It seems impossible that a creator as prolific as Stan Lee never ventured into sci-fi novels for adult readers, until now.
Entertainment Weekly has announced that Houghton Mifflin Harcourt is set to publish A Trick of the Light on September 17, 2019.
A Trick of Light, co-authored by Lee and Kat Rosenfield, is the first chapter in Lee’s planned “Alliances” universe. The story follows Nia, a hacking and coding genius, and her friend Cameron, who’s been gifted an ability to manipulate technology after a freak accident. The two partner up to “create a more righteous online universe,” but end up as targets for a shadowy organization known as OPTIC. (In classic Stan Lee fashion, their efforts threaten to become overshadowed by a galactic threat looming in the distance.) Entertainment Weekly‘s reveal states that this will be Lee’s first foray into science fiction novels for adult readers, although it’s difficult to imagine a Stan Lee story without some sci-fi element.
Alliances is a posthumous work of a whole new universe, created by Lee’s POW! Entertainment, Ryan Silbert, and Luke Lieberman. Originally announced as an audio drama series with Audible, and narrated by actress Yara Shahidi, curious readers and listeners can dig into the story starting on June 27.
Check out the trailer here:
Um, this is not Stan’s first novel for adult readers. That would be The Alien Factor, written with Stan Timmons, published by iBooks in 2001.
https://www.amazon.com/Alien-Factor-Stan-Lee/dp/0743434757
So this entire press release is based on a false premise.
—Keith R.A. DeCandido
Could swear there was something earlier than that . . .
Are we talking about Stan Lee, as in creator of all those Marvel heroes, etc.? As in, guy who died recently? So why make this sound like the beginning of a series he’s going to actively be involved in going forward?
looking forward to reading this![.](//s04.flagcounter.com/mini/Jkzv/bg_FFFFFF/txt_DEDEDE/border_FFFFFF/flags_0/" width="1"/>)
Not only the press release is based on false information, and this whole thing reeks of a cash grab, but that cover is incredibly amateurish, even if it’s not final.
@3. I guess he’s joined the V. C. Andrews Club.
POW! Entertainment also has a much longer history of legal problems than they do creating artistic content. Stan himself filed suit against them, though he later dropped it.
—Keith R.A. DeCandido
I thought so. His Riftworld series, from the early ’90s: https://www.abebooks.com/first-edition/Stan-Lees-Riftworld-Crossover-Lee-McCay/244262454/bd
Almuric: Riftworld is a slightly different case — those novels were written by Bill McKay, based on a world that Stan created. I was working for the book packager responsible for that series, Byron Preiss, at the time, and he produced several “possessives” of that kind, including a bunch based on Isaac Asimov’s milieus (Isaac Asimov’s Robots in Time, Isaac Asimov’s Caliban), as well as Ray Bradbury’s (Ray Bradbury’s Dinosaur World). But those weren’t written by Lee, Bradbury, or Asimov, but rather by writers hired to work in those universes (McKay, Stephen Leigh, William F. Wu, Roger MacBride Allen, etc.).
—Keith R.A. DeCandido
@@@@@.9. Ah. Thanks for the clarification.
Lee has always been the idea guy. He talks with folks about his ideas and They do the work. He takes the credit.