Damien Locke is a typical 16-year-old, assuming everyone grows up in a world dominated by superheroes and villains. He’s anticipating his sixteenth birthday, when his thumbprint will transform into a V, assuring his place at the supervillain university, just like his parents. When the magical day arrives, however, his print forms an X, proving he is a combination of hero and villain genes. His actual father is a hero. What could be worse? With only a handful of weeks to influence the outcome, Damien pledges to do everything he can to embrace his villainous ways, and turn that X into a V, and not an H. It won’t be easy. Especially when he’s forced to live with his father’s current family of heroes.
Create a written mashup of the films The Incredibles and Sky High, and the result is this book.Those looking for realistic personalities, especially for adult characters, look elsewhere. Damien is snarky, reasonably intelligent, and never quite in control to the level he believes. In other words, he’s a teen. His juggling of relationships is humorous, as is a good portion of the interaction between the characters. Recommended for fans of comics, humor, and deadly lasers.
Gritty short story collection by some of fantasy’s best authors like Patricia Briggs, Jim Butcher, and Holly Black with urban settings. Dark and atmospheric, great fantasy read.
Do you ever cheer for the monster? Wish that you were an evil genius? Think that the mad scientist should win once in a while? Then The Mad Scientist’s Guide to World Domination is the book for you. Full of nefarious plots and slavering Igors, it is a wildly entertaining romp of short stories where the superheros are often just stupid saps and the wicked do not get their just deserts. Muahahahahaha!
Elvie is 16 and pregnant. Since this is 2074, options for pregnant teens include things like low-orbit space ships that are retrofitted as boarding schools for pregnant teenaged girls. Elvie’s father decided she should take that option and Elvie doesn’t really care, so long as she can give birth as quickly and painlessly as possible, give the baby up for adoption and get back to studying for the PSATs. Life on board the Echidna wouldn’t be so terrible if a)Elvie’s arch-nemesis, Britta, wasn’t also on board and b)a troop of laser-gun wielding guys hadn’t taken over the ship. Britta’s your classic mean-girl-cheerleader type and she’s been hating on Elvie since they were kids. To make matters worse, Britta’s baby-daddy is the same as Elvie’s. The guys with the laser guns aren’t terrible, but their ship blows up right after they board and the Echidna begins leaking oxygen at an alarming rate. In the meantime, laser-gun-guys have some revelations for the girls that will change their lives forever. Assuming, you know, they survive this ordeal.
Eve Spiker has just been hit by a truck. Her leg is nearly severed and her arm is crushed. Her mother whisks her out of the county hospital to move Eve to the family’s biotech facility where Eve will, ostensibly, heal better. A few blurry days later, Eve is surprised to find that not only is her leg intact, it doesn’t really even hurt anymore. To bide the time while Eve is recuperating, her mother gives her a task that involves testing the facility’s new genetic manipulation computer program. It’s set up like a game or puzzle and every component of the human is able to be controlled by the creator. Eve begins to build the perfect (simulated) boy.
