Soon I Will Be Invincible

A Novel

By: Austin Grossman

Narrated by: Coleen Marlo, Paul Boehmer

Length: 10 hrs and 13 mins

Publisher's summary

Doctor Impossible, evil genius, diabolical scientist, wannabe world dominator, languishes in a federal detention facility. He's lost his freedom, his girlfriend, and his hidden island fortress.

Over the years, he's tried to take over the world in every way imaginable, using doomsday devices of all varieties (nuclear, thermonuclear, nanotechnological) and mass mind control. He's traveled backwards in time to change history, forward in time to escape it. He's commanded robot armies, insect armies, and dinosaur armies. A fungus army. An army of fish. Of rodents. Aliens. All failures. But not this time. This time it's going to be different.

Fatale is a rookie superhero on her first day with the Champions, the world's most famous superteam. She's a patchwork woman of skin and chrome, a gleaming technological marvel built for the next generation of warfare. Filling the void left by a slain former member, we watch as Fatale joins a team struggling with a damaged past, having to come together in the face of unthinkable evil.

Soon I Will Be Invincible is a thrilling first novel, a fantastical adventure that gives new meaning to notions of power, glory, responsibility, and (of course) good and evil.

©2007 Austin Grossman (P)2007 HighBridge Company

Critic reviews

"The realm of comic book heroes and villains gets a dose of realism in this whimsical debut....Grossman dabbles in a host of themes - power, greed, fame, the pitfalls of ego...broadening the appeal of an already inviting scenario." ( Publishers Weekly)

"Austin Grossman has a superpower himself - it's called writing. This book is a new, winning, smart and funny way of interpreting our world. It's terrific." (Douglas Coupland)

Intriguing but ultimately disapointing

I was very excited about reading this book. The idea of super heroes and villains battling it out has always been exciting to me. I've read all sorts of super hero stories including the big ones (Superman, Batman, Spider-Man, etc.) as well as non-Marvel/DC. That said, I enjoyed making my way through this book.

It wasn't perfect, however. I had a few issues with the transition from page to voice. Not all of it was from production or actors. There's quite a bit of internal dialogue going on her, but it isn't separated very well from the actual dialogue. I had trouble knowing when someone was thinking something and when they were saying it out loud. Also, the two actors, though both doing a very good job during their respective parts, didn't pronounce things the same. This could be forgivable, if it weren't key characters from the story being pronounced differently. It just really took away from the immersion.

My biggest problem with the book though was in the seemingly lazy writing at parts. I needed to re-listen to a few parts because it just didn't make sense. The villain is loosing to a magician and then he just leaves and declares that he knew they were illusions all along? It just felt like the author didn't know how to end scenes such as this so he just cut his losses.

Again, I enjoyed the book overall. I would definitely listen to a sequel, but it has a lot of room for improvement.

not my style

Would you try another book from Austin Grossman and/or Coleen Marlo and Paul Boehmer ?

i don't think so. the book was 80% flashback, and it just didn't seem to be my style.

Wonderful narration

The story was fun. Good world building and I liked the main characters. I found the secondary characters pretty boring. What really put this book in the great category was the performance, especially for Dr. Impossible. He was fantastic without being hammy. Just thinking of the way he said "Impossible-opolis" still makes me laugh.

Great potential, good outcome

Really enjoyed the examination of what makes heroes/villains tick. The narration was good, but there was little variation between characters. By the end I was disappointed at the amount of character connections that felt unexplored or rushed, leaving me without a sense of closure.

one of my favorite stores, it's defines sucsess

it's an amazing story, realistic look without "the boys" kinda depravity. I use it's story to define success. you can't rule the world forever, but when you have the heros on the ropes, and your finger o. the dooms day button and you could have destroyed the whole world...you call that a win

Fun Romp

Super Villain vs superhero get a peak into the inner workings of both sides in this novel

Avengers, Be Warned - Tongue In Cheek Action Ahead

I've always loved epic stories of superheroes and villains struggling with their powers, their weaknesses, their loneliness, their victories, and their defeats. From comic books to movies, I love the genre.

This is more of a tongue in cheek take on the genre, and a WELL-WRITTEN one, at that. We see this epic battle for global domination from the viewpoint of the anti-hero, a pompous, yet brilliant super genius who uses his superior intellect to create fantastic plans toward world domination, and to foil the superheroes that cause him jealousy and frustration to no end. Mix science fiction with magic and the otherworldly, and throw in a bit of jealousy to boot. This is a story about faults as much as strengths. We ALSO see the story from the perspective of a newly born heroine who is still finding her way in earth's ultimate super team.

The audiobook is fun, fun, fun. Did I say fun? Sure did. It's witty, engaging storytelling at its heart. The writing is fast-paced and very descriptive. You'll also want the sequel to get to the shelf quickly, and rightfully so - It seems to be built for further adventures.

Some books are deep, meaningful works that will spark debates and arguments for decades - This audiobook will not do that. It WILL, however, be a memorable and unusually fun work of enjoyable listening that challenges the superhero genre in a fresh way that makes it an easy and solid recommendation.

So, don your cape, take to the skies, and get this audiobook as you do so!

Fantastic Book Gripping To The End

Great character development, fantastic storyline, the plot had great pacing. The reader was able to really empathize with both Mr. Invincible and Cybergirl. Awaiting the next book. Great locution!

wonderful

this book is a great read and it's even better the second, or forth time.

A story told a thousand times in every comic book.

There was nothing imaginative all the way through. Bland and predictable. A story told a thousand times. Villain tries to take over the world, evil for petty reasons. Justice League clone stops him. That's the plot. Sorry to spoil it. Bland and predictable all the way through. Fatale's storyline leaves much to be desired... There's never a payoff for the emotional investment into the character.

Maybe I'm missing the point? Maybe the point was to tell the same story everyone's told, but from the villains perspective? I don't know. I would have been much more entertained if the author had anything original to say.