Book Review: The Ninth Metal

The Ninth Metal by Benjamin Percy
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

A superhero origin story in disguise as a rough family drama.

Only, the superheroes are more anti-hero. There's really no likeable characters in this book. John, arguably, the main character is a murderer and his family is basically the local mafia. Stacie, the rookie cop, is a wholesome character but is changed by the events of the book. Victoria basically tortures a kid "for science" but knows it's wrong and wants to free him. There are other characters that come and go, all are driven to extremes because of the gold-rush atmosphere after a meteor crashes into their town and leaves masses of a new metal that has world-changing properties.

Speaking of the meteor - it's like if the vibranium meteor from the Marvel movie Black Panther crashed in Minnesota instead of Wakanda. The metal has many properties similar to that comic book metal, at least as portrayed in the MCU movies.

Hints sprinkled throughout the story indicate there may be more to the metal than just as a power source and creation of superheroes. Lovecraftian dreams, portals to elsewhere are just a part of the subtle world-building I hope is explored deeper in the sequel. I didn't realize this was the first book in a series until I looked it up on Goodreads. I'm intrigued enough by the world-building to read the sequel when it comes out.

Review eARC provided by the publisher via Netgalley.

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