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Summary
Summary
From Stan Lee, the pop-culture legend behind Marvel's Avengers, Black Panther, X-Men, Spider-Man, Fantastic Four, and Iron Man, comes a major publishing event. One of the last creative acts of a master storyteller, A Trick of Light was first introduced in the best-selling audiobook Stan Lee's Alliances: A Trick of Light. The hardcover features exclusive content, including bonus chapters and an afterword by Alliances universe co-creators Luke Lieberman and Ryan Silbert.
Nia, a gifted but desperately lonely hacker, is living in isolation with her strict single dad. As a social-media maven, she is wildly popular and has more than a million friends. But they are all strangers who love her posts but know nothing about her that is real.
Cameron is on a quest for YouTube fame as a vlogger focusing on exploring the mysteries of Lake Erie. While recording his latest video, he is knocked out by lightning in a freak storm that appears to defy the laws of physics. When Cameron awakens, he discovers an astonishing cyberkinetic talent: the ability to manipulate computers and electronics with his mind.
After a chance meeting online, the two teenagers--one born with extraordinary gifts, one unwillingly transformed--join together to right wrongs in the world. As Nia and Cameron develop their powers and deal out reckonings, they draw the attention of dangerous forces, putting the future of the planet at risk.
Set in Stan Lee's Alliances Universe, co-created by Lee, Luke Lieberman, and Ryan Silbert, and written with Edgar Award-nominated author Kat Rosenfield, Stan Lee delivers a novel packed with the pulse-pounding, breakneck adventure and the sheer exuberant invention that have defined his career as the creative mastermind behind the spectacular Marvel universe.
"Leave it to Stan Lee to save his very best for last. A Trick of Light is as heartfelt and emotional as it is original and exciting. What a movie this one will make."--James Patterson
Author Notes
Stan Lee was born Stanley Martin Lieber in Manhattan, New York on December 28, 1922. During World War II, he wrote training manuals stateside in the Army Signal Corps while moonlighting as a comics writer. He joined Marvel Comics in the early 1940s and worked there for 60 years. He was a central player in the creation of Spider-Man, the Incredible Hulk, the Fantastic Four, Iron Man, Thor, and the X-Men.
He wrote several books including Excelsior! The Amazing Life of Stan Lee written with George Mair, Amazing Fantastic Incredible: A Marvelous Memoir written with Peter David, and A Trick of Light written with Kat Rosenfield. He died on November 12, 2018 at the age of 95.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (2)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Fresh and inventive, but fundamentally flat, this cinematic fantasy cowritten with Rosenfield (Inland) contains all the ingenuity fans will expect of the late Stan Lee (1922--2018) but not much depth. Nia, a lonely girl born with a gift for hacking, whose controlling father allows her to interact with the outside world exclusively via social media, meets Cameron Ackerson online. Cameron obtained cyberkinetic powers, the ability to control computers with his mind, after being struck by lightning. The teens decide to use their technical gifts to fight for justice via cyber stunts such as manipulating the livestream of a hateful newscaster to make him appear to sing showtunes . But when Nia discovers a virtual world that may hold the truth behind her sheltered life and a skin-stealing alien begins pursuing Cameron, the pair realizes that they've put themselves and the planet in grave danger. The plot moves quickly, and the young characters are sympathetic and modern, if lacking in interiority. Though Lee's many fans will find plenty here to keep their attention, this narrative would be better served as a movie. Agent: Yfat Reiss Gendell, Foundry Media (Sept.)
Kirkus Review
A vlogger who is struck by lightning receives remarkable powers in this rousing adventure novel that launches a franchise that's a parting gift from Stan the Man.The late, great Lee (Amazing, Fantastic, Incredible, 2015, etc.) contributed a lot of ideas to this launching of a new universe dubbed Alliances, starting with an Audible original called A Trick of Light, created by Lee, Luke Lieberman, and Ryan Silbert and here translated to more conventional fiction by Rosenfield (Inland, 2014, etc.). It's a fairly universal superhero mythology with a few contemporary twists thrown in for good measure, and it's surprisingly fast-paced and highly entertaining. Our primary protagonist is Cameron Ackerson, an ambitious teen YouTuber whose dad disappeared during a mysterious storm on Lake Erie. When he's struck by lightning in a characteristically Lee origin story, Cameron discovers he's been gifted with the ability to manipulate electronicshe's "cyberkinetic," as he puts it. His counterpart is his online buddy Nia, a mysterious hacker kept in check by her father, known only as "the Inventor." Unfortunately, Cameron's new abilities attract the attention of a cryptic organization called OPTIC (that's Omni Psyop Tactical Intelligence Corporation, because, sure, why not?) that one of Cam's friends quickly dubs a second-rate "Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D." led by a formidable Nick Fury type named Olivia Park, a wetwork-enhanced bionic woman with a temper and a fierce resolve. More dangerously, Cameron and his new comrades have also been noticed and are the subject of a deadly pursuit by Xal, an otherworldly claw-and-tentacle type who wears people like a Doctor Who skin suit and has a real beef with Nia's dad and a jones for Cam and Nia. With a characteristically enthusiastic intro by Stan and a thoughtful afterword about the creative process by Lieberman and Silbert, this is a wild but inventive introduction to a new intergalactic struggle that promises more adventures to come.Not quite marvelous but immersive, propulsive, and engaging in the ways that sometimes only comic books can be. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Excerpts
Excerpts
IN A DARK PLACE The rude beeping of the alarm echoes down the long, dark corridors like a shriek, but Nia doesn't flinch at the sound, or even stir. The alarm never disturbs her sleep. She's been awake for ages. Staring at nothing. There's no view. No pictures on the walls, no books to read. And unless Father allows it, there is no way out. It's been like this her whole life, or at least as far back as she can remember. Each morning, she's up early, waiting in the dark. Watching the clock, counting down the minutes, the seconds, the tenths of a second, waiting for the security locks to disengage and the day to begin. Once upon a time, this had been much harder to do. She was younger then and didn't understand how to be patient--and she didn't like it here, all alone in her quiet, empty room. One of her very earliest memories is of being awake when she was supposed to be asleep, playing games and music, flicking the lights on and off, until Father finally came to scold her. "This isn't playtime, Nia," he had said. "This is nighttime. It's time for little girls to sleep, and fathers, too." "But I can't sleep. I just can't," she'd protested, and Father sighed. "Rest quietly, then. If you don't fall asleep, you can think about things until it's time to get up. Tomorrow is a big day." "You always say that." "Because it's always true." He smiled at her. "I'm planning your lesson right now. But I'll be too tired to teach if you don't let me rest, so no more noise until morning." "When the sun comes up?" she asked hopefully, but Father only looked exasperated. That was when she first learned that dawn and morning were not the same thing, and that little girls were not allowed out of bed at sunrise, no matter how wide awake they were. If Nia had her way, she would never have to sleep at all. In a perfect world, she would run all night with the nocturnal animals, then join the crepuscular ones for breakfast at dawn. Father had taught her all about the different creatures that shared the Earth, all keeping their own time according to the clocks inside of them. Once she could see how it worked, the patterns of so many different lives intersecting and diverging, all while the world made its own long loops around and around the sun . . . well, she still didn't like bedtime, but she understood why she had one, which Father said was the point. He was funny that way. When her friends' parents made rules, there was never an explanation; the rules were the rules because they said so, and that was that. But Father was different. It wasn't enough for Nia to know the rules, he said; she needed to grasp the reasons why, and he would always do his very best to explain. It had been a beautiful lesson. When she opened the door to the schoolroom that morning, she found herself in a twilit world--a landscape all awash in soft, rich shades of blue. A low fog hung softly over everything, nestling in the dips between grassy hillocks that extended all the way to the horizon, where the sky began to blush faintly with the approaching sunrise as she looked at it. Small birds twittered from the branches of a nearby tree and swooped gracefully overhead. High above, a nighthawk circled, looking for prey. A rabbit took a cautious hop out of a thicket and paused to sniff the air, then bolted as a huge bobcat sprang from the shadows after it with blazing, silent speed. Nia gasped as the rabbit veered right, into the protection of the brush, the bobcat close behind. Both animals disappeared, and Nia found her father standing beside her. "These animals are crepuscular," he said. "Active at dawn and dusk. It's an instinct. Because there's not much light, this is the best and safest time for them to be out in the open." "It doesn't seem so safe for the rabbit," Nia said. Father chuckled. "Would you like to see what happened to the rabbit?" Nia thought about it. "Only if he got away. Can you make it so he gets away?" Father looked at her curiously, then gave a slow nod. "Of course," he said, tapping at the gleaming device in his hand. As he did, the scene shimmered and shuddered; the faraway blush in the sky vanished as the sun blasted over the horizon and vaulted upward, the blue landscape exploding in a riot of color. A moment later, the rabbit scampered past Father's feet and vanished back into his burrow, safe and sound. Excerpted from A Trick of Light: Stan Lee's Alliances by Stan Lee, Kat Rosenfield All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.
