I will admit that it took me a while to get properly absorbed by the story: the timeline is a little wobbly at the start of the novel, with two parallel storylines (one in the now, one in the past) and flashbacks galore. Superheroes tend to be the stuff of movies and comic books, but The Dragons of Heaven is a funny, slick, energetic romp, filled with action and jaw dropping (but believable) plot twists. (Said grandfather, meanwhile, has disappeared without a trace or a goodbye).
Oh, and she's also a woman, Missy Masters, who inherited the superpowers from her grandfather, the original Mr Mystic, whom she impersonates. Able to control shadows and even drift from the 'real' world into a shadow realm, Mr Mystic is a fedora wearing, arch-British-sounding, Chinese-magic-wielding martial arts expert. Our hero is Mr Mystic, one of those superpowered vigilantes. But all of that is merely backdrop: the novel is much more interested in its Chinese-influenced mythology and magic and a hero's journey. There are laws about 'citizen vigilantes' and some form together into SHIELD-like organisations, some commercial, some state-run. It's also a world in which not everyone believes in magic - sceptics believe the superheroes just have very advanced tech (which some do) and very good PR (ditto).
The Dragons of Heaven is a debut novel, set in a world where superheroes and some kinds of magic are real.
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