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Grossman, Austin

Entry updated 20 February 2023. Tagged: Author.

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(1969-    ) US author and Videogame designer whose debut sf novel is the Comics-based Parody Soon I Will Be Invincible (2007), told in alternating sections from the viewpoints of Mad Scientist Supervillain Dr Impossible and a Cyborg superheroine. The lively narrative, set in an Alternate History of established Superhero teams, makes amusing play with related Clichés and touches on the darker side of Superpowers and super-obsessions, though without achieving or meaning to achieve the resonant depths of Watchmen. There are numerous echoes of Comics characters, narrative devices and – as in the title – the genre's tendency to melodramatic speech. Grossman's second novel You (2013) is a technothriller-cum-mystery set in the world of Videogame design; the plot requires its protagonist to play through game after game, to ultimately numbing effect. Shifting gear, his third novel depicts an Alternate History America in which President Nixon (who narrates) has been burdened with the lifelong task of defending his native land from supernatural forces similar to the Old Gods depicted by H P Lovecraft; to accomplish his mission he must sell his soul. [DRL]

see also: Islands.

Austin S Grossman

born Concord, Massachusetts: 26 June 1969

works

  • Soon I Will Be Invincible (New York: Pantheon Books, 2007) [hb/Chip Kidd]
  • You (New York: Little, Brown/Mulholland, 2013) [hb/Superbrothers]
  • Crooked (New York: Little, Brown/Mulholland, 2015) [hb/]

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