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Saving Supervillains #1
Saving Supervillains
A former villain is living a quiet life, hidden among the masses. Miles has one big he might just be the most powerful super in existence. Those days are behind him. But when a wounded young lady unable to control her superpower needs his help, she shatters his boring life, pulling him into the one place he least expected to be—the Bureau of Superheroes. Now Miles has an opportunity to change the place he has always criticized as women flock to him, creating both opportunity and disaster. He is about to do the strangest thing a Deputy Director of the Bureau has ever start saving Supervillains.
450 pages, Paperback
First published April 9, 2022
About the author
Bruce Sentar
61 books898 followersBorn and raised in the agricultural midwest, I moved every year after school even as far as Shanghai before settling down with my wife in Chicago.
I have always enjoyed Wuxia stories and became thrilled when I discovered harem stories spreading to western books. I've written down my day dreams for years as an idle hobby. Inspired by the harem genre I'm finally fleshing them out into full blown novels.
I'm excited to share my stories with you as I turn them into novels and series.
Connect with me on Facebook for updates on my latest books.
https://www.facebook.com/Bruce-Sentar...
I have always enjoyed Wuxia stories and became thrilled when I discovered harem stories spreading to western books. I've written down my day dreams for years as an idle hobby. Inspired by the harem genre I'm finally fleshing them out into full blown novels.
I'm excited to share my stories with you as I turn them into novels and series.
Connect with me on Facebook for updates on my latest books.
https://www.facebook.com/Bruce-Sentar...
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Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 156 reviews
November 9, 2022
Aggravatingly bad
Harem/ super heroes/ sex scenes/ poor choices by both author and characters
Before I vent about how this book pissed me off let me start by saying I've liked every other thing I've read by Bruce Sentar. I enjoyed Dragon's Justice, and Mana Master was fun until the end of book 2 (hooking up with the guild-master was a stretch too far).
-If you are thinking about giving this book a try, Allow me to direct your attention to the two books that this was mainly 'borrowing' from.
The Daily Struggles of an Immortal (Immortal Supers #1) by Kurtis Eckstein
Fid's Crusade (The Chronicles of Fid #1) by David H. Reiss
If you mashed these two books together and and put in the minimal effort for character development and world building you might end up with something just like Saving Supervillains. Your result might be better.
-Daily Struggles of an Immortal is harem about a depressed super who is passing as a normie until events conspire to pull him into the super-hero organization. All the daily life/ office stuff/ relationship/sex portions of this book are from here.
Fid's Crusade is a non-harem about a depressed retired villain who is passing as a normie until events conspire to pull him into the super-hero organization. All the tragic backstory/ hate for heroes/ casual violence/ and the invented persona of "Void" are from here -right down to the star-field over a lightless black silhouette as his super-costume with the gravelly modulated voice.
-So, what's so bad about this book? it's the mind numbing levels of stupidity for starters.
Besides all the female characters being near duplicates of each other, and besides the errors in basic facts, The main number one flaw in the book is the main character. He is a moron.
Just being a simple everyday moron would not be a deal breaker. This chucklewit is a petulant, violent, self-indulgent, short sighted moron. This guy is giving everyone around him mixed signals, he's acting suspicious as hell, and he gives off more red flags than a drug dealer on a playground. This guy, (who's name I've already forgotten 15 min after finishing the book) Casually, brutally murders people who find out his "secret", and then he tells a girl he's just met on their first date that exact same "secret". He tries to kill people who he was the last know person to be seen with them alive after being very publicly filmed getting kidnapped by that person. He then never expects to become a suspect for that murder that was never freaking necessary if he himself hadn't told them his big "secret" unprompted of his own free will.
This dude is so sketchy and incompetent that he is far more likely to be suspected of being an unreliable alcoholic, than the villain that he is. This dude works for the Super Hero Bureau, but he's constantly turning off his communicator and tracker to go do crimes, and then popping back up near the scene of his crime to turn his communicator back on with no cover story to explain why he went dark, or why he Always goes dark just before some bad stuff goes down near him.
Argh, I could keep going but you get the gist.
Give this book a pass, and check out the others that this is a poor intimation of.
Harem/ super heroes/ sex scenes/ poor choices by both author and characters
Before I vent about how this book pissed me off let me start by saying I've liked every other thing I've read by Bruce Sentar. I enjoyed Dragon's Justice, and Mana Master was fun until the end of book 2 (hooking up with the guild-master was a stretch too far).
-If you are thinking about giving this book a try, Allow me to direct your attention to the two books that this was mainly 'borrowing' from.
The Daily Struggles of an Immortal (Immortal Supers #1) by Kurtis Eckstein
Fid's Crusade (The Chronicles of Fid #1) by David H. Reiss
If you mashed these two books together and and put in the minimal effort for character development and world building you might end up with something just like Saving Supervillains. Your result might be better.
-Daily Struggles of an Immortal is harem about a depressed super who is passing as a normie until events conspire to pull him into the super-hero organization. All the daily life/ office stuff/ relationship/sex portions of this book are from here.
Fid's Crusade is a non-harem about a depressed retired villain who is passing as a normie until events conspire to pull him into the super-hero organization. All the tragic backstory/ hate for heroes/ casual violence/ and the invented persona of "Void" are from here -right down to the star-field over a lightless black silhouette as his super-costume with the gravelly modulated voice.
-So, what's so bad about this book? it's the mind numbing levels of stupidity for starters.
Besides all the female characters being near duplicates of each other, and besides the errors in basic facts, The main number one flaw in the book is the main character. He is a moron.
Just being a simple everyday moron would not be a deal breaker. This chucklewit is a petulant, violent, self-indulgent, short sighted moron. This guy is giving everyone around him mixed signals, he's acting suspicious as hell, and he gives off more red flags than a drug dealer on a playground. This guy, (who's name I've already forgotten 15 min after finishing the book) Casually, brutally murders people who find out his "secret", and then he tells a girl he's just met on their first date that exact same "secret". He tries to kill people who he was the last know person to be seen with them alive after being very publicly filmed getting kidnapped by that person. He then never expects to become a suspect for that murder that was never freaking necessary if he himself hadn't told them his big "secret" unprompted of his own free will.
This dude is so sketchy and incompetent that he is far more likely to be suspected of being an unreliable alcoholic, than the villain that he is. This dude works for the Super Hero Bureau, but he's constantly turning off his communicator and tracker to go do crimes, and then popping back up near the scene of his crime to turn his communicator back on with no cover story to explain why he went dark, or why he Always goes dark just before some bad stuff goes down near him.
Argh, I could keep going but you get the gist.
Give this book a pass, and check out the others that this is a poor intimation of.
May 16, 2022
Something not specifically explained happened, and something like a superhero virus got unleashed on the world. It infected everything: humans, bears, one-celled organisms, etc. In humans this virus got attached to the X chromosome - to the point that more women than men get born (those little X sperms have superpowers, I did mention it infected everything, which, here, includes sperm). So this is a world where women outnumber men. Not sure by how much, but something like 9 to 1. The book opens about three generations after that virus hit earth. As everything was infected, people had to pull into cities to protect themselves, the land in between cities are covered by "monsters" (superpower enhanced animals and the like).
The mere description on this book, the actual other stuff I haven't mentioned yet, I mean, plus the cover probably would have made me skip this book. Most of the little red flag type check-boxes were checked. Superpowered man attracting all the women to him; has more power than anyone should have; I've forgotten what the male version for Mary Sue is called, but this kinda edges on triggering "male Mary Sue" story alert.
So why did I end up reading this book? Not certain why I tried the sample, but I did. And couldn't stop reading. It basically pressed some of my buttons for "eww, icky", but there was this edge that kept invading that kept things from going too far. He's pro-many women for one man (technically he is more pro-poly relationships, which can have more than one man, one woman, in them, but, because of that more women than men issue. . . ); he has enormous power beyond anyone else's; he has put up a incredibly selfish and self-serving persona; etc. etc. But every time one thing is noticed, certain things were also noticed that kept things from going too far. Like, he personally doesn't actually want a harem, or any relationship (beyond quick fucks) because of his backstory, his history. But he works on an ad campaign to get people to accept harems (reasons given: frustrated women turn to crime because their aren't enough men around for 1-1 relationships, and not all women are going to be able to satisfy their frustrations through another women; I'm asexual, don't ask me if any of that is reasonable). He has enormous power, but there's (a) legitimate reason(s) for why he is hiding it, again because of his backstory, but also because he knows he simply is just too powerful to not be locked in a cell/and or basically be turned into a slave to the superhero bureau. Yes, he seems super selfish and self-serving, but there's a reason I worded things the way I worded them - this seems to be a self-image that might have had some basis in fact, but the actions that occur in the book don't exactly align with someone who is only self-serving. Right. So.
The basic story is this: Miles works for an advertising firm with a contract with the BSH (the superhero bureau). Through that he ends up with a "bounty" for someone to give a message to Demon, a supervillain known to basically kill anyone/thing that gets too close. BSH needs Demon because they need that power - bacteria are infected with superhero virus and are spreading through city and killing - kind of act like Borg in that, one "thing" might kill them but only up until "knowledge" spreads and the bacteria becomes immune to whatever that "thing" is (except for fire, and something Demon brings to the party). Both because it is an excuse to not go to a party his coworker is trying to drag him to, and because he figures anyone who actually approached Demon would die, Miles decides to deliver the message himself to contact BSH directly to Demon. Because, you know, he suspects he won't be killed.
Miles finds Demon as a dry-ed up husk of a thing with a gun to their head. Can't tell if male or female. Demon had their powers turned on suddenly and they have something that sucks life energy from others and they can't control it. Didn't want to kill. Miles is all powerful, recall, so....
Demon, who actually turns out to be Demoness (considering the number of superheroes/villains that are male, and the number that are women, assuming demon was male was an odd take, but whatever), and Miles get drafted to help tack down bacteria villain and kill. Which leads to a closer connection to BSH; closer connection between Miles and Demoness, etc. etc.
Right, so. Miles is not a hero and does not want to be one. Which, basically, means that if he has an issue he needs to resolve, he might resolve it by killing someone, because, eh, he not hero. Also, of course, he has a lot of sex, graphic, in this book. No clue how good/bad that was written as I skipped those sections as much as possible. I wasn't interested to hear how his cock was being sucked, and stuff. So.
Right, so, as noted, a billion and one red flags - lots of sex I didn't read because I didn't want to read it, but hmms. Liked it well enough to continue reading, and rating book relativity well. Oh, and one of those things that kept it from turning into an "eww, male Mary Sue story", is the part where it did kind of read more like an author writing a story about a Captain Kirk type character (gets lots of sex, women, etc., almost always wins, etc. etc.), and less an author putting themselves into the story as super powerful and stuff. A book with a Captain Kirk, Julius Caesar, Alexander the Great, kind of story is going to have an over-powered character that kind of automatically hit certain red flags just by existing as that type of character.
Rating: 3.8
May 15 2022
The mere description on this book, the actual other stuff I haven't mentioned yet, I mean, plus the cover probably would have made me skip this book. Most of the little red flag type check-boxes were checked. Superpowered man attracting all the women to him; has more power than anyone should have; I've forgotten what the male version for Mary Sue is called, but this kinda edges on triggering "male Mary Sue" story alert.
So why did I end up reading this book? Not certain why I tried the sample, but I did. And couldn't stop reading. It basically pressed some of my buttons for "eww, icky", but there was this edge that kept invading that kept things from going too far. He's pro-many women for one man (technically he is more pro-poly relationships, which can have more than one man, one woman, in them, but, because of that more women than men issue. . . ); he has enormous power beyond anyone else's; he has put up a incredibly selfish and self-serving persona; etc. etc. But every time one thing is noticed, certain things were also noticed that kept things from going too far. Like, he personally doesn't actually want a harem, or any relationship (beyond quick fucks) because of his backstory, his history. But he works on an ad campaign to get people to accept harems (reasons given: frustrated women turn to crime because their aren't enough men around for 1-1 relationships, and not all women are going to be able to satisfy their frustrations through another women; I'm asexual, don't ask me if any of that is reasonable). He has enormous power, but there's (a) legitimate reason(s) for why he is hiding it, again because of his backstory, but also because he knows he simply is just too powerful to not be locked in a cell/and or basically be turned into a slave to the superhero bureau. Yes, he seems super selfish and self-serving, but there's a reason I worded things the way I worded them - this seems to be a self-image that might have had some basis in fact, but the actions that occur in the book don't exactly align with someone who is only self-serving. Right. So.
The basic story is this: Miles works for an advertising firm with a contract with the BSH (the superhero bureau). Through that he ends up with a "bounty" for someone to give a message to Demon, a supervillain known to basically kill anyone/thing that gets too close. BSH needs Demon because they need that power - bacteria are infected with superhero virus and are spreading through city and killing - kind of act like Borg in that, one "thing" might kill them but only up until "knowledge" spreads and the bacteria becomes immune to whatever that "thing" is (except for fire, and something Demon brings to the party). Both because it is an excuse to not go to a party his coworker is trying to drag him to, and because he figures anyone who actually approached Demon would die, Miles decides to deliver the message himself to contact BSH directly to Demon. Because, you know, he suspects he won't be killed.
Miles finds Demon as a dry-ed up husk of a thing with a gun to their head. Can't tell if male or female. Demon had their powers turned on suddenly and they have something that sucks life energy from others and they can't control it. Didn't want to kill. Miles is all powerful, recall, so....
Demon, who actually turns out to be Demoness (considering the number of superheroes/villains that are male, and the number that are women, assuming demon was male was an odd take, but whatever), and Miles get drafted to help tack down bacteria villain and kill. Which leads to a closer connection to BSH; closer connection between Miles and Demoness, etc. etc.
Right, so. Miles is not a hero and does not want to be one. Which, basically, means that if he has an issue he needs to resolve, he might resolve it by killing someone, because, eh, he not hero. Also, of course, he has a lot of sex, graphic, in this book. No clue how good/bad that was written as I skipped those sections as much as possible. I wasn't interested to hear how his cock was being sucked, and stuff. So.
Right, so, as noted, a billion and one red flags - lots of sex I didn't read because I didn't want to read it, but hmms. Liked it well enough to continue reading, and rating book relativity well. Oh, and one of those things that kept it from turning into an "eww, male Mary Sue story", is the part where it did kind of read more like an author writing a story about a Captain Kirk type character (gets lots of sex, women, etc., almost always wins, etc. etc.), and less an author putting themselves into the story as super powerful and stuff. A book with a Captain Kirk, Julius Caesar, Alexander the Great, kind of story is going to have an over-powered character that kind of automatically hit certain red flags just by existing as that type of character.
Rating: 3.8
May 15 2022
January 19, 2023
I had a hard time not DNFing this book in the first half - I just couldn't get behind the protagonist. He was edgy and whiney, and I had no emotional investment in him yet - so it was hard to empathize with his past that had made him who he was. I was aware of Bruce Sentar's track record, so I kept my hopes up that the character would get better. Luckily, we got to learn more about him and why he acted the way he did. Even so, I still didn't like him as much as the other protagonists in Sentar's books. Meanwhile, I found Stella, the first person in the harem, fun at times but her craziness could be overbearing. Thankfully, we had Melody, who was much more relaxed and morally upright, to counterbalance the chaos. All things considered, this wasn't my favorite Sentar book - it's probably the least favorite - but it wasn't bad either; however, I don't think I'd re-read it and I may forget about it in a few months. 2.5/5.
November 8, 2022
Отново романче с интересна и забавна идея и кофти изпълнение.
Най-великият супергерой на планетата не е всъщност никакъв герой, само е супер - защото си крие силите и като цяло не иска да го занимават с цялата супергеройска работа. За съжаление историята и изказът са на ниво 6 клас или айде второразреден трилър (което пак е ниво 6 клас, айде втория срок).
Най-великият супергерой на планетата не е всъщност никакъв герой, само е супер - защото си крие силите и като цяло не иска да го занимават с цялата супергеройска работа. За съжаление историята и изказът са на ниво 6 клас или айде второразреден трилър (което пак е ниво 6 клас, айде втория срок).
September 27, 2023
Similarity are not a coincidence
The story reminds me of a superhero one's I've read some days ago, but the execution is completely different. I wish we had more world building in this one to explain why the world was in this state. The MC is quite the hypocrite too.
The story reminds me of a superhero one's I've read some days ago, but the execution is completely different. I wish we had more world building in this one to explain why the world was in this state. The MC is quite the hypocrite too.
April 17, 2022
Good Book With Few Bad Points
I love this author's ideas and worlds. His writing style is engaging and easy to follow. His works are also well written and edited, with very few grammar or mechanical issues.
However, the way he writes his harems always puts me off. A line from this book that's spoken by the main character (paraphrased) goes something like "Stamina. I'll need it now that I'm part of a harem." This summarizes the author's issue in several of his works. The MC is not part of a harem. The MC HAS a harem. This author's harems border on being just bisexual polyamorous relationships that happen to only have one male in them. The females even fool around with each other without the MC's presence. They all love one another as romantic partners, not as sister wives.
The saving grace here, though, is that the author very clearly makes the MC the center of all the relationships. He doesn't make it appear as though the group would continue without the MC's presence. Also, the romance scenes are lacking, but what's there is well written. I think it needs longer scenes, but not more scenes.
It's a great book overall that any fan of overpowered main characters, antiheroes, harems, or superhero stories should try. I just hope the author will write actual harem relationships in the future.
I love this author's ideas and worlds. His writing style is engaging and easy to follow. His works are also well written and edited, with very few grammar or mechanical issues.
However, the way he writes his harems always puts me off. A line from this book that's spoken by the main character (paraphrased) goes something like "Stamina. I'll need it now that I'm part of a harem." This summarizes the author's issue in several of his works. The MC is not part of a harem. The MC HAS a harem. This author's harems border on being just bisexual polyamorous relationships that happen to only have one male in them. The females even fool around with each other without the MC's presence. They all love one another as romantic partners, not as sister wives.
The saving grace here, though, is that the author very clearly makes the MC the center of all the relationships. He doesn't make it appear as though the group would continue without the MC's presence. Also, the romance scenes are lacking, but what's there is well written. I think it needs longer scenes, but not more scenes.
It's a great book overall that any fan of overpowered main characters, antiheroes, harems, or superhero stories should try. I just hope the author will write actual harem relationships in the future.
April 16, 2022
Its a bit odd... and I like harem series!
The protagonist appears to be irresistible to women, but doesn't seem to realize it? Is he mind controlling them? Is it a subconscious superpower? Is he just THAT good looking? Does he really not know? I don't remember reading anything to explain it, so to me, this is a major hole in the plot that detracts from my enjoyment of the story. Either he's clueless, or he's creepy AF.
The protagonist appears to be irresistible to women, but doesn't seem to realize it? Is he mind controlling them? Is it a subconscious superpower? Is he just THAT good looking? Does he really not know? I don't remember reading anything to explain it, so to me, this is a major hole in the plot that detracts from my enjoyment of the story. Either he's clueless, or he's creepy AF.
April 13, 2022
This was surprisingly complex.
It has a solid story filled with dynamic characters. Their actions fit their personalities, and the writing has a smooth flow. I don't agree with all the individual choices, but that is a good thing. It signifies a level of complexity that is a hallmark of quality writing. This was a fun, well done experience.
It has a solid story filled with dynamic characters. Their actions fit their personalities, and the writing has a smooth flow. I don't agree with all the individual choices, but that is a good thing. It signifies a level of complexity that is a hallmark of quality writing. This was a fun, well done experience.
March 7, 2023
I wanted to like it. But the ending felt so rushed. The MC went from being a complete loner to getting two additional harem members in like 4 chapters. It felt to much against his development.
May 24, 2024
This is an interesting series about a young guy with a criminal background, who has been hiding for years but is drawn into the limelight after helping out a young female superhero and then becoming a fledgling manager in the Bureau of Super Heroes. Gradually we learn more about his background and about a world that is quite different from our own, apparently postapocalyptic although those details are unfortunately left a bit vague. There are nine big cities left, with monsters roaming the wilds in between. Superpowers are very common, and because those are tied to the X chromosome females have stronger powers and have become much more common than males, with females in all the important positions in society. Within the genre of (superhero) haremlit I think Bruce Sentar is one of the best - these stories are of course still definitely juvenile power fantasies but at the same time they are more original, less repetitive and simply better written than much of the competition (e.g. Eric Vall's King of Superheroes). And quite a bit less misogynistic, although the whole harem concept is a bit hard to square with equal rights. Clearly Sentar made an attempt to invert some tropes by making this society center around women, which counterintuitively also makes a harem a lot more logical (and all the criminals are women too..). In the same vein magic and superpowers are shown as superior to technology. In any case, I found this an easy listen. In fact I listened to all five stories in the series on after another - in another inversion of a trope instead of letting this series run on and on and gradually getting less interesting Sentar created a compelling story arc spread over 5 books and neatly wraps it up in the last one. Not high literature, and it does perhaps have a surplus of sexy moments (some pretty freaky with all the extreme powers and mutations) but I liked it.
April 14, 2022
New series, delicious complications
I enjoyed this new entry. The MC is seriously OP, and has, I feel, A realistic view of himself - he just wants to live a simple life, without complications - but his own whim and a dose of charisma change him. I like the world building and while not as dystopian as The Boys, explores the morality between heroes and villains. I look forward to seeing where this goes.
I enjoyed this new entry. The MC is seriously OP, and has, I feel, A realistic view of himself - he just wants to live a simple life, without complications - but his own whim and a dose of charisma change him. I like the world building and while not as dystopian as The Boys, explores the morality between heroes and villains. I look forward to seeing where this goes.
October 5, 2023
Final Rating: 3.91/5.00
Starting score: 2.50
+0.38 for Miles's trauma-driven redemption arc and a genuinely meaningful emotional payoff
+0.32 for Stella, Melody, and Angelina giving the chosen-family side of the story real warmth and character purpose
+0.31 for explicit sexual content that commits to detail, chemistry, emotion, and creative use of superpowers
+0.25 for a distinctive superhero world where the demographic shift, social role reversal, and harem structure are built into society
+0.24 for varied action and inventive use of Miles's absurdly broad power set
+0.18 for the supporting cast and the idea of rehabilitating villains instead of treating the labels "hero" and "villain" as morality itself
+0.12 for an ending that completes Miles's first major emotional step while opening the next conflict cleanly
-0.13 for making Miles so overwhelmingly powerful that direct physical danger rarely has teeth
-0.09 for recognizing Stella's unhealthy dependence, then smoothing some of its darkest psychological consequences into cute possessiveness too quickly
-0.08 for packing enough major conflicts into one volume that the late villain conspiracy feels compressed
-0.05 for comic-book broadness occasionally weakening scenes that are trying to carry darker emotional weight
-0.04 for several verified proofreading and word-choice errors
Calculated final score: 3.91/5.00
When the Monster Is the One Who Needs Saving
This worked for me because the real story is not about whether Miles is secretly the strongest super in the room. That answer becomes obvious very early. The real story is whether a man who has spent decades treating emotional distance as armor can let anybody close enough to become a weakness, a responsibility, and eventually a reason to live differently. I listened to a protagonist who can turn people into red mist without touching them, yet who is much worse at dealing with affection than with a city-level threat. That contradiction gives the audiobook its teeth. It is also openly adult HaremLit. The explicit sex does not dominate the opening half, but once the relationship with Stella crosses that line around the middle, the story commits to detailed scenes and continues using explicit intimacy through the second half rather than teasing it and hiding behind a fade to black. For my taste, that matters. I want a story and I want the adult side to do its bloody job too. Here, both are actually present. My ears stayed up because the sex, violence, trauma, and ridiculous superpowers all belong to the same book instead of feeling stitched together from different genres.
Miles Is More Interesting Broken Than Invincible
Miles's best power is almost emotional compartmentalization. The opening nightmare already tells me that the calm office worker is a shell built over something ugly. Ryan's death, Becks, Fortress, the destruction of the school, and the public story that branded Miles as the villain form the wound underneath almost everything he does. When he later remembers the news announcing Fortress's death as the work of a new villain, his anger is not abstract antihero posturing. He watched people he loved die, killed the person responsible, and then heard the world rewrite him into the monster. I understand the instinct to push pain into the background and keep functioning because the alternative is letting it take over the whole room. Miles has made that coping method into an entire life. He keeps work, sex, friendship, heroics, and his past in separate locked boxes. Stella does not heal him by giving a speech. She keeps standing beside the boxes until he starts opening them himself. The most important victory in the audiobook is not a titan retreating or a villain dying. It is Miles reaching the end and voluntarily asking Angelina for counseling because he finally accepts that being functional is not the same thing as being whole. That hit closer to my own frozen walls than any city-level explosion. You can survive behind ice for years. That does not mean the ice has become a home.
Stella Is the Heart of the Story, and the Part I Wanted to Hurt More
Stella's introduction is dark enough to grab me by the fur. Miles finds the person known as Demon reduced to a dried-out husk, isolated by a power she cannot control, surrounded by the consequences of people dying when they get near her, and at the point of trying to end her own life. He is the first person who can get close, touch her, and give her a way to exist without killing everyone around her. That makes her attachment to him psychologically understandable rather than random harem gravity. The story even knows there is a problem. The Bureau's evaluation identifies abandonment issues, dependence on Miles as a crutch, and the danger of what might happen if he simply walks away. My complaint is that the audiobook finds a genuinely ugly psychological situation and then domesticates it a little too quickly. Stella becomes funny, horny, possessive, brave, and deeply loyal, all of which I like, but years of lethal isolation should leave deeper frostbite than the story usually allows. I like dark fiction when the aftermath is allowed to stay dark. Here I wanted a few more moments where the old terror came back through the cracks instead of being converted so efficiently into devotion to Miles. Her growth still matters because she becomes more than someone he rescued. She fights, works, chooses, pushes him, and becomes one of the forces dragging him back toward human connection. She is not just a prize with horns.
The Harem Has an Actual Emotional Spine, and the Sex Does Not Chicken Out
This is much closer to what I want from adult HaremLit than stories that spend ten chapters talking about desire and then shut the bedroom door. Miles and Stella have substantial emotional buildup before their first explicit scene. When it finally happens, the scene is not merely anatomical bookkeeping. Her power, his power, her need for safe contact, his fear of attachment, and their growing trust all become part of the intimacy. Later, Melody's relationship with both of them develops into a real multi-partner dynamic rather than a queue of women waiting for Miles, and the story explicitly connects the physical relationship with Miles discovering that multiple lovers can mean more emotional connection rather than only more sex. The later scenes continue to use powers and mutations in ways that make the partners feel physically different from one another, and Angelina's intimacy is tied to her own control issues and desire to trust somebody strong enough that she can stop managing every moment. I do not deduct points because there is frequent or graphic sex. That is part of what I came for. My standard is whether the erotic material has chemistry, individuality, and enough detail to make the scene feel written rather than politely summarized, and this clears that bar far more often than it misses. If you invite me into an adult den, do not slam the door when the interesting part starts. This book mostly understands that.
A Superhero World Built Sideways
The setting has more thought behind the harem than "the protagonist is awesome, therefore women spawn around him." Superpowers are tied to the X chromosome, the population has shifted heavily female over generations, social roles have changed, and the government is actively trying to normalize multi-partner relationships. The marketing campaign Miles works on at the beginning is literally built around making harems socially acceptable. I like that because the sexual premise is part of the world's economics, dating culture, harassment, politics, and employment rather than a private exception that exists only for Miles. The reversal is intentionally broad. Men get watched, propositioned, grabbed, and treated as scarce social resources while women dominate many public roles. Some of that is sharp satire, some of it is cartoon logic, and I am not going to pretend the chromosome explanation is hard science. It is comic-book worldbuilding designed to support the story's social structure. The same applies to things like superpowered bacteria crawling out of toilets and government threat classifications. Sometimes the silliness rubs against the darker trauma and makes the tonal ice crack. The premise is still coherent enough that I can run with it, claws out, without stopping every chapter to ask the world to justify its existence.
Power Fantasy With Actual Creativity, but Not Much Physical Fear
Miles is ridiculously overpowered. His ability is effectively control over energy, including the mysterious ki behind superpowers themselves, which lets him manipulate kinetic force, heat, light, gravity, electricity, nuclear energy, and other supers' abilities. The positive side is that the audiobook keeps finding practical and violent uses for that toolset. Miles cooks with thermal control, flies, shields people, bends light, boosts heroes, strips powers away, copies ideas from how other supers use their narrower abilities, and solves fights more like an engineer with no safety inspector than a man throwing the same fireball for twelve hours. The Leviathan sequence is a good example because observing Venus ride light gives Miles a new movement idea, while the actual fight still depends on coordinating multiple heroes rather than simply having him vaporize the problem in public. The audiobook also avoids one of my fastest boredom triggers. It explains powers, but it usually turns the explanation into action quickly. I never felt trapped in an endless lecture about weapon systems, stats, loadouts, or unexplained acronym soup. The weakness is obvious: if Miles openly decides to kill something, I rarely believe that thing can beat him. The tension therefore has to come from secrecy, collateral damage, people he loves, politics, and the consequences of revealing what he is. That works, but it means the biggest monsters sometimes feel less dangerous than the possibility of somebody recognizing Miles.
Hero and Villain Are Job Titles, Not Moral Alignments
The moral argument is where the story becomes more interesting than its pulpy cover suggests. Miles begins as someone who can liquefy two alley thugs because they inconvenience him, and his standards for killing remain frighteningly personal. Yet he is also the man who looks at Stella and sees a victim before he sees a villain. He looks at Angelina and eventually sees a therapist who might actually help other damaged offenders. He begins to realize that the Bureau can be changed from inside and that some people labeled villains were pushed there by powers, abuse, desperation, or a system more interested in containment than rehabilitation. That contradiction is not clean, and I do not want it clean. Miles is hypocritical at times. He can preach second chances while deciding somebody else has crossed a line that deserves immediate death. The important part is that the audiobook allows him to move instead of turning moral grayness into an excuse for never changing. Wrath is not simply exposed as another fake hero either. Her role in the lie about Miles came from institutional pressure, and she has spent years trying to create a Bureau that prevents the kind of disaster that destroyed his life. That gives the eventual shift between them more weight than a simple enemies-to-allies switch. The pack becomes larger because both of them are capable of changing what they once believed.
The Plot Runs Fast Enough to Leave Claw Marks
There is a lot crammed into this first audiobook. The bactimen outbreak could almost support its own shorter novel. Then there is the Bureau, Omnigirl, Mindfuck, Miles's old identity, hero management, the super bear, a Leviathan attack, his high-school history, villain rehabilitation, a coordinated crime organization, Liberator's experiments, Obsidian, Melody's kidnapping, and another titan-scale problem. I was rarely bored, which matters because I lose engagement quickly when a story spends more time discussing what characters could do than letting them actually do something. Here something is almost always moving. The cost is that the late conspiracy does not have enough room to breathe. Liberator's organization is enormous, with laboratories and a large villain network, but it arrives so late that the antagonist feels more like the final stage of an arcade game than a person whose shadow has been hanging over the whole story. The reveal that his experimentation may connect back to Stella is useful because it makes the conflict personal, but I wanted more time for that discovery to infect the story before the climax. A slightly narrower plot would have given the villains, and especially Obsidian's damage, more room to become something other than another urgent problem Miles can solve.
Prose and Editing: Fast, Clear, and Not Completely Clean
The prose is built for speed. It is direct, colloquial, horny, violent, and easy to process as spoken storytelling. That suits this audiobook better than ornate language would. BSH, ki, power grades, and the other recurring terms are introduced plainly and reused consistently, so the script never turns into the sort of technical shorthand maze that makes me spend more effort decoding the vocabulary than following the scene. The editing, however, has several clean misses. One action sentence says "letting its body to the work," where "do the work" is clearly intended. Stella is first found as a person "laying on the bathroom floor," when the intransitive verb should be "lying." Late in the book, a catwalk circles the "parameter" of a structure when the word needed is "perimeter." They are small errors individually, but three clean examples are enough for a modest editing deduction.
The Audio Performance
Lewis Alexander and Rozelyn Rader are credited as the two narrators. I am keeping narration neutral in the score. I do not have a performance issue strong enough to make cadence, accent, pronunciation, or production part of the verdict, and I would rather leave that neutral than invent a technical flaw because an audiobook review is expected to have one. The script itself helps the audio experience because the recurring terminology is simple and distinct, so the narration is not fighting an acronym-heavy wall of military or system language. For me, the writing, characters, relationships, action, and adult material carry the judgment here.
The Ending Is the Right Kind of Door Left Open
The last stretch gives Miles something better than another explosion. He tells Melody and Stella he loves them, invites Angelina into the home they are building, starts discarding pieces of his old villain life, and then discovers that the past has already found him again. The old mentor's trace in his hidden penthouse gives the next book a threat that is personal rather than merely bigger. Obsidian appearing at the door needing real help also turns the title into an ongoing mission instead of a one-book gimmick. Most important, Miles finally admits that he needs help too. That closes the first emotional arc while leaving the larger redemption unfinished. His physical power may be godlike, but the audiobook ends with him choosing therapy, family, responsibility, and the possibility that saving damaged people includes himself. That is the piece I carried back into my HowlStrom den. The strongest ice walls are not always the ones an enemy breaks. Sometimes they are the ones I built myself because they once kept me alive, then had to learn were also keeping everyone else outside.
At 3.91/5.00, this is a strong start that hits a lot of my particular buttons: an antihero with teeth, chosen family, genuinely explicit HaremLit, superpowers used creatively, graphic violence, damaged people being offered another path, and enough action that the story keeps moving. It loses points because Miles is almost too powerful to fear for, Stella's darker dependence deserved more psychological aftermath, the plot stuffs several major arcs into one volume, and the prose needed another proofread. I would continue. There are fresh tracks leading out across the snow, and for once Miles is no longer walking them alone.
Starting score: 2.50
+0.38 for Miles's trauma-driven redemption arc and a genuinely meaningful emotional payoff
+0.32 for Stella, Melody, and Angelina giving the chosen-family side of the story real warmth and character purpose
+0.31 for explicit sexual content that commits to detail, chemistry, emotion, and creative use of superpowers
+0.25 for a distinctive superhero world where the demographic shift, social role reversal, and harem structure are built into society
+0.24 for varied action and inventive use of Miles's absurdly broad power set
+0.18 for the supporting cast and the idea of rehabilitating villains instead of treating the labels "hero" and "villain" as morality itself
+0.12 for an ending that completes Miles's first major emotional step while opening the next conflict cleanly
-0.13 for making Miles so overwhelmingly powerful that direct physical danger rarely has teeth
-0.09 for recognizing Stella's unhealthy dependence, then smoothing some of its darkest psychological consequences into cute possessiveness too quickly
-0.08 for packing enough major conflicts into one volume that the late villain conspiracy feels compressed
-0.05 for comic-book broadness occasionally weakening scenes that are trying to carry darker emotional weight
-0.04 for several verified proofreading and word-choice errors
Calculated final score: 3.91/5.00
When the Monster Is the One Who Needs Saving
This worked for me because the real story is not about whether Miles is secretly the strongest super in the room. That answer becomes obvious very early. The real story is whether a man who has spent decades treating emotional distance as armor can let anybody close enough to become a weakness, a responsibility, and eventually a reason to live differently. I listened to a protagonist who can turn people into red mist without touching them, yet who is much worse at dealing with affection than with a city-level threat. That contradiction gives the audiobook its teeth. It is also openly adult HaremLit. The explicit sex does not dominate the opening half, but once the relationship with Stella crosses that line around the middle, the story commits to detailed scenes and continues using explicit intimacy through the second half rather than teasing it and hiding behind a fade to black. For my taste, that matters. I want a story and I want the adult side to do its bloody job too. Here, both are actually present. My ears stayed up because the sex, violence, trauma, and ridiculous superpowers all belong to the same book instead of feeling stitched together from different genres.
Miles Is More Interesting Broken Than Invincible
Miles's best power is almost emotional compartmentalization. The opening nightmare already tells me that the calm office worker is a shell built over something ugly. Ryan's death, Becks, Fortress, the destruction of the school, and the public story that branded Miles as the villain form the wound underneath almost everything he does. When he later remembers the news announcing Fortress's death as the work of a new villain, his anger is not abstract antihero posturing. He watched people he loved die, killed the person responsible, and then heard the world rewrite him into the monster. I understand the instinct to push pain into the background and keep functioning because the alternative is letting it take over the whole room. Miles has made that coping method into an entire life. He keeps work, sex, friendship, heroics, and his past in separate locked boxes. Stella does not heal him by giving a speech. She keeps standing beside the boxes until he starts opening them himself. The most important victory in the audiobook is not a titan retreating or a villain dying. It is Miles reaching the end and voluntarily asking Angelina for counseling because he finally accepts that being functional is not the same thing as being whole. That hit closer to my own frozen walls than any city-level explosion. You can survive behind ice for years. That does not mean the ice has become a home.
Stella Is the Heart of the Story, and the Part I Wanted to Hurt More
Stella's introduction is dark enough to grab me by the fur. Miles finds the person known as Demon reduced to a dried-out husk, isolated by a power she cannot control, surrounded by the consequences of people dying when they get near her, and at the point of trying to end her own life. He is the first person who can get close, touch her, and give her a way to exist without killing everyone around her. That makes her attachment to him psychologically understandable rather than random harem gravity. The story even knows there is a problem. The Bureau's evaluation identifies abandonment issues, dependence on Miles as a crutch, and the danger of what might happen if he simply walks away. My complaint is that the audiobook finds a genuinely ugly psychological situation and then domesticates it a little too quickly. Stella becomes funny, horny, possessive, brave, and deeply loyal, all of which I like, but years of lethal isolation should leave deeper frostbite than the story usually allows. I like dark fiction when the aftermath is allowed to stay dark. Here I wanted a few more moments where the old terror came back through the cracks instead of being converted so efficiently into devotion to Miles. Her growth still matters because she becomes more than someone he rescued. She fights, works, chooses, pushes him, and becomes one of the forces dragging him back toward human connection. She is not just a prize with horns.
The Harem Has an Actual Emotional Spine, and the Sex Does Not Chicken Out
This is much closer to what I want from adult HaremLit than stories that spend ten chapters talking about desire and then shut the bedroom door. Miles and Stella have substantial emotional buildup before their first explicit scene. When it finally happens, the scene is not merely anatomical bookkeeping. Her power, his power, her need for safe contact, his fear of attachment, and their growing trust all become part of the intimacy. Later, Melody's relationship with both of them develops into a real multi-partner dynamic rather than a queue of women waiting for Miles, and the story explicitly connects the physical relationship with Miles discovering that multiple lovers can mean more emotional connection rather than only more sex. The later scenes continue to use powers and mutations in ways that make the partners feel physically different from one another, and Angelina's intimacy is tied to her own control issues and desire to trust somebody strong enough that she can stop managing every moment. I do not deduct points because there is frequent or graphic sex. That is part of what I came for. My standard is whether the erotic material has chemistry, individuality, and enough detail to make the scene feel written rather than politely summarized, and this clears that bar far more often than it misses. If you invite me into an adult den, do not slam the door when the interesting part starts. This book mostly understands that.
A Superhero World Built Sideways
The setting has more thought behind the harem than "the protagonist is awesome, therefore women spawn around him." Superpowers are tied to the X chromosome, the population has shifted heavily female over generations, social roles have changed, and the government is actively trying to normalize multi-partner relationships. The marketing campaign Miles works on at the beginning is literally built around making harems socially acceptable. I like that because the sexual premise is part of the world's economics, dating culture, harassment, politics, and employment rather than a private exception that exists only for Miles. The reversal is intentionally broad. Men get watched, propositioned, grabbed, and treated as scarce social resources while women dominate many public roles. Some of that is sharp satire, some of it is cartoon logic, and I am not going to pretend the chromosome explanation is hard science. It is comic-book worldbuilding designed to support the story's social structure. The same applies to things like superpowered bacteria crawling out of toilets and government threat classifications. Sometimes the silliness rubs against the darker trauma and makes the tonal ice crack. The premise is still coherent enough that I can run with it, claws out, without stopping every chapter to ask the world to justify its existence.
Power Fantasy With Actual Creativity, but Not Much Physical Fear
Miles is ridiculously overpowered. His ability is effectively control over energy, including the mysterious ki behind superpowers themselves, which lets him manipulate kinetic force, heat, light, gravity, electricity, nuclear energy, and other supers' abilities. The positive side is that the audiobook keeps finding practical and violent uses for that toolset. Miles cooks with thermal control, flies, shields people, bends light, boosts heroes, strips powers away, copies ideas from how other supers use their narrower abilities, and solves fights more like an engineer with no safety inspector than a man throwing the same fireball for twelve hours. The Leviathan sequence is a good example because observing Venus ride light gives Miles a new movement idea, while the actual fight still depends on coordinating multiple heroes rather than simply having him vaporize the problem in public. The audiobook also avoids one of my fastest boredom triggers. It explains powers, but it usually turns the explanation into action quickly. I never felt trapped in an endless lecture about weapon systems, stats, loadouts, or unexplained acronym soup. The weakness is obvious: if Miles openly decides to kill something, I rarely believe that thing can beat him. The tension therefore has to come from secrecy, collateral damage, people he loves, politics, and the consequences of revealing what he is. That works, but it means the biggest monsters sometimes feel less dangerous than the possibility of somebody recognizing Miles.
Hero and Villain Are Job Titles, Not Moral Alignments
The moral argument is where the story becomes more interesting than its pulpy cover suggests. Miles begins as someone who can liquefy two alley thugs because they inconvenience him, and his standards for killing remain frighteningly personal. Yet he is also the man who looks at Stella and sees a victim before he sees a villain. He looks at Angelina and eventually sees a therapist who might actually help other damaged offenders. He begins to realize that the Bureau can be changed from inside and that some people labeled villains were pushed there by powers, abuse, desperation, or a system more interested in containment than rehabilitation. That contradiction is not clean, and I do not want it clean. Miles is hypocritical at times. He can preach second chances while deciding somebody else has crossed a line that deserves immediate death. The important part is that the audiobook allows him to move instead of turning moral grayness into an excuse for never changing. Wrath is not simply exposed as another fake hero either. Her role in the lie about Miles came from institutional pressure, and she has spent years trying to create a Bureau that prevents the kind of disaster that destroyed his life. That gives the eventual shift between them more weight than a simple enemies-to-allies switch. The pack becomes larger because both of them are capable of changing what they once believed.
The Plot Runs Fast Enough to Leave Claw Marks
There is a lot crammed into this first audiobook. The bactimen outbreak could almost support its own shorter novel. Then there is the Bureau, Omnigirl, Mindfuck, Miles's old identity, hero management, the super bear, a Leviathan attack, his high-school history, villain rehabilitation, a coordinated crime organization, Liberator's experiments, Obsidian, Melody's kidnapping, and another titan-scale problem. I was rarely bored, which matters because I lose engagement quickly when a story spends more time discussing what characters could do than letting them actually do something. Here something is almost always moving. The cost is that the late conspiracy does not have enough room to breathe. Liberator's organization is enormous, with laboratories and a large villain network, but it arrives so late that the antagonist feels more like the final stage of an arcade game than a person whose shadow has been hanging over the whole story. The reveal that his experimentation may connect back to Stella is useful because it makes the conflict personal, but I wanted more time for that discovery to infect the story before the climax. A slightly narrower plot would have given the villains, and especially Obsidian's damage, more room to become something other than another urgent problem Miles can solve.
Prose and Editing: Fast, Clear, and Not Completely Clean
The prose is built for speed. It is direct, colloquial, horny, violent, and easy to process as spoken storytelling. That suits this audiobook better than ornate language would. BSH, ki, power grades, and the other recurring terms are introduced plainly and reused consistently, so the script never turns into the sort of technical shorthand maze that makes me spend more effort decoding the vocabulary than following the scene. The editing, however, has several clean misses. One action sentence says "letting its body to the work," where "do the work" is clearly intended. Stella is first found as a person "laying on the bathroom floor," when the intransitive verb should be "lying." Late in the book, a catwalk circles the "parameter" of a structure when the word needed is "perimeter." They are small errors individually, but three clean examples are enough for a modest editing deduction.
The Audio Performance
Lewis Alexander and Rozelyn Rader are credited as the two narrators. I am keeping narration neutral in the score. I do not have a performance issue strong enough to make cadence, accent, pronunciation, or production part of the verdict, and I would rather leave that neutral than invent a technical flaw because an audiobook review is expected to have one. The script itself helps the audio experience because the recurring terminology is simple and distinct, so the narration is not fighting an acronym-heavy wall of military or system language. For me, the writing, characters, relationships, action, and adult material carry the judgment here.
The Ending Is the Right Kind of Door Left Open
The last stretch gives Miles something better than another explosion. He tells Melody and Stella he loves them, invites Angelina into the home they are building, starts discarding pieces of his old villain life, and then discovers that the past has already found him again. The old mentor's trace in his hidden penthouse gives the next book a threat that is personal rather than merely bigger. Obsidian appearing at the door needing real help also turns the title into an ongoing mission instead of a one-book gimmick. Most important, Miles finally admits that he needs help too. That closes the first emotional arc while leaving the larger redemption unfinished. His physical power may be godlike, but the audiobook ends with him choosing therapy, family, responsibility, and the possibility that saving damaged people includes himself. That is the piece I carried back into my HowlStrom den. The strongest ice walls are not always the ones an enemy breaks. Sometimes they are the ones I built myself because they once kept me alive, then had to learn were also keeping everyone else outside.
At 3.91/5.00, this is a strong start that hits a lot of my particular buttons: an antihero with teeth, chosen family, genuinely explicit HaremLit, superpowers used creatively, graphic violence, damaged people being offered another path, and enough action that the story keeps moving. It loses points because Miles is almost too powerful to fear for, Stella's darker dependence deserved more psychological aftermath, the plot stuffs several major arcs into one volume, and the prose needed another proofread. I would continue. There are fresh tracks leading out across the snow, and for once Miles is no longer walking them alone.
February 28, 2026
2/5
One of the main thoughts on this book is that it was kind of a nothing burger. I didn’t really get anything out of this at all. I think it’s written in such a style that it feels like it’s targeting an early teenage audience, very much in the style of those goofy cartoon villains you’d see on Cartoon Network, and then there’d be a sex scene and I would be reminded that this book *is* meant for adults. It’s just so corny, especially the main character, that it really put me off.
The first half of the book, in my opinion, is genuinely terrible. The second half is a step up in my opinion but reading my updates I was still tearing this thing apart for the majority of it. My most resounding feeling is that I just don’t care. The characters mean nothing, the plot is generic, it’s just meh. All around. I can’t even care to properly give this a review, I just don’t care. There is nothing here that is unique or interesting. It is your bog-standard $5 cheese burger, if that’s your jam, go for it dude, if you want to turn off your brain and read your standard power fantasy with a manic pixie dream girl, go for it. I just wouldn’t say there’s anything here that makes this particularly worth reading over anything else.
Edit:
It has been a few days since I wrote the initial review and the below is mostly for myself.
To give this book credit where it's due, I absolutely devoured this book. I could not tell you why, but I completed this book in record time for me, often listening or reading to it outside of my regular times, staying up late to read and finish it, I just devoured it. For that reason alone, I must say that the author did something right. I have so many problems with this book, almost all of my updates on this book were negative, right up until the end when I finished it, so I am simply going to express those here.
*spoilers*
The character of Stella is terribly written for a character who is the main focus of the novel, is on the cover, and easily the most important character in the book who isn't our main character. My biggest gripe comes in the utter lack of depth in her personality. We are introduced to her character when our main character narrowly stops her from attempted suicide. She has been unable to interact with other people for a long period of time, left to the imagination of the reader but inferred to be years to decades. And yet, as soon as our main character finds her and heals her, she proceeds to be your 'manic pixie dream girl' to a fault, utterly committed to our main character without much flavor beyond that. She is the manic dream girl who is surprisingly emotionally intelligent who works to get under the gruff exterior of our stoic and jaded main character. Just the most cliche thing you've ever seen, and the worst part is that there are so many interesting ways to go with it to make her a more interesting character. Make her dependence on the MC an actual problem, make it wildly obsessive or problematic, or have her act more bipolar where she swings from crazy highs to crazy lows, that would actually make her a more interesting character instead of a character whose suicide attempt literally didn't matter at all. She is nothing outside of the main character and this is presented as an all-around good thing, and I get that this is wish fulfillment here but there is actually such good character potential and it's just wasted. I mean this lady is foreseeably far, far older than she looks and that is just not a problem at all. Her history, backstory, virtually none of it is elaborated upon outside of her being seen as a villain due to a broken superpower (although the ending leads me to believe that it will maybe? be touched on in future installments). It's just such a shame that the main girl of this book is easily the *least* interesting of all the girls. Angelina is a far more interesting character to me, Melody acts as an interesting moral 'foil' to our main character, serving as more of a heroic moral basis imposed against our anti hero main character, and Obsidian, well, she seems like she could be fun.
This book also makes several jumps in terms of 'forcing' things to happen for plots sake. A large section of the book is the main character not wanting to be part of the hero organization but just doing it temporarily, and obviously eventually he comes around but the most absurd part to me is at several points, I could not believe that our main character did not just say 'no' when he easily could have since it's not like anybody is forcing him to work for this agency. Just so many plot contrivances to make things work.
The book does read like a YA novel as well. The Bactamen are frankly the stupidest villain I've ever seen in a book that is trying to take itself seriously and our main character is just the most insufferably corny and edgy guy. The amount of eyerolls this book elicited from me was nuts. There is a way to have a gruff, edgy, anti-hero main character without it being cringe inducing and unfortunately this book was not there. The amount of internal monologue type sentences along the lines of 'I'll never work with heroes, if anyone ever learns my secret, I'll blow them up with my super-secret power to make sure no one ever finds out about my power' and, 'Good thing they didn't ask more questions, I would have had to kill everyone here if they found out about my power.' I would say this becomes far better in the second half though, which is where my speed of consumption rapidly increases as we move away from Bactamen to trying to keep his secret under wraps and dealing with the consequences and learning more about the main characters background. That stuff was very good, just really struggled in the beginning.
I would also like to note that I honestly think the voice actors for the audiobook are bad, particularly the male actor who sounds far too old for a biologically late twenties main character. He makes the main character sound like he's in his forties and it just entirely pulls me out of it, especially since this book, especially in the second half, has plenty of sexy scenes and this dude does not do it well at all. I would say the female actress is far better, I don't like Stella's voice, which is in that kind of anime high pitched unrealistic tone, but I suppose for the more YA slant, it makes sense and I enjoyed her other voices. A lot of the women's dialogue is just a bit cringe inducing in this book, so the actress didn't have much to work with.
Overall, it's just not very good. It's a YA novel with sex scenes. An overpowered main character who's gruff and jaded, followed by women who adore him and who everyone wants to sleep with. I will give credit to the second half which is where I personally started to really sprint through the book and read deep into the night, but it is still rough and just a gas station chicken sandwich at 11.
One of the main thoughts on this book is that it was kind of a nothing burger. I didn’t really get anything out of this at all. I think it’s written in such a style that it feels like it’s targeting an early teenage audience, very much in the style of those goofy cartoon villains you’d see on Cartoon Network, and then there’d be a sex scene and I would be reminded that this book *is* meant for adults. It’s just so corny, especially the main character, that it really put me off.
The first half of the book, in my opinion, is genuinely terrible. The second half is a step up in my opinion but reading my updates I was still tearing this thing apart for the majority of it. My most resounding feeling is that I just don’t care. The characters mean nothing, the plot is generic, it’s just meh. All around. I can’t even care to properly give this a review, I just don’t care. There is nothing here that is unique or interesting. It is your bog-standard $5 cheese burger, if that’s your jam, go for it dude, if you want to turn off your brain and read your standard power fantasy with a manic pixie dream girl, go for it. I just wouldn’t say there’s anything here that makes this particularly worth reading over anything else.
Edit:
It has been a few days since I wrote the initial review and the below is mostly for myself.
To give this book credit where it's due, I absolutely devoured this book. I could not tell you why, but I completed this book in record time for me, often listening or reading to it outside of my regular times, staying up late to read and finish it, I just devoured it. For that reason alone, I must say that the author did something right. I have so many problems with this book, almost all of my updates on this book were negative, right up until the end when I finished it, so I am simply going to express those here.
*spoilers*
The character of Stella is terribly written for a character who is the main focus of the novel, is on the cover, and easily the most important character in the book who isn't our main character. My biggest gripe comes in the utter lack of depth in her personality. We are introduced to her character when our main character narrowly stops her from attempted suicide. She has been unable to interact with other people for a long period of time, left to the imagination of the reader but inferred to be years to decades. And yet, as soon as our main character finds her and heals her, she proceeds to be your 'manic pixie dream girl' to a fault, utterly committed to our main character without much flavor beyond that. She is the manic dream girl who is surprisingly emotionally intelligent who works to get under the gruff exterior of our stoic and jaded main character. Just the most cliche thing you've ever seen, and the worst part is that there are so many interesting ways to go with it to make her a more interesting character. Make her dependence on the MC an actual problem, make it wildly obsessive or problematic, or have her act more bipolar where she swings from crazy highs to crazy lows, that would actually make her a more interesting character instead of a character whose suicide attempt literally didn't matter at all. She is nothing outside of the main character and this is presented as an all-around good thing, and I get that this is wish fulfillment here but there is actually such good character potential and it's just wasted. I mean this lady is foreseeably far, far older than she looks and that is just not a problem at all. Her history, backstory, virtually none of it is elaborated upon outside of her being seen as a villain due to a broken superpower (although the ending leads me to believe that it will maybe? be touched on in future installments). It's just such a shame that the main girl of this book is easily the *least* interesting of all the girls. Angelina is a far more interesting character to me, Melody acts as an interesting moral 'foil' to our main character, serving as more of a heroic moral basis imposed against our anti hero main character, and Obsidian, well, she seems like she could be fun.
This book also makes several jumps in terms of 'forcing' things to happen for plots sake. A large section of the book is the main character not wanting to be part of the hero organization but just doing it temporarily, and obviously eventually he comes around but the most absurd part to me is at several points, I could not believe that our main character did not just say 'no' when he easily could have since it's not like anybody is forcing him to work for this agency. Just so many plot contrivances to make things work.
The book does read like a YA novel as well. The Bactamen are frankly the stupidest villain I've ever seen in a book that is trying to take itself seriously and our main character is just the most insufferably corny and edgy guy. The amount of eyerolls this book elicited from me was nuts. There is a way to have a gruff, edgy, anti-hero main character without it being cringe inducing and unfortunately this book was not there. The amount of internal monologue type sentences along the lines of 'I'll never work with heroes, if anyone ever learns my secret, I'll blow them up with my super-secret power to make sure no one ever finds out about my power' and, 'Good thing they didn't ask more questions, I would have had to kill everyone here if they found out about my power.' I would say this becomes far better in the second half though, which is where my speed of consumption rapidly increases as we move away from Bactamen to trying to keep his secret under wraps and dealing with the consequences and learning more about the main characters background. That stuff was very good, just really struggled in the beginning.
I would also like to note that I honestly think the voice actors for the audiobook are bad, particularly the male actor who sounds far too old for a biologically late twenties main character. He makes the main character sound like he's in his forties and it just entirely pulls me out of it, especially since this book, especially in the second half, has plenty of sexy scenes and this dude does not do it well at all. I would say the female actress is far better, I don't like Stella's voice, which is in that kind of anime high pitched unrealistic tone, but I suppose for the more YA slant, it makes sense and I enjoyed her other voices. A lot of the women's dialogue is just a bit cringe inducing in this book, so the actress didn't have much to work with.
Overall, it's just not very good. It's a YA novel with sex scenes. An overpowered main character who's gruff and jaded, followed by women who adore him and who everyone wants to sleep with. I will give credit to the second half which is where I personally started to really sprint through the book and read deep into the night, but it is still rough and just a gas station chicken sandwich at 11.
June 7, 2026
I've read a decent chunk of Bruce Sentar's books at this point as he is my main 'guilty pleasure' author, and when talking about some of his books with a friend of mine he mentioned this series which I had somehow completely missed. So, I grabbed the first couple books to try out. I shouldn't have bothered.
Sentar normally writes very strong first books in a series, and the quality will slowly decrease throughout a series as he adds in too many characters; the pacing getting bogged down more and more with each one. But this series seems to be the exception, as it just starts bad. I can only imagine how rough the next few books must be it this is the start.
The story follows Miles, an ex-villain who has a massive (and to be fair, justifiable) chip on his shoulder against the heroes of this world. He is an idiot and a massive hypocrite with few positive traits, and he doesn't even have the decency to be fun to read about. He is far too powerful for any fight to hold any weight to it, he doesn't care about anything enough for the reader to worry that he might lose something, and the few characters that he grows to like throughout the book are more annoying than he is.
One of the main things that he wants is for supervillains to have a fair shot at turning their life around while the Heroes just treats them all as criminals that aren't worth the energy. Just ignore the fact that he kills them more often, in greater numbers, for worse reasons (if he even has one, which is rare), and values them less than any of the Heroes. While I want to say that this is intentional of the author's part, there is nothing in the book that points to that being the case as the only villains that he even considers saving are the ones that join his harem, and the abstract concept of the 'poor villain' that is just pushed into a life of villainy though nebulous and vague platitudes about society that would make even the staunchest of redditors roll his eyes.
The other characters don't fare much better. Not because they are also idiots and hypocrites, but because most of them are just boring. Demoness start out well but becomes way to obsessed far too quickly. It's somewhat understandable as Miles is the first person that she is able to interact with for years and stops her from killing herself the first time they met. And I could see someone getting an unhealthy attachment to, but it just too much too fast. Melody is barely even a character. I don't remember any of the other character's name in the book, and I just finished it yesterday. The only character I liked was the director of the DHS, she wasn't anything special, but she was competent and didn't get on my nerves.
The plot is all over the place. The story jumps around as if this was meant to be 3 or 4 books and had to get shrunken down into 1 over the course of a week. Miles helping Demoness and joining the DHS should have been its own book, then dealing with Powergirl (or whatever her name was) should have been book 2, going to the other city to deal with the Titan should have been book 3, and then dealing with the Villains organizing should have been book 4. And that would have massively helped the series out. But instead, all of these plots have been forced into a single book.
I went into this book hoping to get a fast-paced superhero story about a cool guy getting into fights and building a harem, and all I got was a mess that didn't know what it wanted and some meandering thoughts about crime that are at best naive, but are usually just poorly thought out. You might be able to have some fun with this book if you can turn your brain off and just go along for the ride.
Sentar normally writes very strong first books in a series, and the quality will slowly decrease throughout a series as he adds in too many characters; the pacing getting bogged down more and more with each one. But this series seems to be the exception, as it just starts bad. I can only imagine how rough the next few books must be it this is the start.
The story follows Miles, an ex-villain who has a massive (and to be fair, justifiable) chip on his shoulder against the heroes of this world. He is an idiot and a massive hypocrite with few positive traits, and he doesn't even have the decency to be fun to read about. He is far too powerful for any fight to hold any weight to it, he doesn't care about anything enough for the reader to worry that he might lose something, and the few characters that he grows to like throughout the book are more annoying than he is.
One of the main things that he wants is for supervillains to have a fair shot at turning their life around while the Heroes just treats them all as criminals that aren't worth the energy. Just ignore the fact that he kills them more often, in greater numbers, for worse reasons (if he even has one, which is rare), and values them less than any of the Heroes. While I want to say that this is intentional of the author's part, there is nothing in the book that points to that being the case as the only villains that he even considers saving are the ones that join his harem, and the abstract concept of the 'poor villain' that is just pushed into a life of villainy though nebulous and vague platitudes about society that would make even the staunchest of redditors roll his eyes.
The other characters don't fare much better. Not because they are also idiots and hypocrites, but because most of them are just boring. Demoness start out well but becomes way to obsessed far too quickly. It's somewhat understandable as Miles is the first person that she is able to interact with for years and stops her from killing herself the first time they met. And I could see someone getting an unhealthy attachment to, but it just too much too fast. Melody is barely even a character. I don't remember any of the other character's name in the book, and I just finished it yesterday. The only character I liked was the director of the DHS, she wasn't anything special, but she was competent and didn't get on my nerves.
The plot is all over the place. The story jumps around as if this was meant to be 3 or 4 books and had to get shrunken down into 1 over the course of a week. Miles helping Demoness and joining the DHS should have been its own book, then dealing with Powergirl (or whatever her name was) should have been book 2, going to the other city to deal with the Titan should have been book 3, and then dealing with the Villains organizing should have been book 4. And that would have massively helped the series out. But instead, all of these plots have been forced into a single book.
I went into this book hoping to get a fast-paced superhero story about a cool guy getting into fights and building a harem, and all I got was a mess that didn't know what it wanted and some meandering thoughts about crime that are at best naive, but are usually just poorly thought out. You might be able to have some fun with this book if you can turn your brain off and just go along for the ride.
March 28, 2025
Укрощение злодейки
Майлз работает менеджером в рекламной компании. С виду — обычный, ответственный менеджер: уважительно относится к подчинённым, не боится бросить вызов начальству. Но у нашего трудяги есть один секрет — в прошлом он был самым могущественным суперзлодеем, способным одним движением руки превращать и людей, и супергероев в кровавый туман. Эта жизнь давно осталась позади. До тех пор, пока он не встречает обаятельную злодейку поневоле — и решает её спасти.
Буду играть открыто: «Спасение суперзлодеев» — это эротический роман, действие которого происходит в мире, полном людей со сверхспособностями и с доминирующим женским населением. Кричать «Это шедевр!» а-ля Светлаков не получится — здесь нет ничего революционного. Но это отличный пример того, как из простых сюжетных элементов, без лишней «воды» и при хорошей подгонке деталей друг к другу, можно сделать действительно приятное и лёгкое чтиво.
Почти всё здесь — узнаваемо. Мир напоминает комиксных «Пацанов», только с меньшим количеством отвратительных героев. Главный герой — обладатель огромной силы и трагичного прошлого. Главная мораль: делить всех на «героев» и «злодеев» — наивно, и всегда есть шанс как реабилитировать падшего, так и развратить «праведного». При этом читается легко и непринуждённо, персонажам сопереживаешь, боевые сцены написаны живо, постельные тоже. К слову, постельных сцен всего три на всю книгу, и ни одной в первой половине.
В двух словах — если вы хотите расслабиться за лёгким, ненапряжным романом с каплей эротики, то эта книга точно подойдёт.
Оценка: 4 из 5.
Майлз работает менеджером в рекламной компании. С виду — обычный, ответственный менеджер: уважительно относится к подчинённым, не боится бросить вызов начальству. Но у нашего трудяги есть один секрет — в прошлом он был самым могущественным суперзлодеем, способным одним движением руки превращать и людей, и супергероев в кровавый туман. Эта жизнь давно осталась позади. До тех пор, пока он не встречает обаятельную злодейку поневоле — и решает её спасти.
Буду играть открыто: «Спасение суперзлодеев» — это эротический роман, действие которого происходит в мире, полном людей со сверхспособностями и с доминирующим женским населением. Кричать «Это шедевр!» а-ля Светлаков не получится — здесь нет ничего революционного. Но это отличный пример того, как из простых сюжетных элементов, без лишней «воды» и при хорошей подгонке деталей друг к другу, можно сделать действительно приятное и лёгкое чтиво.
Почти всё здесь — узнаваемо. Мир напоминает комиксных «Пацанов», только с меньшим количеством отвратительных героев. Главный герой — обладатель огромной силы и трагичного прошлого. Главная мораль: делить всех на «героев» и «злодеев» — наивно, и всегда есть шанс как реабилитировать падшего, так и развратить «праведного». При этом читается легко и непринуждённо, персонажам сопереживаешь, боевые сцены написаны живо, постельные тоже. К слову, постельных сцен всего три на всю книгу, и ни одной в первой половине.
В двух словах — если вы хотите расслабиться за лёгким, ненапряжным романом с каплей эротики, то эта книга точно подойдёт.
Оценка: 4 из 5.
May 28, 2022
Surprisingly entertaining, and interesting world setting.
So, main character Miles is supposed to be a former villain. But, that was mostly due through circumstances. MC is more like an anti-hero, with baggage. Also, through certain circumstances, Miles begins working for the organization that he loathes, the Bureau of Superheroes.
The best part of the story is the world setting. Due to certain factors, women outnumber men eight (or nine) to one. Also, the women have a higher chance of being born with powers. Some gender roles are reverse in this situation.
The harem route in this story makes sort of sense. Due to lack of men, some women resort to crimes due to sexual frustration. So, harems are being pushed to reduce crime, which includes rape. A few of the female characters seem to be interesting. Hopefully the female characters are developed more and are not forgotten once more harem members appear.
There was a part where mc’s actions did not make sense.
Overall, I am enjoying the world and ready for the next book.
So, main character Miles is supposed to be a former villain. But, that was mostly due through circumstances. MC is more like an anti-hero, with baggage. Also, through certain circumstances, Miles begins working for the organization that he loathes, the Bureau of Superheroes.
The best part of the story is the world setting. Due to certain factors, women outnumber men eight (or nine) to one. Also, the women have a higher chance of being born with powers. Some gender roles are reverse in this situation.
The harem route in this story makes sort of sense. Due to lack of men, some women resort to crimes due to sexual frustration. So, harems are being pushed to reduce crime, which includes rape. A few of the female characters seem to be interesting. Hopefully the female characters are developed more and are not forgotten once more harem members appear.
There was a part where mc’s actions did not make sense.
Overall, I am enjoying the world and ready for the next book.
April 10, 2022
Another solid book, and what should be a good series. I can see the MC being controversial, but complicated things usually are. His actions are pragmatic, and pragmatism practiced from a position to defend oneself without making innocents suffer is not evil.
Evil takes many forms, but most are rooted in extreme narcissism with a complete lack of empathy for anyone else. Miles lacks the excessive self-regard without going so far into self-loathing which can be another root of evil when matched with sociopathic disregard for others. His past is messed up, but he has moved past lashing out against the world and merely seeks a quiet life.
Of course there's no book in that, so in come the love interests to decalcify his heart/souls, whatever. He has a lot of shit to unpack, and this book is about what happens to return him to a fully-functional human being. With kaiju and superpowered babes.
Evil takes many forms, but most are rooted in extreme narcissism with a complete lack of empathy for anyone else. Miles lacks the excessive self-regard without going so far into self-loathing which can be another root of evil when matched with sociopathic disregard for others. His past is messed up, but he has moved past lashing out against the world and merely seeks a quiet life.
Of course there's no book in that, so in come the love interests to decalcify his heart/souls, whatever. He has a lot of shit to unpack, and this book is about what happens to return him to a fully-functional human being. With kaiju and superpowered babes.
April 24, 2022
Not your typical super or super villain story
I don't particular like superhero stories that much but this one was a lot of. It had good world building and the characters were complicated and diverse. I really enjoyed the setup and about a guy who was trapped in between circumstances and is now trying to make the best of things. He is definitely not a good two shoes but then again he's not totally bad either it's just seems like a regular guy trying to do the best you can with what life has thrown his way. I like the interplay between the challenges that he gets into and I also like the different girls that are involved in the romance that sometimes gets quite spicy. The spicy scenes do not take away from the story as most of it is story which is what I prefer with very sparse spicy time. Anyway the story is a lot of fun to read and I kind of like to see what happens next. Well no kind of like about it I definitely would like to read what happens next.
I don't particular like superhero stories that much but this one was a lot of. It had good world building and the characters were complicated and diverse. I really enjoyed the setup and about a guy who was trapped in between circumstances and is now trying to make the best of things. He is definitely not a good two shoes but then again he's not totally bad either it's just seems like a regular guy trying to do the best you can with what life has thrown his way. I like the interplay between the challenges that he gets into and I also like the different girls that are involved in the romance that sometimes gets quite spicy. The spicy scenes do not take away from the story as most of it is story which is what I prefer with very sparse spicy time. Anyway the story is a lot of fun to read and I kind of like to see what happens next. Well no kind of like about it I definitely would like to read what happens next.
April 20, 2023
I love super…heroes, villains, anti-heroes and this book is a great addition to the genre. I found the gender role reversal to be a compelling part of the novel. I think this could have been presented a number of ways as many novels have explored matriarchies of super-powered women. What I found interesting about this version is that the world was once a patriarchy but the advent of superpowers changed all that. In this new power paradigm, a good number of women turn into a sort of 80’s bro cliche with ass grabbing and catcalls. Of course the most powerful super does end up being a man. Miles’ back-story was very poignant and highlighted his personal growth, making him a more relatable MC. The pacing of the book was fantastic as fights, personal reflection, and intimate moments drove the story forward. I’m interested to see if it can be sustained in the sequels. The cover is completely ridiculous but maybe it’s on purpose?
June 26, 2023
This is a very good book, and the start of a very good series. It's not perfect, but it's close, and I certainly recommend it.
The setting is goofy, but that's fine; it's made quite clear that it's not meant to be serious. There's a clear ask from the author to suspend our disbelief a bit and have fun in world of superheroes and supervillains. If you want gritty realism....well, you're looking at the wrong book. Otherwise, it's fine.
The protagonist is interesting with some very grey morality. Out of the gate, it's clear that he's fine with murdering people he thinks deserve it or need it, and beyond whether that's good or bad or I agree with it, it's welcome because it's novel. The main character is is complex, flawed, and damaged. Not a bad place to start.
Otherwise, the characters are fine, the action is good, the humour isn't over the top and mostly works. This is not an epic tale for the ages, but it's good.
The setting is goofy, but that's fine; it's made quite clear that it's not meant to be serious. There's a clear ask from the author to suspend our disbelief a bit and have fun in world of superheroes and supervillains. If you want gritty realism....well, you're looking at the wrong book. Otherwise, it's fine.
The protagonist is interesting with some very grey morality. Out of the gate, it's clear that he's fine with murdering people he thinks deserve it or need it, and beyond whether that's good or bad or I agree with it, it's welcome because it's novel. The main character is is complex, flawed, and damaged. Not a bad place to start.
Otherwise, the characters are fine, the action is good, the humour isn't over the top and mostly works. This is not an epic tale for the ages, but it's good.
August 27, 2024
Well super power stories are popular and seem to be a layup for any competent writer. This one has a decent story. The writing and character interactions are well done. The development of the story itself seems to be kinda halfass. It's a lot like a comic book movie where things often don't make sense and a big helping Suspension of Disbelief is required. It's target audience would probably have descriptors like "mouth breather" and "mom's basement" and "middle age virgin".
It is made worse by an attempt to make it more serious with the MC. He's basically the worst. His whole life is supposed to hiding if fear of someone knowing his secret powers but he uses them constantly and begins telling people left and right about them. It's retarded.
Also he's overly emotional, whiny, and pathetic.
The cherry on the cake, of course, is Sentar's regular misandry BS. The author, posing as a man for whatever reason, is an extremely feminist. Most of their stuff can be classified as "man hating" and this is no exception. This book is full of woke BS that gets old fast and drags the story down.
It is made worse by an attempt to make it more serious with the MC. He's basically the worst. His whole life is supposed to hiding if fear of someone knowing his secret powers but he uses them constantly and begins telling people left and right about them. It's retarded.
Also he's overly emotional, whiny, and pathetic.
The cherry on the cake, of course, is Sentar's regular misandry BS. The author, posing as a man for whatever reason, is an extremely feminist. Most of their stuff can be classified as "man hating" and this is no exception. This book is full of woke BS that gets old fast and drags the story down.
December 1, 2022
So let me start by saying Bruce Sentar has done it again!!! He has created another amazing series that is happening in a new world where it's a mix of some hightech and mostly fantasy powers. Do you like superheroes that aren't all goody tushu? But actually real people that doesn't always save the day but creates problems and commit crimes as well? In this series there is no real black or white it's all a mix of shades of grey. The line between villain and hero has never before been more blurred. I absolutely love the genuine feelings that where invoked for some villains and heroes a like. This is truly the start of another masterpiece series that show's a lot of promise. Love, fear, hate, injustice, justice, hot sexy times, great action scenes all of that and more can be found in this book.
April 6, 2023
Just a tad too much...
I read the first 4 and have overall enjoyed them.
The Good: The story does keep you interested and reading. There are solid ideas, interesting powers and some conflicts to be resolved. The idea of a matriarchal society is good.
The Bad: It fails to really get into and deliver on the concept of men being fewer and in a role reversal. The men still mostly run the show. The protagonist is an (over-)powered superhero.
(Spoilers)
After having been a little bit of a villain, the main guy is now playing at being good. He is the most powerful super and nobody comes close. He is a God amongst heroes and way too powerful. He is also a sex-god. There is nothing he can't do. He is Uber-endowed, insatiable and has super-stamina. A large part of the books is spent exploring every orifice in or out of bed. The women are dominated in every possible way. The women are invariably oversexed and either outright sex-bimbos or sex- bimbos with a veneer of an IQ of >60 until the main guy shows up and their nickers disappear.
These parts pretty much read like a 17-year-old "boy" reliving all his pornographic fantasies, fetishes and dreams - with multiple women at the same time or in sequence over several hours - and share all that was learned at pornhub- university and earned with many a callus.
It is highly pornographic and singularly penetrating; the latter literally, not in terms of imagination, because it is clearly what said 17yo with strong wrists would like to experience.
In short: Great books if you ignore the Charles Bukowski attempts. I actually kept reading because the stories kept me interested. I just have to skip the 20% of repetitive penetration fantasies.
I read the first 4 and have overall enjoyed them.
The Good: The story does keep you interested and reading. There are solid ideas, interesting powers and some conflicts to be resolved. The idea of a matriarchal society is good.
The Bad: It fails to really get into and deliver on the concept of men being fewer and in a role reversal. The men still mostly run the show. The protagonist is an (over-)powered superhero.
(Spoilers)
After having been a little bit of a villain, the main guy is now playing at being good. He is the most powerful super and nobody comes close. He is a God amongst heroes and way too powerful. He is also a sex-god. There is nothing he can't do. He is Uber-endowed, insatiable and has super-stamina. A large part of the books is spent exploring every orifice in or out of bed. The women are dominated in every possible way. The women are invariably oversexed and either outright sex-bimbos or sex- bimbos with a veneer of an IQ of >60 until the main guy shows up and their nickers disappear.
These parts pretty much read like a 17-year-old "boy" reliving all his pornographic fantasies, fetishes and dreams - with multiple women at the same time or in sequence over several hours - and share all that was learned at pornhub- university and earned with many a callus.
It is highly pornographic and singularly penetrating; the latter literally, not in terms of imagination, because it is clearly what said 17yo with strong wrists would like to experience.
In short: Great books if you ignore the Charles Bukowski attempts. I actually kept reading because the stories kept me interested. I just have to skip the 20% of repetitive penetration fantasies.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 28, 2023
Good start, superhero books are hit an miss
I have read a lot of Bruce’s work now, not leaving many of his series left to read. I am seeing the pattern of how his books possibly fit together as he once mentioned they were in the ‘same universe’. Not a fan of the author using sexual harassment as a way to help readers which characters might be ‘bad guys’ even if this world has altered enough that the females are the more dominant sex. The MC (Miles) is overpowered but hiding. He is a contradiction in that he wants to help people but will easily and mercilessly kill ‘bad guys’ who wrong him. A tortured past and a flawed ‘hero’ (to some) and ‘vile monster’ to others makes for an interesting MC. This book does contain graphic sex scenes with ‘mutated’ humans (horns, tails etc.). A good read with a complex storyline.
I have read a lot of Bruce’s work now, not leaving many of his series left to read. I am seeing the pattern of how his books possibly fit together as he once mentioned they were in the ‘same universe’. Not a fan of the author using sexual harassment as a way to help readers which characters might be ‘bad guys’ even if this world has altered enough that the females are the more dominant sex. The MC (Miles) is overpowered but hiding. He is a contradiction in that he wants to help people but will easily and mercilessly kill ‘bad guys’ who wrong him. A tortured past and a flawed ‘hero’ (to some) and ‘vile monster’ to others makes for an interesting MC. This book does contain graphic sex scenes with ‘mutated’ humans (horns, tails etc.). A good read with a complex storyline.
December 23, 2025
If you want Sky High with spice, this is it.
The premise starts strong—a retired supervillain hiding in plain sight—but it quickly devolves into cartoon logic. The world-building feels like a checklist: beat a villain, get a girl, rinse and repeat. The relationships lack the earned friction I look for; everything clicks into place way too conveniently, with characters feeling more like tropes than people.
There are moments that are genuinely fun, but then you get scenes like a "Super Bear" or a 500-year-old succubus stealing pancake mix because she’s "quirky," and it just kills the immersion.
The dual narration for the audiobook is top tier. It carried me through parts I would have otherwise DNF’d. It’s decent popcorn entertainment if you turn your brain completely off, but don’t expect depth or character.
The premise starts strong—a retired supervillain hiding in plain sight—but it quickly devolves into cartoon logic. The world-building feels like a checklist: beat a villain, get a girl, rinse and repeat. The relationships lack the earned friction I look for; everything clicks into place way too conveniently, with characters feeling more like tropes than people.
There are moments that are genuinely fun, but then you get scenes like a "Super Bear" or a 500-year-old succubus stealing pancake mix because she’s "quirky," and it just kills the immersion.
The dual narration for the audiobook is top tier. It carried me through parts I would have otherwise DNF’d. It’s decent popcorn entertainment if you turn your brain completely off, but don’t expect depth or character.
May 1, 2022
Miles is a former villain who has hung up his cape and spandex suit, and now works for an advertising agency who prepares ads for the Bureau of Superheroes. Most of them are normal, but I laughed out loud when they prepared one on why humanity should have harems, because men are becoming fewer and fewer.
Miles is also closed off about his personal life, and wants no part of the BSH or the heroes themselves. Unfortunately for him, events conspire to change that for him.
The reason I enjoyed this is because of the snark, and the author keeps the pace moving forward quickly. Superheroes aren't a genre I usually read, but this one was a lot of fun. He saves villains who are having trouble with their new power, and...
Nope. I won't spoil anything further. Recommended. 5/5*
Miles is also closed off about his personal life, and wants no part of the BSH or the heroes themselves. Unfortunately for him, events conspire to change that for him.
The reason I enjoyed this is because of the snark, and the author keeps the pace moving forward quickly. Superheroes aren't a genre I usually read, but this one was a lot of fun. He saves villains who are having trouble with their new power, and...
Nope. I won't spoil anything further. Recommended. 5/5*
October 26, 2022
A fun read with interesting characters
I enjoyed this much more than expected. The MC is definitely OP, but he's hiding it, which is very smart. He's rescuing lost kittens and they're rescuing him back. Im also enjoying the subterfuge of his being deputy director, while also being number 1 on the "persons of interest" list. Finally, l thought that it was "cute" the way his women lovingly inserted themselves into his life and affections. He was powerless to resist their wiles. Looking forward to book number 2 although l am not a huge fan of the superhero genre, as l lean more into the LitRPG. I'm also wondering if Kim will be joining the harem at some point in the future, or at least become an ally of Void, she's a good character. Keep up the good work.
I enjoyed this much more than expected. The MC is definitely OP, but he's hiding it, which is very smart. He's rescuing lost kittens and they're rescuing him back. Im also enjoying the subterfuge of his being deputy director, while also being number 1 on the "persons of interest" list. Finally, l thought that it was "cute" the way his women lovingly inserted themselves into his life and affections. He was powerless to resist their wiles. Looking forward to book number 2 although l am not a huge fan of the superhero genre, as l lean more into the LitRPG. I'm also wondering if Kim will be joining the harem at some point in the future, or at least become an ally of Void, she's a good character. Keep up the good work.
December 26, 2022
I enjoyed the author's other books, so I have no problem giving this a go.
This was like one punch man (hero association) mixed with a few other stuff, while adding harem smut.
I did find it funny that
I will pick up the sequel to see how it goes.
It was well written so I have no problem continuing.
3/5 Stars
This was like one punch man (hero association) mixed with a few other stuff, while adding harem smut.
I did find it funny that
I will pick up the sequel to see how it goes.
It was well written so I have no problem continuing.
3/5 Stars
April 24, 2022
The first curveball was that the society that story is about is a reversed gender society, where women are being the dominant gender and men are being outnumbered by them. Even the harassment being reversed and men have to listen to shit, like „to be glad to be protected“.
The book still follows mostly the harem guide but it still feels different because of how the world works. The MC is a man that is an alleged villain and lives his life as normal as possible, until he meets the demon that will turn his world upside down. They both were hurt very badly by society and will help each other to heal.
Now I have to wait for the next books, which is quite unfortunate!!
The book still follows mostly the harem guide but it still feels different because of how the world works. The MC is a man that is an alleged villain and lives his life as normal as possible, until he meets the demon that will turn his world upside down. They both were hurt very badly by society and will help each other to heal.
Now I have to wait for the next books, which is quite unfortunate!!
July 31, 2023
Saving Supervillains is utterly vapid, entirely unoriginal, and the protagonist is a blatant Gary Stu.
So why did I enjoy it so much? I think sometimes it's good to read something that doesn't really challenge you in any way. This book is like a summer action blockbuster--it's formulaic and cliché, but it scratches that itch most people have for sex, violence, and explosions. Stella is cute, too, so that helps. I just wish the MC had some kind of flaw. He's disgustingly powerful to a distracting degree and it takes any and all sense of tension and blows it out the window. Hopefully the later books give him some kind of actual challenge.
So why did I enjoy it so much? I think sometimes it's good to read something that doesn't really challenge you in any way. This book is like a summer action blockbuster--it's formulaic and cliché, but it scratches that itch most people have for sex, violence, and explosions. Stella is cute, too, so that helps. I just wish the MC had some kind of flaw. He's disgustingly powerful to a distracting degree and it takes any and all sense of tension and blows it out the window. Hopefully the later books give him some kind of actual challenge.
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