Heroic Measures

From The Minds of Humanity #1

by James Dyar

Last night Cody Kirkright was a teen age, overweight, sci-fi nerd. Today he's an eight foot tall human juggernaut and the latest in a long line of heroes conjured up from the united minds of human kind. Now he's on a quest to rid humanity of a threat older than life. To do that he will battle monsters, threaten fairies, detonate fellow heroes, and face down the gods. It will take all his newfound abilities and more in a world where the dead still walk and nightmares are more real than reality itself.

218 pages, Paperback

Published February 20, 2016

About the author

James L Dyar is a twenty plus year veteran of the cartooning world and has spent the last 11 years as a research ghost hunter both professionally and on his own. Currently a Horror writer at 13 O'clock Press.
Hobbies include graphic arts, amateur astronomy, wilderness hiking, and almost anything that involves going and getting scared. He's also known for the high-octane adventure/fantasy comic Grin-N-Spirit.

Reviews

[Cecily Wolfe · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was an entertaining story that would be a good fit for older teens as well as adults, especially teens who enjoyed the Percy Jackson series when they were younger and the Michael Vey series. The 'unlikely hero' aspect is very appealing, and the sci-fi combined with the effective humor makes a great mix. The characters have believable relationships and interactions with each other and carry the story well.

I will definitely keep reading this series.

[Diana Drakulich · Rating 3 out of 5]

“It is said - A Hero’s heart can never die.”

A wild and crazy comic book style adventure into theories of quantum physics.

Cody is a geeky pudgy teenager suddenly reborn as an 8 foot hero with immortal powers. He and his otherworldly companions set out on a trek to find their friend Jott and save the world from the Mad God of death and destruction.

Then there’s the genius, Chimera, who plans to kill the Mad God by smashing two overlapping universes together. Don’t ask if I understand how that’s supposed to work. I barely made it through Algebra. Anyway the author has lots of imaginative ideas about the nature of Reality as a Multi-verse.

From my Avid Reader’s Wish List for this story -

Fix the many typos and misbegotten words scattered throughout. This decreases the confusion created by the story’s sometimes disjointed, illogical, choppy flow.

The author waits until the last part of the book to discuss his ideas on the quantum physics that make Cody’s adventures through overlapping dimensions possible. These ideas could be seeded throughout the book from the beginning to give the reader more of an anchor to the book’s plot and viewpoint.

[Carole P. Roman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Funny and entertaining Heroic Measures is comic-book style adventure where an unlikely hero is transformed into a super-being and combats the Mad God of Death. There is a collision of all sorts of creatures, a mix of quantum physics with science fiction and a snarky hero. Fun start to a series that will take the reader out of this world.

[Norma · Rating 4 out of 5]

Entertaining Story

Setting aside the typographical errors, this was an entertaining read. There were parts that didn't keep me in the story but they didn't last long. Not bad at all and interesting enough that I will read Book 2.

[Kayla · Rating 5 out of 5]

I absolutely loved this book! It was a very exciting read and it was hard to put the book down. It's different from any book I've ever read!

[P.H. Wilson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Real rating: 5.8/10
Straight out of the gate this is a book meant for teens or those into the YA market, sadly I am neither of those two things so obviously the book does not tick all of the boxes it should for me personally.
The humour is certainly edging closer to that more heavily associated with teenagers and given the authors years of work in cartooning I am certain this is very much intentional.
On a writing note I found that the plethora of similes just did not work as many of them ended up inferring something that they did not wish to, two such examples are:
"His voice was like ice water flowing down a chasm of insanity and
plunging into the abyss."
"Glowing blue eyes continued to stare off into distant space like twin
blue novas in a healthy pink-faced sky."
The characters were jumping between emotions and facial expressions so quickly that it does create a sense that these descriptions are there more for being wordy than they are to give the character a proper sense of humanity. The character Jott comes off as look how crazy he is in the way you would look at someone like Mel Gibson in the first Lethal Weapon movie. Which ultimately leads to the point that this is cartoon style and humour brought into novelisation form and if that is not your thing do not read, if it is go to town and have a good time, because the work from start to finish will play out in that style whether it be characters or plot.

Lastly, I slightly take fault with goodreads here, as there are no genre listings, so one never quite knows if a work is comedic fantasy or the like before going in. This means that this work would resonate well with those who love oddball comedies, but then if someone who is looking for a straight and serious work stumbles up this tale they might feel let down. Which ultimately hurts the author when the reader rates the work lower and I would like to see genre listings as well as sub-genre listings attached to books and authors should start requesting them so that their books can reach an audience that is right for them.

[Steven Mount · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a unique story. It is an interesting blend of sci-fi/fantasy with comedy aspects.
The world is very creative and it is obvious that the author worked hard on the history for this story.
The story is definitely a 4 star for me however there are some gramatical errors throughout the story that can make it difficult to follow along with.