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faileskye's review against another edition
3.0
Another good actioney book. It has the same problems as the first, eg. Stupid decisions moving on the plot. And added into the mix is a theme that seems to be getting pretty common these days: jerk characters that are so unlikable that they distract you from the story. Really don't get that.
The bad aside, this is still a ton of fun to read. The author is extremely creative with the superpowers and especially with his solutions to when I think normal writers would say they have written themselves into a wall. And Lance and Brawn? Yes please. Can we just get books about them? And can the other characters start listening to them since they seem to be more intelligent than all the others combined?
A nifty thing the author did was show his research. His alternate reality really rang true. Kind of scary actually.
The bad aside, this is still a ton of fun to read. The author is extremely creative with the superpowers and especially with his solutions to when I think normal writers would say they have written themselves into a wall. And Lance and Brawn? Yes please. Can we just get books about them? And can the other characters start listening to them since they seem to be more intelligent than all the others combined?
A nifty thing the author did was show his research. His alternate reality really rang true. Kind of scary actually.
glimnore's review against another edition
5.0
"How the heck are you supposed to deal with an over-powered super-villain who seemingly adapts to everything you throw at him? That nothing that you use against him can be used a second time? Oh, also he has an eidetic memory, an IQ well close to 200, super-strength that rivals Hercules, and controls the whole damn state of America? The answer?...." -Jib-
Introduction:
Terribly sorry for the lack of updates, I was dealing with finals. ANYWAY.....
I'm quite the fan of Michael Carroll's works, primarily because of my personal and overly idealistic dream of wanting to become a super-hero when I grow up. But hey! His ideas and works speak to me! The world that he has created over the years has the excitement of both the works of Marvel and DC comics, while not having the ridiculous amount of super-powered humans and over-powered bad-guys.
Okay the last bit is not ENTIRELY true, but hey! It works for him! And He's quite the good writer, so without further ado....
Let us review!
Characters: (5/5)
The characters within this book are essentially the same main characters from Carroll's last book, SUPER-HUMAN, as well as some characters from Carroll's other book-series: The Quantum Prophecy. It was quite nice to re-meet the familiar faces of the latter, and since this book does occur chronologically before the Quantum Prophecy series, it was very interesting to see the kinds of people certain characters were before they became all "Big and famous."
Of these past characters were: Solomon Cord, aka Paragon, whose already known of fate (In the QP series) has readers sniffing with slight bouts of nostalgia, Max Dalton, who everyone just things is a serious jerk. (But hey, wouldn't anyone think that of a guy who can read and control minds), and Impervia, who I just find one-dimensional and uninteresting as always.
But these weren't the main characters. The Four Mains were: Lance, Roz, Abby, and James Klaus (AKA THUNDER) and they all matured beautifully. (As sketchy as that sounds...)I meant in terms of character development and ideology. Roz advanced her powers and changed certain specific aspects about herself, Abby discovered some new advantages of her power and struggled with her growing affection of; Thunder, whose powers advance to a ridiculously AWESOME level, so much that it's obvious by reading up on him, just how creative the author is.
Last but not least is Lance. And yeah, he doesn't have a super power. But for some odd reason, I guess he is my favorite character. Maybe it's because he's normal? Maybe it's because he is brave? The man's got heart. That's for sure, and after what he goes through in the novel, it's pretty awe-inspiring that he can still stand on his two legs with his head held up high.
Prose: (4.8/5)
I didn't give this a perfect rating, but it came close. For the MAJORITY of the book the prose was quick-paced, fun to read, and got the message across both emotionally and physically to the reader. But once, every now and then, things sort of got a little choppy or overly convoluted. Though this was rare, it does sort of detract from the rating, just a tad.
Pacing: (5/5)
The pacing was spot on. By page 50, the reader is thrown into what appears to be a hopeless situation. It's perfect.
Plot: (4/5)
I took off one star only due to the very ending. I felt it was slightly rushed, a character I had grown fascination with just died, a bunch of odd things happened which just made me wonder about the plot in general. Add a star if you didn't think the plot wasn't just a little....what's the word....
World: (5/5)
The world or now WORLDS Carroll uses are great. And he juggles them perfectly without getting everything overly complicated and spilling into itself.
TOTALS!
5+4.8+5+4+5= 23.8! 23.8/5 = 4.76!
I'm rounding it to 5.
"The answer?.....IMPROVISE!"
Introduction:
Terribly sorry for the lack of updates, I was dealing with finals. ANYWAY.....
I'm quite the fan of Michael Carroll's works, primarily because of my personal and overly idealistic dream of wanting to become a super-hero when I grow up. But hey! His ideas and works speak to me! The world that he has created over the years has the excitement of both the works of Marvel and DC comics, while not having the ridiculous amount of super-powered humans and over-powered bad-guys.
Okay the last bit is not ENTIRELY true, but hey! It works for him! And He's quite the good writer, so without further ado....
Let us review!
Characters: (5/5)
The characters within this book are essentially the same main characters from Carroll's last book, SUPER-HUMAN, as well as some characters from Carroll's other book-series: The Quantum Prophecy. It was quite nice to re-meet the familiar faces of the latter, and since this book does occur chronologically before the Quantum Prophecy series, it was very interesting to see the kinds of people certain characters were before they became all "Big and famous."
Of these past characters were: Solomon Cord, aka Paragon, whose already known of fate (In the QP series) has readers sniffing with slight bouts of nostalgia, Max Dalton, who everyone just things is a serious jerk. (But hey, wouldn't anyone think that of a guy who can read and control minds), and Impervia, who I just find one-dimensional and uninteresting as always.
But these weren't the main characters. The Four Mains were: Lance, Roz, Abby, and James Klaus (AKA THUNDER) and they all matured beautifully. (As sketchy as that sounds...)I meant in terms of character development and ideology. Roz advanced her powers and changed certain specific aspects about herself, Abby discovered some new advantages of her power and struggled with her growing affection of; Thunder, whose powers advance to a ridiculously AWESOME level, so much that it's obvious by reading up on him, just how creative the author is.
Last but not least is Lance. And yeah, he doesn't have a super power. But for some odd reason, I guess he is my favorite character. Maybe it's because he's normal? Maybe it's because he is brave? The man's got heart. That's for sure, and after what he goes through in the novel, it's pretty awe-inspiring that he can still stand on his two legs with his head held up high.
Prose: (4.8/5)
I didn't give this a perfect rating, but it came close. For the MAJORITY of the book the prose was quick-paced, fun to read, and got the message across both emotionally and physically to the reader. But once, every now and then, things sort of got a little choppy or overly convoluted. Though this was rare, it does sort of detract from the rating, just a tad.
Pacing: (5/5)
The pacing was spot on. By page 50, the reader is thrown into what appears to be a hopeless situation. It's perfect.
Plot: (4/5)
I took off one star only due to the very ending. I felt it was slightly rushed, a character I had grown fascination with just died, a bunch of odd things happened which just made me wonder about the plot in general. Add a star if you didn't think the plot wasn't just a little....what's the word....
World: (5/5)
The world or now WORLDS Carroll uses are great. And he juggles them perfectly without getting everything overly complicated and spilling into itself.
TOTALS!
5+4.8+5+4+5= 23.8! 23.8/5 = 4.76!
I'm rounding it to 5.
"The answer?.....IMPROVISE!"
dlsmall's review against another edition
3.0
As a comic book geek who reads a lot of YA, this was a book that I was obviously going to read. I liked Carroll's preceding "Quantum Prophesy" trilogy a lot. I was less sold on the first title in this trilogy (Super Human). I do like the design of the ancient Assyrian "villain" brought to our time, Krodin...he is very demigod-y.
This book could definitely have been slimmmed down by about fifty pages, with the streamlining of one of the numerous parallel plots. I did appreciate the way that the young hero Thunder's power (sound wave control) was developed, making him a serious threat, where he was previously kind of a support player. The ulimate handling of the story's "big bad" was also fairly clever.
It can be so hard to find accessible YA books for boys, so I am always on the lookout for titles to recommend to my buddy the school librarian, and this book fits the bill for superhero loving dudes (And dudettes). I know several students who will dig this series. But, if you're not into the genre, I'd skip it.
This book could definitely have been slimmmed down by about fifty pages, with the streamlining of one of the numerous parallel plots. I did appreciate the way that the young hero Thunder's power (sound wave control) was developed, making him a serious threat, where he was previously kind of a support player. The ulimate handling of the story's "big bad" was also fairly clever.
It can be so hard to find accessible YA books for boys, so I am always on the lookout for titles to recommend to my buddy the school librarian, and this book fits the bill for superhero loving dudes (And dudettes). I know several students who will dig this series. But, if you're not into the genre, I'd skip it.
ssjonoyoung's review against another edition
4.0
Lance is absolutely my fave. So good, a really good superhero story!
awesomemark's review against another edition
5.0
This is not a perfect book but I give it my five stars because it is a book that is right up my alley. I really enjoyed the first book and would've hated it to be a standalone. I was so excited to see that there was a second that I bought it, the third and the forth all together to save me time chasing them down later.
This one continues the adventure from book one. It takes place only a few weeks later and the heroes are still recovering. Abbey is testing her limits with the help of Paragon, Roz and Max are getting back to business, Thunder is focusing on civilian life with the family and no one has seen Lance since they fought Krodin and he was placed in protective custody.
Brawn comes back and gets a great moment to shine. Thunder has to learn really quickly what his power can actually do. Even Slaughter returns but in a really enjoyable way that I hope gets flushed out later. My one real unanswered question involves her and a kind of "how did she become bad then?"
Long story short, I like Superheroes. This series and this book are fun for me. Could you find better somewhere else? Sure but I don't want to. I like these characters and I'll continue to follow their story.
This one continues the adventure from book one. It takes place only a few weeks later and the heroes are still recovering. Abbey is testing her limits with the help of Paragon, Roz and Max are getting back to business, Thunder is focusing on civilian life with the family and no one has seen Lance since they fought Krodin and he was placed in protective custody.
Brawn comes back and gets a great moment to shine. Thunder has to learn really quickly what his power can actually do. Even Slaughter returns but in a really enjoyable way that I hope gets flushed out later. My one real unanswered question involves her and a kind of "how did she become bad then?"
Long story short, I like Superheroes. This series and this book are fun for me. Could you find better somewhere else? Sure but I don't want to. I like these characters and I'll continue to follow their story.
drtlovesbooks's review against another edition
3.0
What it's about: After seemingly destroying the unstoppable tyrant Krodin, young heroes Abby, Lance, Roz, and Thunder try to return to their lives. But things have changed.
Lance's world has been completely turned upside-down, as he no longer has a family. But while the others try to figure out how to move forward with what they've learned about their abilities, something strange happens. Suddenly, all the heroes who fought Krodin experience an odd sensation, and the world changes around them. Suddenly there is surveillance everywhere, people are marching in silent lines down the streets, a paramilitary force seems to be enforcing strict rules.
And the person in charge is Krodin.
As the group tries to find each other and work out what has happened, they find themselves in a race against time. The United States is about to be invaded by a coalition of other nations bent on defeating Krodin. The death toll will be catastrophic if the heroes can't figure out a way to take Krodin down.
But how do you stop someone who is undefeatable?
What I thought: This installment of the series was pretty entertaining. But there was one moment that kind of took me out of the story. Carroll tends to fit the pieces of his puzzles together pretty carefully, and there's this one passage in the book where there's a bit that feels like I skipped a page. I backed up and re-read the section a few times to see if I was missing some detail that would make it more logical, but I couldn't find anything, and it kind of took me out of the story; I spent a good part of the rest of the book keeping one eye peeled for further disjunctions.
I am a bit ambivalent about how Carroll is addressing death and killing in this particular book. There's one death that just seems to come out of nowhere for no particular reason; it's completely unnecessary. And there are several discussions among the characters about whether it's okay to kill for a greater purpose, or even accidentally. I appreciate that several of these teens are not willing to take a life - I think that's a good choice. But to put the characters into literal life-or-death situations and have them react by carefully considering how they need to avoid casualties doesn't seem to fit with the rest of the realism of the story.
The end of this story also sets up another half a dozen possible storylines for future installments, depending on which way Carroll decides to go with things. But it seems like it's going to reintroduce some issues from the last book, if the story continues to unfold in a way that follows a semi-logical path. So I'm curious to see what happens.
Why I rated it like I did: This book had some more obvious flaws that the previous installment. I also realized in looking this book up on Goodreads that there actually seem to be several prequels and at least one sequel. I may try to track them down to see where things start and where they went from here.
Lance's world has been completely turned upside-down, as he no longer has a family. But while the others try to figure out how to move forward with what they've learned about their abilities, something strange happens. Suddenly, all the heroes who fought Krodin experience an odd sensation, and the world changes around them. Suddenly there is surveillance everywhere, people are marching in silent lines down the streets, a paramilitary force seems to be enforcing strict rules.
And the person in charge is Krodin.
As the group tries to find each other and work out what has happened, they find themselves in a race against time. The United States is about to be invaded by a coalition of other nations bent on defeating Krodin. The death toll will be catastrophic if the heroes can't figure out a way to take Krodin down.
But how do you stop someone who is undefeatable?
What I thought: This installment of the series was pretty entertaining. But there was one moment that kind of took me out of the story. Carroll tends to fit the pieces of his puzzles together pretty carefully, and there's this one passage in the book where there's a bit that feels like I skipped a page. I backed up and re-read the section a few times to see if I was missing some detail that would make it more logical, but I couldn't find anything, and it kind of took me out of the story; I spent a good part of the rest of the book keeping one eye peeled for further disjunctions.
I am a bit ambivalent about how Carroll is addressing death and killing in this particular book. There's one death that just seems to come out of nowhere for no particular reason; it's completely unnecessary. And there are several discussions among the characters about whether it's okay to kill for a greater purpose, or even accidentally. I appreciate that several of these teens are not willing to take a life - I think that's a good choice. But to put the characters into literal life-or-death situations and have them react by carefully considering how they need to avoid casualties doesn't seem to fit with the rest of the realism of the story.
The end of this story also sets up another half a dozen possible storylines for future installments, depending on which way Carroll decides to go with things. But it seems like it's going to reintroduce some issues from the last book, if the story continues to unfold in a way that follows a semi-logical path. So I'm curious to see what happens.
Why I rated it like I did: This book had some more obvious flaws that the previous installment. I also realized in looking this book up on Goodreads that there actually seem to be several prequels and at least one sequel. I may try to track them down to see where things start and where they went from here.
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