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Six Pack
Just weeks before Tyler Ward is to graduate from secondary school, he learns the truth about Novusordo and how a drink controls the population. After sharing this information with his five friends, they visit a professor’s house, take another drink and gain strange powers. It leads to them learning more about how the government controls people and the discovery of a movement against the government. Calling themselves the Six Pack, Tyler and his friends must learn how their powers can change society. But they first must learn to trust this movement… and even each other.
271 pages, Kindle Edition
Published September 20, 2017
1 person is currently reading
19 people want to read
About the author
B.W. Morris
2 books15 followersB.W. Morris, a longtime writer for small-town newspapers, is a comic book geek who put his overactive imagination to work through novel writing. His debut novel, Six Pack: Emergence, will be followed by a second book in the series to be released in the coming months. Born in Texas but grew up in Colorado, Morris has also lived in New Mexico and Oklahoma and currently resides in Kingman, Kan. He is a member of the Kansas Writers Association and volunteers his time for the Kingman County Humane Society.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
May 14, 2017
Anytime an author embarks on the task of writing a novel about original superheroes, I take notice. Part of it is because superheroes are so intrinsically tied to comics/graphic novels and movies in the cultural mindset (or at least mine), I’m intrigued to see how something so inherently visual will play out in plain text. I’m also one of those Dark Knight Franchise fans, who really gets thrilled to see when superheroes are grounded in reality. It’s not so much because I can’t suspend my disbelief for a little while. It’s more of a character building thing. Do the characters look, sound, and act like real people. Because if they do, you have something more than cool powers and amazing feats. So, did Six Pack: Emergence do those two things for me? Yes.
Six Pack isn’t inundated with imagery, but it does give just enough that the reader can picture the lay of the scene and not lose hold on the action of the moment. This is incredibly important to a story like this, because there is a lot of action.
There is also a lot of introspection going on. Mr. Morris elected to tell the story from the perspective of not only Tyler/Mind, leader of the Six Pack, but all six teens. It’s told in a near third person, so again there is still enough distance to get a sense of the scene the characters are in. Managing these six characters would be a challenge enough, but to give each a unique voice, that’s something special. Each teen does have very strongly drawn out personalities. Sometimes they engage in more telling than showing than I would like and can agonize over the same fundamental dilemmas for several chapters, but in a way I found it lent authenticity to the characters. None of the teens gets past things without going through events and talking things out. I can appreciate that kind of character development. The things the characters face are familiar teen problems. Tyler and Stacey are close, which drives Stacey’s boyfriend David crazy. Jessica is jealous of Tyler, even if she can’t admit it to herself. Brad just wants to find his own way. Linda is hyper.
Of the Six Pack, I think Stacey is the most richly drawn. I found of all the dialogue in the book, hers felt the most natural and though Linda is the continual source of one-liners for the group, it’s Stacey whose words are the most memorable and make the deepest impact. Tyler is a close second, and I like that not everything is hashed out in the book. I assumed with the subtitle and genre there would be more installments, but it would be so tempting to wrap everything up neatly in volume 1 and Mr. Morris does not oblige that desire, which means I want to read volume 2 now.
On the whole, the story was faintly reminiscent of Push, because of the emphasis on mental powers. Which was nice. Though I have to admit, Mr. Morris’s style of writing sometimes clashed with my own reading sensibilities. People who are not well known to characters or the reader are referred to by their first names or their full names. There are a fair number of phrases that are left hanging for effect, but some could have been full sentences. Those are just nit-picky personal things though. Overall, Six Pack: Emergence delivered the two things I wanted from it. A visually engaging story that didn’t lose traction for wordiness and characters who were distinct from one another and had the elements of real, living people.
Six Pack isn’t inundated with imagery, but it does give just enough that the reader can picture the lay of the scene and not lose hold on the action of the moment. This is incredibly important to a story like this, because there is a lot of action.
There is also a lot of introspection going on. Mr. Morris elected to tell the story from the perspective of not only Tyler/Mind, leader of the Six Pack, but all six teens. It’s told in a near third person, so again there is still enough distance to get a sense of the scene the characters are in. Managing these six characters would be a challenge enough, but to give each a unique voice, that’s something special. Each teen does have very strongly drawn out personalities. Sometimes they engage in more telling than showing than I would like and can agonize over the same fundamental dilemmas for several chapters, but in a way I found it lent authenticity to the characters. None of the teens gets past things without going through events and talking things out. I can appreciate that kind of character development. The things the characters face are familiar teen problems. Tyler and Stacey are close, which drives Stacey’s boyfriend David crazy. Jessica is jealous of Tyler, even if she can’t admit it to herself. Brad just wants to find his own way. Linda is hyper.
Of the Six Pack, I think Stacey is the most richly drawn. I found of all the dialogue in the book, hers felt the most natural and though Linda is the continual source of one-liners for the group, it’s Stacey whose words are the most memorable and make the deepest impact. Tyler is a close second, and I like that not everything is hashed out in the book. I assumed with the subtitle and genre there would be more installments, but it would be so tempting to wrap everything up neatly in volume 1 and Mr. Morris does not oblige that desire, which means I want to read volume 2 now.
On the whole, the story was faintly reminiscent of Push, because of the emphasis on mental powers. Which was nice. Though I have to admit, Mr. Morris’s style of writing sometimes clashed with my own reading sensibilities. People who are not well known to characters or the reader are referred to by their first names or their full names. There are a fair number of phrases that are left hanging for effect, but some could have been full sentences. Those are just nit-picky personal things though. Overall, Six Pack: Emergence delivered the two things I wanted from it. A visually engaging story that didn’t lose traction for wordiness and characters who were distinct from one another and had the elements of real, living people.
December 17, 2017
If you liked Runaways (comic or show), Six Pack: Emergence gives a grittier science fiction edge where it's not just their parents involved but the government too. Dystopian to the nth, this novel draws a group of friends into a strange arena. They each have their different quarrels about being involved - or about the conspiracy they face.
Of all the perspectives, I enjoyed Tyler's the most - probably due to my love of Charles Xavier, but the ring of First Class won me over to even those I wasn't entirely thrilled with at first.
Perspectives switch around in this book between the main cast. At times, the close third person veers somewhat loosely back and forth, but the major shifts stick to the chapters.
All in all, I'd highly recommend this book.
Of all the perspectives, I enjoyed Tyler's the most - probably due to my love of Charles Xavier, but the ring of First Class won me over to even those I wasn't entirely thrilled with at first.
Perspectives switch around in this book between the main cast. At times, the close third person veers somewhat loosely back and forth, but the major shifts stick to the chapters.
All in all, I'd highly recommend this book.
July 4, 2018
All right, where do I begin?
This book has a lot of plot points that have the potential to be really, really interesting. Supernatural powers shared by all of your best friends - what kind of friendship group doesn't want that? The powers all had potential to be really cool and the friends all had potential to work really well together. It's not the potential of the plot that I have a problem with because, if written well, a group like that can turn out to be really neat.
Only, the writing is very choppy - the sentence fluency is not that great, and there is a LOT of telling instead of showing in this book. Of the other books I've reviewed with the same rating I plan to give this one (one on this page, others on my Goodreads account), they all seem to have a common theme that they have POTENTIAL to be good - BUT they all kind of read like a second draft. Not as underdeveloped as a first/rough draft, but nowhere near where a finished draft should be. It was just very choppy and not that great and... eh. Not to mention, the characters are rather cheesy - the nicknames and how they interact with each other literally reminds me of that one Spongebob episode where Barnacle Boy crosses over to the dark side and the rear of the group become "superheroes" and come up with superhero names for their little "league."
Honestly, this book got to a point where I honestly considered DNFing. I didn't - I pulled through - but just barely. I feel bad because this review is so short - I don't like writing short reviews because I feel like it's not fair to the author - but I... honestly don't know what else to say. If you like supernatural powers then, hey, go ahead and check this book out. But honestly it was just... not great. I didn't hate it, but I certainly didn't love it - and I don't really know what else to say.
This book has a lot of plot points that have the potential to be really, really interesting. Supernatural powers shared by all of your best friends - what kind of friendship group doesn't want that? The powers all had potential to be really cool and the friends all had potential to work really well together. It's not the potential of the plot that I have a problem with because, if written well, a group like that can turn out to be really neat.
Only, the writing is very choppy - the sentence fluency is not that great, and there is a LOT of telling instead of showing in this book. Of the other books I've reviewed with the same rating I plan to give this one (one on this page, others on my Goodreads account), they all seem to have a common theme that they have POTENTIAL to be good - BUT they all kind of read like a second draft. Not as underdeveloped as a first/rough draft, but nowhere near where a finished draft should be. It was just very choppy and not that great and... eh. Not to mention, the characters are rather cheesy - the nicknames and how they interact with each other literally reminds me of that one Spongebob episode where Barnacle Boy crosses over to the dark side and the rear of the group become "superheroes" and come up with superhero names for their little "league."
Honestly, this book got to a point where I honestly considered DNFing. I didn't - I pulled through - but just barely. I feel bad because this review is so short - I don't like writing short reviews because I feel like it's not fair to the author - but I... honestly don't know what else to say. If you like supernatural powers then, hey, go ahead and check this book out. But honestly it was just... not great. I didn't hate it, but I certainly didn't love it - and I don't really know what else to say.
May 4, 2017
This was a simple read about an interesting concept: teens drinking a potion for superhuman powers that allow them to fight back government control. I must admit that the title threw me as I kept associating it with a six-pack of beer. Also, there are a lot of fragments throughout the story that, instead of being creatively engaging, stunt the flow of writing.
Another problem I had with the style of writing was that it contained too much exposition: “Stacy and David sat next to each other on a couch and they held hands. Linda was beside Stacy and tapping her foot. Stacy looked at Linda and nudged her with her elbow. Jessica turned back to Tyler, who hadn’t moved”. There's a lot of blatant on-the-nose telling, through dialogue as well, instead of letting us get to know the characters. The characters also tend to be indistinguishable from one another and need more fleshing out. A lot of the conversations tend to be redundant as well, slowing the progression of the plot.
The strengths of the novel are in its concept. It’s a fascinating idea that is viable. At times, it reminded me of X-Men in the way that these teens are learning how to use their unique abilities and are excited about this new chapter in their life. Their concern, too, about the danger of these heightened gifts and the risky situation is realistic.
Another problem I had with the style of writing was that it contained too much exposition: “Stacy and David sat next to each other on a couch and they held hands. Linda was beside Stacy and tapping her foot. Stacy looked at Linda and nudged her with her elbow. Jessica turned back to Tyler, who hadn’t moved”. There's a lot of blatant on-the-nose telling, through dialogue as well, instead of letting us get to know the characters. The characters also tend to be indistinguishable from one another and need more fleshing out. A lot of the conversations tend to be redundant as well, slowing the progression of the plot.
The strengths of the novel are in its concept. It’s a fascinating idea that is viable. At times, it reminded me of X-Men in the way that these teens are learning how to use their unique abilities and are excited about this new chapter in their life. Their concern, too, about the danger of these heightened gifts and the risky situation is realistic.
June 22, 2017
My rating is based more on the fact that I'm still excited that it got accepted for publication and is available for everyone to read. Hurrah!
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews