Sovereign, even more so than the first book, really showcases how much work Daniels has put in to reifying a world where some humans have superpowers. It seldom feels forced-sometimes Danny’s internal monologue can get a little too explainy, but I can rationalize this as her just nerding out so much over superheroes and superpowers, etc. Other relevant details, such as Danny’s relationships with Doc Impossible and Sarah/Calamity, or the fact that she is a minor and in a legal battle to escape her abusive parents, emerge naturally over the course of the book. You get just enough information to help you make sense of Danny’s immediate situation-she’s Dreadnought, transgender, and had a trial-by-fire in the last book that led to her learning about a cloud of exotic matter called Nemesis that might be problematic in the future. Soon, though, her time at the convention is cut short and she has to make a quick orbital hop (!!) back to New Port to save the day and show the readers what it means to be Dreadnought. It opens with Danny going to a bi-annual cape convention in Antarctica (!!!), where she muses a lot on how the past few months have changed everything for her. Sovereign drops nuggets of information about Danny’s genesis in Dreadnought and her ultimate conflict with Utopia throughout the novel. That was your warning, by the way, that I’m a head-over-heels fan of this series and it’s seriously colouring my critical gaze.ĭaniels does a great job clearing the first hurdle with a sequel: how to catch up new readers without forcing existing fans to sit through chapters of “as you know, Bob” exposition. So I pre-ordered Sovereign and, although moving into my very own house was a good distraction, waited eagerly for it to arrive days after its release (so far Chapters is beating Amazon at this pre-order game). With Dreadnought, Daniels fulfilled most of these requirements, plus she did it with a teenage trans lesbian protagonist. I tend to cite Vanessa Torline’s “#TrainFightTuesday” as my gold standard for what I’d like my superhero fiction to be: fast-paced and genre-savvy yet also cutting and compassionate. It turns out that this is a subgenre quite difficult to pull off, in terms of plot and characterization.
I love the idea of superhero fiction, but most of the actual superhero novels I’ve read so far have been underwhelming at best. Spoilers for the first book but not this one, unless you think revealing that Graywytch is still a massive problem for Danny is a spoiler, in which case … oops. April Daniels might single-handedly be restoring my faith in superhero fiction.
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