Young Adult literature and the upside of necromancy

Please Don’t Tell My Parents I’m the Queen of the Dead by Richard Robert’s wasn’t on my immediate reading list. I mean, I planned on eventually reading it but I had other stuff higher on the list. But it ended up sneaking to the front of the line.

Spoilers

Spoilers

Spoilers

Spoilers 

 

It is the eighth book in a cape punk series about teenagers whose struggles to figure themselves out are complicated by super powers. The initial protagonist of Please Don’t Tell et al is Penny whose uncontrollable mad science and knack for super villainy makes her dreams of  being a super hero tricky. After her story is resolved in Please Don’t Tell My Parents You Believe Her, Roberts began bringing in new protagonists.

While I liked Goodnight and Magenta, Avery Special, most powerful living necromancer in the world (on account of being the only living one), is  my favorite new protagonist. In no small part because she’s not interested in heroics or villainy. She just wants to get better at necromancy. Not that she won’t save the world if it needs saving.

The world of Please Don’t Tell et al has a very silver age feel where both heroes and villains follow a code of conduct that keeps things safe for civilians. But one of the underlying themes of the series is how much work it takes to keep that code of conduct up. In fact , outside of Los Angeles, it’s pretty much stated the rest of world is a lot scarier. In fact, one of the supporting characters in PDTMP I Work for a Supervillain gets, for all intents and purposes, mutilated by a world-scope villain.

One of the major conflicts in the series is the teenagers chafing under the restrictions of the code of conduct. In fact, a major part of the first book is getting grown-ups to take them seriously. Part of what makes Avery an interesting contrast is that she much more acknowledges the need for a social structure that keeps everyone safe. Part of her story arc is realizing that she does need a mentor and that magic can become a dangerous addiction.

One character, who only appears as a one scene wonder, helps hammer the danger of magic addiction home. The Godchild of Despair, who gained her powers and lost her name by failed magical suicide. I am certain that White Wolf has a splat book built around this concept. While only appearing for one scene and being a likeable character, she helps both Avery and the reader realize the stakes of dark magic.

After I Did NOT Give That Spider Superhuman Intelligence (which I think was published in the middle of the Penny books) and Please Don’t Tell My Parents I Work For a Supervillain, I didn’t think the non-Penny books would be as strong. Queen of the Dead felt like a return to form and I’m glad Avery apparently becomes the narrator again for the tenth book.

Silver age idealism and Cape Punk

Around a year ago, I wrote about how I had started reading the ‘Please Don’t Tell My Parents I’m a Supervillain’ series. (Man, I’m not sure how to shorten that. Please Don’t just sounds creepy)

It is a Cape Punk storyline (I love the term Cape Punk but find it hilariously vague) about a middle school mad scientist who wants to be a hero like her parents. But, on top of teen emotions leading to bad choices, the things her powers do when she goes to the madness place make Penny become a villain. (Girl Genius as a superhero?)

I have to note that the series falls _very_ much on the optimistic side of Cape Punk. Super activities are more like extreme sports than extreme actions of crime and/or politics. (I’m sorry. The Red Skull trying to take over the world is a very political thing) Which does make the books a lot of fun to read.

It also makes the case that mad science is the most powerful power without ever saying it out loud. The ability to make endless devices that are all like a super power is more potent than having one power. It’s cute Reed Richards can stretch. It is devastating that his brain treats physical laws as optional.

Five of the books form Penny’s arc, her struggling to figure out the different relationships in her life. While the one with her parents gets a lot of focus, the series ends up being about her relationship with herself and her power.

After I finished the main arc, I set the series aside for a while but knew I’d get around to the 

ancillary books. And the first one I’ve read is I Did Not Give That Spider Super-Human Intelligence, which is an origin story for the setting.

Because key elements of the setting, that heroes and villains private lives are forbidden to be interfered with and wanton acts of murder and such are successfully outlawed, are a bit too idealistic to be easily swallowed.

And, honestly, seeing how the rules of the agreement came to be, it still feels pretty idealistic and built on the basis that most people with super powers are basically decent people. It’s also built on the idea that the zombie-vampire-cyborg who enforces the agreement will be able to take out the ones who break it and only the ones who break it.

Frankly, it’s pretty silver age.

That said, the Bad Doctor, the monstrous villain who pushes the need to have a zombie-vampire-cyborg to police the super powered society, is pure nightmare fuel. He only appears once but his crimes pervade the book. I Did Not Give et al is one of the weaker books in the series that I’ve read but the Bad Doctor lifts it up.

I enjoyed the book and it’s heroine Goodnight (she likes to drop heavy objects on enemy’s heads) but I hope the other spinoff books are better.