Jackrabbit

Just Cause Universe #5

by Ian Thomas Healy

Jay is having a pretty bad day at school. His popular cheerleader girlfriend just dumped him and a jock spilled soda all over his brand new Nikes. So when the God of Rabbits recruits him to save the world from an invasion of interstellar cockroaches, it seems like it might be a pretty cool gig. Maybe he could lose his new status as social outcast and win back his girl. Unfortunately, in the spectrum of god-like abilities, rabbits rank pretty low, and Jay received the ability to make snarky wisecracks, jump real high, and… that’s about all. With all other superheroes snapped up by the Cockroach God and his minions running rampant in the extradimensional Gods’ Home, Jay is left to the monumental task of rescuing civilization on his own, or so he thinks. The good news is the Bluebird Goddess has also found a Herald of her own, one of Jay's classmates who can now soar through the air with ease, but who also can’t shut up for two minutes. Can these two unlikely heroes rise to the challenge of defending humanity?

Genres: Superheroes

256 pages, Paperback

Published April 1, 2014

About the author

Ian Thomas Healy is a prolific writer who dabbles in many different speculative genres. His superhero novel Deep Six: A Just Cause Novel was a Top 100 Semi-finalist in the 2008 Amazon.com Breakthrough Novel Award. He’s a seven-time participant and winner of National Novel Writing Month where he’s tackled such diverse subjects as sentient alien farts, competitive forklift racing, a religion-powered rabbit-themed superhero, cyberpunk mercenaries, cowboy elves, and an unlikely combination of vampires with minor league hockey. He is also the creator of the Writing Better Action Through Cinematic Techniques workshop, which helps writers to improve their action scenes.

His goal is to become as integral to the genre of superhero fiction as William Gibson was to cyberpunk and Anne Rice was to urban fantasy.

Ian lives in Colorado with his wife, three children, and a plethora of housepets. When not writing, which is rare, he likes to take road trip, enjoys watching football and hockey, and listening to or playing music. His ebooks can be found on Smashwords, Kindle, Nook, iBook Store, and other online retailers.

Reviews

[Colleen Ray · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a fun read! This is the fifth in the Superhero-genre Just Cause Universe series, but can be read as a stand alone novel. Full of snarky humor,I think it's the best of the bunch so far. At under 300 pages, it's a quick read, and the plot moves along rapidly, with no drag at all. The characters are nicely defined, and it's well-edited as always.

The two main characters are high school students, and this novel is appropriate for all ages; it would be a great way to introduce younger kids to this series, but it's an enjoyable read for adults as well.

Part of Jackrabbit takes place in The Gods' Home, which would make a great location for a future book, independent of the Just Cause series.

[Ira Creasman · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’m a fan of the Just Cause Universe. Sometimes it’s hand-wrenchingly suspenseful. Sometimes it asks the difficult questions. And sometimes it’s off-the-wall zany. Like, multi-pantheon, rabbit-god, alien-roach zany. Jackrabbit, with one big foot in the realm of the gods and the other firmly in mouth (possibly next to the tongue in the cheek), is all about improbable hijinks, even in so bold a universe as the JCUniverse.

Our hero, Jay, is a high school kid down his luck. His girlfriend broke up with him, his sneakers are ruined, and his mom is on his case about his grades. Then he meets the God of Rabbits. As is wont to happen?

Jay becomes the Herald of the God of Rabbits. What follows is a quest to save the world from the God of Cockroaches and his army of alien cockroach invaders. Fortunately, Jay's got back up: the Herald of the God of Bluebirds, a long-suffering General with the U.S. Army, and a best friend named Bunny whose boyfriend is a master of costume design.

This is not a book that asks difficult moral questions. Well, it does, but in the context of defending against alien cockroaches with super-secret military technology. This book is more focused on the personal stories of Jackrabbit and Bluebird as highlighted by improbable hijinks, about what it means to be different as a teenager, about knowing who you can count on, about finding friends in desperate circumstances, about doing what needs done when the world is in peril and then jumping really, really far.

[David Harriss · Rating 4 out of 5]

Action comedy, super style

Filled with serious dangers, ominous foreshadowing, government conspiracies, and deadly action, Jackrabbit remains almost farcical in tone and a highly engaging read.
Cons include minor proofreading errors, a lack of familiar faces, and exaggerated stereotypes.
Pros include excellent quips, dastardly foes, honest heroes, a battle of gods, interesting cosmology, and a protagonist that kept things light and fun despite the stakes.

[Deanna · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely love JackRabbit! Super fun read and there's plenty of levity throughout! JackRabbit and BlueBird are great characters! And Bunny and Spence, I felt like they my friends, too! I have revealed some names, but if you want to know more about the book? You're going to have to read it for yourself!

I received this book free from the author in exchange for an honest review.

[Jon Spriggs · Rating 4 out of 5]

A quirky read. Don't expect anything too serious here either. Glass I picked it up though

[Julie Howard · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book. This is the fifth book in the series but with the Just Cause super hero team all having vanished it is up to two new teen supers hero's to save the day and means this book could be a stand alone book. I love the Just Cause team but it took me a while to get into this book not because I didn't like the characters but I think it was because I couldn't get my head around ancient gods giving out powers. Yes I know humans born with powers is fine but given them. Anyway I soon got caught up in the story when the duo started tackling the space bugs (Yuck!) and I loved the whole costume scenes. You have got to love The sidekicks. Jackrabbit is just as quick with the witty come backs and one liners as the hero's making it fun and entertaining and Bluebirds mouth could probably run just as fast as Mustang Sally. Can't wait to see which super hero is up for an adventure next but I bet it is going to be action packed.
Jay is having a bad day, his girlfriend dumps him, he ruins his new shoes and he has homework which is going to be late but that all fails in comparison when the Rabbit God chooses him to be his hero. An alien invasion of interstellar cockroaches is on its way to wipe out earth and the Rabbit God bestows his abilities to Jay. The Just Cause hero team and in fact all the superheroes on the planet have disappeared leaving it up to Jay and fellow class mate Bluebird to fight the bugs on there own. The problem is some of them are already here.
The author has gone with a different narrator with this book and although she does do a good job, I think I am too use to the previous narrator and think that was another reason it took a while to get into this book.
I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

[Benjamin · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’ve watched a lot of superhero movies and read at least a few superhero comics, but I haven’t read any superhero books before. This changed when I picked up Jackrabbit, a book in the Just Cause universe of superheroes. The idea of a 6-foot-tall superhero rabbit was amusing enough for me to give it a try. What I came away with was a smartly written superhero story that was as much fun as it was funny. Sure, it might have been a little too horny for the standard superhero fare, but you can get away with more in a book than in more visual mediums.

While somewhat formulaic, Jackrabbit is an origin story for the titular superhero—although you can’t really call them that as these characters are technically “heralds” of obscure gods like the god of rabbits. This transformation results in a super-powered rabbit man who feels like the antics of Bugs Bunny combined with the fourth-wall breaking snark of Deadpool. The sidekick/foil of Bluebird only made this better, who chatters away in run-on sentences without taking a breath. With the two of them together trying to save the world from an invasion of cockroaches, we might just stand a chance.

I appreciated the diversity of a BIPOC main character, as well as some LGBTQ+ representation—even if both felt a little stereotypical at times. But hey, some representation is better than no representation at all. There was also enough inclusion of references from the main Just Cause series of books that made me curious what the more serious superhero fare from this author is like. I’ll have to check them out at some point.

An uncommon origin story for a comedic superhero, I give Jackrabbit 4.0 stars out of 5.

[C.R. Asay · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fun teenage superhero book. The characters are typical teens, with a fast-talking Bluebird and a wisecracking Jackrabbit who have just become superheroes and need to save the world from alien bugs. Add on some Greek Gods (some we've never heard of--like the god of rabbits) and you have a quick-paced, candy bar novel. My one criticism of the book is the dialogue of Bluebird. Teen girls say "like" a lot and it bugs me as much in real life as it did in the book. Overall a very entertaining read! The author is mighty talented in creating a solid plot, setting and characters.