Review of They Promised Me the Gun Wasn’t Loaded by James Alan Gardner
Reviewed By Sam Lubell

They Promised Me the Gun Wasn’t Loaded is the sequel to All Those Explosions Were Someone Else's Fault. In this universe the superrich can pay to be transformed into immortal vampires, werewolves, and other
Darklings. In a reaction, the Light has empowered regular people to be Sparks, essentially superheroes. But, not all Sparks are heroes. Some are supergenius inventors who lose sight of the greater good while others are
anti-heroes who ignore the law in pursuit of their own ends.

Unlike the first book, which focused on four roommates who become Sparks, this book focuses on only one of the four, Jools. Before Jools gained superpowers as the Spark called Ninty-Nine, she was a screw-up on academic probation for being more interested in drinking and hockey than school. Now she has the power to equal the best human at anything. She’s the equal of the smartest, the strongest, the fastest etc. She also has mental access to the equivalent of Wikipedia. And she discovers in this book that she also has Mad Genius inventing skills. But this does not change her personality except that she notes she is doing something stupid
when she goes ahead and does it anyway.

In this book, Jools allows herself to become a pawn of a Darkling for a single action (in return for her agreeing to break a link between one of her roommates and a different Darkling). As a result, she winds up a captive of Robin Hood (or rather a Spark that has assumed that identity) and his Merry Men. Once they discover she has powers too, she is forced to join them in a raid to capture a Mad Genius weapon, under a new identity. (One of the powers of Sparks is that when they wear a mask, no one (and no technology) can discover their true identity.)

The book has lots of action and good characterization especially when Jools starts worrying about becoming a Mad Genius. I think it works better than the first book because the author was focused on just one character (instead of four co-equal leads) and the worldbuilding had already been established.

A laugh out loud funny and also sharply poignant to anyone with any talent or advanced skill set and a modicum of anxiety. I loved the development of the characters and the tongue in cheek way of looking at both sides of heroes and villains presented by the author.

Continuing the story of ordinary college students (for certain values of ordinary) that was started in the delightful All Those Explosions Were Someone Else's Fault, the viewpoint character switches from Kim, the Asian-American proto-geologist with some gender issues to sort out, to Jools, a hockey-mad bio major with a penchant for self-destruction and a traditionally super-heroesque attitude about obstacles. The team of four are out to save Edmonton, Canada and possibly the rest of the world from Darklings, humans tweaked to power as well, but you know, evil.

They Promised Me the Gun Wasn't Loaded may have been even more fun than the first book in this series, All Those Explosions Were Someone Else's Fault, in which four college students walk into a lab, encounter the requisite explosion, and walk out with superpowers. Which is not that unusual in James Alan Gardner's satirical superhero saga where one-percenters are able to buy their way into demonology and some of the rest of us wander into superpower origin scenarios, creating a world full of conflict between the magical forces of the Dark and the super-science field Sparks.

Two rules of note here. 1) You can't cross the streams. The powers of Darks and Sparks won't mix, so you're either one or the other. The first book actually dealt with an attempt to do that ... and it didn't go well. 2) Secret Identities don't have to make sense to work, they just do. Even your best friend can't tell that you're day job is saving the world when you're not suited up. In magical terms, you're protected by a glamour, and that's that.

But what if you had a gizmo that could detect Sparks? That would be bad.

(full review published 3/1/2019 on SFRevu)

Los superhéroes están de moda. Hace ya tiempo que los ingresos por películas superan a los de la venta de los propios tebeos y los temas “superheroicos” están muy presentes en la sociedad, por lo que es normal que la literatura también tenga ejemplos de este tipo. Desde Viciouso la más reciente Vengeful,pasando por Pronto seré invencible o la patria Mundo de Dioses, cada vez hay más novelas que se pueden enmarcar en este género.

Cuando leí They Promised Me the Gun Wasn’t Loaded ni siquiera sabía que se trataba de la segunda entrega de una serie (a veces pasa, se pone una a leer a lo loco y se entera después de las cosas), pero esto no ha sido óbice para disfrutar de la lectura, aunque es posible que me haya perdido referencias. No ha sido importante, pues he disfrutado como pocas veces riendo a mandíbula batiente.
El mundo está poblado por seres superpoderosos de luz (Sparks) y seres malvados de sombra (Darklings) pero no todo es blanco y negro, por supuesto. En un principio pensé que el objetivo de James Alan Gardner, además de ser bastante irreverente, era ignorar todas las leyes de la física cuando no contravenirlas directamente, pero el libro tiene bastante más. Si hace falta, ya vendrá José Manuel Uría a hablarnos sobre la física del universo Gardner y seguro que encuentra alguna forma de justificarlo.
La protagonista, Jools, es una estudiante de biología que ha adquirido recientemente superpoderes junto a sus compañeras de piso debido a… (¡oh, sorpresa!) un accidente en un laboratorio. Parece que todo el libro se reduce a unos conceptos bastante simplistas (luz contra oscuridad, tecnología contra magia, bien contra mal…) pero el autor es capaz de desarrollar una trama bastante alocada con un ritmo envidiable, burlarse de nuestras ideas preconcebidas y de paso, crear una ropa interior de origen orgánico capaz de contener el traje de superhéroe correspondiente y vestir al usuario en menos de dos segundos (eso sí que es tecnología avanzada y lo demás son paparruchas) .
La característica principal del libro es el humor que aparece en muchos de los párrafos especialmente basándose en comparaciones con el mundo animal (al fin y al cabo la protagonista es bióloga) pero también metiéndose con el mundo universitario y, por si no os habíais dado cuenta, con la física.
El ritmo está bien llevado, las referencias a conceptos biológicos se mezclan con las menciones a actores de películas hongkonesas como Iron Monkey, hay incluso algunas pequeñas dosis de reflexión sobre lo que realmente significaría tener este tipo de poder, en una novela equilibrada y principalmente entretenida.
Me he quedado con una muy buena sensación al leerlo y con ganas de coger el primer libro de la serie… y los siguientes también.

Sequels are always challenging: how much backstory to include, how much to omit; how to bring new readers up to speed without boring those who’ve just finished previous volumes; and most of all, how to keep the series fresh and engaging. They Promised Me succeeds on every measure. If anything, it’s more entertaining and has more heart than All Those Explosions Were Someone Else’s Fault.

In Gardner’s intriguing world, people acquire Dark and Light superpowers, Dark by paying obscene sums of money for immortality (and surrendering any control over their form this “gift” takes – vampire, ghost, demon, or something incredibly squicky and nameless). Light sort of happens to folks, as it did in the first installment, turning our current protagonist, hockey player and science student Jools, into Ninety-Nine, the human Olympic-level best at everything (including WikiJools, encyclopedic knowledge resident in her mind).

Throw into the mix an array of Mad Geniuses and superhero/Mad Genius Robin Hood (who steals from the rich but can’t give to the poor without revealing his secret identity) and his Merry Men, a supernatural bazooka claimed by the villain in the first book and sought after by all and sundry, and a handful of unexpected explosions and side-effects, and the result is a delightfully wacky first-person narrative. It’s got an immense amount of heart, too, because now that the basic rules of this world are established, Light/Dark sides drawn, and action moving right along, the choices Jools makes and the sacrifices she’s willing to make for the people she loves are really what the story is all about.

I hope this one-two switcheroo in point of view character follows through in subsequent volumes, and as I would love to get to know the other flatmates/superheroes in the gang as their lives unfold.

Highly recommended, but do read All Those Explosions first for maximum enjoyment.


The usual disclaimer: I received a review copy of this book, but no one bribed me, with chocolate or otherwise, to say anything in particular about it. Actually, just getting to read it was reward enough.

They Promised Me the Gun Wasn’t Loaded is a sequel to All Those Explosions Were Someone Else’s Fault. However, I never read the first book before I started in on this one, and I had absolutely no trouble following along with what happened. Sure, I likely missed some context, inside jokes, and things like that. But that’s okay, I still enjoyed They Promised Me the Gun Wasn’t Loaded. From my understanding they followed different characters between the two books anyway, so a new perspective is sometimes all you need to bring in a new fan, right?
This is a science fiction novel in its truest form, but it’s also light and chaotic most of the time. It makes for a really quirky and enjoyable read. Especially if you’re looking for a bit of escape from reality. It’s a fast paced plot, with so many twists and turns that I found myself surprised by the setting near the end of the book. I love surprises like that.
Warnings first: I mentioned above that most of the book is pretty light, so having the main character get threatened with mind controlled rape is kind of out of left field. Nothing ends up happening (thankfully) but a.) it was pretty upsetting regardless and b.) there’s a clear indication that this is not the first time this particular character has taken advantage of his abilities (or that the character supporting him helped arrange it). It’s upsetting and disturbing on so many levels, and I think it’s made worse by the fact that nothing else in the book was even remotely that heavy.
I really enjoyed reading They Promised Me the Gun Wasn’t Loaded. Despite how long the title itself is, reading the book didn’t feel nearly so long winded. It’s fast paced, action packed, and has a ton of quirks thrown in for good measure.
I mentioned above that I never read the first book. I feel bad about that, but I honestly wasn’t aware that there was a first one when I originally grabbed this to read. I saw the cover and title and was intrigued. And when a series doesn’t number itself…well sometimes I can be easily confused, okay? Despite all of that, I really didn’t have any trouble following along with what was happening. The author did a great job of recapping past events - maybe this would have been too detailed had I read the first, but it was enough to let me understand how the system worked, how the characters knew each other, and so on.
The ability set in this series is actually really interesting. It’s kind of superhero-esque, but it’s so different at the same time. I’ve never seen anything quite like it. It was a refreshing take. Additionally the way the abilities were handled just made the series feel lighter and more jubilant on the whole. Sparks granting power, which includes the ability to immediately hide your identity, from even your best friends, behind a flimsy mask? Sounds like whimsical magic if ever I’ve heard it. But that made it charming.
Jools is a fascinating character. She’s totally all over the place. She’s physically perfect at everything – literally. She’s the best human at anything she tries – as long as it doesn’t require her to go past human limits, of course. She’s also a bit of an evil genius scientist, which is all sorts of amazing. Her character took some getting used to, but by the end of the book I was shocked by how protective I felt about her character.
The plot was interesting on the whole. It was sort of a blend between the MacGuffin trope and hot potato. This naturally led to a ton of interesting fight scenes as well as plenty of funny moments. The pace moved along at a breathtaking pace, but it fit in well with Jools’ personality.
My one complaint would have to be something that happened later in the book. I mentioned it in my warning above. One of the characters, a grayscale character, puts Jools in a situation where she’s about to get mind control raped. By that I mean there’s another character with the ability to make her want to be with him…even if she doesn’t actually want to. The grayscale character promises she’ll ‘want it at the time’ and ‘erase her memory’ afterward. It’s horrifying. Nothing actually happens, thank goodness. But it was so disturbing. What’s worse is that it’s clear that this duo has been doing this to countless other women. I think I would have been more okay with it had Jools taken her opportunity to speak out about it and well…tell the world about it. Instead she covers for them, making them look like the good people. Which in essence allows them to continue doing what they’re doing. I’m disappointed with Jools’ lack of forethought with that one.
I’ll be curious to see if there’s going to be another book in this series. I think it has the potential to keep going to quite a while. Especially since they haven’t caught Diamond, who sounds like he’s their biggest adversary (even if we never actually saw him here). In the meantime I suppose I could go back and read the first book…

LOVE this series!! And in a rare case, the second one was even better than the first!! Such great characters, funny but also thought provoking. Like Sparks, this book is more than what you see!

They Promised Me The Gun Wasn't Loaded by James Alan Gardner. This book looked interesting but quickly proved to be too satirical with too much profanity for my taste. However I can see how others might enjoy it. Thank you for giving me a chance with this book.

A worthy sequel to an interesting concept of superherodom. Love the idea that super powers work only if you don't question it.

I enjoyed the first in this series very much; this one a bit less, primarily because of the main character. It was very skillfully done, though, and entertaining.

It needed to be skillful, because the author saddled himself with some drawbacks. His characters are all excessively powerful, with several unrelated superpowers, each of which on its own would be enough for many superheroes. The main character of this book, Jools, is "human maximum" in any ability you can name (with exceptions I'll note in a moment); has some sort of internet connection in her head that feeds her detailed knowledge of basically anything that's publicly online (including, oddly, the time and location of a secret party that certainly is not public knowledge); and her body regenerates, Wolverine-style.

I said there were some exceptions to her "maximum human ability" thing. Someone that powerful needs flaws, and Jools' flaw is that she's not the human maximum in wisdom, self-control, or for that matter likeability; in those areas, she's about average for a college-age alcoholic hockey player. In D&D terms, her intelligence, dexterity, strength, constitution and even (in certain circumstances) charisma may all be 18, but her wisdom is somewhere around six.

She is, at least, self-aware about it, and does get an arc, which rescued the book for me. In the meantime, I was kept entertained by observations such as "it’s like stashing matter and antimatter in the same suppository. Hilarity ensues," or (from one of her also-superpowered roommates, a chemistry major) "Biology is only chemistry that thinks it’s special."

A less skilled writer, working with such a character (both overpowered and annoyingly flawed at once), might have made all kinds of missteps, but Gardner pulls it off. His world, in which the ultra-rich have become literal vampires, werewolves, and demons, and superheroes known as "sparks" are gifted with powers by the Light to keep them more or less honest, continues to be entertaining, the plot is action-packed without being a bunch of stupid fights for the sake of it, and while Jools teeters on the edge of "annoyingly angsty screw-up" a few times, she does manage to tilt over to the heroic side by the end.

It seems that this series is going to get one book entirely from the point of view of each of the four roommates, which means that there's not a lot of insight into the others' heads (though that may change when we reach the telepath, I suppose). The other roommates risked becoming cyphers in Jools' somewhat self-absorbed world, even Kim/K/Zircon, who was the narrator of the first book. The whole may end up more than the sum of its parts, though, and I'll definitely be watching eagerly for the next one.