Two teenagers fight for their place in a world where everybody has powers—and the fate of humanity may be in their hands—in this original superhero series.
On July 6, 1963, human history was forever altered. From the depths of space, a golden wave of light bathed everyone on Earth in rays that rendered them unconscious. Six days later, five billion people awakened with superpowers. For thirty-seven years now, superhumanity has managed to keep the peace. With some exceptions . . .
Matt Callaghan is a clairvoyant. Unfortunately, his uncanny talent for predicting the future has more to do with observation and psychology (read: lying) than actual superpowers. About to graduate from Northridge High, he still hasn’t developed any special abilities. And if the authorities discover the truth, Matt can safely predict he’ll be locked up as a scientific curiosity.
Jane Walker is an Empath, feared and hated for her ability to assume other people’s powers by touching them. Expelled from various high schools for fighting bullies with a dazzling array of formidable abilities of their own, she’s determined to prove her worth and join the legendary Legion of Heroes.
Tasked with employing his “clairvoyance” to monitor his new classmate, Matt must juggle protecting his secret inability and keeping Jane and his friends from killing each other. And when the Legion of Heroes offers Matt a place in their academy, his attempt to play off the organization’s history backfires into Jane getting accepted as well.
As Matt bluffs his way through evaluation and Jane battles for her very life, the pair will soon learn the Legion’s true agenda is far from altruistic—and even farther from heroic . . .
This book has a common complaint that the ending is predictable. I agree with that assessment. In fact I'd say almost all the individual elements that compose this story have already been done before. And yet, put together it still makes for a fascinating read. I had a good idea where the story was headed pretty early on but I immensely enjoyed the journey there.
I'd best describe this story as My Hero Academia meets Invincible. Yet where it really differs, is with the main character Matt. Matt was a refreshing character in this story, and the genre as a whole, being power less in a world where everyone isn't, yet with sheer determination and force of will, not being powerless.
Overall, I'm excited to see where the sequel goes.
The main strength of this novel was Matt; his whole schtick of posing as a clairvoyant, his cunning methods to manipulate everyone, and the hilarity pretty much made the novel for me.
Now as for Jane... i don't find her as good of a character. Sure Jane was a neat, reversed parallel of Matt in the story, but her characterisation simply isn't as compelling or concrete enough for me to be as invested in her as i was in Matt. For one thing, her parents and her relationship to them was only lightly touched on. This became a really damning issue in the finale when these elements suddenly came back into play in the most unconvincing way. Jane thinks so highly of her mom, but we are only ever shown her picture that Jane keeps and 1 line that her mom said to her. Jane probably didn't even have much memories of her (from the timeline of events Jane would be around 6 when her mom died). It feels unsatisfactory and cheap to just accept that her mom was an important central figure in her life, enough to make Jane do a 180 in her decisions just from remenbering that 1 line her mom said. Sure, ok, whatever. The dad however i cannot dismiss. He was established, extremely clearly, to be a deadbeat. Then at the end he turns around and tells her that he "-really cared, im so proud of you, i just couldnt tell you, i-". I call bullshit. There was no indication of this at all, in fact it was the complete opposite that was shown! Sure, Jane's dad has been established as a meek, cowardly man, but the entirely of his character was thrown out the window when he rather daringly showed up to Jane to help her by spouting that he loved her when the last we saw of him was when he cursed her very existence! Absolutely unbelievable shit. Another gripe i had was the whole empath pariah issue. It was interesting, gritty, dark, and genuine... at the start. By the time Jane is in the academy and the same mob lynching is happening multiple times... the empath discrimination got terribly old and boring. Her struggles in the academy turned dull very quickly. I believe it would have been best to just show the scene of students humiliating her at the canteen. It was the best example of empaths being hated (and Matt's role in it was the wonderful cherry on top), while all the other scenes were, at best, unnecessarily dragged out. Her desire to be a hero and the best of the best is done decently, though i dont really care to root for this run-of-the-mill, angsty underdog.
So when you have a much weaker main character juxtaposed against this much more engaging, charismatic main character... im sorry Jane, your good points can't save you from being seen as a far inferior protagonist when measured up against the almighty human Matt. Jane at times feels very much like a plot device diguised as a character that helps Matt or the story move along, and i wished many times that she was more complex and better interweaved into the destiny part like Matt was.
The powers and setting was alright, reminded me of my hero academia, though with less interesting superpowers. A decent attempt was made to establish clear rules and limitations on the superpowers, but sadly this is no Worm, so there is still ambiguity on the powers that leads to many questions. The inclusion of time travel is the biggest misstep in my opinion. It was introduced far too carelessly and ended up opening cans of worms, including: "How does it work exactly? Is it a singular timeline or multiple timelines? Why not do A, B, C, D and immediately resolve everything? Why is Jane so slow in realising she went back in time? Why is Jane so stupid to not even think to try do anything else with the power? Jane, why? How does the future work? Can you travel forward in time and then do things in the present that changes things? If so what was that future you saw? And when you time travel, what happens to your present, is time still flowing? Also, this time travelling is also teleportation no?" And the list goes on and on. Time travel is very messy and easily breaks any story when handled poorly, which it was in Superworld. Maybe this will be resolved in the sequel, but this story should have answered some glaring questions that popped up when Jane met Dawn. At least have it be that Jane acknowledges the huge ramifications and possibilities of time travelling, otherwise i am going assume her as a horrendously short-sighted, stupefied idiot.
Overall, i only really felt invested in Matt and the mystery aspect of the story. Also, Matt and Jane kissing at the end was horrible; so hamfisted, poorly set up, out of left field that it left me cringing, especially when Superworld wisely focused on its plot and romance was never a main theme.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
I got about half way through this before I put it down.
Here's my, um, "review."
Matt doesn't have any powers, but pretends to be a precog ("clairvoyant") by doing some mediocre cold reading. He's not really as good as your average psychic charlatan but I guess his marks are unusually dumb because they believe in his fake power.
Jane really wants to be a superhero, and has one of those power mimic abilities. Unfortunately, everyone hates people with her power because of some bad press a while back, to the point where she's legally required to wear a brand on her face.
Anyway, after some boring and unbelievable hijinks, they both end up going to hero school. This turns out to be an incredibly worthless and unbelievable academy run as a personality cult based on the hero club's founder. Despite not having any real class structure at all and essentially resembling a very disorganized and poorly run boot camp, it's supposedly some kind of college.
This was about where I couldn't manage to turn any more pages. Just... Why? It's one of those books where you can see where the story is going from the start, it's not very interesting, and the worst thing is you're not even sure it'll even get there.
The best part of this book was Matt's cold reading. It was kind of funny watching him mostly laze around in a semi-competent haze but actually manage to put in a little Google-stalking effort when he wanted to bamboozle someone. But otherwise he was a fairly boring and uninteresting character.
Jane, the hero, didn't really get any characterization at all beyond her very warranted grumpy and negative outlook around other people. Who is she? What does she want? Honestly I had no idea. She's basically a cipher.
The world depicted in this book is shallow and poorly thought out, the main characters are flat and the side characters are non-existent. I don't recommend it.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Still reading this but a couple of things I want to note, as I am very forgetful. The introduction of the two main characters so far... was obnoxious. To me anyway. Maybe it was good for "suspense" lovers... But to me it was just the writer annoying me with vagueness I knew wasnt going to last long or lead to any socking but intriguing revelations!!! No, it just felt like the the author was being annoying because they could.
Also... That is not what the word empathy means. At all. Even remotely. Its a poor use of the word, especially in a story setting where ACTUAL empaths exist. Just strikes me as stupid.... Not putting the book down over these. Yet. But still very note worthy opinions to me.
Setting is also more dystopian than The Boys... Its like... A super smart guy made an ever better atom bomb that killed hundreds of millions!!! So from now on we are going to carve a mark in the forehead of anyone with an IQ over 120! Doesnt matter how young they are or that they are almost entirely unable to match such a feat! The hatred will be ubiquitous, blind, based on misinformation, and endorsed by all world governments! (an analogy to avoid spoilers)
Yeah couldn't get much farther. For me a decent fictional story of any real length needs have some minimal success at keeping its contrivance from being too obvious. This book goes the other way. Its contrivances are ridiculously ham-fisted. Its like a book written for small children in how exaggeratedly blatant a lot of things are... But the content is obviously not targeted at an age group that should need to be hand held to the points this extremely. Found it too obnoxious to get on with.
This book was amazing. I just loved it from the start. I got this book because I loved the cover. The simplicity of it drew me in. I'm not a big reader of sci-fi books as its difficult to find ones that I like because I'm autistic and they have to have logic. Yet this one worked so well it was fantastic. I loved the fact it had teenage characters as it is aimed at 15 to 18 yr old. With all the super powers it was so much fun this lead to the book being a real page turner. I loved the characters and how they had to deal with everyday problems. Especially coping with being different from others and getting bullied. I was so engrossed in this book that I lost track of time and finished it in one day. This is a very thrilling story line with a medium to fast pace and was so interesting that it kept my interest throughout. This author is definitely one to watch out for as the writing style was brilliant and flowed seamlessly. I really can't recommend this book enough to both adult and teenage sci-fi fans. I just know you are going to love it just as much as I did. I am actually hoping there is a sequel. Only the highest of praise goes out to the author and publishers for creating such a magnificent story that was a fantastic roller coaster ride. I just can't wait to read more.
“All powers to the people. And to all people, a power. This … is the Impossible Era.”
In a world full of powered people Matt is just trying to get by, preferably without drawing too much attention. Jane is used to being ignored.... well, that or hated on. And she's not going to settle for just getting by, she has dreams and goals.
When their lives intersect, an unlikely friendship forms as Matt finds himself determined to get to know the person others won't go near because of prejudice, assumptions and stereotypes. Jane isn't used to people being nice, or trying to be her friend, but in Matt she finds someone she might actually want to make the effort with, maybe.
This is the first book in a series, as such it has rich world building, emphasizing getting to know the characters and their universe over telling a stand alone story. It is engaging enough to have me wanting to read the next book, but it is the world building and not the plot that is the page-turning aspect for the first three quarters of the book.
Superworld by Benjamin Keyworth I had to look at the book because of its description but found that this book has its own genre. The book is the idea that an individual that does not have magic or power has influence in the world. Like the dark sword series, Superworld looks into the problem of the hero without powers in a world of powers. Matt is one of the few people with out powers after the sudden appearance of world wide super powers. He hides from his family, friends and schools, so well, fooling all of them until a new student comes to town. A young girl vilified for her superpower, empathy, the ability to absorb super powers. Its a complicated plot, of super schools, and bully proofing the story shows the nature of friendship, and sacrifice.
I don’t usually read superhero books but gave this a try due to many friends recommending it. At first I wasn’t in love with the story. (Not a spoiler) MC is the only one with no powers?!? Hard pass? I decided to give it a chance though.
The author is a great storyteller and managed to keep me engaged despite not having the things I look for in a story and MC. The MC’s personality is fun and heartwarming and the side characters are well done and interesting. The world building was top notch and the story has a great plot.
I highly recommend if you are looking for a great storytelling, not so much if you want an OP MC with tons of fighting.
I found the protagonist, Matt, to be likeable if a little naïve. There are some rough spots which strained my commitment, but for the most part I was happy to be reading.
The series big twist was evident almost from the word go. In fact, it's so obvious that I hope the author finds a way to leverage our expectation so he can deliver a four-and-a-half somersault in the pike position.
I found this book when I was trying to find narrators that were like Andrea Parsnau someone with a wide range of voice talent during my search Luke Daniels came up. Luke Daniels is not like Andrea Parsnau his voice variations are mild. they're not as in-depth as Andrea Parsnau. however, saying all that this book narrated by Luke Daniels was freaking awesome. I was enthralled by this story and the narration at about 2 minutes in although this book is not a laugh out loud, kind of funny, there is so much humor in it that it is a very enjoyable read unfortunately this book ended on a cliffhanger so now I have to read the rest of the series
Looking for something different and this fit the bill. The story is entertaining, despite the high school drama and college freshmen hazing. I could have done with a bit less bigotry towards empathy, or many a different way to show the populous distrust towards one. Jane getting jumped and/or picked on simply because of the letter tattooed on her cheek got old. Matt wasn't perfect either, his ability to convince others of his gift became implausible after a while, but I guess in this universe, superhumans were more gullible. Curious to see when this story goes.
(audio) On B3 now. Nothing too special here but kept my interest. More like a slow tease mystery that i found interesting enough to slog through the school BS. One of those that seems obvious in hindsight & i was guessing that way... but didn't mind that the ex-machina low effort resolution because its just a start of the next mystery. Sorta cheap cliffhanger tricks throughout but im in for this one till end. Mostly: I like Luke Daniels from his other narrations so he is keeping me engaged.
…written with pathos and intelligence. The characters develop as we get to know them; the story/plot unfolds as we read…
Very few authors capture my “thumbs-up” but this one definitely gets my endorsement—for whatever that’s worth. A fun ride, entertaining read, and engaging mystery
Clever premise. Interesting characters, but honestly the book goes to fast. In hero worlds, or worlds with super powers based on the modern world, there’s alot of cool things to explore. This book does it a bit with hero structures and school classes but it felt a bit rushed.
I just have to say that I am blown away by the caliber of these books. They are way better than they have any right to be, and now that they are done, I feel bereft without them. Perhaps it’s time for a reread.
When Superworld appeared in my suggested for you list on my kindle, the cover art caught my eye. I decided to take a look at the blurb. Sounds great I thought, I'll just send myself a sample to read to see if I like it.... and then I noticed the audio sample button. of course I promptly tapped on that instead and with that out flowed the voice of Luke Daniels narrating. A voice I know well from Marko Kloos Frontlines series (8 books as of 30th August 2022) So with that I promptly brought both kindle & audio books. Finished the audio book at 1.30am, there was no way I was putting it down until I'd finished it. What a delight, I'd found a new series to read and another author to follow. Highly recommended
It has promise. Main character tends to be too much of a 12 year old boy to be likeable. Going to read the next because there's clearly more to the story going on & I'm curious enough to keep going.