Empire State

The Empire State is at war, and has been for a long time. So long that most people, including private eye Rad Bradley, can't remember a time when it wasn't Wartime. Certainly as long as the city's science hero, The Skyguard, has been protecting it. This isn't really a novel about the Skyguard, though. It's a novel about a murder, one that Rad is hired to solve and which itself might threaten the very existence of the Empire State.

This was an incredibly fun novel. I'm as much a sucker for noirish detective stories as I am for parallel words and superheroes, so this was right up my alley to begin with. Beyond that, though, Adam Christopher does an incredible job of setting the mood of Empire State, a place where nothing quite feels right but you can't put your finger on why. Add in an apocalyptic-scale threat, steampunk superheroes, and gangsters, and you've got a great story.