Deadlock

The EVOREALM #1

by Stephen Hudler

Two men are drawn into an alien war that has been raging for thousands of years. The Eoch and the Thiar have come to earth to settle their war by each choosing a champion that will fight for them. Eddie Solomon is a former police detective trying to get his life together when he is hit with an alien beam that alters his DNA and gives him superpowers. Across the country another man is also being "recruited" and having his DNA altered. These two must learn how their new powers work and fight one another to end an alien war they knew nothing about.

205 pages, Paperback

Published February 3, 2020

About the author

As a young boy, Stephen Hudler read lots of comic books and wanted to be a superhero. After realizing that wasn’t a valid career choice, he opted to just read the comics. Many years later, he got married, started a family and worked hard to provide a good life for them, yet in the back of his mind he still thought about that young boy and his desire to be a superhero. Knowing that was something that could never happen in real life, Stephen did the next best thing. He wrote a book about them in his debut novel, Deadlock.

Stephen lives in the Outer Banks of North Carolina with his wife, Amy, their daughter and rescue cat. When he’s not working on his next book, Stephen likes to flip through the comics at his local comic shop, try his hand at woodworking and watch classic episodes of Doctor Who.

Reviews

[Lyndon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really enjoyed this superhero novel. I liked the setup - two alien cultures pick their champions from earth's inhabitants and the future of their races hang in the balance. The two human heroes - a good guy, but broken emotionally, and a serial killer bad guy - are good picks. Plus, each hero has an alien "coach" who drives each of them forward. Very cool premise.

The comic book style action packs a lot of punch, but it's not just action all the time. Hudler does a good job with balancing characterization and backstory to the ever moving forward plot, which really adds some nice layers to the story, provoking sympathy for our hero. A complete solid story arc, but of course, there's always more to the bigger narrative. So looking forward to book 2 coming later this year. (Note: This review is from a previous edition of this book, read Feb 2022.)