Calling All Fans of Superhero Fiction!

[kaasirpent]

Mur Lafferty (sailormur), pioneeress of podcasting, co-author of one book about podcasting, multiple articles and some gaming-related stuff as well as several short stories, the Heaven series of podcast novels, "The Takeover" podcast novel, the podcasts "I Should Be Writing" and "Geek Fu Action Grip/Morning Show," and the podcast novel Playing for Keeps...<gasp for breath>...is making her very own Amazon rush today.

Her novel Playing for Keeps was released last fall as a free podcast and PDF on the same day. With more than 20,000 listeners, it was the most popular podcast novel to date. She made such a splash, in fact, that a dead-tree publisher took notice and her book is now available in trade paperback from Swarm Press.

Playing for Keeps is set in Seventh City where there are superheroes and super-villains afoot. Superpowers started appearing a few years back. The first wave had fairly weak powers. But some of their children were massively powerful. But the third generation are also mostly weak.

The Academy of Superheroes only admits those people whose powers are...up to "par," so to speak. Second-Wavers. They don't take just anyone. So some of the weaker-powered superheroes are left out in the cold. First- and Third-Wavers.

And they are not happy. One of them is named Keepsie. Her third-wave power is that nothing that belongs to her can be stolen. Ever. But the Academy just didn't see a use for it, so she was rejected. She opened "Keepsie's Bar" basically right across the street from the Academy, and she and her gang of other rejects hang out there.

One day, Keepsie is kidnapped by Doo-Dad, one of Seventh City's most diabolical super-villains. She thinks it's random at first, but then discovers that he has given her something. Something which, now, cannot be stolen.

But it turns out that the villains want it back.

But so do the heroes.

And both groups are willing to stop at absolutely nothing to get it back.

Keepsie and her band of Academy rejects must now decide who really are the "good" guys and the "bad" guys. And what does this little gizmo do, anyway?

The secrets they uncover while just trying to stay alive as they're being attacked by both sides may bring the entire city down in flames. And maybe...just maybe...it turns out that the first- and third-wave powers aren't quite as useless as the Academy thought.

I thoroughly enjoyed the book, and I can't recommend it highly enough. Too often, the superheroes are all sugar and spice, and the super-villains are pure evil with no redeeming qualities. This blurs the lines significantly, and puts the other guys—the ones with "insignificant" powers—in the spotlight.

And no, it's not at all like "Mystery Men." :) (Well, maybe a tiny bit....)

If you like my description—or, hell, go to Amazon and read it there—think about purchasing it today. It'll help Mur drive up sales on Amazon to get in the top 10 (we hope) books and once again make a splash for small press and "new media" (i.e., podcasting).

Or, even if you don't buy it today, or don't give a rat's posterior about driving up sales or showing anybody anything, consider buying it anyway. It's a very good read.

Comments

[fauxklore]

This stirs up memories of the Legion of Alternate Heroes or whatever it was called. They were the ones who weren't quite important enough to get into the Legion of Superheroes, though a few eventually made it. There was some woman who shot plant tendrils out of her hands, for example. I think Shadow Girl may have started there, too.