DNF

I picked this up because I was told by a well-meaning person that I'd like this because of the "autism rep." I will use that term very loosely, as I see no evidence that Horne is autistic himself.

Advent 9 is a surprising superhero and at times fun to follow. I enjoyed and related to his exhaustion and the literalness of his view of being a super hero. That said, some of the descriptions began to make me wonder if a neurotypical wrote this. E.g., the “he appeared less than human," "he wondered if the boy ever felt anything" and robot imagery is really problematic, even if it comes from the villain. Autistic folks hear these sort of stereotypes every day and so to hear them reinforced relentlessly in a fiction book is not edifying or helpful.

I wanted to be hopeful about this book, that it might show the challenges but also the joys of autism, but seems to just focus on the negative. I think I'll pass, and instead spend my time reading books by actually autistic authors.

Has a real structure to it but gets pretty long and keeps on extending out of bounds to maintain the thirll. Not for everyone.

I really didn't know what to expect from this book. Advent 9, the last superhero on Earth is a large role to fill, but the author does it well. This superhero happens to be autistic. I believe it was well written and the character is well developed. There is always a danger of stereotyping, but I did not find this to be the case. The story was engaging with quite a few twists and turns. I would recommend this book primarily for teens. The size of the book can be daunting, but it's worth reading.

I would say just over 3.5 stars but not quite 4.
When I read about this book, I connected with the fact that this is a story where the main character and protagonist is a person from the spectrum, Autism. It has been well represented in movies with the occasional blockbusters like Rainman, but has had a lesser presence in novels. As a person who works with PwDs and with families of children in the spectrum, this book was of personal interest to me. It is in the interest of the reading public to understand the facets of autism and I hoped that this book would be in that zone.

So Advent 9 is the Last action hero on earth.

This book is in the young adult science fiction and fantasy space with our hero who is a superpowered hero dispensing vigilante justice in the process helping people from trouble.
The story at least in the initial quarter progresses slowly with the reader slowly coming to terms with Advent 9's powers and gaining not the least bit of knowledge about his spectrum issues. The story progresses with a lot of action but doesn't gain much progress in the actual arc. 9's a teenager or less with an unknown array of powers and with a fascination of radio shows. We read about something that we normally never see or read in any super hero book. All hero's have their secret HQ's, safe places, family, friends, acquaintances, etc. but 9 has none of those. He is all alone in the world with no idea about his history, no place to call home, lives out of roofs and eating out like other homeless people raiding the garbage dumps and this is a painful but wholly believable tale.
The spectrum clues come in the form of his actions his lack of any friends, no history, his staying alone, a series of birds who follow him and of whom he is afraid of and calls them hummingbirds, the way he avoids contacts and never able to hold a conversation while looking at the person. These traits clue us to his case.

The story thus far is very slow and the fact that the book was peddled as a superhero book is actually hurting the story.
There is immense potential in the book as a case book about people in the spectrum and there is pathos and pain which should have been highlighted equally and would aid people in reading forward.
The book hits zenith with a colossal fight with 9's arch nemesis Dr. Antiworld. The Dr. becomes successful in bringing in a being from another world in the multiverse who is the exact parallel of 9, Trancedragon.
The idea goes south when it is apparent that Trance is not under the Dr.'s control. The duo clash and in the resulting confusion the Dr. and 9 escape into the catacombs underneath the city.

This brings us to the best part of the book where two arch enemies understand their common need and start helping each other. The Dr. gets to know 9's issues with the spectrum and their relationship takes shape.

Alan needs to be commended for the way he has portrayed the spectrum and the complex relationship between the Dr. and 9 and how slowly the relationship develops layers. The book has an atmosphere which moves well with the dialogues and humor it evokes.

There was a need to put the world together a little better with more details on the backstory and absolute requirement for the presence of 9. The earth depicted has some unique areas and some nice characters like the Morgan's but not enough has been written about them. I would have been happier to read a little more on the whole.
I would also put forward that the novel has some extreme level of killers and killings which seems a bit out of place in the context of the story and hero.
Superhero stories tend to have stereotypes and this novel also has them in abundance. It could also be argued that the spectrum characteristics are somewhat stereotyped but considering that much less is actually written in these categories of novels any quantity as long as it is not frivolously untrue is acceptable.

I commend the author for a decent reading which is a bit long but well in the ball park to be recommended.
I thank NetGalley for providing me this copy in exchange for an honest review.

Recommend this book.

This author took the premise of “The Incredibles” and tried to write a new adult novel about a teenage superhero with autism and no memory, and absolutely flopped. The fast pace, rather than helping to propel the story, comes across as rushed and unfinished. There is very little character depth or sense of place or time which makes it hard to orient yourself while reading. The absolute lack of creativity here is astounding - it truly just rips off “The Incredibles” and as well as superhero comics. The portrayal of autism in this story was surface level at best and deeply problematic at worst, really leaning into stereotypes and lacking any kind of critical thought.

My thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

Advent 9 was far from the worst book I’ve read — but far from the best, either.

First of all, I highly enjoyed the author’s writing style. Horne writes very descriptively, allowing the reader to immerse themself in the story. The book also explored many interesting ideas; many elements of the story go directly against long-established superhero tropes. The characters were written very well; they are all very clearly human, and as the plot progresses, the reader gets to watch how their goals and motivations change (or don’t).

However, I definitely had to suspend my disbelief while reading this book. Many characters seem altogether too powerful, too smart, or even in one case too unrealistically in love. While superhero stories always tend toward the extreme, it’s a little bit difficult to believe in certain characters’ skills, especially with how little background is given. And speaking of background, it was admittedly somewhat frustrating to be left in the dark about so many things. The author may understandably wish to reveal some things in time, or even in another book, but there are many details that come out of nowhere, seem like they’re supposed to be significant, then proceed to disappear. While some questions are eventually answered by the end of the book, there are still quite a few loose strings, which is frustrating, even if they might come up in a sequel (which the ending pretty clearly sets up for!).

Despite the claims of its late editor Dave Farland, this book doesn't invent a new genre of "Superpunk". Supers novels have been a low-profile but prolific subgenre of SFF for years; this is only one of 52 books on my Goodreads "supers" shelf (at time of review), and certainly as far as I read - admittedly not quite halfway - it was similar enough to the others that it clearly belonged there. (And there are several large series that, for one reason or another, I haven't read.)

It's better written and better edited than most, though by itself that's faint praise; supers novels, like steampunk, seem to attract incompetent writers for some reason. Let me be clearer: It's well written, and apart from a couple of dangling modifiers, some mispunctuated dialog and a few other minor glitches, even the pre-publication version I got for review from Netgalley is clean from a copy editing perspective.

So why did I stop reading it? Simply because the blurb (at the time I picked it up) did not alert me to a key fact: as well as a supers story, this is also a horror story, featuring several psychotic mass murderers or serial killers and also battling terrifying monsters in a slimy subterranean labyrinth, and that is not something I personally enjoy reading.