Fight Me - Austin Grossman

READ THE THRILLING, ACERBIC AND HILARIOUS NOVEL FROM THE AUTHOR OF SOON I WILL BE INVINCIBLE ''The Avengers meets The Breakfast Club… wry and engaging'' James Swallow, Sunday Times bestselling author of Nomad''A spiky, fierce, erudite riff on the wonderful world of silver age superheroes'' Charles Stross, bestselling author of The Atrocity Archives''Blending the lurid, anything-goes madness of Silver Age comic books with emotionally complicated characters and realistic consequences on a cosmic scale''SFX----Dr Rick Tower is a mild-mannered English professor easing into middle-age at a medium-sized New England college. A genial blur, he thinks. Even his vices are unremarkable.But it wasn’t always like this. Not until they changed his name, altered his looks and told him: ‘pretend you were never different’.Because, decades earlier after a very bad day at high school, he was committed to a secret government facility with three other kids, Cat, Jack and Stephanie, each special in their own way. Tested, tutored and trained, this extraordinary quartet were then told to save the world.It was the best thing that ever happened to them. Until it became the worst.Now, twenty years after the tragedy that forced him into academic non-entity, a mysterious disappearance means Tower must reunite with his former comrades. Each returns with their own agenda. And while great power might come with great responsibility, there’s little of that on display from any of them.Combining compelling storytelling and fierce imagination with a rich cast of characters, Fight Me is a page-turning and distinctive thriller, a unique tale of good and evil, and a memorable portrait of man trying to do the right thing at any cost. Against impossible odds . . .----PRAISE FOR FIGHT ME''Hugely enjoyable… kept me up till 3am'' Conn Iggulden, Sunday Times bestselling author of Lion‘Combining a coming-of-age story with costume thrills . . . it has sly, smart things to say’ Herald''Fight Me embraces the fun of the genre, while treating its battle-weary characters with heart and empathy. A noir-tinged Big Chill for the superhero set'' Bob Proehl, author of The Nobody People‘A treasure that manages to be sad, funny, and hilariously fun at all once. A thrilling adventure but also a searing, intimate look at what it would really cost to have such incredible power, and yet still be human’ Peng Shepherd, bestselling author of The Cartographers''There is a vibrancy to the writing, and a beating heart, reminiscent of my favourite coming-of-age novels'' Nick Cutter''A sucker-punch of sheer delight, and couldn''t be happier to be on the receiving end'' Adam Christopher