Thursday, December 30, 2010

Flyboy Action Figure Comes with Gasmask by Jim Munroe

Ryan is a university student who can turn into a fly, while Cassandra is a waitress that can make things disappear. Soon they begin to date (having met in the greasy spoon where Cassandra works) and start fighting corporate evil in Toronto under the superhero names of Flyboy and Ms. Place.

This quirky plot is the wonderful setting for this fun read. It also captures perfectly the student university ethos. (As I turned the pages I almost had a flashback of my days working in the student press in Toronto). That said, parts of this novel are uber politically correct. Not that two anti-corporate superheroes aren’t great (in fact, the idea is fantastic) but rather that the revolutionary spirit sometimes comes across as a cliché poster rather than as a natural evolution of the story. Putting this minor flaw aside, however, this is still a brilliant book that I highly recommend.
4 out of 5 stars