Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Unavailable
    After the Golden Age
    Unavailable
    After the Golden Age
    Unavailable
    After the Golden Age
    Ebook365 pages5 hours

    After the Golden Age

    By Carrie Vaughn

    4/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    After the Golden Age, a stand-alone urban fantasy by bestselling author Carrie Vaughn features the thoroughly mundane daughter of two famous superheroes, who finds in herself an unlikely hero.

    It's not easy being a superhero's daughter....

    Carrie Vaughn has captured legions of fans with her wildly popular Kitty Norville novels. Now she uses her extraordinary wit and imagination to tell a sensational new story about superhuman heroes-and the people who have to live with them.

    Most people dream of having superheroes for parents, but not Celia West. The only daughter of Captain Olympus and Spark, the world's greatest champions, she has no powers of her own, and the most exciting thing she's ever done is win a silver medal in a high school swim meet. Meanwhile, she's the favorite hostage of every crime boss and supervillain in Commerce City. She doesn't have a code name, but if she did, it would probably be Bait Girl, the Captive Wonder.

    Rejecting her famous family and its legacy, Celia has worked hard to create a life for herself beyond the shadow of their capes, becoming a skilled forensic accountant. But when her parents' archenemy, the Destructor, faces justice in the "Trial of the Century," Celia finds herself sucked back into the more-than-mortal world of Captain Olympus-and forced to confront a secret that she hoped would stay buried forever.

    At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherMacmillan Publishers
    Release dateApr 12, 2011
    ISBN9781429960854
    Unavailable
    After the Golden Age
    Author

    Carrie Vaughn

    Carrie Vaughn survived her air force brat childhood and managed to put down roots in Colorado. Her first book, Kitty and the Midnight Hour, launched a popular series of novels about a werewolf named Kitty who hosts a talk-radio advice show. She is also the author of Voices of Dragons, her debut novel for teen readers. Ms. Vaughn lives in Colorado.

    Read more from Carrie Vaughn

    Related to After the Golden Age

    Related ebooks

    Superheroes For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Shards Of Earth

      May 19, 2021

      Shards Of Earth
      2 min read

    • Article

      Martian wants Drabbles

      Jul 7, 2022

      Martian is a zine for SF drabbles and the team publish new ones twice a week. Drabbles are very short stories of exactly 100 words (excluding title) and they are tricky to write. Read what’s published here to see how other writers do it. The editoria

      1 min read

    • Article

      Jay Kristoff

      Sep 8, 2021

      MOST NOVELISTS HAVE AT LEAST ONE book in a drawer that represents an early effort, a text that will never be offered up to a wider readership. In the case of Jay Kristoff, this book was a tale of bloodsuckers he wrote in 2008. “It was right at the ta

      3 min read

    • Article

      Free Fantasy

      Jul 2, 2020

      Various authors and publishers are making books and stories freely available to keep readers entertained during the pandemic. Though the magazine closed down last year, Orson Scott Card’s Intergalactic Medicine Show has put all 69 issues of the scien

      1 min read

    • Article

      The Ladies Book Club

      Apr 10, 2024

      “Our brains are shaped with the capability to care deeply but also to kill. This deep ambivalence is potentially problematic. A society filled with people who are inherently very compassionate and very violent might prove unstable.”1 1Emile Bruneau,

      25 min read

    • Article

      Six Dart Out

      Sep 10, 2023

      Marc figured the girl was a vegan. Her puke had overflowed the sink and run onto the floor—tomatoes and rice marinated in microbrew lager. He’d told Vegan Girl to slow down, but her friends had won the turning-21-peer-pressure battle. Admittedly, Mar

      9 min read

    • Article

      Take a Writer Like Him: My Complicated Love Affair with Kingsley Amis

      Aug 24, 2018

      1. As much as I may rack my brain, there are 15 minutes or so in the dark that I can’t account for and that I’ll never get back—15 minutes during which, I have to think, that creep’s hands were touching my body. It’s a weird thing to think about all

      12 min read

    • Article

      Proverbs Of A Faceless Time

      Dec 1, 2023

      Proverbs Of A Faceless Time
      9 min read

    • Article

      Philip Roth

      Jun 4, 2018

      Philip Roth
      25 min read

    • Article

      Two Poems

      Nov 1, 2021

      What is the uncanny valley? asks the student and I draw the graph on the board, and point to the lowest point, and then move up the slope; This is like a scarecrow, it’s kinda shaped like a human but you’re not sure; This is where you’d put a mannequ

      6 min read

    • Article

      Getting Up

      Oct 15, 2022

      Getting Up
      20 min read

    • Article

      Six Million Reasons

      Jul 9, 2021

      Six Million Reasons
      6 min read

    • Article

      First Date

      Jul 9, 2020

      First Date
      5 min read

    • Article

      ‘Sing to It’: Featured Fiction from Amy Hempel

      Mar 25, 2019

      If she was home at night in her husband’s bed, did he care what she did with her days? The post ‘Sing to It’: Featured Fiction from Amy Hempel appeared first on The Millions.

      7 min read

    • Article

      You Exist Too Much

      Jun 5, 2020

      You Exist Too Much
      9 min read

    • Article

      All Of Us Here

      Jun 4, 2020

      All Of Us Here
      6 min read

    • Article

      Shame Is Ever-Present When You’re Sitting in a Cell

      Oct 23, 2020

      Between a strained relationship with my family and the death of a good friend, I’ve struggled to feel like I’m worth something.

      5 min read

    • Article

      The Turn

      Aug 14, 2019

      HERE’S a story. In college I entered the spring semester of my freshman year on academic probation. There wasn’t one reason this happened. There were many. I had signed up for a computer science class called Digital Security with no programming knowl

      5 min read

    • Article

      LOVE, Virtually

      Feb 16, 2020

      LOVE, Virtually
      5 min read

    • Article

      POISON ON Pink Paper

      Jan 2, 2020

      POISON ON Pink Paper
      8 min read

    • Article

      Freedom

      Aug 6, 2020

      Freedom
      7 min read

    Reviews for After the Golden Age

    4/5

    29 ratings20 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 4/5
      I'm on a bit of a superheroes kick since The Avengers came out and reminded me of a childhood spent breathlessly waiting for the next episode of Batman, or Spiderman, or Superman. These days I'm more of a Marvel fan -- is it, uh, legal to admit that I watched the first ten minutes of Batman Begins and got bored? -- but anyway, the point is, superheroes! And Carrie Vaughan's After the Golden Age catered to that wonderfully.

      I think the premise at its most basic isn't really anything new: the child of two superheroes, who is powerless, rebels and gradually finds her own place in the world. I liked that she was an accountant. I liked that she got tired and frustrated and did things wrong, and that she second guessed her own motives.

      Best I liked the romance. It didn't turn out how I was expecting, and it was a pleasant surprise. It was well built up and brought together.

      Overall, the prose wasn't stunning but the pacing was good, and the moments of shock and pain reach through to the reader perfectly. It's a quick read, and also the kind of read where you aren't conscious of the time that does pass -- in my experience, anyway.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 4/5
      Recently, I discovered Carrie Vaughn via a dystopian anthology and then I read her new teen novel, Steel. Her YA effort was okay, but not stellar. At first, I thought After the Golden Age would be the same, as it had a slow beginning, but as I hit the midway point, it really took off (pardon the superhero-y pun).

      Celia starts out as a somewhat annoying heroine. She is 25, but retains her teenage mistrust and irritation with her parents, because growing up with superheroes for parents is not as magical as everyone else thinks it should be. She doesn't really trust anyone actually. Her saving grace is that, although she is a continual victim of supervillain wannabes, she does not act like a victim (well, except when her family's considered). As the story goes on, Celia's able to deal with many of her demons, which allows her to accentuate the positive elements of her personality and someone I liked much more.

      The romance was well done. I was somewhat worried that I was shipping the wrong person, but I was not, so yay! There's nothing worse than when you believe someone else is perfect for her, but the main character determinedly goes for the lame, stupid, obvious one. I definitely shipped her with the guy, right from the beginning and through to the end.

      After the Golden Age reminded me most strongly of the Astro City graphic novel series, with the portrayal of both superheroes, ordinary folk and those who know who the masked heroes are and have to deal with that. For anyone who likes reading about superheroes, After the Golden Age is definitely worth checking out.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 3/5
      I loved the premise of this book. As a comic book geek and avid fan of superhero stories, the idea for this story immediately struck my interest. The actual story, though... a lukewarm response. On the one hand, I think Carrie Vaughn is an excellent writer. On the other hand, her books always start off slow for me (with the exception of "Discord's Apple"). It took me several attempts at reading this to get truly drawn in. I would recommend this book; just be cautious of a slow start.
    • 4/5
      I was a little doubtful about this book at first - it's the sort of concept that can be amazing, but can so very easily be truly awful, too. Luckily, this one came down on the positive side. I really enjoyed it. The characters are interesting and easy to identify with and, while this world is not so different from our own, the world-building is nonetheless well done. I wouldn't call any of this groundbreaking, but it's an enjoyable and well-written read.
    • 4/5
      A surprisingly enjoyable read. A superheroes life is not all you imagine it to be. Rescueing the city, for the umpteenth time, is just a job after all. It is what you make of the total of your life that counts, not your powers, but what you do with them and the person you are. People are people, powers or no powers.
    • 4/5
      Enjoyable story about what it feels like to be the child of a superhero. A little bit of romance and a little bit of mystery. Well written. Fresh.
    • 4/5
      While I'm not sure I have much more to say than the other folks who have commented on this book, I think that "Soon I will Be Invincible" handled the concept of playing the superhero concept straight in literary form somewhat better; but then the villain is almost always more interesting as a subject. Still, I liked this story of the travails of Celia West, an apparently ordinary girl who just happens to be the daughter of a superhero duo. Apart from living down the near-tragedy of her past mistakes, much of this book is about how Celia finds herself teasing out the secret history of why her city has superheros and villains in the first place (via the power of accountancy!). Unlike Vaughn's "Apples of Discord," this also feels more like the start of a series.
    • 4/5
      A cross between comic books and Jane Austen, After the Golden Age follows the exploits of the more or less ordinary daughter of a city's premier superheroes as she unmasks a conspiracy and comes to term with her own family and romantic relationships. The book occupies the same territory as Soon I Will Be Invincible, setting the tropes of silver age comics in an ironic, post-modern frame -- but the focus is different, on what it would be like to live with and near superheros, rather than to be one. Overall, it's a quick, light read; not particularly memorable, but engaging enough while it lasted.
    • 4/5
      All Celia wanted was a normal life. Unfortunately this is not so easy when your parents are Captain Olympus and Spark, the couple who leads the Olympiad and keeps the City safe. Celia was born with no super-powers, and it seems that all Celia is good for is bait--she is forever being kidnapped and held for ransomed. This is so annoying for her! She left home when a teen, went to college and made a life for herself like any ambitious young woman in the city. She really doesn't speak to her parents--they've never seen her apartment. Then danger erupts in Commerce City, and it seems that Celia is the only one who can stop it.The characters are fascinating, the family dynamics all too real, and Celia's struggle to find herself amid the larger than life characters who surround her feels very true. This was a fast, fun read, and I enjoyed every minute of it!
    • 3/5
      This coming-of-age story about a superhero daughter with no superpowers of her own entertained me even after the bathwater cooled down. I was hooked by the blase reaction of Celia West to her seventh kidnapping, and even though Vaughn leans pretty heavy on the exposition, I could sympathize with Celia's struggle to live down her teens. The basic plot was rather easy to predict (except for one surprise appearance of The Hawk), the love story abrupt, but I didn't mind.
    • 5/5
      What if your parents were Superman and a female Human Torch? What would your life be like? In After the Golden Age, this is what Celia West's life is like and she's been trying to find her own identity out from under the shadow of her parents, Captain Olympus and Spark and the Olympiad, the group of superheroes they lead. The problem is that no matter how far she gets away from them, other people pull her back in and only see her in relation to them. This gets in the way of her love life and is constantly causing problems as a new threat seems to be appearing in Commerce City as an old one is finally put on trial. After the Golden Age will appeal to lovers of comic books and those who just enjoy a mystery story and complicated family dynamics with some romance thrown in.
    • 2/5
      (Reprinted from the Chicago Center for Literature and Photography [cclapcenter.com]. I am the original author of this essay, as well as the owner of CCLaP; it is not being reprinted illegally.)To call Carrie Vaughn's profoundly disappointing After the Golden Age a tired retread of ideas that have been almost entirely played out by now is to make an understatement; because really, is there anyone even left besides lazy entertainment reporters who isn't aware by now of the darkly comedic subgenre regarding superheroes with mundane psychological problems? It was groundbreaking when Frank Miller and Alan Moore did it unironically in the '80s, hilarious when The Specials and Mystery Men played it for laughs in the '90s, and still at least interesting when Pixar mainstreamed the concept in The Incredibles; but in these days when there are even now weekly television shows based around the idea, it takes a lot more to make this concept interesting anymore besides simply parking a caped crusader in a Muzak-blaring psychiatrist's office and hoping that hijinx will ensue. Unfortunately, though, this actually isn't the worst problem with the book; that would be the fact that the nuances of the three-act structure seem to be completely beyond Vaughn's comprehension, with some of the most awkward exposition I've ever seen in a mainstream contemporary novel, and a bad habit of taking minor moments of conflict and trying to inflate them into drama that's bigger than they can handle, much like you might see in a Young Adult novel when a misinterpreted statement between one teen and another will literally be the main conflict driving an entire second act. (And indeed, I think it no coincidence that what Vaughn is mostly known for is the unending "Kitty Norville" series of teen-girl werewolf love-story actioners, a commercial juggernaut that I'm sure is the reason she got a contract for this novel as well.) Beyond disappointing to make me actively angry that a book this badly written would get so much attention, needless to say that it does not come recommended today.Out of 10: 4.6
    • 4/5
      I thought this book was going to be a follow up to Discord's Apple, but it appears to be either another standalone or the start of a new series. This book is a quick read; one thing I really appreciate about Vaugn is how carefully she chooses her words to create the maximum impact. I had a hard time warming up to this book in the beginning because I thought the protagonist was just SO whiney, but once the story took off, it was a great read. I'm not sure it adds anything new in terms of theme to the superhero genre (the way Dr. Horrible's Sing-a-long Blog did, for example) but still a good read.
    • 4/5
      Celia West is an ordinary young woman, an accountant, who lives in a small apartment and rides the bus to work. But her estranged parents are superheroes, leaders of the Olympiad, a group which has been keeping Commerce City safe for more than twenty years. Ever since they were unmasked when Celia was a teen, she has been repeatedly kidnapped by villains who want leverage against her parents. Her adolescent rebellion did not go well, and her relationship with her parents is spotty at best.When Celia is abducted yet again, her chief emotion is annoyance at the disruption of her daily routine. But this time, her kidnapping is the start of an unusual crime wave. Is it orchestrated by the Destructor, now in an asylum and on trial? Or is there another mastermind at work?This is several things: the story of a young woman finding her place in the world and making peace with her dysfunctional family, an examination of the proper role of superheroes (and supervillains), and an exciting tale of a city under siege. It does all of these things well. Recommended.
    • 4/5
      I have been looking forward to this book forever since I am a gigantic superhero nerd. If it has superheroes, I will read it. Having never read any Vaughn before, I had no clue what to expect. I normally never buy an unknown author's new release on the release date but I made an exception for this one, and I'm very glad I did. I read this on the commute home... and kept reading it... and then stayed up until midnight to finish the book. The plot was slightly clichéd but executed in a fresh way. I really liked Cecelia, and loved that she, the normal one in a family of superheroes, was the main character. The story wrapped up nicely but I do hope Vaughn revisits this world.
    • 2/5
      Review courtesy of All Things Urban FantasySuperheroes are hotter than ever right now with two network TV shows currently airing (The Cape and No Ordinary Family) and a Wonder Woman reboot in the works, not to mention all the summer movies coming soon. Based on the cover art—which is phenomenal—and the description for AFTER THE GOLDEN AGE, I was hoping for a cool vintage like 'homage to Golden Age comics.’ And that’s exactly what I got with plot and worldbuilding, but like those two struggling TV shows, which will likely be canceled by the time this review runs, and superheroes in general, AFTER THE GOLDEN AGE has a weakness that proved lethal: Celia West. It’s hard to enjoy the other aspects of this book when I struggled to find even one redeeming quality about the main character. She’s the most petulant, self-pitting, and miserable character I’ve read in a long time. She’s constantly bemoaning her life and wallowing in her lot as a nonsuper kid of the two most famous supers ever. She tells everyone throughout AFTER THE GOLDEN AGE just how awful it was growing up in the shadow of her parents. Every time a new character was introduced I had to steel myself for another round of ‘poor Celia.’ And if her incessant bellyaching wasn’t enough, Celia adds a whole new level of unreasonableness to her character. When she was seventeen, she defected to villain side and literally stood arm in arm with The Destroyer (her parents arch nemesis) when he tried to pull a 9/11 on the city. Yep, she was a terrorist who would have committed mass murder had her parents not shown up and thwarted the plan. Now I could potentially move past this if Celia as an adult expressed true remorse and regret over her actions, but she never did. She uses words like ‘mistake’ and ‘indiscretion’ to describe her actions. She never once apologizes, never once seeks forgiveness from her parents. On the contrary, she becomes indignant when her past is revealed and people don’t try to comfort her. Unbelievable! The story itself was fine and the superhero angle works well in an The Incredibles/Watchmen sort of way. I really enjoyed the short story from Carrie Vaughn set in this same world that was included in the SONGS OF LOVE AND DEATH anthology earlier this year, but Celia completely killed any possible enjoyment I might have taken from AFTER THE GOLDEN AGE. I found myself actually hoping at one point that the bad guys would just shoot her and put us both out of our misery. Not a good sign.Sexual Content: Kissing. References to sex
    • 4/5
      I received a copy of this book from the Goodreads First Reads. By coincidence, I just finished another book from Ms. Vaughn--Discord's Apple. This book is very different (and better, in my opinion) from Discord's Apple. The book answers the question: what would it be like to be the daughter of superhero parents...when you have no powers. I found it to be a very interesting story showing some of the everyday things that superheroes deal with when they aren't out saving the city. We follow Celia, now in her early twenties, in her job as forensic accountant. She has tried to get away from the shadow of her parents but it is difficult to do. Celia is asked to assist with the trial of the Destructor, the evil criminal mastermind, as the accountant following the money trail. With this trial, she is pulled right into another plot with the fate of the city in the balance...Fans of lots of superhero action will be disappointed but I think the author did a pretty good job of walking a fine line between reading a Superman type novel and one that appeals to a broader audience. I really enjoyed this book and would definitely take a look at Vaughn's next book.
    • 2/5
      If you're into superhero comics, this book may be for you. If you can enjoy a comic book without the artwork that makes the story come alive, that is. You may be wondering why I ordered this book? Two reasons: I love the author's Kitty Norville series, and I thought this was the sequel to her novel "Discord's Apple," which I did enjoy. It isn't - it's a stand alone YA novel.The plot is predictable to most readers who are familiar with DC and Marvel comics and their wonderful, fully developed superheroes. I want a little more substance in my stories aside from "good guys fight bad guys, and also fight cops who misunderstand their motives and call them vigilantes". But what really ruined it for me was that it is yet another book about an adult child who resents his/her parents and goes out of his/her way to get even with them for not giving him/her a perfect childhood! Throwing in this disgruntled "heroine" didn't help an already cliche story. And, I really need to identify with or at least like the protagonist I'm about to spend an entire book with. I'm not saying I wouldn't enjoy a novel with superhero characters. I have enjoyed graphic novels like those by Alan Moore, and I love superhero movies. I just felt this book, while perhaps a good idea to begin with, wasn't well executed. It felt like a bad ripoff of "The Incredibles" with one powerless, bratty child. Obviously, others have enjoyed this and it will find an audience. And, I highly recommend the author's other series. Overall, I found this to be a disappointment.
    • 4/5
      I am a fan of Carrie Vaughn's Kitty Norville series and have read all of the other books that she has written and enjoyed them. When I heard that she had written a new book, with super heroes I was stoked. I got an advanced reading copy of this book through the Amazon Vine program. This was an interesting and very solid book, I enjoyed reading it.Celia West is the daughter of two very famous super heroes but doesn't have any super powers herself. As such, she is frequently kidnapped (to the point where is it almost boring) to be used against her parents. She has tried very hard to lead a life of her own and has been fairly successful at it. When an old foe of her parents', The Destructor, is up for trial she gets pulled into the whole mess again as she is called both to help with the trial through her work and to testify. Celia did something when she was younger, something that was wrong, and she has been atoning for it her whole life. Now with crime on the rise again and the Destructor's trial coming up; it looks like Celia will be in the thick of it all again...no matter how hard she tries to stay out of it.This was a very well done book. The characters are likable and easy to relate too. Celia is very down to earth, yet determined to do what's right. I was impressed with her determination and steadfastness. The side characters in the book are well done, if not exceptional, and make for a good story.The plot of the book was well done and has some great twists in it. This ends up being more of a mystery than anything. I did like how the plot has some focus around what happens to super heroes as they decline and I liked how there was also focus around how you can be a super hero without powers.The story gets a bit cliched at points, for example using the old "radiation gave us our powers" plot device, but for this story it works. My only other issue is that at times the writing style comes across as a bit too straight-forward and simplistic for me; but that is a small quip since I still thoroughly enjoyed this book.The story wraps up nicely and I doubt we will see more books featuring Celia; although I wouldn't rule out more books set in this world. I have been finding that Vaughn always writes very solid books that are enjoyable reads. They are never exceptional and never blow me away; but they are always a solid read and I am always glad I took the time to read them.Overall an excellent read. Loved the super hero plot elements and how Celia deals with everything even though she is powerless (so to speak). Some nice plot twists, the characters are well done and likable. If you like super heroes, or like reading about a normal person struggling in a world of powerful people this is the book for you. I will definitely be reading Vaughn's future books.
    • 4/5
      I am not and have never been a big superhero fan and I certainly don't have more than a passing knowledge of the superhero comic books. Since this was written by Carrie Vaughn, who hasn't disappointed me yet, I knew I had to give it a read. The book is about Celia West, the daughter of Mr Olympus and Spark (I shouldn't have but I kept picturing Mr and Mrs Incredible, even though the powers were different). But Celia didn't inherit any powers at all. She grew up to rebel against her parents during her teenage years, believing the protection of the City came before their feelings for her. Their lack of interest in her was because she didn't have powers, she was just something extra they had to deal with during the course of their lives, or so Celia believed. So she did something drastic. Unfortunately Celia's actions had repercussions and she is still feeling them many years later. The book takes place when Celia is an adult. She has graduated from college and is a forensic accountant. She is put to the case of the Destructor, an aging Super Villain who is finally up on trial. The Destructor has been her parent's greatest foe for many years. What happens from here would almost be a shame to explain because the book unfolds beautifully, with the reader being given more and more information through flashbacks. Celia is a good girl and she was easy to root for, but sometimes I felt her feelings for her parents verged a little into 'oh woe is me' territory. Were her parents really as bad to her as she wants to believe or was she always defensive and reading more into it than there really was? Upon completion of the book (although one never really knows) I tended to believe it was somewhere in the middle. If Celia felt this isolated from her parents, they should have realized it and made more of an attempt to ease her fears. My favorite parts of the story were the parts the told about the superheroes and their powers and foes. I loved the descriptions of the Olympiad and their 'command central'-type home. There were many action packed scenes, including my favorite, a runaway bus. There are fatalities and we learn that even superheroes and their villains can both age and die. "After the Golden Age" was always entertaining and sometimes emotion inducing, and I was very pleased to have read it. My only semi-complaint is that I would have liked more time spent on these superheroes. They were just the most fun aspect to the story. Vaughan has certainly written another winner and I wish there had been left room for a sequel.