The Adventures of Technicality Manby Jessica Meats
Genre: Superheroes, General Humor, Literature and Fiction
Publication Date: December 19, 2016
Description:
Everyone knows how the stories are supposed to go. The good guys win in the end, the hero ends up with the designated love interest, and the plucky band of misfits pulls together to save the world.
But what happens when a villain targets the nature of stories themselves? All the tropes that the heroes have come to rely on are under threat.
Technicality Man and his trusty companion Continuity Leopard must join forces with a group of minor heroes to save the day. They won’t let any barrier stop them. Not even the fourth wall.
My Review:
Ah, The Adventures of Technicality Man, a book I picked up on NetGalley due to the comic bookish cover and the satirical and corny description.
It was pretty much what I expected, but also not completely so, basically a play on comic book heroes and stories in general. The good guys and the bad guys play their parts, all with clever and highly descriptive names: Technicality Man, Origami Man, Chesty Cough Girl, to name a few. And yeah, their powers are exactly what their names imply. The girl is hilarious, her superpower is to appear highly contagious, which scares off guards and minions.
The other characters, besides the named heroes and villains, are several named cats who are responsible for all normal story conventions. Their names, of course, have everything to do with the elements of the story they control. I thought they were a bit clever and got a kick out of how the heroes knew when one was around or, in one case, summoned one to help them.
It’s not a terribly deep story, but it is amusing. I got through it in a few days, so there’s enough to entertain, but it is short enough to finish in a sitting in an afternoon. Good for a laugh or two if you’re familiar with comic book or hero stories and are game for a laugh or two at their expense.
Overall, I liked the story. It was amusing, clever in places, and light. I’d recommend it to folks who enjoy stories that poke fun at common themes by using those themes in the most obvious of ways. Good stuff.
I received the review copy of this book from NetGalley.
Interested? Add The Adventures of Technicality Man to your shelf on Goodreads.
About the Author:
Born in the United Kingdom, Jessica Meats is the author of a number of a number of intriguing science fiction books including the Code Name Omega series, the Shadows of Tomorrow series, and Child of the Hive. She also contributed a short story, Reading Between the Lines, to the MCB Quarterly magazine's 5th quarterly anthology.
Adding to all that, she has an active blog where she posts reviews, writing advice, and other bookish topics. Definitely worth a look.
Author Links:
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