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Only Superhuman

Christopher L. Bennett (Goodreads Author)

2.86 · Rating details · 377 ratings · 76 reviews

2107 AD: A generation ago, Earth and the cislunar colonies banned genetic and cybernetic modifications. But out in the Asteroid Belt, anything goes. Dozens of flourishing space habitats are spawning exotic new societies and strange new varieties of humans. It’s a volatile situation that threatens the peace and stability of the entire solar system.
Emerald Blair is a Trouble ...more

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Hardcover, 352 pages

Published October 16th 2012 by Tor Books

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· 377 ratings · 76 reviews

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Oct 12, 2012 TheBookSmugglers rated it did not like it

Shelves: superheroes, terrible-books, sexist, scifi

Originally published at our Kirkus blog

In the year 2107, humanity has banned any human genetics modifications—other than the basic mods needed for human survival on Earth and the immediately adjacent colonies, that is. But while Earth and her immediate neighbors are genetic conservatives, human settlements in the Asteroid belt and the outskirts of the solar system are far more radical minded. Here, human genomes are spliced with animal and machine, resulting in people with super-human abilities, ...more

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Dec 26, 2012 Chris Bauer rated it did not like it

To be blunt, I gave up on this book about halfway through. Mostly out of frustration, a little out of anger.

Bennett has painstakingly created an incredibly rich and detailed sci-fi setting, complete with superhumans, cyborgs, and a myriad of other concepts which had the POTENTIAL to blow a reader's mind.

The actual execution fell so far short of that potential that I feel shame for writing this review on Goodreads.

PROS:
- Unique and detailed background with immeasurable promise
- Remarkably dilig ...more

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Jun 12, 2012 Brent rated it really liked it

If I could give this half-stars, it would go to 3.5. Since it can't, I'm knocking it up to a 4.I'm glad I had the opportunity to read it, but I probably won't be revisiting it. If, however, Mr. Bennett writes a sequel, then I'd definitely want to at least check it out. He certainly left enough doors open to revisit the same protagonists and antagonists--or create entirely new ones within the confines of his elaborately constructed future of roughly 100 years from now.

In a nutshell, this book wa ...more

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Nov 19, 2012 Jeffrey rated it it was ok

Shelves: science-fiction, read-in-2012

This comic bookish novel revolves around the life of Emerald Blair of the Troubleshooters, a group of modified humans with special implants and genetic changes that make them stronger and more powerful than ordinary humans.

The Troubleshooters are in space in the space stations and habitations surrounding the Earth to try to keep the peace between the very different humans that live out there. Specifically, many of the people who have left Earth, have determined that advances in body modificatio This comic bookish novel revolves around the life of Emerald Blair of the Troubleshooters, a group of modified humans with special implants and genetic changes that make them stronger and more powerful than ordinary humans.

The Troubleshooters are in space in the space stations and habitations surrounding the Earth to try to keep the peace between the very different humans that live out there. Specifically, many of the people who have left Earth, have determined that advances in body modifications are important to survive the hostile environment. The problem is that some of these enclaves are not just interested in changing their own citizens, but they want everyone else changed as well.

When we first meet Emerald Blair she is fighting along with her partner, some humans, who have modified themselves to be more like animals. Thus Bast, is a human feline mix with a tail. Emerald and her partner have to try to save the rest of the people on the space station from being infected by some kind of modification bug, and the action and science fiction aspects are good.

But, but Christopher Bennett is not content with starting a story in the middle and going from there. We have multiple flashback chapters about how Emerald became a Troubleshooter, and these chapters are interspersed in the story. These interludes detract from the overall story and impede forward momentum.

Moreover, while I am no prude, the sexual overtones of the story are ridiculous.

Clearly Bennett wants to make a point about the fact that female superheroes in comics have skin tight outfits that typically highlight some very robust attributes. So he is apparently poking fun at this in this book because Emerald clearly has some big breasts. My take on this has always been that the vast majority of comic book readers are male, and the titilation factor was a just another way to get male readers to buy comics. We get it in comics, but its just over the top in the book.

Moreover, if that is not enough, Bennett throws in Psyche, one of the villians in the story, who uses tailored phernomes and chemicals secreted by her underarm hairs, her breasts, etc to attack males and get them to do what she wants. Maybe this is the future, but the diabolical female villian who has to use her entire body -- not just her sexuality to overcome men is hard to take.

Lastly, the plot is just not that great.

So for the science fictiony aspects, I'll give it just a big okay. But there are plenty of other better books out there. ...more

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Sep 10, 2012 Rawle rated it really liked it

Shelves: superheroes-scifantasy

I confess, this book was written for me. There I said it. I was completely biased the entire way through. Every thread of the plot, every string of story felt tailor-made for me. I kept feeling like I was experiencing a mash-up of both Battlestar Galactica and Heroes t.v.s shows as done by the Wachowskis. I enjoyed the feel of the universe that Mr. Bennett developed, and felt that his science (fiction) elements fit in very nicely alongside the super-human backdrop. My personal preference would h ...more

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Apr 10, 2013 Devon rated it really liked it

Shelves: sci-fiction, space-stl

A lot of books take themselves seriously, but this one is blatantly about gorgeous supers dishing out justice in the asteroid belt, while delivering corny punchlines, while looking fantastic.

Bennett doesn't just get the science right in this, he comes up with ideas for settings and background that I just haven't seen laid out in such a believable and rigorous manner. These were not info dumps, but a well paced story that kept on hitting you with new awesomeness through nearly the whole book. Eve ...more

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Nov 24, 2012 D rated it liked it

I had very ambivalent reactions to Only Superhuman.

I really liked the central concept. Bennett starts with a fairly optimistic future in which, a century hence, there are hundreds of space habitats in the inner- and mid-solar system. The environment is rife with social schisms and empire/colony-ish tensions. The novelty is in Bennett postulating that humans with both intrinsic genetic and external technological adaptations to better survive in space might literally be inspired by and emulate 20t I had very ambivalent reactions to Only Superhuman.

I really liked the central concept. Bennett starts with a fairly optimistic future in which, a century hence, there are hundreds of space habitats in the inner- and mid-solar system. The environment is rife with social schisms and empire/colony-ish tensions. The novelty is in Bennett postulating that humans with both intrinsic genetic and external technological adaptations to better survive in space might literally be inspired by and emulate 20th- and 21st-century superheroes. The plot, meanwhile, is distinctly comic-book-y, with sadistic henchmen, scheming villains, and hand-to-hand combat choreographed nearly to the point of panel breakdowns aplenty. I thought that was all fun and fresh, and enough for me to overlook some hamfisted ends-versus-means pontificating (which is also comic-book-y, now that I think of it).

But -- many times over the years I've been embarrassed when reading a comic book (or an f/sf novel) and someone who is not male has remarked that the cover features someone whose mammaries outsize her head. Extreme distortion of female anatomy is one of my least favorite comic book tropes, and Bennett leaves no doubt as to the breast sizes of his female characters. The emphasis on boobs had the side effect for me of making his characters' sexuality seem less credible as self-directed, and a bit more like like enacting a series of adolescent male fantasy scenarios, and sometimes it was a bit, well, oogie. (For instance: when a parent not only encourages an early teen daughter to commit acts of sexual assault, but is eager to hear the details.)

In leveling this criticism (which is clearly in the eye of the beholder, anyway) I should probably note some mitigating factors. First, Only Superhuman is Bennett's first original novel after a generous handful of media tie-in books. So maybe Bennett has been itching to explore aspects of his characters' dynamics that are verboten for licensed properties like Star Trek and the X-men and there's a bit of getting-it-out-of-the-system at work her. Second, in a brief afterward, Bennett explains that the Emerald Blaze's journey to print has spanned more than a decade, so maybe some aspects of the story were solidified when Bennett was himself closer to adolescence. And third, if Only Superhuman seemed intended as erotica, it probably wouldn't have raised my hackles, since in that context I expect both physical and mental attributes of sexuality to be exaggerated and social mores to be challenged. So maybe I should just take that as another aspect of dragging aspects of (mature audience) superhero comic books into a more-or-less hard science fiction context.

And if you've been dying to read a near-future, slightly raunched-up, solar-system-constrained,and moderately more realistic take on something like The Legion of Superheroes, this could be the book you've been waiting for.
...more

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Nov 11, 2012 Carolyn rated it it was ok

Shelves: strong-female-lead-character, science-fiction, 2012-read

This one was wavering between a 2.5 and 3 star book. ETA: Upon further thought, have to go with 2 stars though Reminded me a lot of the book by Austin Grossman, Soon I Will Be Invincible, definitely had a very comic-book feel to all the characters, but that was expected, and not all a bad thing. My biggest issue by far, was the constant interjecting the main character's sexuality into, well, everything. Unfortunately, this rings true to the hyper sexualized giant boobs tiny costumes history of w ...more

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Oct 17, 2012 Josh rated it liked it

Recommends it for: comic book lovers, people who like cyber punk

***Disclosure - I received an Advanced Reading Copy from a Goodreads giveaway.***

I'd give Only Superhuman 3.5 stars. It's a nice book, but the pacing is a bit slow. It's interesting, but not exactly innovative.

I don't have too much experience with cyberpunk, but I'd say this book is part cyberpunk, part comic book super hero story, and part hard science fiction.

All the main characters owe their super powers to cybernetic enhancements. And the main plot line is a struggle for power over the surro ***Disclosure - I received an Advanced Reading Copy from a Goodreads giveaway.***

I'd give Only Superhuman 3.5 stars. It's a nice book, but the pacing is a bit slow. It's interesting, but not exactly innovative.

I don't have too much experience with cyberpunk, but I'd say this book is part cyberpunk, part comic book super hero story, and part hard science fiction.

All the main characters owe their super powers to cybernetic enhancements. And the main plot line is a struggle for power over the surrounding space colonies.

A lot of the chapter titles allude to comic book tropes (origin stories and cross-overs). The main characters are all super powered (but with cybernetics and bio-engineering). And the main character belongs to a group called the Troubleshooters of which each member has a code name claiming motivation from comic books.

I say the book is a bit slow, though it does have a good bit of action and quite a bit of sex. There is a lot of "political" and social manipulation from some of the characters and, for the first half of the book, every other chapter is an "origin story" (essentially flashbacks) which slow down the pace. I was somewhat relieved once there were no more "origin stories" and we stayed in the book's present time.

Perhaps one more mark against the book for me was the ending. It seemed a bit rushed and anticlimactic for how much build up there was to get there. I may have to read the last chapter again to see if I missed something, but it just seemed like the main conflict had a lot of impetus but then suddenly ends very quickly (virtually on one or two pages) with not much opposing force.

One of the most interesting parts of the book, was Zephyr, the main character's sentient ship. There is a nice little section of a chapter explaining Zephyr's past as a disembodied AI program making the desicion to become connected with a space ship. It was a cool character detail and idea.

Another cool thing about the book is that it has a glossary and table of locations in the back. These type of extras are always cool in books and add more depth and realism to the story.
...more

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Sep 21, 2014 deilann rated it liked it

Okay. So I picked up this book because transhumanism and superheroes. What I didn't realize...? It's hard sci-fi. I just kept reading through it and going, wait, I know that science. And it's good. In fact, this is the first time lately I've read anything and not gone, "oh noes blatantly wrong science!" On many occasions, the author seems to kind of poke at other writers, pointing out things like dropping rocks from space is a much better way to destroy a planet than laser beams. That's what hap ...more

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Oct 03, 2013 RICK! rated it it was ok

Fun plot and interesting world but I simple get how sexist it was. Its great to see a female protagonist in a sci-fi adventure but the author treated her like a sex puppet. Could go 5 pages with out checking in to make sure her tits were doing ok. Seemed to fuck every other character in the story. I'm all for having a female with her own sexual agency but It was taken to the point of being gross and distracting, becoming a substitute for character development and establishing relationships. Yes ...more

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Aug 08, 2014 Steve Tetreault rated it liked it

Shelves: science-fiction, superhero

I started this book once and just couldn't get into it; but it kept coming up on a blog I like (io9.com) as a great title, so I gave it another shot.

Once I got past the first few chapters, it was pretty good. The biggest problem was that it couldn't quite seem to decide what it wanted to be. There was a ton of sex, and a ton of action, and some thriller/political issues. It wasn't quite the superhero story it presented itself as - the "superpowers" come from genetic and/or cybernetic modificati ...more

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Sep 02, 2012 Alicia marked it as on-hold · review of another edition

Shelves: science-fiction, own-to-read, own-kindle-netgalley

I was really excited about this book. I mean, science fiction with a female protagonist plus sex. And that cover!

But it's just not for me. This was like the life story of a superhero. At 20%, I'd experienced more flashbacks than present action. The world-building was beautiful and complex, but sadly it was conveyed through infodumps and flashbacks. Maybe there was just too much effort put toward showing off the world and not enough effort toward developing a story in the present.

I didn't finish ...more

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Oct 01, 2012 Robert Aldrich rated it did not like it

Shelves: not-finished

I did not finish this book. I had been every excited to read this--I am a huge comic fan and from the little bit I had read about it, I thought it would be interesting.

Needless to say, I got about 25% of the way through my read, and found I had no interest to continue. I put the book down about a week ago, and I cannot recall much of anything that I read--heck, I can’t even remember the specific points about why I disliked it, let alone anything that might have been good.

So, for me, this was not ...more

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Aug 11, 2013 Steven Wilson rated it really liked it

Christopher L. Bennett, author of Ex Machina (one of the few Trek novels of the past ten years that I've read, and well worth the time!) ventures out into new territory, creating an original universe of super-heroes who dwell throughout Earth's solar system. It's a carefully thought-out future history, and the characters are clever, multi-faceted and often surprising. They move the story, rather than it moving them. I've no doubt we'll see more of the adventures of Emerald Blair... and that's a ...more

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Jan 15, 2016 Timothy Boyd rated it really liked it

I picked this up because the title caught my eye and thought it would be a decent SiFi read. Boy was I surprised, excellent read. Very well developed background history and setting for the story. Nice futuristic detective/police story. The SiFi aspects of the plot are well weaved into the story and not just backdrop props. Overall a very entertaining and enjoyable read. I wish there were more books in the series. Very recommended

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Jul 12, 2016 Christopher Schwab rated it did not like it

This book is a bread sandwich. (and the bread is sex.)
If writing a good book is a recipe, sex is a spice. And it's only needed in some recipes (like ground turmeric)! Real character development and an interesting story are the meat and potatoes of a book worth reading. This book is like a bowl of ground turmeric with a chicken nugget thrown in (just for good measure).
This book was not only not for me, but really not for anyone. ...more

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Oct 08, 2012 The Flooze marked it as to-read

Shelves: sci-fi, owned

NYCC12 freebie.

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Aug 04, 2017 Kirsten Simkiss rated it liked it

Shelves: reviewed

To be honest, this book was not as bad as I feared it would be from the rating it had on Goodreads. That being said, I didn't enjoy the book very much and I wouldn't really think to recommend it to others for overall plot or characters.

Everything in this book revolved heavily around the main character's libido. Emerald being an attractive sexually active woman didn't bother me. Seriously, bring on the bi protagonists. I'm all for it. But I feel like most of the time this book would have failed t ...more

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Dec 31, 2017 Jani rated it did not like it

Christopher L. Bennett has apparently tried to write an SF superhero novel and fails miserably. The SF part is mostly dry exposition paragraphs trying to prove with technical lectures why the world follows at least some inner logic and the superhero part, well, is hollow and sexist drivel bringing to the fore the worst parts of superhero comics without any redeeming art.

Emerald Blair is a Troubleshooter, a member of a galactic vigilante super-organization, who fights against the forces that seek ...more

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Jul 11, 2018 Morgan Gariepy rated it it was ok

Shelves: adult-fiction

This just wasn't the book for me. Too many info dumps and poor dialog. So much gratuitous sex. (I'm very pro-sex, but there was something about this that was just. . . off.)

In addition, it almost set itself up for a sequel, then the very next chapter awkwardly crushes that with a news bulletin stating someone else already did what they wanted to do. Even though I wasn't looking forward to a sequel, I felt robbed. ...more

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Jun 12, 2017 Erick rated it did not like it

Oy...it's just...oy...

These characters and story are so contrived and cheesy that I was laughing at the absurdity of it within the first few pages of the book.

I say again, oy!

Bad, so so bad. ...more

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Aug 19, 2019 Risa rated it it was ok

Shelves: science-fiction

I'm pretty sure no woman thinks about sex or breasts the way Christopher Bennett thinks they do.
Also, the scientific background should have been cool - some of the gravity stuff was - but mostly it was just distracting filler. ...more

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Dec 26, 2019 Erik Dewey rated it liked it

Decent enough, but a little too focused on sex. I enjoyed the superhero team but the sci-fi setting was far enough into the future that I questioned the need for superheroes. That being said, I did enjoy the story and the plot was intricate enough to be satisfying in the end.

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Dec 21, 2017 Brandon rated it did not like it

Recommends it for: people who like pain

Recommended to Brandon by: graphic audio

Not enjoyable. main character is annoying, too many useless sex scenes and overall uninteresting.
so much potential :(

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Jan 17, 2018 Chani rated it did not like it

I gave up after the third chapter. The jokes were just sooooo bad.

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Aug 27, 2013 Jon rated it really liked it

The first aspect of Only Superhuman that needs to be discussed is its genre. Mr. Bennett was exceedingly ambitious in his primary concept which is a down the middle blend of hard science fiction and superhero. For non-genre readers, this creates a nearly impossible task for a novel, because hard sci-fi readers are notoriously difficult to please, as are comic readers. There are certain tropes and “rules” that both need to follow, and if you deviate, you get some less than positive reaction in my The first aspect of Only Superhuman that needs to be discussed is its genre. Mr. Bennett was exceedingly ambitious in his primary concept which is a down the middle blend of hard science fiction and superhero. For non-genre readers, this creates a nearly impossible task for a novel, because hard sci-fi readers are notoriously difficult to please, as are comic readers. There are certain tropes and “rules” that both need to follow, and if you deviate, you get some less than positive reaction in my experience. In this genre blend, I feel like Mr. Bennett very much succeeded in creating a hard sci-fi world and problems with superhero characters and resolutions, and nods to both genres in the process. The attention to detail is beautiful. A lot of reviews I’ve seen have harped on aspects where it’s “too juvenile” (i.e. too superhero in genre) or “too boring (i.e. too hard sci-fi in genre). Which tells me he rode the line in between genres perfectly. If you like good genre mixing, you’ll probably enjoy this.

Only Superhuman takes us into a world a couple hundred years from now in which humanity’s colonized the asteroid field, mars, and created orbital habitats everywhere in between. He does a great job of setting up a very intricate geopolitical environment as well as giving us detail about how these habitats exist. The primary world building element that’s right in our face though is genetic modification. All of the politics in the story, and all of the characters are shaped by genetic mods and their reactions to it. It’s really well done, very detailed, and lends plausibility to the superhero concepts that come from it.

Our hero Emry is in a group called the “troubleshooters” who act as police in some of the outer asteroid worlds, using their superhuman talents to bring justice. It’s a fairly simple concept but it ends up being pretty complicated as the story progresses. It’s very political and makes you think about the consequences of genetic modifications, and of course the old moral of “with great power comes great responsibility.” I thought the plot built nicely, forced the main character to have to make moral decisions on every step of the way and left her changed over time.

As far as characterizations, I can give pretty good marks at some points in the novel, not so good in others. Early on in the book and toward the middle there’s points where the characters fall a little flat. A lot of it is because of the heavy focus on action and sex (which I’ll get to later) that don’t give the tertiary characters a lot of dimensions other than their purpose for the plot. There’s surface level work given to many of the Troubleshooters, but it’s mainly cosmetic more than depth. That said, I do care what happens to Emry by the end of the book, so the main character doesn’t so much suffer from that. She’s perhaps got a perfect genetically altered body, but she’s struggling with some real issues that make her fun. I also enjoy the change in Eliot Thorne over the course of the book. As much as the world building and backstory set ups were beautiful and some of the most intricate work I’ve seen in novels, I wish more work was spent here , which is why I ultimately give the book 4/5 stars. There was enough to keep me reading and going for the main character, but not much beyond that.

Now to the sex issue. You can’t turn a page in this book without a character thinking about or engaging in sex, ranging from mild to extreme. It’s not just a “make my mother blush” sort of situation, but it’s to the point where it distracts from the story. I think a choice was made in this book at some point where it was seeming “too juvenile” so this aspect of the world was upped to an extreme to try to counter that. I don’t think any purpose was served by turning every character into a sex addict or sex pawn as it may be. There’s one character who utilizes pheromones and other genetic alters to manipulate people by seduction, and I think that character would have been FAR more impactful if everyone wasn’t engaging in that. There were points because of this where I almost put down the book, but I suggest a reader gloss over that and look at the meat (no pun intended…) of this beautiful world.

The prose is pretty good. There’s a lot of superheroic fighting banter which I think really gives a nice nod to mainstream superhero comics. Puns are EVERYWHERE and I love it. The “tech” words sound great, realistic. And I don’t usually comment on things like this – but I really loved the attention to detail of the chapter titles. They were really cool, and I usually don’t pay attention to those.

Overall, the story was pretty fun. High action. It enters you in action, and departs in it so it’s very high energy. The backstory is imparted over time in chapters titled “Origin Stories” another nice nod to superhero comics which made me smile. A good first effort for an original novel, and this world is so in depth that I really hope Mr. Bennett visits it in the future. ...more

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Mar 25, 2017 Simon rated it really liked it

Recent Reads: Only Superhuman. Christopher L Bennett's tale of asteroid belt superhuman cops hides a transhuman political thriller. Smart. ...more

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May 01, 2014 Peter rated it it was ok

Mankind has spread out through the solar system, living in habitats in the asteroid belt, among other exotic places. And such exotic places have lead to exotic people... while highly restricted on Earth, elsewhere, mods that alter the human form and potential are common. Some of them have banded together and deliberately taken on the trappings of superheroes, to defend others and help foster acceptance of their differences. One of these is Emerald Blaze, a new Troubleshooter with a checkered pas Mankind has spread out through the solar system, living in habitats in the asteroid belt, among other exotic places. And such exotic places have lead to exotic people... while highly restricted on Earth, elsewhere, mods that alter the human form and potential are common. Some of them have banded together and deliberately taken on the trappings of superheroes, to defend others and help foster acceptance of their differences. One of these is Emerald Blaze, a new Troubleshooter with a checkered past... but after her mentor dies and the team decides to get more proactive, she's drawn in the middle of a conflict between multiple factions and must decide where her loyalties lie.

This book was described as a "hard SF superhero story", which seemed like an intriguing idea, particularly for one like me who likes both SF and comics. I picked the book up on a whim seeing it on sale in a bookstore that was closing, so how could I lose?

Unfortunately, the book doesn't really live up to the promise, or it does too well, depending on your point of view. The hard SF aspect is pretty good, actually. And the basics of the superhero plot, while not especially novel, is solid. Combining the two should be a natural fit.

The problem is, I think, he also threw in a bunch of the worst parts of superhero comics... the kind of things that, by fusing it with hard SF, I was hoping to avoid. The book's full of corny dialogue, groan-worthy puns, and, worst of all, it's treatment of women feels shallow and borders on exploitative male-fantasy. There's a lot of sex in the book... not hardcore in description, aside from breasts very little is described in details, but the ever-present nature of it and how it's treated feels... extremely juvenile. Comics are full of skin-tight costumes with poses focusing on the breasts or ass, and here... well, you could probably base a drinking game on the number of times somebody's breasts or ass were mentioned either as direct objects of appeal, or in a tongue-in-cheek way. It doesn't help that characters deliberately flash, play strip poker, or casually fall into bed with each other on only the slightest of pretexts.

I'm not a prude, and I'm not opposed to sex in my SF, I've read many books that handles even high levels of sex in a mature way that I don't think it's worthy of comment. Here, it just feels awkwardly jammed in because superheroes are supposed to be sexy. I think the author was trying to go for a more sexually open society in general, but it doesn't work, the characters just aren't in depth enough, so it comes off as more of the same kind of attitudes that are holding comics back, where the female characters are more important for their sex appeal. Even with the lead character being female doesn't compensate for this (particularly with how she spends much of the book duped and occasionally directly under the sexual powers of another). Other major female characters are similarly dupes or sexual temptress types.

I want to make it clear, I don't think the author's a misogynist or anything like that, it's super-easy to fall into the traps of characters like these just using the common superhero tropes we're familiar with, that the author may well have grown up with and, uncritically, wants to honor... and in particular, the plotline he built his story on tended to lend itself to some of this (although I think that if he'd toned down the sex everywhere else, where it needed to be for plot reasons, would have been more effective). I'm more just disappointed... he had an opportunity to avoid these problems and he missed it, and that makes the book far less than it could have been. And it's hard to take it seriously with all the juvenile sexual imagery.

Perhaps it's unfair, but when I read a book based on comic book themes, I have a tendency to try to picture it as a comic. And in this case, it's a comic that I'd dismiss as cheesecake bordering on softcore porn. And that's a shame, because there really are decent, relatively novel ideas in here, more from the superhero side of things rather than the hard SF thing, but still, they're there... they're just buried.

So I only thought this one was 'okay.' If the author ever decides to write more in this universe, I might give him another chance, because I think he has potential... I'd just hope he'd manage the fusion in a way that elevates the superhero genre, rather than drag the hard SF genre down. ...more

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Oct 18, 2012 Cody Martin rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Only Superhuman is written by Christopher L. Bennett and is a hard-science take on superheroes, in a science fiction setting. Without giving too many details away, the main plot is about Emerald Blair, a member of the Troubleshooters Corps, a group of modified humans who maintain law and order in the colonies established in the asteroid belt region beyond Earth. When a conspiracy is discovered to enslave all of mankind, Blair's loyalties are questioned when all is not what it seems to be.

This is Only Superhuman is written by Christopher L. Bennett and is a hard-science take on superheroes, in a science fiction setting. Without giving too many details away, the main plot is about Emerald Blair, a member of the Troubleshooters Corps, a group of modified humans who maintain law and order in the colonies established in the asteroid belt region beyond Earth. When a conspiracy is discovered to enslave all of mankind, Blair's loyalties are questioned when all is not what it seems to be.

This is Bennett's first original novel, a project he has been working on for twenty-plus years, and I'm happy to see him have his pet project come to fruition. Until now, Bennett's novels have all been media tie-ins, mostly for Star Trek. His stories always have a hard-science slant to them.

First the good. Blair is a likable character, fun and funny. She sometimes uses puns, both amusing and groan-inducing, but it isn't Bennett being funny. It's Blair corny sense of humor and she knows her jokes are bad. It's all part of the fun. The characters are distinct, and while they may not have the over-the-top powers of their comic book counterparts, each Troubleshooter has their own unique power or ability. You do get some of the archetypes: the super strong one, the hyper intelligent one, etc., but I never felt these were copies or rip-offs of existing characters. The science in the book is plausible without bogging down the story in explanations or too many scientific terms (a pitfall of some of his earlier works). The pacing is fast, which is good for an action story and their are plenty of nods to superhero characters, especially in some of the names. Bennett is very good at world building and he knows Blair's universe and how it works.

Now the bad. For my personal taste, there was too much sex and nudity. Bennett has spent most of his time writing Star Trek novels, which seems to have strict rules about nudity and sex, as in, there is almost none at all. While it gets hinted at and talked about in the two Department of Temporal Investigations novels by Bennett, nothing really happens or is shown. With Only Superhuman, Bennett seems to be making up for those restrictions. While I have no problem with Blair being sexual or sexually aggressive, I do feel it was too much, shown too many times. After several intrudes in the book, I was thinking "Okay, I get it! She likes sex! Let's move on." It didn't have to to with Bennett's writing ability, it just seemed sometimes unnecessary. And while I have no problem with Blair as a character being comfortable being naked, there were a few times when I felt it was, again, not necessary for the story. Sort of like in horror movies, where the first victim takes off her clothes with her back to us, hears a sound, turns around so we cane see her nude, then gets in the shower. Really? Was that shot necessary? Nine times out of ten, no. Like I said before, it seems to me Bennett was making up for all the sex he couldn't put into the Star Trek books. The sex scenes and nudity aren't graphic, just too many of those kinds of scenes.

Another thing I didn't like was not knowing how strong Blair was. They always said she was strong, enhanced beyond the norm, but we never learn how much. It is implied she can bench press a ton, but we never see that. I know Bennett wants to keep things realistic, but this was half comic book as well as SF, and the former half wasn't really shown. Descriptions of lifting things, bending things, showcasing Cowboy's gun skills, are never showcased. That's part of the appeal of a good comic book novel but was sadly never written in this one. But, this is also part of Bennett's pitfalls, he is not good at physical description. He mentions plasma guns and other weapons but never what they look like.

However, I do recommend this book. The good points outweigh the bad. The characters are funny, well-written, Blair's history is thought out and detailed, and the world building spot on. I'm hoping for a sequel. ...more

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About Christopher L. Bennett

Christopher L. Bennett

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Christopher L. Bennett is a lifelong resident of Cincinnati, Ohio, with a B.S. in Physics and a B.A. in History from the University of Cincinnati. A fan of science and science fiction since age five, he has spent the past two decades selling original short fiction to magazines such as Analog Science Fiction and Fact (home of his "Hub" series of comedy adventures), BuzzyMag, and Galaxy's Edge. Sinc ...more