They Promised Me the
Gun Wasn't Loaded, by James Alan Gardner (Tor)
Sequels are always
challenging: how much backstory to include, how much to omit; how to bring new
readers up to speed without boring those who’ve just finished previous volumes;
and most of all, how to keep the series fresh and engaging. They Promised Me succeeds on every
measure. If anything, it’s more entertaining and has even more heart than All Those Explosions Were Someone Else’s
Fault.
In Gardner’s
intriguing world, people acquire Dark and Light superpowers, Dark by paying
obscene sums of money for immortality (and surrendering any control over their
form this “gift” takes – vampire, ghost, demon, or something incredibly squicky
and nameless). Light sort of happens to folks, as it did in the first
installment, turning our current protagonist, hockey player and science student
Jools, into Ninety-Nine, the human Olympic-level best at everything (including
WikiJools, encyclopedic knowledge resident in her mind).
Throw into the mix
an array of Mad Geniuses and superhero/Mad Genius Robin Hood (who steals from
the rich but can’t give to the poor without revealing his secret identity) and
his Merry Men, a supernatural bazooka claimed by the villain in the first book
and sought after by all and sundry, and a handful of unexpected explosions and
side-effects, and the result is a delightfully wacky first-person narrative.
It’s got an immense amount of heart, too, because now that the basic rules of this
world are established, Light/Dark sides drawn, and action moving right along,
the choices Jools makes and the sacrifices she’s willing to make for the people
she loves are really what the story is all about.
I hope this one-two
switcheroo in point of view character follows through in subsequent volumes,
and as I would love to get to know the other flatmates/superheroes in the gang
as their lives unfold.
Highly recommended,
but do read All Those Explosions
first for maximum enjoyment.
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