EBookObsessed
Written on Jun 1, 2016
There are two types of individuals with extraordinary abilities: Supers and Powereds. If you have the ability to teleport from one place to another, you are a Super. If every time you sneeze, you need to buy an airplane ticket and fly back home, you are a Powered. Just like Supers, Powereds have a special ability, one that they simply can’t control. For every Super out there, there are three Powereds.
This story features five individuals in their early 20s who undergo an experimental procedure to turn them from Powereds into Supers. For the first time in their lives, they can control their special abilities. This has allowed them the enroll in the HCP (the “Hero Certification Program”) at Lander University to become Heroes.
Nick Campbell has the ability to control luck, both good luck and bad. As a Powered, Nick won on a $10,000 lottery ticket just before being hit be a truck and having to pay a hospital bill. Hershel Daniels is a shapeshifter. He becomes his alter-ego Roy Daniels, a man who is an indestructible, powerhouse with a love for whiskey, women and trouble. Alice Adair never spends much time outdoors. Alice can fly but before the procedure, just a happy thought could send her floating into the atmosphere with no way down. Mary Smith has the double ability of telepathy and telekinesis. With no way to shut out the voices she heard in her head, Mary lived for many years in the woods by herself, far from most human thoughts. Vince Reynolds can absorb energy and shoot it back out. He once shut down the power grid to a quarter of Colorado after he tried to fix a toaster.
They are entering college and the HCP training after a lifetime being afraid of their out-of-control abilities. Already behind their Super classmates who have spent their lives honing their abilities, these five need to quickly learn how to focus their special powers if they want to make the grade and still be in the program as Year 2 begins.
THOUGHTS:
I have enjoyed all of the Drew Hayes stories that I have listened to so far. I have used audiobooks in all his series and he has been very lucky to obtain such wonderful narrators. Maybe he had a little luck from Nick Campbell.
This was an interest concept for a story and a series. First, you have the idea of two types of people with superpowers; one who can control them and others who cannot. Those who cannot are definitely looked down upon both by Supers and by regular people. They are pitied rather than looked up to. The fact that these five characters have all been changed from Powered to Supers requires them to work harder to learn to use their abilities now that they can finally control them. They also need to hide the fact that they were once Powereds. The first reason is so they are not treated differently by their fellow students and the second reason is because if Powereds knew there was a way to finally control their abilities, they would all want the procedure and there are many who would want to use their focused abilities against everyone who looked down on them all their lives. Most Powereds are very jealous of the Supers and hate them.
The other interesting concept in the series is choosing the abilities that your characters have as well as those of their classmates. Why does Nick have the ability to control luck and how can that help or hinder (since he controls bad luck as well) as a Hero? While Mary is telekinetic, another classmate believes he is a Jedi who uses The Force. It is very interesting to see what abilities are being used and created for the story, such as a girl who can make bubbles, whether it is one bubble or a room full of bubbles. It’s not very exciting but not every ability is going to be telekinesis. In fact, training eventually comes down to those with fighting abilities, like Vince, and those with supportive abilities, like Alice’s flying. It also shows that if grouped well, all those different abilities can come together and make an outstanding team.
These students also take an ethics class to discuss dealing with collateral damage both to property and people, or what happens when a Hero goes bad.
I will admit that Year 1 is a long story at 644 pages (or 26 hrs by audio) and not all of it is fights and excitement. Some is simply getting to know the characters and how they relate to each other and their new classmates. But overall, it is good storytelling and a great concept.