2022 review: I think I got more out of this collection/story this time, so I'm glad I rediscovered it in my kindle. It has quiet, odd, compelling things to say about differences, conformity, despair, wealth, wants, needs, and adaptability, and how power or lack of it affects everything else. It is not anything like the current superhero movies. Not at all. :)

Previous review:
I got this ebook as a prize for supporting Defying Doomsday (an anthology with disabled protagonists as lead characters), and I chose from the list the only one featuring super powers.

This is a story woven together through several distinctive short stories, and I loved it, I loved the threads of continuity and I loved where it ended. It's a relatively quick read, but that's in part because the characters are compelling. If you like realistic characters dealing with the very odd, I recommend this. ( )

Question: Who wouldn’t love to have a superpower?

Answer: The characters in the short stories of Bad Power, who discover that power isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.

The power to never die, to see the futures of those around you, to tell others what to do (and they do it!) – all of these seem like good things, until they rule your life and you can’t escape them. Unable to escape their “bad” powers, they become resigned or submit to their fates.

Characters from one story will appear in others and they all interconnect, weaving in and out of each others’ lives. The rich language of the stories allows them to flow smoothly into one another and carries the reader along for a fascinating ride with small "aha" moments.

My one complaint was that the collection was too short. I was just getting into the rhythm of the stories when they were over. While I enjoyed the buildup of the stories, I never felt there was a satisfying conclusion to the collection.

I would recommend this book to those wanting interesting short stories with an unusual slant.

I received this book in a giveaway from the Goodread’s First Reads program.
( )

Fascinating set of short stories about what super-powers might look like if no-one ever admits to them. And how it can go wrong. ( )

Review originally posted here: http://tsanasreads.tumblr.com/post/17653131700/bad-power-by-deborah-biancotti

Bad Power is set (mostly) in modern Sydney in a world where some people have an inexplicable power: talking to dead people, seeing the future, immortality, and a few less common powers. And, although most of the protagonists have super powers, none of them are heroes (well, with one possible exception).

A few words about each of the stories:

Shades of Grey

The first thing that struck me about Biancotti’s writing when I started reading this story was the cinematic quality of the mental images it conjured up. The opening story grabbed me from the first paragraph and thrust me into the collection.

In “Shades of Grey” we meet Esser Grey, a wealthy businessman who recently discovered his power and is testing the limits (and not really finding any). We also meet detective Palmer, a recurring character throughout the collection who keeps being given the weird cases. (I enjoyed the continuity of seeing Palmer in later stories and also the mentions of Grey later on.) This story really sets the scene for the rest of the collection.

Palming the Lady

In this story, a young medical student, Matthew Webb, goes to the police and is directed to detective Palmer. He is being stalked by a homeless woman who knows where he’s going to be and gets there before he does. But his future isn’t he only future she sees.

Web of Lies

We meet Matthew again, this time just after his father’s death when he and his mother and discovering how to live again, free from the old man’s dictatorship. They both struggle with it in different ways and both learn there is more power in their family than they had realised.

As a side note, Matthew is mentioned in passing the last two stories. After the tumultuous stories in which he played a central role, it was nice to read that he had a slightly more stable future ahead of him. A neat way of letting us know that it was all OK in the end.

Bad Power

This is the only story not set in modern Sydney and also the only one written in first person. It also stood out for me as being the one story with a less thoroughly described setting — I was slightly confused about the time period it was set in, but turns out my first instinct was correct.

It’s a story about someone with a self-described “bad” power and about the horrible things people do to each other. This was easily the most horrific story in the collection and, for that reason, my least favourite. However, the link the previous and subsequent stories made it a relevant and integral part of the collection. I think without this story, the whole collection would have felt slightly more bland. (And it does make a good title for the collection as a whole.)

Cross That Bridge

This was the story that, when I heard a brief description on Galactic Suburbia, made me want to read the whole collection. Max works for the police. His power is the ability to find lost children, even when there is no discernible trail. As one might imagine, people find his talent creepy and he is constantly under suspicion.

~

It’s hard to choose a favourite story in this collection. Aside from “Bad Power”, they read almost like chapters from the same book (except with resolutions and different protagonists). The idea of normal people discovering superpowers isn’t a new one (cf Heroes), nor is the idea of an organisation such as the Grey Institute hinted at in the background throughout the collection (cf X-Men, Union Dues, etc). However, Biancotti pulls the world off uniquely and fascinatingly.

I really enjoyed the exploration of human nature and the wildly different coping mechanisms the powered characters employ. My favourite take home message? Power is not always empowerment. ( )