A Super take on the whole "Hero" Genre

As sets go, this is a good one. I've seen much longer collections, but this one works well for its length, and you certainly get your money's worth. I think twenty one hours for a meaty YA series is an excellent length, and the price is actually what most standard audiobooks go for, so even that is more than acceptable. As I see it, this is well worth the cost for the level of writing, narration, and run time combined into one surprisingly good series. I say that, because I don't often see good superhero novels, and when I do encounter bad ones I don't review them; I just move on. TVSS is a really fun series, and is something that my kids can enjoy right alongside me. It might be young adult in flavor, but it is grown up enough to capture your imagination, too.

The concept is pretty simple, a nerdy teen gets involved in an altercation that had life threatening implications, and in the process has powers emerge. NO SPOILERS! He then meets up with a semi-dead girl who sort of helps out. Ted, the newly powered kid, has some problems to address; such as who can he trust? Who is his friend? Can he survive until tomorrow? The next book has him trying to get a handle on his powers as he does his best to do the whole serve and protect thing. He's still trying to find out what Erica, the not so dead girl is hiding from him, and a new evil is coming to confront Ted and his team and she just might be holding the answers to how to stop it. Book three deals with quite a few foes, one being a potential new POTUS, so the team will be needing to tread lightly. Too bad they can't catch their breath! All in all this is a fine series that deals well with a Peter Parkeresque lead character, byt that I just mean the nobody kid who suddenly becomes empowered. I rather enjoyed this a lot and look forward to the next collection. For me, collections are best. I used to wait until a series had completed its whole run before I bought book one, so that way, if I liked it, I wouldn't have to wait and could just plow straight through the series. Collections allow me to do that, and since the price of the collection is the same for one book it is well worth it for me (and by extension, YOU).

Neil Hellegers does a great job narrating, and I have to say that he really portrayed the weight that rested on Ted's shoulders at times. He doesn't just read the story, he breaths life into it. He is pleasant to listen to, and I would happily listen to other tales he narrates. Even though I did receive a promo code for this review it in no way influenced my considerations of the material, and in fact, inspired me to be more honest. In fact, getting a code generally makes me harsher as a reviewer as I am more often concerned what someone like Me will decide based on my review.

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12 people found this helpful

all around subpar

I can see the author was trying and I will give them plenty of credit for that. I definitely think they have the potential to do something good. But this was not it. the plot itself felt like one of the most generic marysue stories I could have imagined and basically everything that happened in the first several hours of the book felt incredibly nonsensical and unrealistic. it's the kind of thing that would only make sense to the mind of like a young teenager and the way that everyone reacts to things that happened in the story

not to mention the main character himself is somehow portrayed has being like this goody-two-shoes nice guy but he actually ends up being this incredibly shallow and kind of disgusting person. it's not even really spoilers since it happens within the first hour of the book but he's got this really impressive girlfriend who genuinely loves him and cares for him but he loses her because he's too busy obsessing over someone he was friends with as a child but grew up to for lack of better descriptors to be the stereotypical slutty cheerleader bitch stereotype and that just made him incredibly unlikeable as a character.

one other thing that really grated on me and to be fair I don't think this is the fault of either the writer or the narrator but the book at times is really hard to follow. They randomly jump around to different characters and different times and also there's a lot of internal dialogue that can make following conversations and interactions very difficult. it's probably easier to follow if you were actually physically reading the book but listening to the narrator reading it out more than one time I was confused trying to figure out whether that was something a character said inside their head or they said outside.

it's not the worst book I found on Audible. and it had potential, but it just did not come out well. there are much better superhero books to check out instead.

6 people found this helpful

Fails to be realistic'

Seems like the only people ''allowed' to die here are people who will eventually come back as a member of a new army. When the so called 'good guys' have an opportunity to end their foes, they 'knock them out' instead, and give them all kinds of opportunity to try again. Its childish and ridiculous. One of the characters knows full well what is at stake, and when she has a chance to crossbow one, she baseballs bats him and mocks him as he lays unconcious. smh.

Clearly the author is not ready to 'commit' to own characters. Its like he wants all the heroes to be so 'good' that they are unable to do what needs to be done.

Well... I don't have to suffer it. Im out!

loved it!

I could not stop listening until I was finished! if you do not like it....hmm you will like it!

This... was bad

This book has joined the very short list (1 other) of books that I just couldn't stomach finishing. The premise is ok, and even some of the concepts sound interesting. But the dialogue is mediocre, the characters seem rather shallow, and the interactions between characters are just plain hokey at times. It reads like something written by an alien whose only concept of how humans act comes from watching Saturday morning cartoons and the occasional soap opera. The narrator was decent and gets props for making the best of a bad situation.

2 people found this helpful

boring as hell!

boring story. very insipod. could not make it padt the second book at all. wish I could say more but just cannot.

I want my money and time back

I listened up to chapter twenty. It's like trying to make sense of the most ditzy and airheaded teenager in town. The author can't make up their mind of what kind of story it's supposed to be. Breakfast Club, supernatural mystery and horror, Tsundrae, or a sci-fi superhero story. add a point of view that keeps on changing like every 6 minutes, and it makes the entire story a mess.

I have read fanfiction that had more thought and cohesivene plot in it.

Just too simple

It may have some potential, but it was just too simple. I got through the first book, but after that I couldn't continue. This may be only the second Audiobook that I just had to give up on.

Distressingly narrated

The Narrators cadence sounds like a "surfer dude" its very distracting and annoying. minus 2 stars.