Turbulence Paperback – July 9, 2013

If there’s one thing we’re accustomed to in American comics, it’s that most superheroes are Americans. Sure, you get the occasional nod to superheroes from Canada, the UK, Russia, Japan, or China. But we always focus on American superheroes. And we always consider it a triumph for diversity when a team of heroes has more than one person of color. But if we went by total population, who’d have the largest populations of super-powered people? China first, obviously, but after that would be India — and that’s the setting for this book.Our setup for the novel comes when everyone aboard a plane traveling from London to Delhi ends up getting powers, some grand and earth-shattering, some modest and barely noticible, but all exactly the powers that suited each person’s personality and greatest desires.So we meet Aman, who gets vast powers over telecommunications and decides he wants to save the world from itself. Vir, a pilot in the Indian Air Force, gets flight, superspeed, and super-durability. Aspiring actress Uzma becomes superhumanly likeable. Harried housewife Tia can clone herself as many times as she wants. Sher is a tiger-headed super-warrior. Princess Anima is a schoolgirl with massively powerful anime-inspired combat abilities. And Jai is entirely indestructible — and he wants to conquer the entire world.And they’re not all heroes. Jai is certainly the most powerful being on the planet, and he gathers most of the other really powerful people to his side really quickly. He kills the people who aren’t useful to him. The pitifully few heroes don’t tend to have the most combat-worthy abilities, and they’re generally outgunned and seemingly doomed. What chance do they have to save India, much less the rest of the world?This is a novel with a setting that’s surprisingly refreshing — it’s fun to get better acquainted with India and its gigantically diverse population through this book. But it’s not just a geographical lesson plan — because that would be no fun at all. This is a superhero story, and it really excels.The characters are amazingly fun — I really couldn’t pick out a favorite. Aman and his pigheaded naivete, Uzma and the way she slowly grows out of her shallow egotism, Tia’s maternal kickassery, Vir’s stubborn and frequently stupid heroism. Sher and Princess Anima are both terrifying in different ways and also hugely charismatic in equally different ways. And Jai is so despicably dislikeable — but you really wouldn’t hate him so much if her weren’t such a gloriously created villain. And there are plenty of minor characters who you wish had larger roles in the story just so you could get to know them better.The action and fight scenes are fantastic, harrowing, horrifying, and everything you’d want from a bunch of super-battles. And the story continually grows more and more exciting, with the stakes being continually raised higher and higher. The further along you go in the story, the less likely you are to want to put it down for very long.Is it a good superhero story? Heck, yes -- it may be one of the best I’ve ever read. Go pick it up. You’ll love this.

I enjoyed the first part of this novel quite a bit. I like the writing style and the characters and premise are interestingly developed. It's reminiscent of "Heroes" or other treatments in which the basic question of "what if super-heroes really appeared on the scene" is addressed. This one has the interesting notion of a team of B-list heroes with somewhat less stellar powers being cast against more conventionally-super-powered villains. This was well set up and could have been wrapped up nicely in the scope of a novel.However, once all the characters were on stage and the basic concepts established, it veered more into comic-book territory, with elements seemingly introduced to establish more parity between powers for set battles. Then as we got into the climactic confrontation of the book, it took on the quality of a first-person narration of what seemed like a blow-by-blow and shot-by-shot screenplay of a very Hollywood-blockbuster (over)treatment. This book ties up the nominal events in a rather pat way without really resolving the basic underlying questions and obviously setting up for a line of sequels (if not comic and movie spin-offs).

I enjoyed this book, mostly because it's such a change of pace (and style, and location) from the typical superhero tale. Modern South Asian heroes with interesting powers and abilities, some really fun cinematic battle scenes, and very imaginative characters and plot.Not your usual fare, in other words. I definitely recommend it. It's not the deepest reading, but it's a *fun* read, and that definitely counts for a lot with me. If you're looking for something light, fast-paced, and a little quirky, this will keep you occupied!

Real life superheroes, yes please! This was really a fun book to read, the more I read it the more I was hooked. The assortment of characters was so vast that at some points it was hard to remember, but the author did a great job of little reminders (without going overboard or boring you) that you could keep things straight. Uzma and Jai and Vir and Tia and Amen, oh my! Such a good diverse set of different abilities it really kept things interesting and fun. I loved this story so much I downloaded the follow up (Resistance). If you like superheroes (without all the spandex and the such) than read this book, you'll enjoy it.

It is difficult to review this book without letting out spoilers. It is, as I said, unputdownable. Basu writes with élan, making an unlikely story believable; suffused with wit and charm, the story takes the reader through an incredible and breathless, edge-of-the-seat journey. The whole narrative is so well illustrated with words, that the reader simply has to close one's eyes in between and the story appears in glorious three-dimensional detail onto two dimensions, like a graphic novel/comic book. C'est brilliant.

This really reads like a video game. Fast read and has well placed action sequences, but the plot twists are many (like a video game) and the characters are never explored except for their superpowers.

Meh. The first 30-40 pages were interesting. After that it became a bad mix of over-done "everything is possible, regardless of the ridiculousness factor" of a Hollywood Blockbuster Spider Man crossed with a remake of any Tom Cruise movie.Don't get me wrong - I did finish it. It's not in that special list of 20 or so books that, in my lifetime, left me so ill I had to actually throw it away or delete it from every device and account I own.

Characters are cartoonish. I suppose that is intended. OK if you like cartoons. I want more from a sci fi book.

In the past I have certainly enjoyed the story-writing of such comicbook stalwarts are Mike Carey and B H Fingerman (not to mention Neil Gaiman!) and can see that someone able to produce, say, an entertaining graphic novel certainly can have the ability to do the same in the non-graphic form. However, and recognising that I may be doing Samit Basu a disservice, I would imagine that this might have worked better in comicbook form than it did as a novel.It started out well but, towards the end, I felt that the author was more interested in setting things up for a sequel than with providing a satisfying conclusion. Don't get me wrong, this was certainly an OK read and I enjoyed some of the insights into the tropes and mores of Indian society. But, overall, it seemed to me to be more of a series of episodes rather than a well-balanced whole.I was certainly swayed by the hype but, as has happened once or twice recently, I don't anticipate investing my time in continuing with the series when I have so much else to read that I think would better reward the time spent. YMMV.

Greatly enjoyed that book: good plot and good characters.I liked The Game World Trilogy and was looking forward to read a new book from Samit Basu.I have not been disappointed the least! A sequel to this book called "Resistance" should come soon, I can't wait for it.

Really enjoyed this book , just started the second one . I hope there is a third book

Enjoyed the new twist on the superhero storyline and look forward to the sequal. . . . . . .

On paper, Turbulence by Samit Basu, seems to be directly aimed at me as its target market. Superheroes? I'm there. Ordinary people acquiring super powers? Again up my alley. Similar to the NBC series Heroes? Go on then.A group of people are on a flight from London to New Delhi - they all have strange dreams, fantasies of who they could be, and when they wake up they have acquired a power which correlates to their fantasy, so Vir the pilot can fly, Uzma the wannabee actress is irresistible to those around her, Aman the computer geek can mentally hack into any computer, the journalist gets premonitions about newsworthy events and so on...The trouble arises with the structure, we meet our heroes shortly after powers have been acquired and to my mind the huge opportunity of an origin story is missed the chance to build up the scene of all these people before the flight and boarding it, dreaming and disembarking. A chance to build wonder, and mystique. It all seems a bit disjointed somehow.Additionally the powers they possess are either bog standard powers familiar in most superhero tales (human flight) or a bit naff in terms of their capacity for dramatic impact (mental internet, the power of allurement) And the guy who can control the temperature with his stomach, what's that all about? Useless!By far the greatest and for me fatal flaw of this piece is the dialogue. It's dialogue heavy, and the dialogue is extremely poor and weak, cringe inducing even. "Hey! we're like the X Men!"When the writing switches to prose or private thoughts it isn't so bad, but it isn't long before you're hit in the face with yet more cliched conversation of the most contrived, artificial kind. A masterclass in how not to write a cheesy, one star action film that flops at the box office.I gave this book up at around the 100 page mark, persuaded myself to give it a second go, and quit for the second and final time at around page 140.I just found the excessive, and dire, dialogue too much to bear.Of the 10 Amazon reviews present for this novel, 9 give it 5 stars something that genuinely baffles me, as it is so marred by it's flaw as to not even succeed as a genre piece of fluff.