The Meister of Decimen City
No one cares that you cured cancer if you also cloned a horde of dinosaurs and let them rampage down the street. Supergenius and quasi-villain Rex normally can’t go a week without accidentally endangering Decimen City with her science shenanigans. It’s been two weeks since her genetically engineered dinosaurs rampaged through town—a good streak for her—but the peace is broken when actual villain Last Dance sets his sights on Decimen. And he wants Rex’s help. Before Rex can say “I didn’t do it,” superheroes who’ve dragged her to jail on her worst days are crowding her lab to conscript her into quasi-herodom. Rex would rather stay out of it and deal with the dinosaurs that keep calling her Mom, but she can’t ignore that she was somewhat responsible for Last Dance’s villainy. She’d kept a very disorganized lab. And he was such a nosy brother. She failed to help him back then, but maybe if she stops him now—and keeps the heroes fooled—she can finally set things right.
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Audiobook review: 4.5 stars, rounding to 5. With bit of quark and humor, we follow a mad scientist who's not so mad but definitely despises cheese and struggles a bit with anxiety. Rex, a.k.a. the Meister, lives Decimen City where super-beings, both hero and villain, reside. She herself is not a super-being, just really, really smart (but she is sometimes accused of being a villain). This truly won me in a chapter when the dinosaurs our Meister created did something naughty and she threatened to put them all in sports because they needed structure. That chapter was gold.
I was absolutely surprised by the excellent character development, even of some side characters, and plot execution. The superheroes and villains do however generally fall into their archetypes and see the world as black and white. But there is a lot of exploration of the nuance of choice and power through the voice of the MC and some of the side characters, so this absolutely forgives the lack of dimensionality to the super-beings in my mind. I can't say if this is a revolutionary book, but for me it was something new, it got deep, and I had a TON of fun listening to the story - Audiobook A+.
Who could this work for? I don't know if urban sci-fi humor is a thing, but if that sounds like something you'd like, I highly recommend this. If you're into mainstream superheroes and villains you might like this. Also, I'm not sure if this was great ACE representation, but it sure felt like it. You are very much in the head of the Meister, it's a train-of-thought narration, so I can see that not working for some folks. Sometimes that really puts me off to a book, especially on audio, but it didn't at all with the Meister. Content/trigger warnings: Manipulation.
