The Astounding Antagonists eBook Rafael Chandler
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Dr. Agon, a megalomaniacal inventor with an arsenal of lethal gadgets. Motley, a wisecracking jewel thief with nothing left to lose. Chillpill, a cryogenic drug lord who just wants a normal life. Baelphegor, a demonic psychopath with an ugly score to settle.
They're the most dangerous supervillains on Earth, and they're about to pull off the perfect crime. There's just one catch if they succeed, they might accidentally save the world.
From the skyscrapers of Apex City to the gates of Hell itself, the Antagonists are pursued by jackbooted super-patriots and billionaire vigilantes. But as loyalties are tested and old hatreds are rekindled, the line between friend and foe begins to blur...
PRAISE FOR THE ASTOUNDING ANTAGONISTS
"The writing in the book is superb... It's a beautiful thing when a writer can pull together humor, sadness, euphoria, and dismay all into one book, and Chandler does just that." (Fanboycomics.net)
"It was fun, it was deep, it was snarky, it was diverse, it was complex, it was poignant and it was epic and horrific and amazing." (Fangs For The Fantasy)
"It all culminates in a brutal street brawl with lots of accusations, recriminations, and payback. It's like a giant crossover event scribbled on a napkin by James Robinson and Marv Wolfman." (Superheronovels.com)
"I appreciate a book that can bring some knowledge and insight to their plots while keeping the characters believable. It is hard to do, and this book does it well... I completely recommend this book." (Black Nerd Problems)
"This is an ensemble piece with a large cast so unique, so different from each other and all so loveable flawed in their own way that every single person who appears is memorable." (Ghouls, Gryphons, and Gadgets)
"The best capepunk novel since Soon I Will Be Invincible. I've read a lot of books in this genre in the past few years, and discovered many gems among the dross, but Chandler's is the first since Grossman's to give me this much of a visceral, emotional and literary thrill. His characters are so strong, uniquely voiced, understandably motivated, and genuinely engaging I found myself fearing for their lives and well-being with every turn of the page." (Stephen T. Brophy, author of The Villain's Sidekick)
The Astounding Antagonists eBook Rafael Chandler
I almost passed up on this 'un because of the seriously lame title, except all them favorable reviews got me curious. Rafael Chandler's The Astounding Antagonists (ugh!) implores you to root for the bad guys. The way it started, the opening chapters, I'd a notion that this book was intended to be a mainly satirical and lighthearted take. But, no, man. Chandler, as we dive deeper into the plot, begins to sneak in substance, begins to escalate the stakes. He ramps up that sense of jeopardy, so much so that, halfway thru, this became a knuckle-biter of a read. I've several favorite characters - Motley, Helen Damnation - and several others I grew to appreciate (Dr. Agon, Cube Girl). One thing I wish Chandler had done, for story conflict's sake, was introduce more sympathetic superheroes because the do-gooders that we get here are, bar none, petty, self-righteous, self-entitled, and some of 'em are just plain homicidal.The plot revolves around villains joining forces to stop the heroes from activating a system on an alien space station that will enable them to monitor and target anyone on the planet. Thank Crom for Maria Torres a.k.a. the street-savvy Motley: the Criminal Comedienne, hands down my favorite character. A closet history buff whose modus operandi is ridiculing her adversaries, Motley, full-on snark in her gaudy jester costume, provides much needed levity to what otherwise would've been a bleak narrative. I relish her unexpected friendship with Helen Damnation, the blue-skinned alien who speaks broken English. Another highlight character is Dr. Agon, a brilliant egomaniacal inventor given to making showy remarks like "Confound that mendacious hobbledehoy!" and "That perfidious little Marxist!" Dr. Agon is the kind of guy who is so analytical that he's become out of touch with human emotions. He does come off like a cold fish intellectual. But he's interesting. Chandler is good at laying out our villains' background and motivations. And when you factor in the heroes' perspectives, what we're made privy to are diverse ways of looking at the world. While Motley is blatantly motivated by self-interest, with landing the big score, a reluctant Chillpill goes along out of old friendship while Dr. Agon seeks to topple the existing hierarchy, to shatter the status quo, because he feels that the powers-in-place don't at all do a good job.
Chandler lays in enough solid world-building. He references the supers' involvement - a chunk of which is of the disturbing cloak-and-dagger sort - in various past key events in history. We learn the source of most of the supers' powers. It's pretty easy to identify this world's analogs for various DC and Marvel big hitters, and how the writer warps them into these mirror universe perversions. This is nothing new. It's post-modern deconstruction that's been done before - I remember Mark Gruenwald's chilling take on Squadron Supreme in 1985 - and done ad nauseam by now. But Chandler spins his yarn convincingly. He executes well. He presents a scathing examination of how power corrupts, and how that cloak of righteousness may justify the shortcuts taken, the shady power moves made. In this world, the "heroes" are privileged, self-serving, corrupt, slimy jerks. Again, it would've served the narrative tension better if there were some likable and genuinely do-right heroes to go up against our guys. I appreciated that the "villains" weren't made out to be the noble sorts. They've got their underhanded agenda. They're not looking to save the world. If they do end up saving the world, well, chalk it up to serendipity.
"Coltan, who smelled of Speed Stick, and Baelphegor, who smelled of rot, crowded in on either side of him."
I appreciate the writer's way with words and his pace and his flow. This book resonates with surprising emotion; I was startled with how some of the scenes hit so hard, and how the interpersonal relationships seemed to have weight to them. Chandler simultaneously honors and tweaks the superhero tropes. This is a violent book. The action beats blister, and I love the supers' clever and vicious application of their powers, specifically Coltan and Cube Girl.
Parting observations:
I go back to Motley who I feel is the heart and the guts of the story. My favorite line from her - amidst a barrage of one-liners by her, including more Schwarzenegger movie quotes than you can shake a stick at - comes during the Hellsphere sequence when she glimpses these nightmarish, tentacled leviathans: "If Cthulhu f---ed Godzilla, that's what the fetus would look like." Heh.
I wish the metal-manipulating Coltan had changed his name to Chick Magnet, as per Baelphegor's suggestion. Also, the team's original name, Vandal Underground, is better than the Astounding Antagonists (again, ugh).
If I can recommend two similarly-themed reads, they are Jim Bernheimer's Confessions of a D-List Supervillain and Eve Forward's Villains by Necessity.
Other recommended superhero books:
- Marion G. Harmon's Wearing the Cape
- Peter Clines' Ex-Heroes
- Matthew Phillion's The Indestructibles
- Mur Lafferty's Playing for Keeps
- P.S. Power's Proxy (The Infected Book 1)
- Trey Dowell's The Protectors: A Thriller
- R S J Gregory's Cosmic Girl: Rising Up
- Blake M. Petit's Other People's Heroes
- Kirby Moore's Starfall City
- C.J. Carella's Armageddon Girl (New Olympus Saga, Book 1)
- Rob Rogers' Devil's Cape
- Joshua Guess' Next (The Next Chronicle Book 1)
- Blake Northcott's Arena Mode
- Colleen Vanderlinden's A New Day (StrikeForce Book 1)
- Emmie Mears' The Masked Songbird (Shrike Book 1)
- Austin Grossman's Soon I Will Be Invincible
- George R.R. Martin's classic Wild Card anthologies
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The Astounding Antagonists eBook Rafael Chandler Reviews
The Astounding Antagonists is an entry into the sparsely populated field of superhero novels. It skillfully blends common superhero tropes, subverted tropes, and obvious deep thought about the implications.
The book focuses on the exploits of a group of supervillains who run the gamut from idealistic rebellion against the status quo to self interested greed. The Antagonists present a varied group with complex motivations, interpersonal relationships and behaviors. Chandler has clearly taken the idea that "everyone is the hero in their own story" and run with it. None of the characters are doing what they're doing simply because they're evil, or for an undirected desire for "power." [insert maniacal cackle here]
When Doctor Agon, a super-intelligent inventor, learns that the heroes are bringing a satellite online that will be able to track and target anyone on earth from space, he launches a desperate scheme to bring it down before they can create an iron grip on the earth.
Chandler has clearly done a lot of thinking about superheroes, and is equally clearly very familiar with the source material. Common archetypes from the pages of comics appear in the book. Sometimes there are clear analogues. Sometimes the trope is spread out over two or more characters, and sometimes two characters embody the same archetype in different ways. Readers familiar with cape comics will recognize The Old Fashioned Do-gooder. The Comedic Villain. The Rich Vigilante. The Gadgeteer. The Speedster.
Where Chandler diverges from the traditional superhero plot is in the implications. What sort of people would be given government sanction to operate a super team? How would vast wealth and fame affect the attitudes of the ones that have them? Especially if they're born to it? When there are no procedures in place for arrest, evidence gathering and the like, what would happen when it was time for trials and sentencing? What would that sort of privilege, to be able to ignore the laws and dictates of society do to the behaviors and thoughts of the recipients?
Conversely, what sort of villains would dare to oppose a force like that? What would motivate someone to stand up to people that could kill you without charges, or incarcerate you without trial? And lesser offenders - what is their thought process? How do they get by?
The book's only real weakness is that the heroes are too uniformly despicable. While the protagonists/villains are quite varied in their presentation and motivations, the heroes don't really rise above the level of jaded cynicism. I believe the book would have benefited from either eschewing the hero point of view entirely, or by including some younger, idealistic crusader who still hadn't sunk into the self-satisfied swagger of the veterans. (This character existed on the villains' side.)
It really is a great book, and if you have ever had any interest in superheroes, I highly recommend it.
I enjoyed this one quite a bit; mostly interesting, somewhat 3-dimensional characters, interesting & non-sugar coated action (main characters die) & just generally likeable. However, the plot is a bit muddled in some ways -- the Astounding Antagonists do not actually save the world as the back cover suggests, and it is very debateable whether many of them are even slightly heroic. The "heroes" in the story are deeply flawed, less likable people and less sympathetic, but they still fight crime, while the Antagonists still commit it. Dr. Agon, the Antagonists driving force, one of the two smartest people in the world, is in opposition to the heroes because they have too much power, and his philosophy mostly just comes across as drivel, much like, but not nearly as incoherent at, Lex Luthor's philosophy in Batman v. Superman. While he is definitely more interesting and more nuanced than Lex Luthor, the other characters are more convincingly rendered. Ultimately, the plot is good enough, given that the characters are more detailed than average, and the story moves along nicely, in a non-predictable way, with main characters dieing on both sides.
Verdict better than average super-hero/villain story, even if it doesn't quite deliver on the premise of villains saving the world. (For a novel that actually does do that, try Confessions of a D-List Supervillain)
I almost passed up on this 'un because of the seriously lame title, except all them favorable reviews got me curious. Rafael Chandler's The Astounding Antagonists (ugh!) implores you to root for the bad guys. The way it started, the opening chapters, I'd a notion that this book was intended to be a mainly satirical and lighthearted take. But, no, man. Chandler, as we dive deeper into the plot, begins to sneak in substance, begins to escalate the stakes. He ramps up that sense of jeopardy, so much so that, halfway thru, this became a knuckle-biter of a read. I've several favorite characters - Motley, Helen Damnation - and several others I grew to appreciate (Dr. Agon, Cube Girl). One thing I wish Chandler had done, for story conflict's sake, was introduce more sympathetic superheroes because the do-gooders that we get here are, bar none, petty, self-righteous, self-entitled, and some of 'em are just plain homicidal.
The plot revolves around villains joining forces to stop the heroes from activating a system on an alien space station that will enable them to monitor and target anyone on the planet. Thank Crom for Maria Torres a.k.a. the street-savvy Motley the Criminal Comedienne, hands down my favorite character. A closet history buff whose modus operandi is ridiculing her adversaries, Motley, full-on snark in her gaudy jester costume, provides much needed levity to what otherwise would've been a bleak narrative. I relish her unexpected friendship with Helen Damnation, the blue-skinned alien who speaks broken English. Another highlight character is Dr. Agon, a brilliant egomaniacal inventor given to making showy remarks like "Confound that mendacious hobbledehoy!" and "That perfidious little Marxist!" Dr. Agon is the kind of guy who is so analytical that he's become out of touch with human emotions. He does come off like a cold fish intellectual. But he's interesting. Chandler is good at laying out our villains' background and motivations. And when you factor in the heroes' perspectives, what we're made privy to are diverse ways of looking at the world. While Motley is blatantly motivated by self-interest, with landing the big score, a reluctant Chillpill goes along out of old friendship while Dr. Agon seeks to topple the existing hierarchy, to shatter the status quo, because he feels that the powers-in-place don't at all do a good job.
Chandler lays in enough solid world-building. He references the supers' involvement - a chunk of which is of the disturbing cloak-and-dagger sort - in various past key events in history. We learn the source of most of the supers' powers. It's pretty easy to identify this world's analogs for various DC and Marvel big hitters, and how the writer warps them into these mirror universe perversions. This is nothing new. It's post-modern deconstruction that's been done before - I remember Mark Gruenwald's chilling take on Squadron Supreme in 1985 - and done ad nauseam by now. But Chandler spins his yarn convincingly. He executes well. He presents a scathing examination of how power corrupts, and how that cloak of righteousness may justify the shortcuts taken, the shady power moves made. In this world, the "heroes" are privileged, self-serving, corrupt, slimy jerks. Again, it would've served the narrative tension better if there were some likable and genuinely do-right heroes to go up against our guys. I appreciated that the "villains" weren't made out to be the noble sorts. They've got their underhanded agenda. They're not looking to save the world. If they do end up saving the world, well, chalk it up to serendipity.
"Coltan, who smelled of Speed Stick, and Baelphegor, who smelled of rot, crowded in on either side of him."
I appreciate the writer's way with words and his pace and his flow. This book resonates with surprising emotion; I was startled with how some of the scenes hit so hard, and how the interpersonal relationships seemed to have weight to them. Chandler simultaneously honors and tweaks the superhero tropes. This is a violent book. The action beats blister, and I love the supers' clever and vicious application of their powers, specifically Coltan and Cube Girl.
Parting observations
I go back to Motley who I feel is the heart and the guts of the story. My favorite line from her - amidst a barrage of one-liners by her, including more Schwarzenegger movie quotes than you can shake a stick at - comes during the Hellsphere sequence when she glimpses these nightmarish, tentacled leviathans "If Cthulhu f---ed Godzilla, that's what the fetus would look like." Heh.
I wish the metal-manipulating Coltan had changed his name to Chick Magnet, as per Baelphegor's suggestion. Also, the team's original name, Vandal Underground, is better than the Astounding Antagonists (again, ugh).
If I can recommend two similarly-themed reads, they are Jim Bernheimer's Confessions of a D-List Supervillain and Eve Forward's Villains by Necessity.
Other recommended superhero books
- Marion G. Harmon's Wearing the Cape
- Peter Clines' Ex-Heroes
- Matthew Phillion's The Indestructibles
- Mur Lafferty's Playing for Keeps
- P.S. Power's Proxy (The Infected Book 1)
- Trey Dowell's The Protectors A Thriller
- R S J Gregory's Cosmic Girl Rising Up
- Blake M. Petit's Other People's Heroes
- Kirby Moore's Starfall City
- C.J. Carella's Armageddon Girl (New Olympus Saga, Book 1)
- Rob Rogers' Devil's Cape
- Joshua Guess' Next (The Next Chronicle Book 1)
- Blake Northcott's Arena Mode
- Colleen Vanderlinden's A New Day (StrikeForce Book 1)
- Emmie Mears' The Masked Songbird (Shrike Book 1)
- Austin Grossman's Soon I Will Be Invincible
- George R.R. Martin's classic Wild Card anthologies
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