Novels are my medium and my first love, but I’m a huge fan of comic books too. Even though visual arts have never been my strength, I adore how many different things are possible in superhero stories. Sci-fi and epic fantasy and all different kinds of horror coexist in these enormous fictional universes. You’ve got comedic, child-friendly mysteries and pitch-black serial killer thrillers and deep meditations on love and family all going on at once. Comic book tropes and general disregard for genre boundaries definitely inform my writing style, and I love when I discover other novelists who incorporate comic book inspiration in various ways.
Jane is a comic book artist whose work is inspired by an alternate universe in which she, her friends, and her dead wife are all supers. Due to executive interference in her comics, however, the fiction and alternate reality don’t completely line up. Jane of course gets dropped into this alternate universe and has to survive the kinds of adventures she’s only written about before. The great thing about this one is that it’s not just a superhero story that happens to be a novel. It’s a love letter to the comic book format, with an incredibly visual prose style.
Some people are born to greatness, others have greatness thrust upon them… and some are just drawn like that.
As the creator of a popular new comics franchise, Jane Maxwell knows a thing or two about heroes, but has no illusions of being one herself. All of that is shattered, however, when she finds herself swept into a parallel world—one where her characters are real, and her parallel self is their leader.
There’s just one problem: that Jane is missing.
Under the growing danger of a deadly new villain named UltraViolet, the team has no choice but to ask Jane…
While this book/series doesn’t actually call its characters “superheroes,” it’s spot-on for fans of the more fantasy-based, mythological side of comics (think Thoror Wonder Woman). Maggie is an unwilling chosen one and magically gifted monster hunter from Dinétah, a former reservation and now one of the last outposts of humanity in a post-apocalyptic North America. All she wants to do is protect the people she loves, but she and her allies (some with their own magical abilities) keep getting dragged into the plotting and power struggles of Coyote and the other gods who now walk among them. It’s perfect if you like your heroes prickly, haunted, and inescapably loveable.
One of the Time 100 Best Fantasy Books Of All Time
2019 LOCUS AWARD WINNER, BEST FIRST NOVEL
2019 HUGO AWARD FINALIST, BEST NOVEL
Nebula Award Finalist for Best Novel
One of Bustle's Top 20 "landmark sci-fi and fantasy novels" of the decade
"Someone please cancel Supernatural already and give us at least five seasons of this badass Indigenous monster-hunter and her silver-tongued sidekick." -The New York Times
"An excitingly novel tale." -Charlaine Harris, #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Sookie Stackhouse and Midnight Crossroads series
"Fun, terrifying, hilarious, and brilliant." -Daniel Jose Older, New York Times bestselling…
Maximilian Tundra is about to have an existential crisis of cosmic proportions.
When a physical duplicate of him appears in his living room, wearing a tight-fitting silver lamé unitard and speaking with an English accent, Max knows something bad is about to happen. Bad doesn’t cover it. Max discovers he’s…
For a grounded take on superheroes in novel form, it’s hard to go wrong with Zeroes. This one isn’t about its bright costumes or cackling villains. It’s about a motley group of superpowered teens who can occasionally be called friends, and who do their best to become the superhero team that some of them feel they should be. The results are about as polished and stable as you’d expect. Not from a book, but from your actual high school clique given superpowers. What I love about this one is that it doesn’t re-hash the conflicts that go with the usual powers like strength and speed. These kids have some really original abilities, which get them into some accordingly interesting scrapes.
Six teenagers. Six unique powers. One bag of stolen drug money. One bungled bank robbery. One action-packed week.
Ethan, aka Scam, has a way with words. But Scam isn't just a smooth talker - he has a voice inside him that'll say whatever people want to hear. But when the voice lies to a drug dealer, it lands Scam in a massive mess.
Nate, aka Bellwether, is the 'glorious leader' of the Zeroes - a group of teens with flawed superpowers that they haven't quite got control over. After Scam's latest mischief, Bellwether pulls the…
Superpowers are a classic allegory for coming of age, and Giftsuses them as such in an especially timeless and effective way. When the children of the Uplands reach adolescence, they develop powerful gifts that can be equal parts useful and dangerous. Most of them start off applying these gifts exactly according to their parents’ instructions. But ultimately, their gifts are their own, and part of accepting them is accepting the responsibility of choosing how to use them. It’s a wonderfully moody, atmospheric exploration of uses and abuses of power.
'She's showing no signs of losing her brilliance. She is unparalleled in creating fantasy peopled by finely drawn and complex characters... GIFTS has the simplicity of fairy tale and the power of myth' GUARDIAN
'Le Guin is a writer of phenomenal power' OBSERVER
Orrec, the son of the Brantor of Caspromant, and Gry, daughter of the Brantors of Barre and Rodd, have grown up together, running half-wild across the Uplands. The people there are like their land: harsh and fierce and prideful; ever at war with each other.
Only the gifts keep the fragile peace. The Barre gift is calling…
Nine Stories Told Completely in Dialogue is a unique collection of narratives, each unfolding entirely through conversations between its characters. The book opens with "God on a Budget," a tale of a man's surreal nighttime visitation that offers a blend of the mundane and the mystical. In "Doctor in the…
Almost Infamouswas the precursor to Pinnacle City. It’s by my partner, Matt Carter, and I’m so, so happy to have gotten to play in this universe, because this book is a gloriously nerdy yet pretty cutting take on a whole lot of corners of superhero comics. It’s about this disgruntled upper middle-class high school boy who decides to become a supervillain, and ends up drafted into Project Kayfabe, a forced league of supervillains controlled by the so-called superheroes to push the public narrative in whatever direction the “heroes” want. Thankfully, Project Kayfabe is made up of all sorts of villains who ended up there for all sorts of reasons, so they’re able to learn from each other, become better people, and come together to foil the heroes’ plot.
Eighteen-year-old Aidan Salt isn't a superhero. With his powerful (and unpredictable) telekinetic abilities he could be one if he wanted to, but he doesn't. He's unambitious, selfish, and cowardly, and he doesn't want to have to deal with all the paperwork required to become a professional superhero. But since the money, fame, and women that come with wearing the cape are appealing, he decides to become the first supervillain the world has seen in more than twenty years: Apex Strike.
However, he soon finds villainy in a world where the heroes have long since defeated all the supervillains. While half…
To some, Pinnacle City is a glittering metropolis, a symbol of prosperity watched over by the all-star superhero team, the Pinnacle City Guardians. But beneath the glitz and glamour is a gritty underbelly, one still feeling the physical and economic damage of the superhero-villain battles of generations past, where the lower class―immigrants, aliens, sorcerers, and non-humans alike―jostle and elbow for scraps to scrape by on.
Private investigator Eddie Enriquez is an ex-con and veteran with powers of his own who still bears the scars of his time as a minion for a low-level supervillain. Kimberly Kline, a.k.a. Solar Flare, has just hit it big, graduating to the Pinnacle City Guardians. When their cases collide, they’ll both rediscover what it means to be a hero.
In a world ravaged by an inexplicable plague, society lies in ruins. Amidst the desolation, a lone survivor perseveres in a secluded state park along the Delaware Coast. Over a year has passed since she lost everything, yet as the sanctuary she’s carved for herself begins to crumble, she must…
This book (and its sequels) are about overcoming the odds; about learning to improve the skills and abilities you have, rather than dwelling on what you can't do. Conflict, plague, and scheming politicians are all featured along the way–but none of the characters are human!
