Fight Me

Fight Me

Summary

Brought to you by Penguin.

Dr Rick Tower is a mild-mannered English professor easing into middle-age at a medium-sized New England college. A genial blur, he thinks. Even his vices are unremarkable.

But it wasn’t always like this. Not until they changed his name, altered his looks and told him: ‘pretend you were never different’.

Because, decades earlier after a very bad day at high school, he was committed to a secret government facility with three other kids, Cat, Jack and Stephanie, each special in their own way. Tested, tutored and trained, this extraordinary quartet were then told to save the world.

It was the best thing that ever happened to them. Until it became the worst.

Now, twenty years after the tragedy that forced him into academic non-entity, a mysterious disappearance means Tower must reunite with his former comrades. Each returns with their own agenda. And while great power come might come with great responsibility, there’s little of that on display from any of them.

Combining compelling storytelling and fierce imagination with a rich cast of characters, Fight Me is a page-turning and distinctive thriller, a unique tale of good and evil, and a memorable portrait of man trying to do the right thing at any cost. Against impossible odds …


‘A treasure that manages to be sad, funny, and hilariously fun at all once. A thrilling adventure but also a searing, intimate look at what it would really cost to have such incredible power, and yet still be human.’
Peng Shepherd, bestselling author of The Cartographers

Fight Me embraces the fun of the genre, while treating its battle-weary characters with heart and empathy. A noir-tinged Big Chill for the superhero set.’
Bob Proehl, author of The Nobody People

©2024 Austin Grossman (P)2024 Penguin Audio

Reviews

  • A spiky, fierce, erudite riff on the wonderful world of silver age superheroes
    Charles Stross, bestselling author of The Atrocity Archives, -

About the author

Austin Grossman

Austin Grossman is a novelist and interactive storyteller. His novels include Soon I Will Be Invincible, YOU: a novel, and Crooked. Soon I Will Be Invincible was nominated for the 2007 John Sargent Sr. First Novel Prize. His writing has also appeared in Granta, the Wall Street Journal, and the New York Times. His game credits include System Shock, Deus Ex, and Dishonored, which received the 2012 BAFTA award for Best Game. He has an M.A. in Performance Studies from N.Y.U .and is A.B.D. in English Literature at the University of California, Berkeley. He currently teaches narrative design at N.Y.U., and works as a consultant in game and XR experience design.
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