Those Who Walk In Darkness Book

[ The book begins after an "event" where a "metanormal" criminal (super criminal) took San Francisco hostage. That kind of thing had happened before and one or other of the metanormal heroes (superheroes) had always "saved the day". People barely thought about it, the superheroes would save them...only he/she didn't, and San Francisco was mostly destroyed. The President of the United states issues an Executive Order that all metanormals lose their U.S. citizenship......wait a minute.


I'm sorry, but no matter how badly we had/have fractured the Constitution the President can't simply issue an executive order and revoke the citizenship of any "group" of American citizens. I suppose that didn't bother a lot of people as it's not something I've seen discussed that much... The lawyer in the book, who saves Soledad's career and wants to help the metanormals would salivate at this action. The story goes that the government offers $50,000 to any metanormal who will leave the country and will arrest the others. (I assume there is supposed to be some sort of immediate "deportation".) The M-Tac units are hunting down and (euphemistically) serving warrants on the ones that "went into hiding". (We'll discuss that in a minute.)

Surely at least one of the "superhero" types would have had enough money to hire a lawyer... any competent attorney would have been able to find a judge who'd stop this in it's tracks.

More, since none but one single metanormal was involved (here we got some heavy handed "racial profiling" references) the court would again have pitched the "order" out on it's proverbial ear.

Since almost an entire city was destroyed, had the President had the presence of mind to order a state of emergency (nearly the only way to give himself the power to do what's done in this book) and then issued his order, and then fallen back on public opinion (which the book tells us is firmly in favor of stoning for the metanormals) he might have headed things the way they went, but to make it even remotely legal congress would have had to get into it sooner or later.

Building on that, the issue of "serving warrants". This is basically a euphemism for "shooting on sight". Another comparison is made in the book to the internment of Japanese Americans, that public opinion was okay with it an no one spoke up to stop it... not even the courts. True, but the Japanese weren't being shot on sight.

Some may want to point out that "a lot" of the metanormals seem to be the "super criminal" types so the M-Tac officers had to shoot, but in the story's own structure all the metanormals seem to run on sight of the police. Soledad herself refers to "killing freaks" as her job (part of the character, but it's not an unusual attitude in the book) so the author is painting a society where the metanormals are being shot on sight. I doubt that the great majority of public opinion would stay with that kind of action for very long, even after the loss of an entire city.


Also...who was (was anyone)surprised that the only person to be able to illicit a little tenderness or caring from Soledad was (turned out to be) a metanormal?

I kept waiting for some sign that Soledad was discovering that she (horror of horrors) does (after all) have some metanormal ability that is only now showing up. Would she kill herself?

By the way back to the President's infamous executive order...in the book these metanormals all (so far) seem to have one ability. But, what makes a metanormal? I mean would they overlook Batman? How about Ironman?

There are a lot of holes in the story that makes this book work, I suppose it's just another part of suspending belief or suspending reality to enjoy the story. But these and some other gaping plot holes did bug me a bit.

On the other hand, the book isn't a bad read, just (try to) accept it on it's own terms and read it as a story.

I wonder if the book/story is going where it seems to be. I actually hope not, but there's one heavily foreshadowed later plot or even outcome that almost screams "look at me!" and I really hope we aren't going there.

Early on it begins to look (to me) as if we're headed for the "the metanormals are the next step in evolution" plot. We've established that the U.S, is busily running all of the "Mutants" or (again) metanormals out of the country to Europe or elsewhere. The whole thing could be a set up for the "oops America has no metanormals and everyone else does" outcome. No children of the "new race" here. Ridley went so far as to include a conversation on the Cro-Magnon replacement of the neanderthal. Don't know if it's where he's headed, but I wouldn't be surprised. (hide spoiler)]