Hil, is it this? [link]

No, that's not it. Thanks, though. I think the poet was British, but maybe American.

Hmm. I just read Three Men In A Boat...and I must say, it's....incredibly random? i should've thought to bring "To Say Nothing of the Dog" (Connie Willis) and see if having read the former now informs the latter at all, but I guess that'll have to wait (I'm on a trip). I can certainly see the similarities, but must ask--is it just my edition, or is it random, or what on earth does the ghost stories at the end have to do with the rest of the book?? Good grief, man!

So bizarre.

I just finished Superpowers, and I think it broke me a little. Man.

Really good stuff. Of the reviews I've read, I'm surprised that none of them mention how, just like in comics, some of the action that I consider important actually took place "between the panels." Nicely done.

And I'd say that the book stopped being about superheroes (if it ever really *was*) about halfway through.

One of the only things I didn't like -- and this is really no fault of the book -- was that knowing that the timeline of the book encompasses 9/11 gave me this inexorable sense of dread. Because I knew (and surely this is no spoiler; we *know* the author, and he wouldn't pull such a hackneyed trick) that nothing corny like the superheroes *stopping* the terrorist attacks would happen. And that meant that the alternative was big pain coming right at them.

And that meant that the alternative was big pain coming right at them.

::nodnodnod::

And at us, oh ye gods.

And that meant that the alternative was big pain coming right at them.

::nodnodnod::

And, see, in the run up to Nightwing #93 (was it 93?), when I could see all the pain gathered ready to whammy Dick, and I knew there was no other way it could have gone down, it still didn't give me the *dread* it did with Superpowers. Which is a credit, I think, to Knut. Because I don't worry about Dick Grayson, but I do worry about the All-Stars.

Because I knew (and surely this is no spoiler; we *know* the author, and he wouldn't pull such a hackneyed trick) that nothing corny like the superheroes *stopping* the terrorist attacks would happen.

It doesn't have to be corny.

Right there with you, Tep. I just read the bit where Marcus speaks to the audience and says "You know the timeline, you know what's coming." And I applaud Knut for doing that, but there is dread.

Sort of like in The Poisonwood Bible where you know one of the girls is going to die. Except there you spend your reading time rooting for it to be a particular one (if you are me).

Because I knew (and surely this is no spoiler; we *know* the author, and he wouldn't pull such a hackneyed trick) that nothing corny like the superheroes *stopping* the terrorist attacks would happen.

It doesn't have to be corny.

But then Knut would've run the risk of being called an Ex Machina imitator.

Sort of like in The Poisonwood Bible where you know one of the girls is going to die.

Or like in The Secret History, which just starts flat-out by saying that they kill Bunny, and then takes you up to it, through it, and yet *still* manages to create suspense and dread and such empathy for both Richard et al, AND for Bunny. (Okay, actually I never have any empathy --or symapthy, or any good feeling -- for Bunny, no matter how many times I read it. But still.)

(Also a VERY well-done first novel, IMO. Much like Superpowers, revealing Bunny's murder right up front is a big risk because the payoff *could* have fallen flat. But instead she did it beautifully.)

Sort of like in The Poisonwood Bible where you know one of the girls is going to die.

Seeing Raq mention Poisonwood gets my ire up. That book's last 200 pages felt so terrible extraneous to me. Sigh.