A Once Crowded Sky: A Novel

Tom King

Jul 2012 · Sold by Simon and Schuster

About this ebook

The superheroes of Arcadia City fight a wonderful war, and play a wonderful game, forever saving yet another day. However, after sacrificing both their powers and Ultimate, the greatest hero of them all, to defeat the latest apocalypse, these comic book characters are transformed from the marvelous into the mundane.

After too many battles won and too many friends lost, The Soldier of Freedom was fine letting all that glory go. But when a new threat blasts through his city, Soldier, as ever, accepts his duty and reenlists in this next war. Without his once amazing abilities, he’s forced to seek the help of the one man who walked away, the sole hero who refused to make the sacrifice— PenUltimate, the sidekick of Ultimate, who through his own rejection of the game has become the most powerful man in the world, the only one left who might still, once again, save the day.

A tour de force debut novel from a former CIA counterterrorism officer, A Once Crowded Sky fuses the sensibility of bombastic, comic-book-style storytelling with modern literary fiction to bring to life a universe of supermen stripped of their powers, newly mortal men forced to confront danger in a world without heroes.

Ratings and reviews

I enjoyed the unique take on superheroes King so effectively provides. I found the interspersed comic pages both informative and entertaining as a "primary source" of sorts. The story proved to be interestingly personal while discussing the supposedly epic nature of the comic medium. The only issue I had was that the ending seemed overdone. It seemed as if King was almost...hesitant...about bringing the novel to a close and had to build in several false endings to come, gradually, to the actual conclusion.

This book is basically all dry dialogue, with very rarely anything moving the story forward or adding anything interesting. Couldn't finish the book, because it just didn't give anything to care about.

About the author

Tom King worked for the counterterrorism unit at the Central Intelligence Agency following the events of 9/11. Before the CIA, he worked for DC Comics and Marvel. He lives in Washington, D.C. Visit AOnceCrowdedSky.com.