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Meta #2
The Second Wave: The Meta Superhero Novel, Book 2
Summer's over, and Connor Connolly is headed back to school to start junior year. But with metabands falling from the sky, the world has changed overnight, and now there are thousands of new metahumans. Just like regular humans, not all metahumans are using their new powers for good.
Now, Connor's not only dealing with the pressures of being a super-human and training with his mentor, Midnight, but also has to balance relationships with the people he cares for most - people who find themselves on different sides of the fence when it comes to their feelings about the new metahumans and the impact they're having on everyone else's lives.
As the world struggles to adjust to the events of the past few months, Connor's alter ego, Omni, works with The Agency to apprehend law-breaking metahumans, and detain them at the Silver Island Meta Detention Facility. When he's recruited for a job assisting the government agency with disarming one of the most powerful and secretive metas in Bay View City, he never expects the devastation of that mission or the effect it will have on both humans and metas. Is Connor capable of becoming the hero he wants to be?
Now, Connor's not only dealing with the pressures of being a super-human and training with his mentor, Midnight, but also has to balance relationships with the people he cares for most - people who find themselves on different sides of the fence when it comes to their feelings about the new metahumans and the impact they're having on everyone else's lives.
As the world struggles to adjust to the events of the past few months, Connor's alter ego, Omni, works with The Agency to apprehend law-breaking metahumans, and detain them at the Silver Island Meta Detention Facility. When he's recruited for a job assisting the government agency with disarming one of the most powerful and secretive metas in Bay View City, he never expects the devastation of that mission or the effect it will have on both humans and metas. Is Connor capable of becoming the hero he wants to be?
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First published October 30, 2014
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 92 reviews
February 28, 2023
Man how addicting...and the voice actor really encapsulated Conner's personality. Some things with writing can be repetitive but it's such a good, "team flash" like story that I don't even care about the little things that could annoy with writing. Now we're getting Avengers -level and I'm enjoying it😎
June 16, 2022
Holy coincidence Batman! That's how I felt about the twists in this book. I mean twists are one thing, coincidence is another. The best part of this 2nd part to this book series was the attention paid to the work-life balance of being a super hero. Unfortunately, there were some things that just made me groan. For example, the hero is given a certain set of powers, then gets into situation where you think "wait a second, can't he do this?" I mean I get that things can get intense, but forgetting something you've done for two books just makes my eyes roll. I did like the "Batman" twist in the book, that was fun. Also, the main character whines about stuff that makes me want to smack him. I get we are all flawed, but why do some writers seem to make their leads so annoying. The books did go in unexpected directions and that was good. And in a market that's beginning to fill up with "if the world gets super heroes" stories outside of comic book, this is by far one of the slightly better ones. I just hate stupid decision that feels like the writers need to put the hero in more jeopardy then they need to. At least he isn't doing the "hero loses all his powers" trope. I'm so done with that BS. Find a way to challenge your hero instead of doing tired story ideas done way back when Superman was a new character. Not bad, good 2nd part. Worth reading.
October 11, 2022
Don't mind me, just rereading a series 6 years later... Yeah I'm on book four what about it...
I will say book 2 definitely toned down language and trauma (the flash definitely handled trauma better...yeah it was more dramatic but at least they acknowledged that these deaths do affect people, accident or not) and was a little longer in terms of background info instead of throwing action everywhere.
2016:
4 and 1/2 really...
I'm not sure how I feel about the jump between what happened in the last book and going right into dealing with thousands of metas now...
At the same time, it was a great way to speed things up into action instead of describing extra scenes, but...
Anyways, this is about Connor (and the rest of the world) dealing with hundreds/thousands of metabands and everybody wanting them (black market for metabands *whoop*).
The Agency (continuing my comparison to the flash (which I'm surprised now that someone never created an Agency..), the division of the police force on metahumans) had already created a place for bad metas from the first wave, so it is again utilized on the second wave of bad people who somehow got metabands. Now, the Agency made things a little different from the last book.
Remember how I compared the violence and view of life with the Flash?
With the introduction of the Agency, it would probably be best to consider this in relation to the Arrow.
Maybe a bit less from the Arrow (as Agency interrogation scenes aren't throughout the novel), but on the same plane.
I will say book 2 definitely toned down language and trauma (the flash definitely handled trauma better...yeah it was more dramatic but at least they acknowledged that these deaths do affect people, accident or not) and was a little longer in terms of background info instead of throwing action everywhere.
2016:
4 and 1/2 really...
I'm not sure how I feel about the jump between what happened in the last book and going right into dealing with thousands of metas now...
At the same time, it was a great way to speed things up into action instead of describing extra scenes, but...
Anyways, this is about Connor (and the rest of the world) dealing with hundreds/thousands of metabands and everybody wanting them (black market for metabands *whoop*).
The Agency (continuing my comparison to the flash (which I'm surprised now that someone never created an Agency..), the division of the police force on metahumans) had already created a place for bad metas from the first wave, so it is again utilized on the second wave of bad people who somehow got metabands. Now, the Agency made things a little different from the last book.
Remember how I compared the violence and view of life with the Flash?
With the introduction of the Agency, it would probably be best to consider this in relation to the Arrow.
Maybe a bit less from the Arrow (as Agency interrogation scenes aren't throughout the novel), but on the same plane.
October 31, 2014
There were many ideas/storylines introduced in "The Second Wave" but there wasn't enough resolution to them to make me feel satisfied. I wanted to know more about the Alpha Team and understand why they hated metas. Some of Sarah's Dad's reactions didn't make sense to me. There was almost nothing with Connor/Jim and what we did get just left me wanting. The interactions between Midnight and Connor/Omni were interesting and I thought was some of the strongest story in the book. The ending really put me off, I would have rather been left wondering what was gonna happen in the aftermath of the climactic battle rather then introducing another storyline on the last page of the book.
With all that being said, if a third book is released I would pick it up because even though there was a lot I could criticize I still want to see what happens next.
With all that being said, if a third book is released I would pick it up because even though there was a lot I could criticize I still want to see what happens next.
November 18, 2017
This follows on from the first story, with Conner still coming to grips with his powers, but more to the point, it picks up a few months after the end of part 1, were thousands of Meta Bands dropped to the Earth, allowing for a massive influx of Meta’s. Omni of course is still one of the first of the ‘2nd Wave’ and somewhat of a celebrity, but also seen as something of a hero amongst heroes as he has multiple abilities and a lot of the best ones.
As with the first story, the Characters are exceptionally well done, and in this story, we see Conner struggling with his role of being a teenager, a boyfriend to the girl he has so admired for so long, the falling out of his friendship to his best friend Jim as he just doesn’t have the time, and the ramifications of this, as well as how simple things like his school work really suffers.
As he is mentored by Midnight, a person who has totally given himself to this life and thus has no existence other than his identity as Midnight, you can see how Conner is slowly losing his life as well, and Reynolds does a brilliant job of playing this out for us, piece by piece, so we can watch Conner slowly fade away into Omni.
It is not until various things happen that there are changes, and Omni starts to realise that he is no longer Conner.
As the story progresses, a new threat arrives in Bay View, and this is something that may well threaten the very existence of Omni, let alone Conner and all of his loved ones.
This is another exceptionally well written story, with not just a great story line, but Reynolds has really used his story to try and show the emotional damage that can occur from this type of power. To some extent, given the later parts of this story, I think Reynolds is also trying to show that there is great emotional damage to those that serve our various countries as Soldiers and Law Enforcement that no one ever really takes any notice of.
As a Superhero story, this is just outstanding work, and I have already started part 3 as I write this review.
As with the first story, the Characters are exceptionally well done, and in this story, we see Conner struggling with his role of being a teenager, a boyfriend to the girl he has so admired for so long, the falling out of his friendship to his best friend Jim as he just doesn’t have the time, and the ramifications of this, as well as how simple things like his school work really suffers.
As he is mentored by Midnight, a person who has totally given himself to this life and thus has no existence other than his identity as Midnight, you can see how Conner is slowly losing his life as well, and Reynolds does a brilliant job of playing this out for us, piece by piece, so we can watch Conner slowly fade away into Omni.
It is not until various things happen that there are changes, and Omni starts to realise that he is no longer Conner.
As the story progresses, a new threat arrives in Bay View, and this is something that may well threaten the very existence of Omni, let alone Conner and all of his loved ones.
This is another exceptionally well written story, with not just a great story line, but Reynolds has really used his story to try and show the emotional damage that can occur from this type of power. To some extent, given the later parts of this story, I think Reynolds is also trying to show that there is great emotional damage to those that serve our various countries as Soldiers and Law Enforcement that no one ever really takes any notice of.
As a Superhero story, this is just outstanding work, and I have already started part 3 as I write this review.
February 24, 2017
The world has adjusted to a new influx of superheros and Reynolds strips Conner/Omni of his super special status as one of a few. Now as one among many he is facing moral issues in dealing with the ones who choose to commit crimes with their bands. Since the world has already dealt with a previous wave of superheros the answer people have come up with is to lock people away forevers. At 16, Conner doesn't really question this as much as someone older than him might.
I think this suffers a little bit from being a "middle" book even though Reynold's has said he has plans for a fourth. You can see things getting set up from Conner's relationship to his long-time crush Sarah to his friendship with Jim to the events with Alpha Team. You can also see Reynold's treading the fine line between making Conner too powerful and keeping him a teenager. I think he does a great job on that. There is a cliffhanger ending but since I already had the third book in hand I didn't feel annoyed by it.
I think this suffers a little bit from being a "middle" book even though Reynold's has said he has plans for a fourth. You can see things getting set up from Conner's relationship to his long-time crush Sarah to his friendship with Jim to the events with Alpha Team. You can also see Reynold's treading the fine line between making Conner too powerful and keeping him a teenager. I think he does a great job on that. There is a cliffhanger ending but since I already had the third book in hand I didn't feel annoyed by it.
May 16, 2018
It is very hard to like this book. It bears the hallmarks of stitched together plot elements, fumbled foreshadowing, poor continuity and abounding dei ex machina. And, any sympathy one might have the protagonist is entirely lost early on in this book when he collaborates in the kind of evil CIA operation the likes of which one might read a much better description of by checking out one of the Jason Bourne novels.
Admittedly, you would think that a 16 year old boy would be naive, but this is a loud-mouthed American prick for whom the return of rum, sodomy and the lash would not only provide some well-merited revenge, it might get him to shut up.
Although, I do like how horribly violent the powered entities are.
Admittedly, you would think that a 16 year old boy would be naive, but this is a loud-mouthed American prick for whom the return of rum, sodomy and the lash would not only provide some well-merited revenge, it might get him to shut up.
Although, I do like how horribly violent the powered entities are.
November 15, 2022
The best way to explain this book is crazy! The book exploded with new concepts for the universe and characters. The new additions are charming, just like the old ones before. You can really feel the care put into what it means to have meta-humans around—however, it's not perfect, just all things in this world. There's a point in the story where people are killed. My main issue was that MidKnight was pissed off and didn't want to see our protagonist. And the people who died within the sense weren't talked about by the people in charge. I would assume this would have a more significant impact, but it was thrown to the wayside. MidKnight (this world's batman) dropped it at a certain point in the story. It felt forced and out of character. The ending was really cool, especially with the meta bands being broken. It adds a lot of tension for the next book, and passing on meta abilities to kids is also a great new addition. I can't wait to read the next book; I hope it keeps up this incredible momentum.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 8, 2023
Definitely a better sequel.
After the disappointing first book (but intriguing cliffhanger), I was apprehensive going in. And it's still not as good as it could be, but it's made some good ground on keeping me interested.
I'll still give it a 3 stars, because I definitely think it's needs to do more to earn a 4. But the writer seemed to get the grasp on creating more intriguing mysteries and also creating awesome action portions,l that helped me visualise them pretty well.
So ON to book 3.
After the disappointing first book (but intriguing cliffhanger), I was apprehensive going in. And it's still not as good as it could be, but it's made some good ground on keeping me interested.
I'll still give it a 3 stars, because I definitely think it's needs to do more to earn a 4. But the writer seemed to get the grasp on creating more intriguing mysteries and also creating awesome action portions,l that helped me visualise them pretty well.
So ON to book 3.
July 14, 2023
I awarded this book a solid four stars, primarily due to my fondness for stories involving superhuman abilities. As an avid fan of such tales, I thoroughly enjoyed the premise. However, I must admit that Mr. Tom Reynolds could have better interwoven the narrative elements in this particular book. The conclusion felt slightly cliché, you know, lacking the desired impact. Now, I don't mean to discourage anyone from reading it. The book, overall, is quite engaging, but it would have greatly benefited from a few adjustments and refinements.
June 25, 2018
It is always fun to read stuff like this. Superpower/hero and all of that. However, I must admit that this book felt somewhat short even if it was 287 pages. I think this story plot put Jim and Sarah out of the picture more often. I think it would be nice to add some more drama that may bring Connor more concerns conflict for a young man. Another than that I would say this book does streamline life for Connor and Omni's daily life.
January 25, 2021
I am starting to really like this series but the character backgrounds could be a little more detailed. I usually hate detailed character backgrounds. But in this story people just come in and out of the main characters life and we are suppose to care about them? Its not connecting for me. Also the big plot twist at the very end I saw coming from a mile away and I don't feel it was needed. The ending was already crazy enough.
November 23, 2023
The dialogue and pacing issues I had in Book 1 definitely improved in this book. There were quite a few interesting plot points set up in this that were unfortunately not resolved--or even hinted that there would be a resolution coming up in the future. I think writing dynamic action scenes is one of Reynolds' strengths, and those have been highlights of the books so far. I'm looking forward to starting the next book. I really enjoyed Kirby Heyborne as narrator.
March 15, 2019
bit better than the first book
the surprises in book 2 are laid out better than the first. plus, the situations where connor is in trouble seem more threatening than the previous book. only thing lacking is that the author doesn't capture the emotions of the situations better. that's all thats keeping it from a 5 star.
the surprises in book 2 are laid out better than the first. plus, the situations where connor is in trouble seem more threatening than the previous book. only thing lacking is that the author doesn't capture the emotions of the situations better. that's all thats keeping it from a 5 star.
July 12, 2017
Its rare a 2nd in a series is better then the original
This is...very impressive. The twists are original and the character development thorough. I will be eagerly reading the 3rd book as this on ended on a cliff hanger as well!
This is...very impressive. The twists are original and the character development thorough. I will be eagerly reading the 3rd book as this on ended on a cliff hanger as well!
May 13, 2018
It was a bit better than the first novel, still interesting enough to keep my attention and some issues were fixed but some still remain. Anyway I'll read the third one as well hopefully it'll surpass the first two.
September 9, 2018
Great
Good read all the way through the only short coming and reason it wasn’t 5 stars was it was really short - perhaps try getting more day to day teenage life as well so we can really be a part of the book more - but honestly a really good read.
Good read all the way through the only short coming and reason it wasn’t 5 stars was it was really short - perhaps try getting more day to day teenage life as well so we can really be a part of the book more - but honestly a really good read.
October 9, 2018
Faster pace than the previous book in the serious, however there is no clearly transparent overarching plot. However, this is what makes it interesting, because so much is happening that the plot is the chaos of the Second Wave.
September 8, 2019
This book has potential but the entire plot is based on dues ex machina. Whenever the other needs to intensify, omni's bands are magically low on power. It seems like omni is only just powerful enough for the task at hand. The protagonist is also too naive and dense for my taste
March 25, 2020
I can say this is better than the first book. I still don't know the origin of the Meta band or what determines the type of power the wearer gets, but it was still fun. The story continues from were book one ended, with Connor / Omni trying to juggle school life with his superhero one.
January 13, 2018
Fantastic sequel. No complaints from me. Compelling plot. No plot holes. Surprising stuff happens. Great.
March 30, 2018
Starts slow. No antagonist for the majority of the book. Ends in middle of scene that continues in next book.
April 18, 2018
Vague ending stupid af.
June 10, 2018
A good read
If you liked the first book them i would recommend this one. Characters continue to develop and the story is engaging
If you liked the first book them i would recommend this one. Characters continue to develop and the story is engaging
June 26, 2018
Short
September 25, 2018
Solid sequel
Thought I would give the sequel a go and was pleased I did. Much better than the first in my opinion.
Thought I would give the sequel a go and was pleased I did. Much better than the first in my opinion.
June 24, 2019
Fast paced and fun
Hiding a secret identity isn’t easy, but it’s hilarious to watch Omni try. Can’t wait to finish this series to see what happens
Hiding a secret identity isn’t easy, but it’s hilarious to watch Omni try. Can’t wait to finish this series to see what happens
December 6, 2020
such a fast paced read, couldn't put it down
September 7, 2021
Fun story
This series are an enjoyable read but the individual books are a little short as a whole, enjoyable and easy read.
This series are an enjoyable read but the individual books are a little short as a whole, enjoyable and easy read.
September 19, 2022
I don't really remember this one much, but I remember it having good action, so yeah there's that. Bing Bong.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 92 reviews