I really wanted to like this book. It was recommended by friends, it’s about comic books, it has that gold Pulitzer sticker on the cover. What could go wrong?

It started out great; it combined humor, pathos, adventure and a look into the creative process. Like a huge splash, the initial energy created eventually dissipated. The humor became forced, the situations that Chabon put his characters in brought on the head shaking and eye rolling that usually accompanies the transition from the real to the surreal and by two thirds of the way through this book it became a slog and I began to just not care about any of it and my thoughts turned to Skyrim or Fallout New Vegas.

I like historical fiction, so I did enjoy the name dropping and the ability Chabon has in re-creating the look and feel of the times, but it just wasn’t enough to push this book beyond three stars.