In the waning days of Superheroes in the world, there is only 1 superteam left. The Seven Wonders, look over their city of San Ventura, CA and they protect it from the last Super Villian; The Cowl and his sidekick; Blackbird. But then a normal guy starts getting powers and upsets the balance. Its pulpy genre fiction, police procedural, super fights, alien weaponry, good fun stuff. I like his take on the tropes of the superhero and how it affects the world at large. Fun read.

I think one of the most impressive things about Christopher is his virtually full page of all of the world's superheroes that come to join in the climatic fight (cause its a genre story, you know there's a climatic fight). I'll give you just a taste, I want to read stories about all of these heros.

"They'd all come. It had taken two days, but all, all, had heeded Aurora's call. They came in groups; the Chicago Nightguard, United International, the Army of One, the Coven, the League of All-Stars, the Computer Council, the Manhattan Manhunters, , the Devils you Know...and solo protectors; Pangolin the Protector, Hammer and Sickle, Czar and Tzar and Star, Kalamari Karl, Senny Dreadful, Your Imaginary Pal (to name but a few)"

8/10

S: 6/30/18 - 7/12/18 (13 Days) ( )

I was a beta-reader for this book, and while as a rule superhero fiction isn't my thing, if all superhero fiction were like this, it would WAY be my thing. Can't wait to see the "proper" version.

And yes, I do make some exceptionally fine pizza. ( )

Guilty pleasure. Fans of comics will probably like and appreciate this work more than others. That does no damn the author, however.
Christopher does have a unique facility with words when setting up a scene. Sometimes I felt the dialogue was lazy, but that might just be American society staring back at me through the lens of a New Zealander. ( )

The Seven Wonders Review

The bottom line: Fun and punchy writing gets together with superheroes and a dynamic (if not somewhat stretchy) plot to produce some spectacular (and I don't use the word loosely) scenarios, but unfortunately lacking depth in certain key areas.

If this story were a drink it was be a glowing, lime green liquid handed to you in a glass test tube that- after being quaffed- would give you the power to fly faster than a speeding bullet.

If this book were an animal, it would be a chimera with ADD, one that turns and twists and morphs like mad as it bursts across the landscape.

How to dress for this book: Oh, you know: glossy spandex, shiny boots, mask, cape.

) I will give it 4 stars, but I really feel like it's more of 3.666 star book, somewhere on the line between good and very good.

Seven Wonders has a lot going for it. It harnesses a take-no-prisoners plot (involving superheroes, cosmic power tools, tough-guy cops, and psychic alien threats) to a narrative a voice that both (1) pokes fun at the conventions of genre (ala Edlund's Tick comics but maybe with a shade more irony), and (2) that maintains a detached postmodern perspective while (3) never entirely losing the innocent wide-eyed wonder of simply being a fanboy. A great example of this blended style occurs near the end of the book when a small army of superheroes awaits contact with an alien force. Christopher delivers the goods, describing (with a sense of awe and hushed voice) the assorted heroes floating like an array of multicolored stars against the background of the cosmos, but also keeps on sneaker-shod foot rooted in satire by mentioning that one of the superheroes is named "The Man with a Gun in His Hand" (By the time you say that guy's name, he will have shot and killed you.)

As mentioned far above, the plot itself dodges and weaves with nice energy. Unfortunately however the energy is not complimented with enough focus. Which is not to say that the story of The Seven Wonders is completely free of focus, but it never quite finds its way to a deeper groove, you know, the kind of groove that grounds us with the character and the moment.

Is it the story of Tony Prosdocimi (one minor quibble- I have no idea how to pronounce this name. I would guess like: Pro-do-chimi -???) who mysteriously gains superpowers? It's kind of his story. Or is it the story of the mysterious supervision the Cowl and his sudden transformation. Yes, well sort of. Or is it the story of the Seven Wonders themselves? Not really, but almost! Is it the story of a robot gone haywire. Ummm- kind of....

The answer to all the above is both "yes" and "no" and further complicated by the fact that certain main characters (trying go avoid too many spoilers here) keep changing personality and motives throughout the book. Whether this is an intentional attempt at stylized narrative or just a byproduct of frenetic plotting, it does the story and the reader no favors. I would have been happier if some of those elements had been better grounded.

Despite these flaws, I do recommend The Seven Wonders, especially to comic book fans. It's a rockin' -fun ride with some memorable moments and does nice job delivering comic book kicks without and actual comic. ( )

The author of this book wrote that he is a child of the eighties, and that he didn't pick up his first comic until age 23. He gives thanks to many, many comic creators for making his life better. Obviously, he loves comics so much that he's gone on to write books about his own heroes and villians, but in the case of this book, 7 Wonders, he has missed the essence of a good comic story by a very wide margin (and I write this based upon my own somewhat dimmed--but never fully burned out--love affair with comics for 3+ decades).

Essentially, what we have here is a book about cops and super-heroes and super-villains, but the problem is...not one of them is like-able!! Oh, there are brief flashes where you begin to favor one character, or another character, but then they are written such that any desire to empathize with them is completely shattered. Besides the "capes," the non-powered cop characters are also completely unsympathetic. Finally, the dialogue, if you want to call it that, is often of the "F*#k you, you expletive" variety, which is extremely tiresome. It's lucky I got this book as an eARC from the publisher, Angry Robot, because if I'd had a physical copy, I'd have binned it about three-quarters of the way through the story; I forced myself to finish it so I could write this review, but even then it took me a couple of months to gear myself up for the last hundred pages.

On the plus side, there is some good imagination shown here, but cool power stuff is defeated every time by poor characterization. ( )