Reading List: Playing For Keeps

A while back I posted about a trip I took to Knoxville. In that post I mentioned that my friends and I scoured through a huge used book store. I myself took a list of books that I was having trouble finding up here in my local area. After striking out on all counts down in Knoxville, I decided to buy several on eBay. Playing for Keeps by Mur Lafferty was the first one that I received in the mail so I started right away on it. It sucks that books like this are hard to find, because Playing for Keeps is a great fun read. Playing for Keeps takes place in Seventh City where Superheroes are the norm. Most people with powers are placed into two categories, First wave and Third wave. First wave are the supers with amazing abilities like flight, super strength and the ability to shoot lightning. The third wave people have the powers that may or not be entirely useful. Powers such as the ability to never spill a bar tray, or complete control over elevators or even the ability to smell the past and in one case, the ability to shoot excrement out of your fists at high velocity. The First wave are the heroes that are adored by the masses, where the third wave are treated like second rate citizens. One of these third wavers is Keepsie who has the power to keep anything she has from being stolen from her. Keepsie finds herself caught in the middle of a war between the Superheroes she despises and the super villains that plague the city when a villain gives her a device that holds the interest of both parties. Playing for Keeps does a great job of characterization. Ms Lafferty also handles the hard task of utilizing the lame powers that some of her characters possess without them seeming forced into the story. I highly recommend this book to anyone who is a superhero fan.