Review: Stan Lee's Alliances: A Trick of Light

General Information 

Title: A Trick of Light
Author: Stan Lee, Kat Rosenfield
Series: Stan Lee's Alliances #1
Pages: 352
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
ISBN: 978035811760
My rating: ★★★★☆

 

About: From Stan Lee, the legend behind countless Marvel characters and comics, comes a new project. A new universe and new characters - one born with supernatural powers, one blessed (or cursed?) with them through an environmental event. Teenager Cameron gets struck by lightning while live streaming for his YouTube channel and later finds out he can now mentally connect to all electronic devices around him. But will it be enough to stop the forces of evil that have manifested to ultimately destroy the planet? And what's with this mysterious girl he met online?

Let's be honest, I mostly picked this up because it has Stan Lee's name on it. But then, let's be real about this too, this book was not written by Stan Lee alone. It's based on his ideas, questions and characters, but written (or at least co written) by Kat Rosenfield. It's actually an audiobook project, but I read the print version, and I was incredibly curious about the book of the real life hero behind all the beloved Marvel characters.

A Trick of Light turned out to be a more or less typical ya sci-fi novel. The beginning was a bit slow and for a while, I didn't really know where it was going. But once things started to fall into place I actually ended up having a lot of fun reading this book! Unfortunately though I hated the writing style: this book is written in 3rd person present, and I have never been, and never will be, a fan of that (I read the book in German and this writing style bothers me even more in my native language). The writing style slightly gave the impression of reading the text boxes in a comic book, and in fact, I could picture the story very well as one (or as a movie). I got more into it the more I read, but it still bothered me until the end.

There are two main characters, Cameron and Nia. I neither loved nor hated them; they were good characters but not outstanding, and they didn't really stick with me. Of course, there's also the ya typical romance, but it's not a big part of the book and I liked seeing their relationship develop. Cameron's backstory (or maybe I should say origin story) was interesting and his powers were fitting. I also liked his powers themselves because they weren't something I'd come across before - at least not that I remember.
There are also a couple of other characters who added to the story and I liked finding out more about them and learning their backstories and motivations.

The story was (after the plotline became clearer to me) fast paced, action packed and offered some cool and unexpected twists. And it was sciency. Computer sciency to be exact. Lots of stuff takes place in the virtual world and has to do with coding and hacking. This didn't bother me, but it might some readers. In my opinion it gave the book an interesting touch, because that's the world we live in. I first wrote this review on my smartphone; our daily life is unimaginable without technology and I can't imagine where we'll be in just a few more years. Towards the end, the book got unexpectedly dark and bloody, so if that's not really your thing proceed with caution.

Another interesting point were the different villains - or were they? With a bunch of characters you can't really be sure about who they truly are, and that's always something I love! This book was only the beginning of something bigger, think of it as the first adventure of a new superhero. There will probably be a sequel one day in which the characters will have to join forces again.

Also, there were a few references to the Marvel universe that made me smile! Oh, and the prologue written by Stan Lee himself made my heart ache a bit :') In the audiobook version he actually reads it himself which is a really nice touch and will bring a smile to the faces of many fans.

In the end, I enjoyed this book, but the writing style annoyed the heck out of me. I would've enjoyed it a lot more if it was written in 1st person (or at least past tense, ugh). It was a rather typical ya superhero/sci-fi story that offered a quick read and some hours of good entertainment. I would've expected a bit more, but I still liked it. I only think readers shouldn't expect the beginning of a new era of superheroes, the next Marvel or anything, because like with any genre, after a while everything gets repetitive.