What do you think?
Rate this book
City Without Heroes #1
City Without Heroes
Whitten was just what Indira hoped for. It was a city that had banned heroes and villains, which meant no more rebuilding her home after a disaster, no more texts from her mother about how her father had been kidnapped, and no more worrying that she might be forced to become a hero herself one day.
Indira soon finds out that the city holds a dangerous secret. Keeping superheroes and supervillains out of the city comes at a cost and, if she isn’t careful, she may disappear with the others.
Indira soon finds out that the city holds a dangerous secret. Keeping superheroes and supervillains out of the city comes at a cost and, if she isn’t careful, she may disappear with the others.
206 pages, Kindle Edition
Published October 25, 2017
16 people want to read
About the author
Tanya Lisle
51 books43 followersTanya Lisle is a novelist from Metro Vancouver, British Columbia who has series littered across genres from supernatural horror to young adult fantasy. She began writing in elementary school, when she started turning homework assignments into short stories and continued this trend well into university. While attending Simon Fraser University, she developed an appreciation for public domain crossovers and cross-platform narratives. She has a shelf full of notebooks with more story ideas than pens lost to the depths of her bag. Now she writes incessantly in hopes of finishing all of them.
Thankfully, her cat, Remy, has figured out how to shut off Tanya’s computer when she needs to take a break.
You can visit her at www.TanyaLisle.com.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
March 17, 2018
Errrrrr. Yes. Well.
I'm honestly just glad that's over.
I was actually looking forward to this one! I'm so skeptical of freebies from new authors but there's the occasional diamond in the rough and I thought this might be it. I was wrong.
It has a promising premise: In a world where heroes and villains are constantly destroying things, there's a town where superpowers are banned, and no hero or villain resides. Indira and her family are new in town, and soon discover it's not as peaceful as it seems ...
Now, I love me some superheroes. I read the summary and was like, 'oh, cool! That's an interesting new angle!' and I was excited. But - and I'm sorry for what is going to be brutal honesty here - the execution was horrendous. It's so incredibly slow and confusing. First we have Indy and her bro getting to know the neighbourhood, and it's pages and pages of their thoughts, with very little exciting information. I did not give two hoots about any of it. There are giant long conversations with utterly dull characters and in between there are loooooooong descriptions about boring things and then super confusing powers talk. I also had massive issues with there being no formatting marks to indicate when someone was using telepathy. You gotta give me some kind of sign that these giant paragraphs are people actually having a conversation, yo.
So then after all the boring, getting-to-know crap, there's the wishy washy explanations of how the city works and you know what? I didn't get it. I never really understood how the city works. How the laws are kept and why and also why everyone seemed to have powers anyway. Then how that all coincided with the 'don't talk about powers or the specks will hear you only we don't know it's the specks' crap. Also, a little more info on these 'specks', please? It was just all so damn confusing and it totally lost me at that point.
There was also something about a cute boy but that actually seemed underplayed here. Indira herself seemed to have bizarre emotions. Like, not even emotions, really, just reactions. Absolutely rubbish characterisation in general; the characters were not fleshed out at all and no one seemed overflowing in the emotions department. No attachments here, I'm sorry to say. Esther was probably the closest I came to liking a character but I still didn't really get her.
Honestly, I think what this book really needs is a great editor. Someone to weed out all the unnecessary garbage and bring attention to things that the author hasn't actually explained. I think sometimes writers spend so much time in the worlds of their creation that they forget to explain things because to them it's already known. This book needs some tough love and a lot more action and depth, but it does still have the potential to be an interesting story. I think there'd be plenty here to fascinate readers if it were explained properly.
With great patience, you may find a story here, but it was just too amateur for me. I'd probably recommend more for younger readers, though not for anyone with a short attention span.
With thanks to Voracious Readers and the author for my free e-copy to read and review.
I'm honestly just glad that's over.
I was actually looking forward to this one! I'm so skeptical of freebies from new authors but there's the occasional diamond in the rough and I thought this might be it. I was wrong.
It has a promising premise: In a world where heroes and villains are constantly destroying things, there's a town where superpowers are banned, and no hero or villain resides. Indira and her family are new in town, and soon discover it's not as peaceful as it seems ...
Now, I love me some superheroes. I read the summary and was like, 'oh, cool! That's an interesting new angle!' and I was excited. But - and I'm sorry for what is going to be brutal honesty here - the execution was horrendous. It's so incredibly slow and confusing. First we have Indy and her bro getting to know the neighbourhood, and it's pages and pages of their thoughts, with very little exciting information. I did not give two hoots about any of it. There are giant long conversations with utterly dull characters and in between there are loooooooong descriptions about boring things and then super confusing powers talk. I also had massive issues with there being no formatting marks to indicate when someone was using telepathy. You gotta give me some kind of sign that these giant paragraphs are people actually having a conversation, yo.
So then after all the boring, getting-to-know crap, there's the wishy washy explanations of how the city works and you know what? I didn't get it. I never really understood how the city works. How the laws are kept and why and also why everyone seemed to have powers anyway. Then how that all coincided with the 'don't talk about powers or the specks will hear you only we don't know it's the specks' crap. Also, a little more info on these 'specks', please? It was just all so damn confusing and it totally lost me at that point.
There was also something about a cute boy but that actually seemed underplayed here. Indira herself seemed to have bizarre emotions. Like, not even emotions, really, just reactions. Absolutely rubbish characterisation in general; the characters were not fleshed out at all and no one seemed overflowing in the emotions department. No attachments here, I'm sorry to say. Esther was probably the closest I came to liking a character but I still didn't really get her.
Honestly, I think what this book really needs is a great editor. Someone to weed out all the unnecessary garbage and bring attention to things that the author hasn't actually explained. I think sometimes writers spend so much time in the worlds of their creation that they forget to explain things because to them it's already known. This book needs some tough love and a lot more action and depth, but it does still have the potential to be an interesting story. I think there'd be plenty here to fascinate readers if it were explained properly.
With great patience, you may find a story here, but it was just too amateur for me. I'd probably recommend more for younger readers, though not for anyone with a short attention span.
With thanks to Voracious Readers and the author for my free e-copy to read and review.
February 25, 2018
City without heroes by Tanya Lisle is a 3.5 star read.
Indira and her family have just moved to Whitten, a city that has no heroes or villains after her father was kidnapped for ransom and their house had been destroyed too many times. Indira has hidden powers, ones she has found out could make her disappear if the leaders of Whitten found out, but Whitten isn’t all it seems and after her uncle goes missing Indira, along with a few school friends who are hiding their own secrets try to find out what why people keep going missing.
I’ll be honest I’m still trying to figure out if I liked this book or not, some of the book dragged a little but there was enough about the book that kept me turning the pages, the ending left me a little frustrated and needing to find out what happens next. I will be reading the next book and hopefully the questions I have about this book will be answered.
I voluntarily reviewed a gifted copy of this book.
Indira and her family have just moved to Whitten, a city that has no heroes or villains after her father was kidnapped for ransom and their house had been destroyed too many times. Indira has hidden powers, ones she has found out could make her disappear if the leaders of Whitten found out, but Whitten isn’t all it seems and after her uncle goes missing Indira, along with a few school friends who are hiding their own secrets try to find out what why people keep going missing.
I’ll be honest I’m still trying to figure out if I liked this book or not, some of the book dragged a little but there was enough about the book that kept me turning the pages, the ending left me a little frustrated and needing to find out what happens next. I will be reading the next book and hopefully the questions I have about this book will be answered.
I voluntarily reviewed a gifted copy of this book.
March 22, 2018
City Without Heroes.
For someone who’s sworn off magic and heroism you’d think Indira would be a bit more... aggressive and worried when it comes to her friends wanting to go off and do something.
Magic is addictive though you always want to test your limits. Want to see what you can do.
Penny and Matt are very... stubborn when it comes to the speckles and the city. But what can you expect? They want to see their mom again.
This story has the combination of magic and hesitance and familial love and worry and stubbornness and friendship. And it does have its sad parts. But that’s what makes you want more. The best combination.
Loved Indira’s journey of being in a new place and learning the ropes and getting entrapped in plans she doesn’t want a part of.
Such an interesting take on Heroes and villains too. Anyone could be either or. Or maybe everyone is both. Depends on the way you look at it.
For someone who’s sworn off magic and heroism you’d think Indira would be a bit more... aggressive and worried when it comes to her friends wanting to go off and do something.
Magic is addictive though you always want to test your limits. Want to see what you can do.
Penny and Matt are very... stubborn when it comes to the speckles and the city. But what can you expect? They want to see their mom again.
This story has the combination of magic and hesitance and familial love and worry and stubbornness and friendship. And it does have its sad parts. But that’s what makes you want more. The best combination.
Loved Indira’s journey of being in a new place and learning the ropes and getting entrapped in plans she doesn’t want a part of.
Such an interesting take on Heroes and villains too. Anyone could be either or. Or maybe everyone is both. Depends on the way you look at it.
August 7, 2024
DNF. I wanted to like this book. I liked the premise and the main character was interesting, seeming more like a potential villain than hero. However, the editing was so bad and the flow so confusing, that I couldn’t keep wading through it. I get why the characters had to talk around the issue covertly, but oftentimes they were so vague and the dialogue was jumping around so much that I had trouble understand who was talking and what they were implying.
August 2, 2019
Excellent twist to the superhero genre
I really enjoyed this tale of a world where superpowers are the norm and the city trying to eradicate heroes. A fun twist on the usual approach - good range of characters, pacy, and hard to put down. Looking forward to the next in the series, which I immediately downloaded after finishing this first one.
I really enjoyed this tale of a world where superpowers are the norm and the city trying to eradicate heroes. A fun twist on the usual approach - good range of characters, pacy, and hard to put down. Looking forward to the next in the series, which I immediately downloaded after finishing this first one.
March 16, 2026
Is this perfect? No (I'd say it's a 4.5 star, rounded up for Goodreads)
Is this book fun? Yes!
This is one I come back to now and again and think about often. It's almost (but not quite) become something of a comfort read in a weird way that I cannot fully put my finger on.
Is this book fun? Yes!
This is one I come back to now and again and think about often. It's almost (but not quite) become something of a comfort read in a weird way that I cannot fully put my finger on.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews