Velveteen vs. the Multiverse

Velveteen, Volume 2

By: Seanan McGuire

Narrated by: Allison McLemore

Length: 12 hrs and 34 mins

Publisher's summary

He was the last great hero of his generation. Velma Martinez - Velveteen - had never intended to be a great hero, but she was out of choices. "Hello, Jolly Roger." "Hello, bunny-eared girl who's taken over my ship. Have you come to collect the bounty on my head?" "I've come because Dame Fortuna told me how to find you, and we need your help." Velveteen crossed her arms. "The Super Patriots are corrupt, and I think Marketing is evil, and they have my best friend, and we want her back." Jolly Roger blinked, several times, before turning to the Princess. "Is she for real?" "She is," said the Princess, sounding smug. "She would have been happy stayin' out of the way for her entire life, but The Super Patriots forgot the first rule of rabbits. Don't follow them into their dens. They're meaner than they look." Velma hadn't wanted to be a superhero, had walked away from it all once before. But when love and friendship call Velveteen to fight, she can't run away, no matter the odds. Award-winning author Seanan McGuire chronicles Velveteen's ultimate battle in this concluding (for now!) volume of her adventures.

©2013 Seanan McGuire (P)2013 Audible Inc.

Fun Fun Fun

Any additional comments?

I love reluctant hero's and its rare to find a female one at that. The first book was made up of short stories and read as a bunch of short stories. This second book however has the feel of a novel and after finishing it I am looking forward to another one.
This book is easy to get into and well thought out. A total joy.

Velveteen vs My Heart

Imagine a world where instead of Hollywood, the Kardashians, Real Housewives, and the Bachelor, you had The Super Patriots. And The Super Patriots had the world's best marketing division. And it's always on. Velveteen’s world looks and functions exactly like ours, except their celebrities are superhumans – and the marketing division decides the vantage points of good and evil. As you can imagine, anyone not with them must be against them – but when 95% of the world’s operational superheroes are with them… being against them gets a little tricky.

Velveteen is a superhuman whose focus has always been on the human, rather than the super. She wants the world to reflect that back at her. I do, too. She is a heroine I could have met on the subway yesterday.

When Seanan McGuire started writing Velveteen shorts, I don't think she expected her "silly superhero stories" to resonate so soundly with the world we live in, to tell a truth so firmly and make us laugh until we cry with poignancy and wit. I haven’t listened with a book without stopping for a long time but, I powered through Velveteen (clocking in at twelve and half hours) in almost exactly two days. That should tell you something about Velveteen and the enrapturing world she takes you to.

Velveteen and the Super Patriots Finally Face-off

This is the second book in the Velveteen Vs. series. Velveteen Vs. started as a series of stories posted on McGuire’s blog; these books are compilations of those stories. I really enjoyed this humorous yet heart-felt continuation of the Velveteen stories.

I listened to this on audiobook and the audiobook was very well done. The narrator does an awesome job and I would recommend listening to on audiobook if you like audiobooks.

A lot happens in this book and it was great to finally see Velveteen face off with the Super Patriots. I Loved it!

Velveteen is just such a “real” feeling character; I love reading about both her day to day struggles and the awesome superhero stuff she does. I actually pretty much love every single character in this book. McGurie has a way of making even the bad guys interesting and making you engage and sympathize with them.

My only comment would be to remember that this is more of a collection of stories than a continuous novel. It actually makes a pretty good novel but things can get a bit repetitive because McGuire will kind of explain the basics of Velveteen’s character at the beginning of each “story”.

Things end at a pretty good point, although it looks like Velveteen will potentially be having some more adventures with the Seasons in future installments.

Overall I loved this book even more than the first one. The characters, world, and action are awesome. I would recommend to urban fantasy fans, McGuire fans, and fans of superhero stories.

Best series ever!

This is one of the most unique stories I've ever listened to. I wish it wasn't over!

Loved Vel! Seanan has done it again.

I am a Seanan McGuire Fan. Her writing gets me every time. She really Duda great job with this super hero story for me.

Even better than vol 1

In my long ago youth I loved Spider-Man because it was much more realistic than Superman etc. The question, “What would it really be like if there were superheroes? If one WERE a superhero?” Has been chewed over from different perspectives, X-men, “Super Powereds”, “Wearing the Cape”, Feehan’s Game series, etc. Seanan McGuire’s twist on this shocked and amazed me. Her plots are insightful and twisty, but more importantly, her character development is engaging and touching. One of my many variants is a grumpy old man, but this volume made me teary-eyed an embarrassing number of times. There are many aspects my writer variant would not touch with a wand (like Santa Clause as a supporting character, for gods sakes). the human-ness of Velveteen and her main friends is astonishing to me. My learning-to-write self intends to study this.

Men's Voices

What did you love best about Velveteen vs. the Multiverse?

I love the story and the performance overall. Seanan McGuire is awesome!

What other book might you compare Velveteen vs. the Multiverse to and why?

Hero by Perry Moore - because they're both stories about the protagonist as underdog hero and the heroes are the villains.

Have you listened to any of Allison McLemore’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

N/A

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

1) Tag getting attacked by the killer robots (I won't tell you what happens). 2) Victoriana in the vampire dimension (loved it and loved Vampire Princess!!!!)

Any additional comments?

The vocal performance was excellent, overall, but there were points towards the end where the male voice characterizations were a little blurry. I totally loved the voice artist's characterizations of Velveteen, Princess, Jacquiline (Jackee? Jacqui? Jacki?) Frost, Victoriana, and Polychrome. I was telling my friends on facebook about Victoriana and Polychrome (Polly Chrome?).

Wonderful story!!

The author writes superhero stories about a young woman who is dealing with trying to get by as a person who just happens to have powers. each chapter is written in a way that is very like an issue of a favorite comic book.

Even better than the first volume

The real magic is how Seanan takes what appears ridiculous and creates a story with real emotion and frequent use of attacking teddy bears.

It's fine

This book is fine, but not particularly exciting. I think it was inspired by TV miniseries where each individual, self-contained episode adds to the overall story arc of the series, but didn't quite nail it. It's split into a series of small stories, some of which add to the overall narrative arc: Velveteen is crazy about a boy he's had a couple dates with, the holidays (as people, not calendar dates) come up, there are alternate realities and people dipping between alternate universes, and the overall threat of the superhero corporation that needs to be dealt with once and for all.

If you've enjoyed the first Velveteen book, might as well read this to put a cap on the two-book series.