3 out of 4 stars
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Superhighway by Alex Fayman is a modern retelling of Robin Hood that draws heavy inspiration from spy movies. In it, eighteen year old orphan Alex Fine discovers he has the power to travel through the internet and arrive at any destination he chooses, as well as store the information he encounters digitally in his mind. A strong novel holistically, Superhighway is worth picking up for any devout fan of action movies and the sci-fi genre.
The plot of the novel develops in a natural, organic way, with rarely a dull or directionless moment. Alex feels like an actual teenager thrust into an unbelievable situation. His decisions at first are impulsive, and he uses the money he steals from various criminals to live a life of luxury and date girls from around the world. His self-imposed moral conviction to never steal from good people makes him a sympathetic character, and when coupled with the impulsive nature expected of a teenager, drives the plot forward while showcasing the depth of Alex's character.
While the action scenes are exciting and cohesive, I found that much of the dialogue broke immersion. Sometimes a character would speak extremely properly, without using contractions, even in a formal setting: for example, a character that was drunk saying, "I will direct you". Moments like this extended beyond the dialogue, as well. Despite having lined up admission to Stanford, Alex refers to a genetic sequence as "a code comprised of four letters". On their own, these could be overlooked, but when present so often, they detracted greatly from my enjoyment of the book.
It also bears mentioning that this book appears to be a self-insert story, with the author sharing the same name as the main character. This certainly makes the novel feel far less creative, as the author frequently seems to impose his own desires onto Alex, and prevents the world around him from ever challenging his views. Every woman he meets is beautiful, and wants to have sex with him. No character challenges his affinity for alcohol and marijuana. Besides the obvious main antagonists, which attain an exaggerated, almost cartoonish quality, nobody seems to dislike Alex at all. Because of this, all characters besides Alex feel flat, and the world Alex lives in feels less believable.
Despite this, Superhighway is an exciting action thriller, and a very strong debut novel overall. It explores the consequences of a fantastic and unique ability being in the hands of an immature, albeit morally devout, eighteen year old. However, frequent problems with breaking immersion and flat supporting characters meant I only felt comfortable giving this novel 3 out of 4 stars. Many of these problems are growing pains that I'd expect to be associated with an author's first book, and will certainly be ironed out with experience.
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Superhighway
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