Vicious
Description
From 1# New York Times bestselling author V.E Schwab
A masterful tale of ambition, jealousy, desire, and superpowers.
Victor and Eli started out as college roommates—brilliant, arrogant, lonely boys who recognized the same sharpness and ambition in each other. In their senior year, a shared research interest in adrenaline, near-death experiences, and seemingly supernatural events reveals an intriguing possibility: that under the right conditions, someone could develop extraordinary abilities. But when their thesis moves from the academic to the experimental, things go horribly wrong.
Ten years later, Victor breaks out of prison, determined to catch up to his old friend (now foe), aided by a young girl whose reserved nature obscures a stunning ability. Meanwhile, Eli is on a mission to eradicate every other super-powered person that he can find—aside from his sidekick, an enigmatic woman with an unbreakable will. Armed with terrible power on both sides, driven by the memory of betrayal and loss, the archnemeses have set a course for revenge—but who will be left alive at the end?
In Vicious, V. E. Schwab brings to life a gritty comic-book-style world in vivid prose: a world where gaining superpowers doesn't automatically lead to heroism, and a time when allegiances are called into question.
"A dynamic and original twist on what it means to be a hero and a villain. A killer from page one…highly recommended!" —Jonathan Maberry, New York Times bestselling author of Marvel Universe vs The Avengers and Patient ZeroOne of Publishers Weekly's Best Fantasy Books of 2013"Vicious is dark and intricate and daring, twisting back and forth through time and morality and life and death until you can't turn the pages fast enough. I loved it."—Dan Wells, New York Times bestselling author of I Am Not A Serial Killer
More Details
125016026
9781250160263
9781250862372
9781466822177
Excerpt
Similar Series From Novelist
Similar Titles From NoveList
Similar Authors From NoveList
Published Reviews
Publisher's Weekly Review
Victor Vale and Eliot Cardale, both brilliant and driven, were friends and college roommates who figured out how to give themselves superpowers. Victor went to jail and Eli began working with the cops. But "villain" Victor is innocent of the charges against him, while "hero" Eli has been killing people whose powers he considers more "unnatural" than his own. When he targets Sydney, a 12-year-old girl who can raise the dead, he gets more trouble than he bargained for. Schwab's characters feel vital and real, never reduced to simple archetypes; for example, Victor isn't a particularly nice man, but he has enough conscience left to know that Eli needs to stopped. In a genre that tends toward the flippant or pretentious, this is a rare superhero novel as epic and gripping as any classic comic. Schwab's tale of betrayal, self-hatred, and survival will resonate with superhero fans as well as readers who have never heard of Charles Xavier or Victor von Doom. Agent: Holly Root, Waxman Leavell Literary Agency. (Sept.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Publishers Weekly Reviews
Victor Vale and Eliot Cardale, both brilliant and driven, were friends and college roommates who figured out how to give themselves superpowers. Victor went to jail and Eli began working with the cops. But "villain" Victor is innocent of the charges against him, while "hero" Eli has been killing people whose powers he considers more "unnatural" than his own. When he targets Sydney, a 12-year-old girl who can raise the dead, he gets more trouble than he bargained for. Schwab's characters feel vital and real, never reduced to simple archetypes; for example, Victor isn't a particularly nice man, but he has enough conscience left to know that Eli needs to stopped. In a genre that tends toward the flippant or pretentious, this is a rare superhero novel as epic and gripping as any classic comic. Schwab's tale of betrayal, self-hatred, and survival will resonate with superhero fans as well as readers who have never heard of Charles Xavier or Victor von Doom. Agent: Holly Root, Waxman Leavell Literary Agency. (Sept.)
[Page ]. Copyright 2013 PWxyz LLC