Review: The Story Is Just a Blur
Rating: 2 out of 5
Date: 05 20, 2014
Ian Thomas Healy's "Graceful Blur" is a story about a superhero named Mustang Sally who can run so fast that she appears to be a graceful blur. That's ironic, because this story goes by so fast it appears to be... well, more of an ungraceful blur."Blur" is set on an earth in which a group of superheroes belong to a team of good guys called Just Cause, apparently somewhat like the Avengers or the Justice League. Salena, aka Mustang Sally, is a member of Just Cause, and her superpower is the ability to run very, very fast. Her goal in the story is to set a new land speed record and break the sound barrier, on foot, at the Bonneville Salt Flats. So she goes out and runs... very, very fast. And that's pretty much the story, which isn't surprising since it's only 11 pages long.Ian Thomas Healy is a good writer (I've read a few of his stories) and this story is competently written. It describes the legendary Salt Flat well and sets up a plausibly good premise in which big name companies sponsor stunts like this in exchange for plenty of commercial recognition. And there's always room for some more good superheroes in the fictional world. However, the story is lacking something very basic to all fiction... dramatic action.That last sentence might seem odd since the story is about a woman running at speeds approaching 800 miles per hour, when a single misstep might result in a disastrous spill (something most comic books and superhero movies never give a second thought). However, Healy fails to convey inject any sort of suspense into the story. In fact, since it only takes Salena about five seconds to run a mile, there's not a whole lot of time for Salena or the readers to think about what she's doing or what might happen if things go wrong. Nor is there time for much of anything else in the story. There's no significant interaction between Salena and anyone else other than the expected good luck wishes she receives. More importantly, there's no emotional identification with Salena, whose motivations, background, and character are not much more than a blur. So, what we're left with is the equivalent of reading a short story about Superman brushing his teeth or Spider-Man drinking a cup of coffee.I haven't read any of the Just Cause books, but I would guess that Salena's character and the characters of the other superheroes who appear as spectators in this story are better developed in those books. It's also quite possible readers of those books will appreciate the story more than I did. However, all I can judge the story on are these 11 pages. In these 11 pages, Healy has taken something that would probably, if it really occurred, be incredibly exciting and reduced it to little more than a training exercise for which Salena has carefully prepared. As a result, readers will likely feel that the story itself has gone by at the speed of sound, because it winds up being over before it really gets started.