I recently finished reading Reflex by Steven Gould. It’s the sequel Jumper (which has a passing resemblance to the movie). Both books are fun reads and I really recommend them if that’s your thing.
Anyway, for those that are unaware the books feature someone who has the ability to teleport. I find that I really enjoy reading sci-fi books about people who have powers and deal with them in today’s society. It goes along with the day dreaming I often find myself doing.
So does anyone know of other books similar to Reflex and Jumper in that normal people in current society discover they have powers and deal with that realization?
It’s not exactly what you are looking for, but the first thing that the OP made me think of was the Wild Cards series of mosaic novels edited by George R.R. Martin.
They are short stories about superhero (supervillian) types that pop up after the world in infected with a plague.
IIRC 50% of the world is immune. Of the 50% that is not immune 99% die horrible deaths. Of that remaining 1%, 99 out of a hundred become Jokers (horribly disfigured monsters). The remaining 1% become Aces who resemble classic style superheroes.
My numbers may be wrong, but that’s the basic idea. A group of writers take this main idea and build short story collections about the Ace’s and Jokers (or norms) in the world post plague.
There are a lot of volumes, and they aren’t all great, but the first 5 volumes or so are worth a read. And there is some awesome sci-fi writing in them.
I haven’t read it, but you might try Michael Bishop’s Count Geiger’s Blues.
The fact that Dying Inside is out of print is a condemnation of the US book industry. I’m surprised NESFA Press hasn’t picked it up – it’s a classic novel, not just of science fiction, but of literature in general.
Ken Grimwood’s *Replay *is about a guy who keeps living his life over and over again. It’s sort of like having “powers” because he retains the knowledge of all his previous lives.
If being invisible counts as a ‘power’, then you may like to read both the original ‘Invisible Man’ by H.G.Wells and ‘Memoirs of an Invisible Man’ by HF Saint which is a very creditable and entertaining modern re-telling of the same plot. The latter was the basis for a 1992 John Carpenter movie that, though neither very good nor very bad, failed to match the quality of the book and shouldn’t put you off reading it. Wells also gave us ‘The Man Who Could Work Miracles’, a short story that was turned into a better than average movie back in 1936.
‘The Midwych Cuckoos’ by John Wyndham offers a very good twist on the ‘people suddenly get special powers’ theme, in that the empowered ones are children and the story is told not from their point of view but from the point of view of those whose lives they impact.
Firestarter should definitely count! I love Replay too
Also - To Ride Pegasus by Anne McCaffrey. I haven’t read it in ages (and some of her books haven’t held up with age for me) but I remember really liking it at the time.
Not today’s world, but I highly recommend Alfred Bester’s The Demolished Man (which won the first Hugo, and is about committing the Perfect Crime in a world with telepaths) and The Stars my Destination (teleportation).
In both novels the abilities are in the open and widesopread, but not universal.
Kevin O’Donnell, Jr’s The Journeys of McGill Feighan is a series of novels about a “flinger” (a person who can teleport himself, other people, or objects). Good stuff. (If you decide to give this series a try, be sure to read the books in order, starting with Caverns.)
Children of the Atom, by Wilmar Shiras. In real life, prenatal exposure to high radiation is as like as not to produce children with parts missing. In some books, especially comic books, children with telepathic and telekinetic powers. In this novel, children with impossibly high IQs.
See also The Boy Who Could Fly, by Robert Newman. (He never does fly in the story, but he’s superbrilliant and probably a telepath.)
I’d also recommend The Fermata by Nicholson Baker. Features a protagonist who has the ability to stop time, and uses it – well, the way a lot of us might. Not for everybody; in a way, the whole book is an extended sexual fantasy.
In S.M. Stirling’s Draka novel Drakon, the Draka, always culturally committed to the idea of being superhuman, have become so literally through genetic engineering. No telepathy or telekinesis, but they’re super-strong, super-tough, super-smart (but a bit limited in imagination and creativity), super-acute in their senses, super-horny, and capable of dominating unmodified humans through the pheromones they exude.
