JLA writer tempts"Fate"

Novelist Brad Meltzer's latest thriller, The Book of Fate, takes the reader into the private lives of ex-presidents, and also focuses on the secret society of masons, and who some of its famous members have been. To promote the novel, Meltzer's publicists have created this interesting site that reveals famous masons.

I have read four of Meltzer's novels (Fate being his 6th), and have enjoyed them for what they are -- easy-to-read, hard-to-put down, not very deep thrillers, in the vein of Grisham's The Firm. This time, he appears to be channelling The Da Vinci Code, though he has claimed that not to be the case, but emphasized only for the marketing of the book. I will likely pick up his fifth book, The Zero Game, soon, and will read Fate when it hits paperback.

Of course, what drew me to Meltzer's novels was his comics work. First, he was the successor to filmmaker Kevin Smith on Green Arrow, where he told a tale about family bond, brotherhood and secrets of the past. "The Archer's Quest" was a very good, but small story, which served as a precursor to a much bigger story-- Identity Crisis, where he took the concept of heroes' secrets much further (down a path that the heroes are only now emerging from more than two years later).

Now in a move excellently timed with the release of The Book of Fate, Meltzer is writing a brand new Justice League of America series (Identity Crisis, again, being the start of the reason that a new League needed to be started in the first place). In fact, the first issue of the new JLA series contained the first chapter of Fate (not coincidentally, the novel is published by Warner books, a Time Warners division, just like DC Comics). What's cool is that when Meltzer does interviews promoting his novel, he always mentions that he is writing JLA as well, drawing some mainstream attention to the comic. his books always contain comic refrences, usually in character names.

Meltzer is on the book for 12-13 issues, not sure exactly, and the first two have already come out. So far, so good. He helped drag down the DC Universe, let's see if if he can bring it back up again.