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)

Entertaining, if not terribly original

Man, half the time i was wondering to myself if the makers of Megamind optioned this novel before they proceeded, because the portion of the book narrated by the supervillain sounds so much like the titular cartoon character, that it's almost as if Will Farrell was parodying the performer of this audiobook. (run-on sentence much?)

The first third of this book was massively engaging to me. It was a uniquely voiced take on the very familiar superhero genre. I equally enjoyed both points of view, both that of the villain, and of the hero, herself a newcomer to a Justice League-type hero team.

However I the book started losing a lot of steam when i realized that the majority of the story was going to be given in flashback. That is a really terrible way to tell a story: to set up present events and then spend 75% of the book having the characters recollect past events. Why? It was just so unnecessary. One example: Near the beginning when the hero gave a quick summary of a past event wherein one of the heroes sacrifices their own life. I thought it was brilliant. Then later on when we got an excruciatingly detailed description of the same event i was rather frustrated. That same problem repeats over and over again. Near the end i kept thinking they must be done with all the backstory exposition, but nope, they just kept going.

So ultimately the book runs out of steam and the ending is fairly unsatisfactory. It's too bad. I really enjoyed the setup. I really didn't mind that so many of the character archetypes were ripped straight from the DC mythos (CoreFire=Superman, Blackwolf=Batman etc) because i like to see authors have fun outside the box with those familiar characters. However this book just can't quite pull everything together in the end. A decent effort, however flawed.

Having said that, if there was a sequel wherein the characters moved FORWARD instead of spouting nonstop exposition, then i would totally pick it up.

***** for Boehmer's performance

***1/2 for Marlo

Supervillans rule.

Would you consider the audio edition of Soon I Will Be Invincible to be better than the print version?

I have not read the print version I will say that the narrators do an excellent job on this book.

Who was your favorite character and why?

Dr. Impossible because it gives you a chance to see inside a evil mastermind and understand why so many of the common comic book tropes take place.

What does Coleen Marlo and Paul Boehmer bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

It gives you a better feel for the characters than you might get reading the book. Mr. Boehmer captures the angst and feelings of insecurity that drives the main character.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

Dr. Doom.. The movie..

Any additional comments?

A very different and enjoyable book. I hope to see more.

A fun book, but aspires to do too much

This book was a lot of fun, original and had a very interesting story. However, I feel it tried to accomplish too much. It seemed to try to establish a new universe in order to develop a sci-fi series, rather than focusing on the story at hand. As a result of far too many peripheral characters and the mistake of jumping back and forth in time to explain these characters' origins, this book was extremely hard to follow (especially in audio book format). It was worth reading, but I wish it was more focused.

Author has a hard time making up his mind

The book has an interesting premise, discussing the world of superheroes and villains from the perspective of the world's greatest super-villain. He's the smartest man in the world, but he's also trite and can't help falling into the super-villain stereotypes. The book seems to waver between an almost serious and a mocking tone as the perspective switches between the two main characters, who are linked. An entertaining listen, but the ending was a little too abrupt.

Fun, engaging

A fun story, different spin on super hero life. Entertaining.

Cliche but Fun Superhero Adventure

Any additional comments?

Soon I Will Be Invincible was mildly cliche, but humorous and definitely enjoyable.

The novel focuses on the villain Doctor Impossible and the Champions, a previously disbanded group of superheroes who reconvene with some new members to find out what happened to a member of their team who has disappeared and take down Doctor Impossible.

The team is pretty cliche in terms of superheroes - an invincible woman, a gadget guy, an energetic child hero, a mythic fairy, a cyborg, a half-human half-cat mutant, a magician and an invisible girl. But Grossman does a good job of giving them all personalities with faults included.

Doctor Impossible was a great villain, not the villain that you love to hate, but the villain you can connect with and, to an extent, feel sorry for.

The story jumps back and forth from one narrator to the next as the point of view shifts from Doctor Impossible to Fatale (one of the new Champions recruits). When I first began listening to the audiobook I wasn't completely sold on Marlo's Fatale, but it definitely grew on me. Boehmer's Doctor Impossible was fantastic from the get go - an evil twinge, but with the sad (pathetic?) undertones that mirror his life story.

My only complaint is in the pacing of the story. It took me quite a bit of time to get to the "don't-want-to-put-it-down moment. There was a lot of build-up to the end that could have been evened out a bit more.

Maniacal laughter

An amazing audio experience! The readers are having all kinds of fun with this, right down to the maniacal laughter from Doctor Impossible. It's hard to believe this is a debut novel, and I'm glad I took a chance on the recommendation from Audible.com. It's a comic book in prose form, and it works.

Doctor Impossible is getting the lion's share of the raves here, but let's not short-change the superheroes! Fatale is a great balance of nerves and cool, and the behind-the-scenes interactions of the rest of the "New Champions" are priceless. Great fun for fans of classic comic books everywhere.

soon I will be Invincible

The quintessential comic book novel. I'll re-read it between other fantasy and sci-fi novels because it's always good.

The 2 viewpoints are from an experienced (even a little jaded) super villain and a rookie hero trying to join the most famous team. Austin Grossman does a perfect job writing both the amazing super powers and the humble human failings.

The narrators selected for this work are spot on for their roles.

I loved it.

It was a fun read as the story bounced between the villain's and the heros' perspectives. I've read it multiple times and will probably give it more listens in the future.

Decent story. leaves something to be desired.

the story was tropey but still fun. It had an intended lack of finality that makes me want a second book that delves deeper into consequences of the climax on the relationships of these characters. The fact that all the main characters went to high school (and Harvard) together and is mentioned by the "loser villain" quite often but completely ignored by the "cool kid heroes" is the kind of 90's drama writer schlock i found disappointing in a book written in 07.