KAT ROSENFIELD AND STAN LEE WROTE A SUPERHERO NOVEL ABOUT CANCEL CULTURE
STAN LEE, THE legendary head of Marvel Comics for decades and a co-creator of characters such as the Fantastic Four, the X-Men, and Spider-Man, died in 2018. But it turns out he still had at least one more book in him.
A Trick of Light was released earlier this year as an audiobook and immediately became a bestseller on Audible. That sparked the release of a print version of the novel, which came out in September. The story follows the adventures of two teenagers: Cameron, a high school senior and would-be YouTube star who gains superpowers after a freak accident on Lake Erie, and Nia, a young hacker shrouded in personal mystery. It’s a meditation on virtual and augmented reality, on how the internet has failed to deliver on its promise of facilitating ever greater human connection.
Lee’s co-author on the book is Kat Rosenfield. She is the author of two highly acclaimed young adult novels: Amelia Anne Is Dead and Gone and Inland. She is also a former reporter for MTV News and a regular contributor on a wide range of subjects to outlets including New York magazine, Wired, and Playboy.
In September, Rosenfield spoke with Reason’s Nick Gillespie about the book, about collaborating with the godfather of superheroes, and about how cancel culture has infiltrated the literary world.
Gillespie: What is A Trick of Light about?
Rosenfield: is a story centered in digital culture in the internet age. In it we meet a young man named Cameron who’s an aspiring YouTube star, and we meet a young woman named Nia whose history and origins are a little bit more
