As she succeeds in this venture, she both rises in Leviathan’s esteem and attracts the unwelcome attention of the so-called “forces of good.”Īlex McKenna expertly captures all the dimensions of Anna’s character: desperate, cynical, clever, ambitious, and furious, but also a person who passionately values friendship, love, and loyalty, and expresses a healthy and casual lust for people of multiple genders (too bad Anna never gets any). When she shares her results on social media, she catches the attention of the most notorious supervillain, Leviathan, who hires her to exploit his extensive databases to figure out the most effective ways to disrupt the lives of superheroes. (Without looking, I (correctly) divined that the author was Canadian, because how broke Anna will have to pay for what in the US would be a considerable set of medical bills never comes up.)ĭevastated and angry, Anna utilizes all of her skills in data analysis to demonstrate that the collateral damage that superheroes in general, and Supercollider in particular, incur in the process of apprehending evildoers far outweighs the benefits of said apprehensions. Then the brutally powerful and beloved superhero Supercollider bursts into the room and, during the ensuing melee, casually nudges Anna aside.

In the course of one of these gigs, her smarmy boss, the Electric Eel, asks her to attend a press conference, which turns out to be a live-streamed demonstration of a mind-control device on the mayor’s kidnapped son. In a world where superheroes and supervillains are part of everyday society, Anna scrapes by as a data-entry temp for low-level evildoers.

Hench, Natalie Zina Walschots Alex McKenna, narrator ( HarperAudio 978-0-8, $29.99, digital download, 14.25 hr., unabridged) September 2020.

Natalie zina walschots