Culture Man: An Adventure

Culture Man: An Adventure, Guy Cook, 2017, Amazon Digital Services, Inc.

Rob is a resident of present-day England, specifically, the town of Winchester. He runs a blog where he commits to do one culture thing per week, like visiting a local museum or art gallery, and then writes about it. Marianne, his ex-girlfriend, is a biochemist for a major food company.

One day, Rob makes himself a peanut butter and jam sandwich. It's not jam, it's one of Marianne's biochem creations. Combined with a painful, but non-fatal, bite from a lizard during a previous trip to Greece, Rob suddenly gains super-hero powers.

No, he does not turn into the Incredible Hulk. He does gain the ability to run 100 meters in six seconds, and he can fly. The first thing Rob wants to do is to win a local tennis tournament. Because of his culture blog, Rob starts to call himself Culture Man.

Every super-hero needs a super-villain. Someone called the Velvet Vandal has evidently been reading Rob's blog. That is because items from the places mentioned in the blog are stolen. The two eventually agree to meet at the top of Winchester Cathedral for the Final Confrontation. Who is the Velvet Vandal? Does someone fall dramatically to their death from the top of the cathedral? Are Rob's abilities permanent or do they have an expiration date? Does an ambitious Oxford Professor of Biochemistry have any involvement?

This is a very "quiet" superhero tale, but a very good one. It shows what can happen when an average person becomes a super-hero. Yes, it is well worth the reader's time.