The Adventures of Technicality Man

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Pub Date 19 Dec 2016 | Archive Date 15 Jul 2017

Description

Everyone knows how the stories are supposed to go. The good guys win in the end, the hero ends up with the designated love interest, and the plucky band of misfits pulls together to save the world.

But what happens when a villain targets the nature of stories themselves? All the tropes that the heroes have come to rely on are under threat.

Technicality Man and his trusty companion Continuity Leopard must join forces with a group of minor heroes to save the day. They won’t let any barrier stop them. Not even the fourth wall.

Everyone knows how the stories are supposed to go. The good guys win in the end, the hero ends up with the designated love interest, and the plucky band of misfits pulls together to save the world.
...


Available Editions

EDITION Ebook
ISBN 9781527205048
PRICE £0.99 (GBP)

Average rating from 45 members


Featured Reviews

I recommend grabbing a copy of this short ebook and reading it in one sitting. It will probably take as much time as watching a movie (or TV show if you're quick) because it's very silly and you want the characters to remain fresh in your mind.

I loved this story. If it was a Monty Python sketch, the Colonel would declare it too silly and shut it down. I think you probably have to have a certain sense of humor and appreciation for language and storytelling to appreciate as much as I did, but I'll try to do my best to give you some highlights what it's all about.

Technicality Man is, technically, a superhero due to "super-powered pedanty". Coming off of a surprise victory, he puts together a team of self-aware characters to advance the narrative of good vs. evil. The group operates within the Laws of Narrative Practice. Said laws are governed by cats (yes, cats!) who maintain order within their specified domain. For example:
Continuity Leopard
Tangent Tiger (CL's nemesis)
Narrative Pace Cougar
Metaphorical Jaguars
Obscure Use of Semi-colon Ocelot
Censorship Panther
Correct Punctuation Lion (Patrolling Internet forums keeps CPL very busy!)
Prudish Manx
Sexual Attraction Lynx (his job has gotten much harder since the advent of fanfiction)

Without the cats maintaining narrative order, anything can happen. Semicolons can run amok, the bad guys may be able to take over the world, and anything random can happen without Continuity Leopard around.

The superheroes in the story are just as random and humorous as the cats who maintain narrative order. I very much enjoyed reading this and I'm glad I had time to read it straight through without losing track of any of the characters. There is a large and colorful cast of villains, heroes, the cats, and even a tech support guy on the character list.

Thank you to NetGalley and the author/publisher for providing me with a copy to review. [GOODREADS]

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"The Adventures of Technicality Man" is a funny short story with some of the weirdest superheroes with the most obscure powers you'll ever meet. I thought it was a great idea to somewhat ridicule the conventions and tropes of the average superhero narrative and the idea of having cats as the guardians of the narrative was really funny too. This is a nice read if you are looking for a light parody of the superhero genre.

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I laughed at the title so that completely set the tone for this short story. This was a silly superhero-trope-busting ball of tongue in cheek fun. I thoroughly enjoyed the cats the best. In the beginning there are a LOT of Aptly Named Characters that I didn't fully get to appreciate in the moment because of the rapid fire introductions, but they get more built out as the story goes along. All in all, a very amusing quick read.

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This novella is a well written, 4th wall breaking genre parody, best enjoyed by writers and people who know comic book and story tropes. I’m not sure the average reader would get the full experience, because there’s no real plot or characters—although there are some good puns and jokes, so maybe give it a try?

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