Empire City

February 3, 2020
Gallagher’s ambitious but flawed second novel (after Youngblood) imagines a world in which the U.S. won the war in Vietnam. Thirty years after the victory, in 2011, America is dedicated to a state of “Endless Conflict,” as an Army general enthusiastically puts it in a speech. Americans thrill to the real life exploits of the Volunteers, a glorifying misnomer for super-powered warfighters who were accidentally created when an experimental bomb went off during a hostage rescue attempt in Tripoli. Today, Sebastian Rios, the rescued hostage, is a cynical PR flack for Homeland Authority, and Mia Tucker, who’d been the helicopter pilot on the rescue mission, is working on the presidential campaign of retired general Jackie Collins. As the government announces a plan to apply the Volunteers’ “super-strength, teleportation, and super-speed” to fight terrorists, Jean-Jacques Saint-Preux, a Haitian-American, and his fellow Volunteers await their deployment. The three often cross paths where they live in Empire City, a sprawling, militaristic version of New York, and they’re all haunted by unanswered questions about the rescue mission. Gallagher adds some risible (the Nixon Memorial) and poignant (Tupac is still alive) touches to his overburdened world, which, along with the half-hearted comic book aspects, fails to persuade. In the end, this middling novel of superheroes fails to win the day.

February 15, 2020
A trio of government-engineered superheroes navigate a war-torn, divided nation: the United States of America. Gallagher debuted with a savagely funny memoir (Kaboom, 2010, etc.) and followed it up with a novel, Youngblood (2016). Here, he pivots to an alternate version of America that's just recognizable but radically different due to a few twists in history. In this present, the U.S. won the Vietnam War, but chaos still reigns in the streets of the country 30 years later, wracked by seemingly unending wars overseas and terrorist violence at home on the part of extremist groups who oppose the administration's authoritarian approach to most issues, especially domestic policies. The aforementioned superbeings, created with space rocks called cythrax, are Peter Swenson, able to turn invisible; Grady Flowers, whose superstrength belies his vigilant nature; and Jean-Jacques Saint-Preux, a man granted Flash-like speed but unable to run back to his beloved war. They're impatiently waiting for orders in Empire City, an expanded version of New York. Our everyday characters are Sebastian Rios, an unremarkable bureaucrat infamous for being kidnapped in the Middle East, and his childhood friend Mia Tucker, who participated in the special forces raid that freed him. As you might expect, there are dubious characters too, including fugitive freedom fighter Jonah Gray, who is using his guerrilla faction, the Mayday Front, to terrorize Empire City, and Maj. Gen. Jackie "Jackpot" Collins, a fiercely pro-war presidential candidate who may not have the country's best interests at heart. Gallagher's prose is more elaborate than in his previous work, and because he doesn't spoon-feed readers the plot, they may find themselves pushing pins in a conspiracy board, Watchmen-style, to follow along. That said, there's a lot to take in here, including acute explorations of America's current political and ideological divisions, the heavy responsibility superheroes would be forced to shoulder in real life, and a keen extrapolation of a country launched down a radically altered historical continuum. An admirable diversion into alternative history and humanity's inherent nature that plays to the author's strengths.

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March 1, 2020

Children across the nation know the Volunteers, superhuman soldiers who helped America win wars around the world. It has been 30 years since the Vietnam War was won, but the political front at home is heating up. An ex-military group is clashing with the police presence, and terrorists threats in the veteran rehabilitation colonies means the government may be exposed. Within the city-state of Empire City, the Volunteers are waiting to do what they are best at--fighting--but are being sidelined for publicity. The truth behind the Volunteers' powers lies in the hands of a couple of civilians, friends who may end up on different sides as a retired general comes to the forefront of the presidential election, one that could bring military rule across the country. VERDICT Super-powered soldiers, civilians, and government secrets tangle together in this alt-reality military science fiction tale. Gallagher's (Kaboom) sharp prose, fine details, and emotional characters highlight the divisions between the nation's leaders and residents.--Kristi Chadwick, Massachusetts Lib. Syst., Northampton

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