All Those Explosions Were Someone Else's Fault, by James Alan Gardner

"In a world with magic and superpowers, reality gets hard to pin down." Ain't that the truth.  In the alternative earth the is the setting for James Alan Gardner's All Those Explosions Were Someone Else's Fault, the world of magic and vampires coexists with the world of superheroes.  They are the Light and the Dark, the Sparks and the Darklings.  Magical powers are there for the buying, so the wealthy and powerful have all become Darklings.  But a few people with superpowers provide a bit of balance in this crazy world.

When four friends get caught up in an explosion at their university lab, they obtain superpowers and quickly get called on to use them to fight Darklings and villains.  The four friends take on superhero personas and gradually become accustomed to their new skills, learning to work together as they fight and hunt down the bad guys.

All Those Explosions is aptly named, as the young ladies frequently tend to be around big explosions.  Gardner does actually develop the characters a bit, and he does string together a somewhat feasible plot, but mostly the book is about superheroes figuring out how to use their powers, using their powers to fight bad guys, and dealing with the explosive results.  True to the comic books that inspired Gardner, he writes about lots of fighting and explosions.

The mix of Light and Dark, and the Sparks' occasional use of magic, sets All Those Explosions apart from other superhero stories, as does telling the story from the perspective of the college girls.  It has a definite feminine/YA feel to it.  Gardner keeps it light, injecting the story with plenty of humor.  It's a fun read, like a comic book without pictures, but not a book that leaves me itching to pick up the sequel.


Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the complimentary electronic review copy!