Review: Supervillain Story
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 06 18, 2013
Set in a comic-book world of superheroes and supervillains, The Machinist Part One: Malevolence treads familiar ground with verve.  The title character is a "tech," a character who derives his powers from technology instead of, say, the bite of a radioactive spider, a mutation,  or an alien's ring.  This novella traces this character's transformation from a washed-up tech villain to a world-class combatant in the struggles of superheroes and supervillains.TECHNIQUEThe dialogue of the story is honed to a minimum, except for an expository lump at the end.  The action follows the logic and rhythm of superhero comics.  The eight chapters of The Machinist Part One: Malevolence correspond to an eight-issue arc.  Fans of comics will be right at home with this novella.LENGTHThe author identifies this book as a novella.  No firm dividing line between the novella and the novel exists, but most literary awards classify stories of 20,000 to 40,000 words as novellas.  The Machinist Part One: Malevolence is closer to the lower word count.  Many readers will finish the book in one sitting.AUDIENCEThe author's Twitter profile describes him as an "Author of Supervillain stories for Mature Readers."  The Machinist Part One: Malevolence features deadly violence and adult language.  Young children and squeamish adults should stay away.Superhero stories are slanted to a male audience, as is this book.  Nevertheless, two women in this novella do engage in a conversation about something other than a man.  Thus, the story passes the Bechdel Test.TEXTThe Kindle edition of this book is well edited.  This reader noticed one dropped word and one sentence with strained syntax.  Formatting of the text looks professional on both a Kindle Touch and a Kindle Fire HD.RATINGThe Machinist Part One: Malevolence deserves four stars because it develops the title character well enough to premiere a series and gives the reader a taste of the next installment.  It falls short of five stars because it omits motivations and character development of female characters.  The brevity of the novella form restricts character development, but couldn't the violence have been condensed to give more space to the women and win the series a larger audience?