I will be honest, I'm not usually the biggest of superhero fiction fanatics. I like the occasional Batman film, The Shadow is my favourite superhero of them all but he's been ruined in recent years, and all the rest of the malarkey going off in the superhero comics/film/etc industry? Miss me with that nonsense. So you can understand my usual lack of interest in the genre.
Vox Day re-ignited my interest in comic superheroes with the Alt-Hero comics, but beyond that, there has been only one or two superhero-focused products that I was mildly interested in, such as Flying Sparks and so on.
Then Silver Empire's Russell and Morgon Newquist launched their Kickstarter for their Heroes Unleashed project. Featuring Kai Wai Cheah, Jon Mollison, J. D. Cowan, Richard Watts, and the initial book by Morgon Newquist, I decided I'd give the series a chance to make up for the lack of superhero goodness. That it was novels rather than comics, which were what every man and his dog were crowdfunding at the time, pleasantly surprised me. I'm much happier with books than comics, so that alleviated some initial indecisiveness on my willingness to jump in. So I backed the project with the thought that even if I didn't personally enjoy the finished product, at least it would help out some good folks in some small way. I would have been able to make a better dent in my 'to-be-read' list, so that would have been a bonus in that outcome.
Instead Morgon delivered a top-notch book. Curses.
I just finished reading this book yesterday, and it was good. Really good. I was beyond pleasantly surprised, I was hyped for more. No simple Marvel/DC knock-off, this was an original universe, with a unique cast of characters, and a frankly better approach to superhero morality than anything the current crop of superhero universes provide. Heroes that were in it for themselves, for fame, for fortune, or the simple wish to do good, there was a nice mix. There was kind of less focus on the villains, but to be honest, there was plenty of villainy done, and adding more villains in would have crowded the scene somewhat.
I'd like to make special mention of the main villain who was a nice change of pace too. The usual approach with villains these days is a split between "I'm insane" and "I like being evil." The main villain in Serenity City is so good at his job he doesn't even make a true physical appearance until nearer the end the book. Morgon does a great job of painting the picture of this almost omnipresent evil master puppeteer. His reasons for what he does, why he does it, and how he goes about it are great as well.
The main plot is riveting, just so you know, keeping you turning pages, with that 'I'll just see what happens next' feeling that is all too common in good books. So you'll probably not want to start reading late at night if you have somewhere to be in the morning in a coherent state.
All in all, this was a great book, that I fully enjoyed, and I would heartily recommend it to anybody who enjoys superhero fiction, or good stories in general. Now I can't wait to see what is in store in the future for the Heroes Unleashed project.
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