Review for Invinciman: A Superhero to save us all by R.T. Leone
Invinciman: A Superhero to save us all, by R.T. Leone, is a dystopian tragedy about two men who couldn’t understand each other, yet remain friends despite the horrors of their actions. The book deals with difficult subjects such as corruption from technology, as well as the agony of vanity from power.
The book is separated into five parts. The first part introduces Raymond Martin, supposedly the vice-president of the robot fighting company, ROBOX, as well as a terrorist who has aligned himself with the York Rebellion. The part also showed glimpses of both he and a man named Daniel when they were both young. The second part further elaborates on their past, alongside the origin of the political and emotional ties that bound the two men to their engineering abilities. The third part details Ray’s hesitance in assisting Daniel, as he endeavors to hide the God Formula from him, a series of mathematical equations that allows a human to transfer their soul to a machine. The fourth part illustrates Ray’s new life as a machine, as he tries to recover the memories that made him who he once was. The fifth part shows the final fight between Daniel and Ray, and gradually descends into a haunting epilogue that hinted at what Daniel’s life would have been like had he not pursued his desire for power.
The dynamic between Daniel and Ray was beautiful. On one hand, Ray knows about Daniel’s dream and does whatever he can to help him achieve it. However, Ray also knows that Daniel is not normal, and that more than once he has been forced to undertake the role of sacrificial lamb, all for Daniel’s sake. Daniel is a mysterious figure to him, possessing an ambition that carries so many details and motives that Ray has no idea what to do with. Frustrations pile upon frustrations, yet because of Ray’s nature, he simply won’t abandon his friend, at least initially. Daniel, meanwhile, does show that he trusts Ray, but as long as Ray does whatever he’s told. To Daniel, it seems Ray is nothing more than a pawn in the grand scheme, and in terms of chess, while Ray might’ve even been one of the higher nobles, he is a pawn nonetheless. However, as the story goes on I realized that Ray is more than that. Another thing I noticed in the book was differences in humanity between Ray and Daniel. Although Ray had to transfer his soul into that of a machine, he still had a conscience, and acted more considerately than Daniel, who demonstrated a ruthless efficiency and unyielding mercilessness when confronting humans. Throughout the novel, Ray watches Daniel’s genius, as his arrogance threatens to consume them both. The relationship between the two is incredibly fascinating, and was the highlight of the book.
Through various other characters’ points-of-view, I saw a number of different impacts technology has made on society. Unlike the world Daniel had envisioned, technology has removed people from their jobs, and sowed discord that allowed corrupt officials to take hold. One of the scenes I remembered from the book was when a rebellion had taken hold of the city, and the leader had managed to bring forth society’s elites to the ground. Even in that situation, when death was inevitable, those elites all still groveled at his feet, begging to live, begging to help the rebellion, if only under the guise of an unconvincing lie.
Leone shows a frightening reality when machines and humans intertwine through the eyes of these two men. The shattered friendship between Daniel and Ray is difficult, the former losing his humanity, the latter holding onto it. Although there were punctuation errors in the book that did detract from it, the relationship and themes make up for it. Overall, I would give this book a rating of a 4.2 out of 5 stars, and would recommend it to those love sci-fi, traditional superheroes, and dystopian worlds in general.
