Steve Englehart has been the lead writer for both Marvel and DC on several occasions, and a founding father of Malibu's Ultraverse. His redefinition of the Batman as a mature adult completely changed both comics and the films made from them for the last three decades, but there's also Captain America, Silver Surfer, Doctor Strange, Coyote, the JLA, and dozens of others, all labeled "definitive" by the readers. He created Kilowog of the Green Lantern Corps and the Night Man, who got a TV series. All the different realities he likes to explore come together in his Timeless series of magickal thrillers from Tor, The Point Man, The Long Man, and now The Plain Man, starring a normal guy named Max August who has learned a few useful skills, like immortality, and control of gravity and light. Max is waging war on the cabal that is trying to turn America into its own private corporation, known by its initials, FRC. Said Shelf Awareness: " Englehart never takes his hand off the throttle, essentially turning Max's war with the FRC into the mystical equivalent of James Bond vs. SMERSH."
Max August is not invulnerable, but he never ages—a gift he earned while studying under the legendary alchemist Cornelius Agrippa. August, now an alchemist himself, is using his magickal abilities to fight the right-wing conspiracy known as the FRC, which seeks to control all aspects of society. At the top of the FRC is a nine-member cabal, each member of which is a powerful force in one area of society, such as media, politics, finance…and wizardry.
When Max learns that two members of the cabal are en route to Wickr, a Burning Man–like festival held in the American Southwest, he stages a plan to gather information from them and, he hopes turn one member against the others. Max has been careful not to leave a trail, but the cabal sees all, and an “accident” at a nuclear waste facility just 100 miles from the festival would send a clear message to those who oppose the FRC. Max may be timeless, but he is running out of time to stop the FRC and save millions of lives.
