Review: The Black Arrow

I just finished The Black Arrow by Vin Suprynowicz. I went into reading this book expecting it to be "OK" but not "great" thanks to numerous friends of mine having read it already.

It appears that my expectations were met. Vin is a great author and a strong libertarian writer, but shows signs of struggle in creating fiction. To be honest, though, I expected him to be much worse here.

The Black Arrow is set in the near future. America has split in civil war with liberatarians fighting for freedom in the west while tyranny reigns heavily in the east. The stage is set for a new superhero to save the innocents from the evil oppressors (meaning government).

While some of the characters are a little "too perfect" (I've noticed this about current libertarian fiction...leading characters seem to always be too over-the-top in their perfection), most of them are downright believable. The psychological reasoning behind the Mayor's actions (and the explicit sex scenes which derive from them, reminding you of why children need Internet filters) and the nearly-pure love scenes between the heroes make for great contrast of morals.

Ad to this the continual (and somewhat believable, though slightly hoakey) series of events and battle scenes plus the continual references to classic rock tunes and you've got a great comic book. Most of the battle scenes involve bows and arrows (of course), sword play, and the occasional firearm.

As I said, I went into this book expecting to only get "OK" fiction and wasn't disappointed. The story was much more engaging than I'd expected, though, and the book as a whole is a good read. It won't replace Ayn Rand for you eggheads, but it'll do for militant simpletons like me.

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