Lois Lane: Double Down by Gwenda Bond

Lois Lane: Double Down by Gwenda Bond is the second novel about a teenage Lois Lane set in a near future world. I have previously read and reviewed the first novel, Fallout.

Lois Lane has settled in to her new school. She has friends, for maybe the first time in her life. She has a job that challenges her. And her friendship is growing with SmallvilleGuy, her online maybe-more-than-a-friend. But when her friend Maddy’s twin collapses in a part of town she never should’ve been in, Lois finds herself embroiled in a dangerous mystery that brings her closer to the dirty underbelly of Metropolis.

Like the first Lois Lane book, this one also features weird science fictional phenomena, teenaged reporters and teenaged Superman on the other end of an online chat. It also still has a lot of story elements in common with Veronica Mars (the TV show), which isn't a bad thing.

In this story, we see Lois trying very hard to maintain her friendship with Maddy — not because anything exactly goes wrong, but more because she's terrified of stuffing it up. The friendships that were established in the first book are developed further in this one, including Lois's non-school relationships, like with her sister and SmallvilleGuy. This is all set against the backdrop of trying to solve some weird stuff that's been going on with Maddy's twin sister, who we only met briefly in the previous book.

The most enticing aspect of this book, for me, was the background developments relating to superheroes. For example, speculation about a "flying man" intensifies on the conspiracy theory messageboards Lois frequents. While we, the reader, know about Superman and much more of SmallvilleGuy's backstory than Lois does, the story never mentions anything that would be outside Lois's knowledge. This is a really interesting method of storytelling and only works because the audience is guaranteed to make the additional links. And I say this as someone not especially invested in DC comics, who hasn't read any pertaining to these characters and has only been exposed to a bit of TV (mainly Supergirl, which has done a similar thing with Superman's character so far, and The New Adventures of Lois and Clarke, whenever that aired on Australian TV a loooong time ago). You don't have to be an expert on the Superman mythos to enjoy this book.

That said, I do know enough to know that the setting of these Lois Lane books is different to that of other renditions of the same characters. I would really like to see more of this universe. Both because I want more Lois stories, and because I am interested in how the future will play out given the higher technological level of the present. How does Superman growing up with smartphones change things? How will Lois and Clarke eventually work at the Daily Planet together in a world of dying print journalism? How will keeping in touch online from their teens affect their adult relationship? Aside from the key issue of being Superman, there's a lot of honesty between then, and I can't imagine Clarke coming to work at the Daily Planet without SmallvillGuy revealing that part of his identity to Lois (which would then make her even more suspicious...). What about facial recognition (because, wow, that's a problem I have with Supergirl and her "disguise" too...)? These are all questions I would love to see at least partially answered in future books.

I really enjoyed this book and would highly recommend it to fans of Lois Lane (duh) and Veronica Mars. Any magical superhero elements are really minor, if that's not your sort of thing, and the near future technology is much more prominent. You don't have to have read the first book for this one to work, but I do recommend doing so, if only for the progression of Lois's friendships and so forth.

4.5 / 5 stars


First published: May 2016, Switch Press
Series: Lois Lane book 2 of 2 (so far, but fingers crossed for more to come)
Format read: Hardcover
Source: Purchased at Minotaur

Lois Lane: Fallout by Gwenda Bond

Lois Lane: Fallout by Gwenda Bond is a licensed fiction novel set in it's own version of the DC universe. As should be obvious from the title, it's about Lois Lane, the reporter will work with Clarke Kent (aka Superman) at the Daily Planet when she grows up. It's set when she's in high school and has just moved to Metropolis with her family, now that her army general dad has gotten a permanent posting. It's not quite set in the same universe as any other Superman property that I'm aware of; it puts teen Lois in our near future.

Lois Lane is starting a new life in Metropolis. An Army brat, Lois has lived all over—and seen all kinds of things. (Some of them defy explanation, like the near-disaster she witnessed in Kansas in the middle of one night.) But now her family is putting down roots in the big city, and Lois is determined to fit in. Stay quiet. Fly straight. As soon as she steps into her new high school, though, she can see it won’t be that easy. A group known as the Warheads is making life miserable for another girl at school. They’re messing with her mind, somehow, via the high-tech immersive videogame they all play. Not cool. Armed with her wit and her new snazzy job as a reporter, Lois has her sights set on solving this mystery. But sometimes it’s all a bit much. Thank goodness for her maybe-more-than-a friend, a guy she knows only by his screenname, SmallvilleGuy.

Fallout was a fun read, which is pretty much what I expected from it. Lois is the new girl at school and sees herself as a permanent outsider because her family moves so much. Despite this, she quickly makes friends and finds an underdog to defend. We also see her coming into her own as a junior journalist (junior as in, it's kind of a high school programme).

When I was adding this book to Goodreads, I couldn't help but notice a review in which someone was complaining that Superman/Clarke wasn't in the book (a great disappointment to that reviewer). Given that complaint, I was quite surprised at how much SmallvilleGuy was in the story. He might not have shown up at Lois's school in person but he was absolutely the second most prominent character in the story — Lois spends a lot of time chatting with him online.

Fallout was a very self-contained book and I don't think you even had to know the whole Lois Lane/Clarke Kent schtick to enjoy it. (But surely everyone knows that right? If not, you do now!) I am much less in touch with the DC universe/s than I am with the Marvel cannon and I had no trouble understanding what was happening. It's really just a YA science fiction novel that happens to have two popular characters at the centre of it (and a bunch of new characters who are basically just ordinary high school kids).

I enjoyed Fallout and I will definitely be reading the sequel when I can get my hands on it. Anyone after a fun YA read with a bit of creepy conspiracy and a whole lot of kick-arse heroine thrown in should absolutely try to track it down. My copy was a US import (that may have circumnavigated the globe) but apparently it's coming out in the Commonwealth in March for easier access.

4.5 / 5 stars

First published: May 2015, Switch Press
Series: Yes. Book 1, book 2 is coming, beyond that not sure. Also, obviously set in a DC universe
Format read: Hardcover. *GASP*
Source: Present

The Woken Gods by Gwenda Bond

The Woken Gods by Gwenda Bond is the author's second published book. The first was Blackwood, which I rather enjoyed. Unfortunately, although I quite liked the idea behind The Woken Gods, it did not come off as well. Blurb (which does not contain all the spoilers, well done Strange Chemistry):

The more things change…

Five years ago, the gods of ancient mythology awoke all around the world.

The more things stay the same…

This morning, Kyra Locke is late for school because of an argument with her father.

Seventeen-year-old Kyra lives in a transformed Washington, D.C., dominated by the embassies of divine pantheons and watched over by the mysterious Society of the Sun that governs mankind’s relations with the gods. But when rebellious Kyra encounters two trickster gods on her way home, one offering a threat and the other a warning, it turns out her life isn't what it seems. She escapes with the aid of Osborne "Oz" Spencer, a young Society field operative, only to discover that her scholar father has disappeared with a dangerous Egyptian relic. The Society needs the item back, and they aren’t interested in her protests that she knows nothing about it or her father's secrets.

Now Kyra must depend on her wits and the suspect help of scary Sumerian gods, her estranged oracle mother, and, of course, Oz--whose first allegiance is to the Society. She has no choice if she’s going to recover the missing relic and save her father. And if she doesn't? Well, that may just mean the end of the world as she knows it.

The strong points of The Woken Gods are the characters. Kyra is believable with her issues stemming from parental semi-abandonment and the way she relates to her friends (and sometimes has difficulty relating). Her absentee mother and her father who is always working and pays little attention to her fit in well with the doubts Kyra feels throughout the story. Her friends, Bree and Tam are positive characters. The former depicting a positive female friendship, and the latter a post-breakup friendship. All good stuff.

Where I thought The Woken Gods really fell down was in the delivery of the worldbuilding. Not the worldbuilding itself, that was pretty good. I could tell the author had thought through past events and worked out how the world now worked, but it took much longer than I wanted for me to understand what was going on. For the first third or so I didn't have a very good mental picture of the world and how it worked. Bond did win me over with the depiction of Enki's realm, which happened about a third of the way in, I think. What I didn't work out until about half way is that the world of The Woken Gods is the result of an apocalypse gone un-stopped. (Well, actually the details are slightly more complicated, but spoilers. And they weren't necessary for understanding the context of the world.) The fact that this wasn't obvious from the start — only the presence of gods was obvious, not so much the apocalypse of them returning — felt sloppy. I can tell you now, having finished the book, about the back-story involving a secret society of Indiana Jones-like relic hunters and their inability (sort of — spoilers) to prevent the god-awakening apocalypse. But I didn't get that until about half way. For half the book I had little idea what was going on beyond the characters' actions and the events immediately happening to them.

Ultimately, I think The Woken Gods is a very ambitious book that the author didn't quite manage to pull off. Which is unfortunate because, as I've said, there's a lot of good stuff in there. I quite liked that it was the trickster god in each pantheon that bothered liaising with people (well, more so than the others) and that they had formed the Trickster Council. It makes sense, really. And it was nice to see such a wide variety of pantheons represented in the text: Greek, Aztec, Egyptian, Haitian, Native American, Sumerian and possibly others I've forgotten.

I would recommend The Woken Gods to fans of YA and varied mythology. It feels like a book one in a series, although I haven't found anything indicating that more books are planned. I would definitely read a sequel. Despite what I've said, the second half of the novel was quite readable and I think it's a series that can only benefit from Bond's growing expertise as a writer. If there's another book coming, sign me up! Bond is a writer to watch.

3.5 / 5 stars

First published: September 2013, Strange Chemistry
Series: No? But I think it should be
Format read: eARC
Source: publisher via NetGalley

Blackwood by Gwenda Bond

Blackwood is Gwenda Bond’s début novel, out from Strange Chemistry, the YA imprint of Angry Robot, on the 4th of September.

I loved it.

It’s a dark fantasy story about mysterious events on Roanoak Island. After the original colonists had come from England to settle Roanoak Island, all 114 of them mysteriously disappeared (and that part is actually true, more or less). Now, in the present day, Miranda Blackwood and Phillips are caught up in events surrounding a second disappearance of exactly the same number of people. To top it all off, Miranda is cursed and Phillips hears voices.

I really loved both the main characters in this book. They work well together, playing off each other as equals. Rather than having one be the damsel in distress, both had different talents which together help them save the day. At the start, the transition from wariness to friendship is a bit rapid but I think given the circumstances (and especially since we actually get to see what’s going through both of their heads) it was justified. Both characters are sensible and both keep trying to trick the other into letting them keep them safe, which was endearing.

The other thing that made me happy in this book were the pop culture references. Often when (US) authors are trying to be “now” or whatnot, the references to non-universal brands go meaninglessly over my head, sometimes leaving behind confusion. Bond, however, has both her characters be a bit geeky so their references are to things like Battlestar Galactica and Firefly. Obviously, as a geek, I appreciated that, but I also thought they were grounded enough that if you hadn’t seen Firefly, you’d still get the point.

The ending of Blackwood was a bit heavy but all the more meaningful for it. No spoilers of course, but the difficult situation presented and the way it was dealt with is what pushed this book from an excellent 4.5 stars to one of my favourites of the year with 5 stars. The difficult obstacle was handled in a non-superficial way that I haven’t seen that often in YA.

All in all, I enjoyed Blackwood a lot and I’ll definitely be keeping an eye out for Bond’s future works. I recommend it to anyone who enjoys spec fic YA or wants a short fantasy read.

5 / 5 stars