whole thing is supposed to be somewhat of a parody, or if the powers were meant to be relatively serious. All that said, I liked it well enough to finish it and it holds up alright in the combat and originality departments. It's one of those books where the concept it sprang from is ingenious but the result isn't quite what you expected. This is actually the first book in a series, but I think I'm going to have to stop at this one if the remaining books are anything like this one. It's a good single dose, I don't know if I could handle more of it.”

Evan

Created about 3 years ago