The Science of Supervillainy

by C T Phipps

[Melanie]

Review originally posted at BooksOfMyHeart.net.

I really love Gary, aka Merciless, the Supervillain Without Mercy™. He wants to be a supervillain so bad he can taste it, but he always seems to be on the side of good in the end (even if he might not have the “superhero” way of getting there).

In The Science of Supervillany, he wakes up in a world where everyone is being drugged into a happy state by Other Gary, aka Merciful. Other Gary is Gary’s doppelganger from another dimension. He is making the world a more peaceful place by taking away free will of the citizens.

This Supervillainy Saga series has been a lot of fun from the beginning. I love this world he’s built where superheroes and supervillains are a daily thing. The characters are a lot of fun. There are some of the craziest supervillains, like The Typewriter, Icecream Man and President Omega. There are also some fun superheroes, Ultragoddess and Nightgirl. There is also Gary’s sidekicks, Cindy Wakowski aka Red Riding Hood and Diabloman. There is also Cloak, which is the cloak that gives Gary his supervillain powers, but is also sentient and has all the knowledge learned from previous wearers, including superhero,The Nightwalker. Cloak talks to Gary in his head and acts a bit like an angel on his shoulder and conscience. Last but not least, Mandy Karkofsky, Gary’s wife.

These characters are what really makes this series fun for me. I’ve really enjoyed watching them grow as characters. I love how they want to be villains, but just can’t seem to do what is best for mankind. I’m a big character driven reader, so I love it when an author really makes me care for characters, even if they are sentient objects like Cloak.

I don’t want to go into this story too much, to avoid spoilers for previous books. Just know this story seems to wrap up the story arc as the final battle finally happens. While, there was some sadness with the ending, I think it was very fitting for the series. I was happy with how it all wrapped up.

This is a fun series full of pop culture references, especially for the nerds out there like me. There are some references I didn’t get, but I got most of them. I think most people who’ve grown up with Lord of the Rings, Star Wars and the other classics of nerdom will enjoy all the lines that reference these stories.

If you want to try this series, do start with book one, The Rules of Supervillainy, and read in consecutive order or you will be completely lost.

Narration
Jeffrey Kafer continues to do a great job with the narration of this series. He really brings out the humor in these stories. He’s great with male and female characters. And his pace and tone are perfect for this series. I highly recommend people to checkout his work, if you’ve never listened to him before.