  We review recent progress in the construction of black holes in three
dimensional higher spin gravity theories. Starting from spin-3 gravity and
working our way toward the theory of an infinite tower of higher spins coupled
to matter, we show how to harness higher spin gauge invariance to consistently
generalize familiar notions of black holes. We review the construction of black
holes with conserved higher spin charges and the computation of their partition
functions to leading asymptotic order. In view of the AdS/CFT correspondence as
applied to certain vector-like conformal field theories with extended conformal
symmetry, we successfully compare to CFT calculations in a generalized Cardy
regime. A brief recollection of pertinent aspects of ordinary gravity is also
given.
