One of the late Stan Lee’s final projects, a superhero origins story about two teenagers with extraordinary powers who must come together to save the world from destruction, will be published as a novel this autumn.
A Trick of the Light, co-written by Kat Rosenfield, tells of the friendship between Cameron, who has the ability to manipulate technology with his mind after a freak accident, and the mysterious hacker and coding genius Nia. When physical and online forces threaten the annihilation of the human race, they must combine their powers to save the world.
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, which will publish the book on 17 September, said the book was Lee’s “first novel for adult readers”, and that it had been “years in the making”. According to the publisher, it is “packed with the pulse-pounding, breakneck adventure and the sheer exuberant invention that have defined [Lee’s] career as the creative mastermind behind Marvel’s spectacular universe”.
“Our yarn is filled with tantalising technologies that will make you hunger for tomorrow, while our characters strive to find the answers today,” writes Lee in his introduction. “They’ll ask the questions we all have about love, friendship, acceptance, and the search for a higher purpose.”
The novel will follow an audio version of the story from Audible. Out this week and narrated by actor Yara Shahidi, Audible’s version features Lee’s voice and is set in a universe co-created by Lee, Luke Lieberman and Ryan Silbert.
Lee, who co-created characters including Spider-Man, X-Men and Iron Man, died in November at the age of 95. Since his death, his former business manager has been arrested on charges of elder abuse, and his daughter has sued his manager and two others over a “sinister plot” to take financial advantage of him.
