In Real Life by Cory Doctorow
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
First, Chinese people are not evil. This is something important I learned from this book. However, I remain suspicious of The Mandarin. Not the citrus, the guy with all the rings. Seriously, what’s with that many rings? This guy is the Sonic The Hedgehog of racist-ish Iron Man villains.
What have we got?
We got Zero, which turns shit into ice. That’s pretty rad. Also, after spending a few nights in a 87-degree house, not a power to be discounted. I mean that. No discounts on A/C units. Not happening.
We got The Liar, which lets Mandarin control a few minds. Not bad. Really, it’s useful, it’s just not as great in a comic book way as, you know, a huge shaft of ice that comes out of goddamn nowhere.
Incandescence. Fire ring. You got an ice ring, you better come with a fire ring too.
Daimonic. The “we’re running out of ideas” ring. You can change forces on other spectrums, like gravity(?) To think, how different the world would be if that apple fell off the tree, then flew up and hit Isaac Newton right in the butt. Did you guys know that Newton jammed a needle in his own eye for an experiment? And to think we named our figs after him.
Nightbringer. Makes everything totally dark. Pretty cool. Also, points on the name. That sounds like the name of a really scary horse or a sword that could kill a wizard.
Spectral. Disintegrates stuff. Which is pretty cool, although it takes 20 minutes to recharge for some reason. So if you have a lot of things to disintegrate in a day, probably better set a timer and make sure you get through the queue.
Spin. Does not revive a music and culture magazine. Does create vortexes. Vortices? It makes twisters.
Influence. Kinda just your standard punching laser.
Remaker. Rearranges atoms and stuff. But not Iron Man’s. His armor is immune to it for narrative reasons, I’m sure.
I ask you, can ANY man with so much power be trusted?
Oh, right. In Real Life.
Art was very good. Nice distinction between digital and real, it’s a comic with some body types that I wouldn’t describe as being the most jacked people on the planet who look so ripped I feel like someone should call an ambulance. That’s a plus, especially considering that it’s a book that takes place, 50%, in real life.
The story was a’ight. It was a teensy after-school-special for me. Maybe more than a teensy. A young girl finds out that life is tough in China, and she finds out that maybe there’s room for board games and D&D to coexist, and she finds out that sometimes jerks aren’t really jerks, and she finds out that if she stands up for what’s right everything turns out good in the end.
Maybe what I mean is, the story felt written to fulfill a goal, and that goal was to write something about the positive power of organizing and doing what’s right in the digital age. Which is a noble goal, but doesn’t give me the meaty story I’m looking for.