A Review of Mike Chen’s We Could Be Heroes (MIRA, 2021)
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ccape
Written by Stephen Hong Sohn
Edited by Corinna Cape
Mike Chen’s We Could Be Heroes (MIRA, 2021) pushes Chen to explore a different speculative conceit, at least in comparison to his first two novels, which focused on time travel and plagues, respectively. In this case, Chen has moved on to the superhero genre. Let’s let the official marketing description give us more context: “Jamie woke up in an empty apartment with no memory and only a few clues to his identity, but with the ability to read and erase other people’s memories—a power he uses to hold up banks to buy coffee, cat food and books. Zoe is also searching for her past, and using her abilities of speed and strength…to deliver fast food. And she’ll occasionally put on a cool suit and beat up bad guys, if she feels like it. When the archrivals meet in a memory-loss support group, they realize the only way to reveal their hidden pasts might be through each other. As they uncover an ongoing threat, suddenly much more is at stake than their fragile friendship. With countless people at risk, Zoe and Jamie will have to recognize that sometimes being a hero starts with trusting someone else—and yourself.”
Early on in this text, you know something nefarious is likely going on because both characters have no memory about how they arrived at the locations they are in. They further have no information about how they managed to acquire superpowers. What they both know is that someone is paying for their apartment. That piece of information was the one that made me have some trouble dispelling my disbelief. In any case, eventually, Jamie (Sorenson) and Zoe (Wong) do team up, with Zoe asking Jamie to help her retrieve her memories. Jamie attempts to engage in this task but doesn’t come up with too much concrete information, which pushes them to go after a larger corporation (called TELOS) that seems to be involved in their amnesiac conditions and their strange powers. Chen’s novel largely works because it relies upon Jamie’s and Zoe’s interactive dynamic. Zoe is very gung-ho about going after TELOS and about recovering her memories, where Jamie is largely an introvert and would rather try to steal small pots of money (FDIC insured as Jamie would remind us) so that he might retire one day on some tropical island. Their divergent approaches to their powers and how to use them make this novel one that is immensely readable.
The element that I most appreciated is that there isn’t a romance plot that emerges between them. Chen must rely on their platonic dynamics to drive the social element of the narrative. At the same time, I wasn’t entirely engrossed in the plot concerning where their superpowers arose from. Here, I will provide my requisite spoiler warning, so look away lest you desire finding out about the ending. As we come to discover, Jamie and Zoe were participating in a set of experiments that would enable a mad scientist (named Kaftan) to reanimate her husband, who has been trapped in a sort of suspended state. What she doesn’t realize is that this kind of imprisonment has been a form of torture, and he desires to die rather than come back to another form with superpowers. His reanimation would cause the entire city power grid to go down and potentially cause explosions and other accidents, so Jamie and Zoe must find a way to stop her before all hell proverbially breaks loose. To be sure, a novel like this one perhaps requires some sort of antagonist, but given the many, many shows these days that involve superheroes and evil corporations, you can’t help but find some of these developments to tread similar ground. Nevertheless, I really did enjoy Zoe and Jamie’s dynamic!
Buy the Book Here
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ccape
Written by Stephen Hong Sohn
Edited by Corinna Cape
Mike Chen’s We Could Be Heroes (MIRA, 2021) pushes Chen to explore a different speculative conceit, at least in comparison to his first two novels, which focused on time travel and plagues, respectively. In this case, Chen has moved on to the superhero genre. Let’s let the official marketing description give us more context: “Jamie woke up in an empty apartment with no memory and only a few clues to his identity, but with the ability to read and erase other people’s memories—a power he uses to hold up banks to buy coffee, cat food and books. Zoe is also searching for her past, and using her abilities of speed and strength…to deliver fast food. And she’ll occasionally put on a cool suit and beat up bad guys, if she feels like it. When the archrivals meet in a memory-loss support group, they realize the only way to reveal their hidden pasts might be through each other. As they uncover an ongoing threat, suddenly much more is at stake than their fragile friendship. With countless people at risk, Zoe and Jamie will have to recognize that sometimes being a hero starts with trusting someone else—and yourself.”
Early on in this text, you know something nefarious is likely going on because both characters have no memory about how they arrived at the locations they are in. They further have no information about how they managed to acquire superpowers. What they both know is that someone is paying for their apartment. That piece of information was the one that made me have some trouble dispelling my disbelief. In any case, eventually, Jamie (Sorenson) and Zoe (Wong) do team up, with Zoe asking Jamie to help her retrieve her memories. Jamie attempts to engage in this task but doesn’t come up with too much concrete information, which pushes them to go after a larger corporation (called TELOS) that seems to be involved in their amnesiac conditions and their strange powers. Chen’s novel largely works because it relies upon Jamie’s and Zoe’s interactive dynamic. Zoe is very gung-ho about going after TELOS and about recovering her memories, where Jamie is largely an introvert and would rather try to steal small pots of money (FDIC insured as Jamie would remind us) so that he might retire one day on some tropical island. Their divergent approaches to their powers and how to use them make this novel one that is immensely readable.
The element that I most appreciated is that there isn’t a romance plot that emerges between them. Chen must rely on their platonic dynamics to drive the social element of the narrative. At the same time, I wasn’t entirely engrossed in the plot concerning where their superpowers arose from. Here, I will provide my requisite spoiler warning, so look away lest you desire finding out about the ending. As we come to discover, Jamie and Zoe were participating in a set of experiments that would enable a mad scientist (named Kaftan) to reanimate her husband, who has been trapped in a sort of suspended state. What she doesn’t realize is that this kind of imprisonment has been a form of torture, and he desires to die rather than come back to another form with superpowers. His reanimation would cause the entire city power grid to go down and potentially cause explosions and other accidents, so Jamie and Zoe must find a way to stop her before all hell proverbially breaks loose. To be sure, a novel like this one perhaps requires some sort of antagonist, but given the many, many shows these days that involve superheroes and evil corporations, you can’t help but find some of these developments to tread similar ground. Nevertheless, I really did enjoy Zoe and Jamie’s dynamic!
Buy the Book Here
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