Super

Arca #1

by Karen Diem

Adrenaline junkie and almost-respectable accountant Zita Garcia wouldn't know a superhero from some dude in his pajamas. As a result, the second-to-last thing she expected was to wake from a spontaneous coma, quarantined, and with super powers she has to hide from everyone, including her family. Now Zita must master her new abilities while dodging kidnappers, evading government inquiries, and finding her missing brother.

The only thing weirder would have been if the blind date had gone well.

Super is the first in the Arca superhero urban fantasy series, and as a movie, would be rated "R" for immoderate language, lame sexual innuendo, comic book violence, and sheer length (approximately 110,500 words).

Genres: Superheroes, Urban Fantasy

351 pages, Kindle Edition

Published May 3, 2016

Reviews

[Jim · Rating 4 out of 5]

Super is the first novel of (so-far) three books and multiple short stories. It depicts a world where certain people have fallen into a coma and emerge with superhuman powers.

An action adventure, Super starts with not-so-mild-mannered Zita Garcia on a blind date which goes bad quickly. After Zita emerges from her coma, still powerless, she finds she and her companions are all stuck in a locked-down medical facility. While the world outside is starting to adjust to living with superheroes, Zita's world is all about getting out of this "jail" to continue her extreme sports activities. Without giving too much away, Zita discovers her powers and becomes involved in a kidnapping case.

The plot engaged me from chapter one and I never wanted to put it down, going from sequence to sequence. Despite her abrasive nature, I enjoyed Zita's personality and found it a refreshing change from the modern "dark" hero or the "I regret having any powers" anti-hero. I also enjoyed the playful way Zita's origin story was told. I liked how she and other characters had to learn their powers and how and where she exercised them. I also found Zita’s arc in the story interesting. And while I think others may want her to go from less snippy to more heroic, I'm glad she didn't. It gave her an edge and makes her unique among other people in tights.

Overall, I'm glad I picked up Super.

[Iori · Rating 4 out of 5]

Arca is pure awesomeness!!

I like well written stories and this is definitely one! Zita is so fun, Wyn and Andy are good bantering partners. And the rest of the cast only ask for more fleshing out. I can't wait for the next book to be released.

[Diane · Rating 3 out of 5]

Joint-review problem: s/b 3 on Goodreads, but 4 on Amazon = I liked it
It's not quite good enough for a Goodreads 4 (i.e., "I REALLY liked it"), though. At first, I would have just called it "not bad". There were a few awkward phrasings (e.g., several times saying "the Latina" for Zita, which felt oddly distancing), but by the time we reached the action climax, I was fully involved.

The banter between Zita and her friends, and between her and her brothers, feels believable — lame, yes, and not-infrequently sexual in the "my ears!" or "my eyes!" (shape-shifting being hard on staying clothed) protesting way — but right for their dynamic. It did get a leeeetle bit much to have her keep thinking about how she hasn't "gotten any" in too long, especially when she's admiring a muscled guy.

Zita is, as other reviews (and even the book) have pointed out, rather hyper, but I wouldn't agree that she's mean. That implies a desire to cause pain, whereas she's merely blunt and impatient, as well as clueless socially and re. much of pop culture. In that, she actually reminded me of the very popular Eve Dallas (Nora Roberts's series lead), though much else differs, such as how her first impression of someone is always made based on what their physique and movement says about their physical regime and skills, before *maybe" remembering to look at their face.

Her painful, guilt-ridden memories of something that went tragically wrong in Brazil are not yet explained — I'm sure it's coming in a later volume. Just what experimental treatment was used on her and the others as young cancer patients that made so many of them be among the small percentage affected by the "epidemic" of supernatural powers? There's also an intriguing not-apparently-super character to find out about, whom I suspect may become a love-interest, since (minor SPOILER) he's seems to be NOT one of the bad guys, after all.

I like the variety of talents introduced in this world, among good guys, bad ones, and in-between. Multiple-form shape-shifters able to choose/adjust their form for their purpose, like "Noah's Ark" Zita, is a premise I don't see used enough, among the growing multitude of books centered on groups driven by their fixed wolf/cat/bear/whatever-and-human dual nature. Alternate-human-appearance possibilities, here effected both by Zita's shifting and Wyn's magical illusions, are a very useful addition. The various challenges the new supers face in learning to control their abilities are also well-depicted. Wyn's ability to work healing magic could be seen as either making it more plausible that they don't get themselves killed, or too-convenient; I personally don't object.

The copy-editing is pretty good. I only caught a handful of minor errors and iffy constructions/word choices.

IMPORTANT NOTE: There's a GLOSSARY in the back of all the Spanish and Portuguese words scattered throughout Zita's thoughts and speech. Some you get the gist of by context, some are common knowledge (like loco/loca), but a few stumped me, so I wish the book hadn't opened on page 1, instead of at/before the Table of Contents, which would have told me it was available.

I got this ebook for 99 cents when a short story in the series drew my attention in an Instrafreebie or Bookfunnel promo. I'm glad I decided to get it — and to read it promptly beyond just the sample. (I have a huge Kindle queue of bargains/freebies already, and am not having much luck convincing myself to stop adding to it!)

[Paula Letterman · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have to be honest, I haven't read many ethnically diverse books. After I caught on to the nicknames and some of the words, I enjoyed the book tremendously. The heroin was just the right amount of reluctant and oblivious to what should be done that she was very entertaining. I like short smart mouthed women. Reminds me of my baby sister. Kudos!

[Tony Fecteau · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a very refreshing super hero story! I loved our main characters and the villans are very remembered as well.

[Kevin · Rating 5 out of 5]

The unavoidable "how did this happen" is minimized; allowing the plot lines and characters to be maximized.

Loved it.

Recommended.

[Michelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great read!

Villians, superheros and laughter. That's what I would call a great combination. Thanks and keep up the goodwork. I look forward to reading the next installment!

[Jennifer Linsky · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rather enjoyable, and nice to see a woman of color as a main character. I hope "Farnswaggle's thirteenth theorem" gets explicated later in the series.

[Stephen Manning · Rating 2 out of 5]

Two stars means I finished the book but I didn't like it and I will not be picking up the rest of the series.

[Jenevieve Power-DeFer · Rating 5 out of 5]

It was good fun. I Love Zita and her friends. I read it in one day, it was THAT good.

[Red Tide]

Seems very fun

Did Not Finish. Rating: 0

Before going further, please read my reviews of either "Dark Horse", a fine story by Diener or Powers of the Earth (A sorry book) and the comments from a Claes Rees, Jr/cgr710 (a self-identified NeoNazi).

GLORY TO UKRAINE !!!

It seemed interesting at the time but I forget everything about the book except my reaction. I tried to look at other reviews but this is one of those books that will not allow me to see any review but my own. I considered rereading it but could not locate it on the Kindle store. I do not remember why I did not finish it the first time, truth be told.

I think that the premise of the rise of superhumans doesn't strike the part of me that says quite loudly that this will be a fun read. I didn't read enough to judge the writing but it seemed very serviceable and the characters were varied and interesting. The women promised to become great story drivers. I'm not sure that I'll come back to this series at some point, because it does not seem to be available.

The Amazon/Goodreads experience has put me off the corporation and the genre. I have lost much of my interest in science fiction but I can still watch it with pleasure at times. Netflix has a large multilingual selection that keeps me interested. All the other services field science fiction film also, so there are options.

Curiosity Stream/Nebula is a great source for educational video. It only costs $15 USD for a yearly subscription if that content interests you.

For a community of bibliophiles, YouTube is the destination. I can visit all my other interest areas and channels while I am there. Some favorites are.

EarleWrites, Ozillo News, Tara Mooknee, Tulia, Munecat, Sarah Z, Some More News, Tom Nicholas, Novara Media, France 24, Alize, Alice Cappelle, Jessica Gagnon, Books with Emily Fox, Euronews, The European, AllShorts, Second Thought, Cover in French, Mrs Betty Bower, The Narrowboat Pirate, Cruising the Cut, The Juice Media, The Templin Institute, Sabine Hossenfelder, Ship Happens, 2Cellos, Caucasian Sword Dance, Boat Time, The Mindful Narrowboat, The Everyday Astronaut, Mythology and Fiction Explained, Swell Entertainment, Between the Wars, Invicta, Casual Navigation, Odyssey, Beautifully Bookish Bethany, The Shades of Orange, History Hit, Book Odyssey, The Gravel Institute, Spacedock, Perun Gaming, Adult Wednesday Addams, What Vivi did next, Camper Vibe, Chugging Along, Practical Engineering, We're in Hell, Holly the Cafe Boat, Tibees, Pentatonix, Epimetheus, Mala Armia Janosika, Karolina Zebrowska, Zoe Baker, Three Arrows, Maggie May Fish, Patrick is a Navajo, Chris Animations, Niki Proshin, Avalishvili, Half as Interesting, The People Profile, Steam punk, Natasha's Adventures, Noelle Gallagher, Elena Taber, Lady knight the Brave, Lucy Thomas, Lady of the Library, The Welsh Viking, Celtica, Maximillien Robespierre, Philosophy Tube, Hello Future Me, Brittany the Bibliophile, Merphy Napier, Jack in the Books, Bookleo, Anton Petrov, Petrik Leo, Prime of Midlife, 2 Steps from Hell, Book Odyssey, Austin McConnell, TIKHistory, Dan Davis History, UA Courage, May Moon Narrowboat, Savage Daughter, Cold Fusion, Neringa Rekaslute, Artificial Intelligence Universe, Secrets of the Universe, Mythology and Fiction Explained, I'm Rosa, Then and Now.

I would that you enjoy a fine morning, a productive afternoon, a pleasant evening and a peaceful night.

Hope despite the rumors, has not died.
Yamamoto, post Midway

[Christopher · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book. Overall, it was a fun read and I had trouble putting it down. The super-hero genre has been barely creeping along for decades, but apparently this is the decade for it to flourish, and this novelist has done a fair job of getting her foothold in it.

The characters are pretty good. They aren't all that deep, but this IS a super-hero novel. Deep can be added later, after the readers get tired of the flash and bang. The main character is funny, adventurous, and geek-world-ignorant, despite being the center of focus in a geek-heavy novel. It adds to the fun of reading it, because most readers will get the occasional reference or joke that comes up, while the main char does not. The supporting characters are not bad, and I think there is ample motivation for them to be involved the way they are.

The writer likes action in her story and it comes up often. One of the things the writer probably needs to improve on is the action scenes. I kept losing track of who was where and doing what, whenever there were more than two people involved. I had the same problem with scene descriptions, where I sometimes was not able to follow certain transitions to new locales. Not always, but enough to be irritating. When the main character did animal morphing, we got smell and taste impressions, which helped a lot. Humans use smell and taste impressions for an amazing amount of identification tasks also, though. Also, more atmosphere needs to be generated for scenes...this may help with the difficulty in scene transition.

Dialogue was occasionally hard to follow, due to being embedded in chunks of text. Separating spoken bits from excess description and action may help in smoothing that out. Other than that, dialogue was decent and seemed like real conversation.

The writer NEEDS a good proof-reader. There were word choice errors peppering the novel that could have easily been prevented by a real set of objective eyes. There were also sentences that didn't make sense in a fair number of places. Spell check is not enough, since it will find all the misspellings and leave all the real words, even when they don't make sense.

The writer needs learn the difference between a "clip" and a "magazine." Otherwise she'll be mistaken for a liberal progressive politician. Every gun-familiar person who read this book, and got to the line where a character had to swap clips while reloading, rolled their eyes.

I was inwardly debating on adding this comment block, because it may just be the author keeping something back for future character power stunt development, but I was bothered that the main character didn't recognize her ability to heal herself, considering the nature of her powers and how they only pay attention to her focus, and not physics. Especially since both her powers are obviously related--she's an energy-mass manipulator, and the only reason for her to remain injured is because she thinks she should. Then again, Zita is geek-blind and may not have thought of it yet. So, again, the author may be reserving that for future stories.

Overall, an excellent start for this author, and I was disappointed there wasn't already another novel in the series, ready to download. I want to thank the author for not coming out with yet another vampire/werewolf slush novel for her starter project. :)

[mirba · Rating 3 out of 5]

As everybody says, this is a fun quick book to read.
Suggested if you are searching something light to fill up an evening

[Henry Lazarus · Rating 3 out of 5]

Karen Diem tells a tale of ordinary people who get super powers after suffering a coma that effects thousands Zita Garcia, has been working several odd jobs while she trains heavily for an Olympic sport that really doesn’t exist. It’s all part of a reaction from almost dying of cancer as a child. When the coma victims are all quarantined, she meets friends from the cancer ward. Then the area is attacked and she and her friends escape with new found powers. Her Super (ebook) powers include the ability to shape shift to animal form and to teleport. While she and her friends come under more attacks, they have to hide their abilities from the Feds who already know of other powered people. Lots of fun. Review printed by Philadelphia Weekly Press

[David Harriss · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.6 Nice Start

This one is decent, especially for early in the author's career.

People get powers. All with symptoms get sequestered by an incompetent government. Bad guys come out of the woodwork to capture, kidnap, study, or kill the new supers. Chaos ensues.
Standard formula, but well done.

The strength is the lead, Zita Garcia. She is feisty, observant, skilled, and funny. Combined with her friends, she is very entertaining.

The weakness is the pacing. Specifically, the pacing of plot and prose are different, causing extended breaks as your mind absorbs the pages you just read.

For fans of: strong female protagonists, supers, schemes, and stumbling to success.

[Pierre Croonenberghs · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good start to a new series. Reminds me of Jennifer Estep's Venom; diverse characters with fun personal flaws. A lot of good work has gone into this first book, and it has the potential to develop into an entertaining and very much fun series.
Dialogue and plotting should get better as the author gains more experience. This is better writing than I can do, so I feel funny critiquing this work.
All in all this is a fun read, which is one of the first things I look for in a new novel. I do recommend this book for a good afternoon read.

[John · Rating 2 out of 5]

Jury is still out. I picked this novel up numerous times over a 3 month period but it always failed to sustain my interest with rather under-developing characters. I finally finished it and will purchase the follow-up just to see where the plot is ultimately going but it will be the last if it languishes as well.

[Ken Horne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting super take

The story focuses on a bit of a different character, best at clever uses of power rather than all out slug fests. Interesting side characters are created that could easily be fleshed out, as well as hints of something bigger and badder in the future.

[Ria Loader · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fun superhero read

I enjoyed this superhero romp. Likeable characters, ensemble plot, action and humor. Liked the plot resolution with room for more adventures and character development.

[Gail and Rick's Family · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fun, light hearted

A mix between Heroes / every other superhero story you've ever heard. I did enjoy the latino flare, though, the characters are pretty 1 dimensional and always win the day. I enjoyed it. It was a fun read.

[Thomas Kropp · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really enjoyed the variety of superhero characters in the story. The chemistry between the three main characters was also a plus. I loved the comedy throughout the whole book too. I am looking forward to more of Zita's adventures.

[Keith · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's a bird... What it is

An interesting take on heroes just getting started. Tho I'm guessing most don't have clothing issues as often as she does.

[Heather Henkel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fun book

I really enjoyed this book. It was a really great read. I liked the characters and the superhero powers they each got.

[Dennis Key · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good urban fantasyuires a minimu

A fun read. I look forward to more. I really hate this review system that requires a minimum number of words. It's why I don't do more reviews.