
While reading this book, I kept feeling as if it was set in the same universe as Megamind. I liked the movie — and also this book but in a very meh sort of way.
Here are some thoughts:
The protagonist is a teenage boy who has spent a large part of his life, collecting info on the superheroes, epics, that plague his world. Instead of making the world a better place, they carved it into territories and subjected the non-powered humans to their dictatorships. The worst among them is Steelheart who also killed the protag’s dad, hence the lifelong obsession.
While the boy knows much about them — even more than an underground force of rebels in some cases — he is also wrong and learns otherwise as the story progresses. It made him more real to me.
The Scotsman who is also an Australian was a fun character. The author used his outlandish stories as direct humor while the MC came off funny without meaning to.
What I didn’t like included turning the MC’s love interest into an epic. Saw it and discarded this because it was too obvious. Her resurrection was needless too. It may have made a bigger impact — or any at all — had she stayed dead.
Felt the same way about the leader of the rebels when he was outed as an epic himself. Moreover, for a force that goes up against the epics so regularly, the rebels numbered what six people? Too much of a stretch that such a small group could do so much damage.
We don’t get much in the way of the different faiths that the denizens of this world may follow. But we do see a glimpse of people who believe good epics will come to defeat the bad ones. It could be that the author will place the MC in a group of such believers in the subsequent books?
So, yeah, we’ll have to wait and see.
It sounded like there was a decent amount you DID like about the book. The idea of superheroes making the world worse is pretty interesting.
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It was. Plus, there’s loads to be unpacked in the upcoming books. Could be interesting?
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