From Stan Lee, the pop culture legend behind Marvel’s The Avengers(tm), Black Panther(tm), X-Men(tm), Spider-Man(tm), The Fantastic Four(tm), and Iron Man(tm), comes a major literary event featuring two heroic teenagers–one born with extraordinary gifts, one unwillingly transformed. Together they can change the world . . . or put it in the destructive hands of a danger beyond imagination. … imagination.
Set in Stan Lee’s Alliances Universe, co-created by Lee, Luke Lieberman, and Ryan Silbert, and along with Edgar Award-nominated co-writer Kat Rosenfield, Stan Lee delivers a novel packed with the pulse-pounding, breakneck adventure and the sheer exuberant invention that have defined his career as the creative mastermind behind Marvel’s spectacular universe.
“Leave it to Stan Lee to save his very best for last. A Trick of Light is as heartfelt and emotional as it is original and exciting. What a movie this one will make.”–James Patterson
“For lovers of Stan Lee this is nothing short of a publishing event! (And, honestly, who the hell doesn’t love Stan Lee?) Beguiling, cinematic, operatic, A Trick of Light is a bracing espresso first thing in the morning and the thrum of a familiar love deep at night.”–Gary Shteyngart, author of Absurdistan and Lake Success
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Leave it to Stan Lee to save his very best for last. A Trick of Light is as heartfelt and emotional as it is original and exciting. What a movie this one will make.
For lovers of Stan Lee this is nothing short of a publishing event! (And, honestly, who the hell doesn’t love Stan Lee?) Beguiling, cinematic, operatic, A Trick of Light is a bracing espresso first thing in the morning and the thrum of a familiar love deep at night.
It was surprising to see this come out, and makes me wonder what he has left that will come out. This was a phenomenal and beautiful audio comic that I hope to hear more from. Amazing main characters and well rounded supporting characters, taking today’s influences and societal habits and bringing to light the separations of people physically from those around them. We no longer have to be next to each other to communicate instantly, we can simply send a message or a video chat and be instantly connected, which is amazing, yet also very lonely physically… So much they are bringing to light in this one. How many people no longer understand how to communicate face to face, it seems so much easier to just type out a message… Well done. Brilliant storyline and characters… narrator was very bland and slightly nasally.
Knowing the lead author has died, I went into this novel knowing it was supposed to be a series, and the ending does not disappoint in that regard. But neither is it a cliffhanger, so don’t hold back if you want to read it, not on that account.
At the end of the day (er, book), I give it three stars because it is perfectly adequate, genuinely compelling from mid-point on, and there are plenty of twists. But it does have some issues I find annoying and/or disappointing. (They may not bother you, so again, don’t let this stop you.)
Many instances of “head-hopping” – that’s when the point-of-view changes from one character to another within the same scene. It’s inconsistent. Often each scene is one character. Sometimes it shifts without warning. It’s a bad habit some writers have. Another one specific to science fiction is that the alien is too human. Not in appearance but in thoughts. (If you want great aliens, go read the Space Predator Chronicles series.) Whyyy are aliens male/female? Even Earth life isn’t all binary sexes, people, c’mon. The hugely odd bit is, Nia and Cameron meet online but live in/near the same city; quite the coincidence. But another one, a sf trope, honestly, is that all programming everywhere can be understood via magic electricity. *waves hands*
EVEN SO, I did enjoy this. Kept envisioning it in comic book panels, too, which is added fun. And now, I will return it to my library. SUPPORT YOUR LIBRARY!!!
Okay read. Predictable.
A Trick of Light is uncannily frightening, amazingly modern, incredibly moving and impossible to put down. READ THIS BOOK.