you’re the only child of a family of superheroes? What if you have no superpowers of your own? What if you’ve been estranged from your family because of that lack? What if you’ve become a CPA specializing in forensic accounting?

And what if, in the course of your work, you find out the origin story of your parents and their fellow superheroes, and it doesn’t reflect particularly well on them?

That’s the premise of Carrie Vaughn’s After the Golden Age.

I have to admit I’d never thought of the trials of superheroes’ children (the family and its cohorts [the Olympiad] are pretty clearly modeled after The Fantastic Four, but Sue and Reed Richards never had children). For one thing, poor Celia is constantly at risk of being kidnapped by the Olympiad’s enemies in the hope that she’ll serve as leverage against them.

Their major foe is about to be prosecuted for the equivalent of income tax evasion, and Celia’s forensic talents are required to search his records. That’s when the backstory hits the fan.

It’s a very quick read and a lot of fun, with a twist at the end. I enjoyed it.