The Meister of Decimen City

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.