A review by writer_matt
امپایر استیت by Adam Christopher
3.0
****SPOILERS AHEAD****
I was completely unsure of what to expect when I grabbed Empire State from my library, except that it seemed to bring together a bunch of things that I love.
The book is about The Empire State, which is technically a mirror universe of New York City that was created when two superheros damaged the space-time continuum during an epic fight. Or was The Empire State created before that event - this is not entirely clear, as a pivotal character had disappeared before the fight and ended up in the mirror universe. Regardless, the book's main plot line revolves around Rad Braybury - a private detective - who has been tasked with solving the mysterious death of a woman found practically crushed to death in an alley way. Along the way, he gets attacked by men in gas masks, starts to suspect his best friend is also a dead superhero, and drinks a lot of bootlegged liquor. He also becomes the unlikely hero who has to save the world - both of them - before the superheros destroy the link that binds these two worlds together.
I enjoyed the story. I enjoyed the characters. I did not enjoy, however, the lack of attention to little details like proof-reading that kept jumping out at me throughout the book. It was distracting! But, whether that is the fault of Adam Christopher or his publisher doesn't really matter.
Christopher has built a very effective world here - one that is quite dense and quite vivid. The book essentially read like a comic book, complete with scenes that made no sense in prose form, rather they called for a visualization of some kind. I often found those sections of the book just didn't work for me - it was as though the book didn't quite know what genre it was supposed to be, and really wanted to become a graphic novel.
However, what did work and what Christopher has done quite well, is create a series of really complex characters, who I wanted to get to know a bit better. My only complaint with characterization is that there is so little development - I wanted to see more of them, learn more about them. Especially Rad.
Certainly worth checking out if you like the mirror universe/alternative universe genre.
I was completely unsure of what to expect when I grabbed Empire State from my library, except that it seemed to bring together a bunch of things that I love.
The book is about The Empire State, which is technically a mirror universe of New York City that was created when two superheros damaged the space-time continuum during an epic fight. Or was The Empire State created before that event - this is not entirely clear, as a pivotal character had disappeared before the fight and ended up in the mirror universe. Regardless, the book's main plot line revolves around Rad Braybury - a private detective - who has been tasked with solving the mysterious death of a woman found practically crushed to death in an alley way. Along the way, he gets attacked by men in gas masks, starts to suspect his best friend is also a dead superhero, and drinks a lot of bootlegged liquor. He also becomes the unlikely hero who has to save the world - both of them - before the superheros destroy the link that binds these two worlds together.
I enjoyed the story. I enjoyed the characters. I did not enjoy, however, the lack of attention to little details like proof-reading that kept jumping out at me throughout the book. It was distracting! But, whether that is the fault of Adam Christopher or his publisher doesn't really matter.
Christopher has built a very effective world here - one that is quite dense and quite vivid. The book essentially read like a comic book, complete with scenes that made no sense in prose form, rather they called for a visualization of some kind. I often found those sections of the book just didn't work for me - it was as though the book didn't quite know what genre it was supposed to be, and really wanted to become a graphic novel.
However, what did work and what Christopher has done quite well, is create a series of really complex characters, who I wanted to get to know a bit better. My only complaint with characterization is that there is so little development - I wanted to see more of them, learn more about them. Especially Rad.
Certainly worth checking out if you like the mirror universe/alternative universe genre.