Super Powereds: Year 1

Best Series In Recent Memory

What did you love best about Super Powereds: Year 1?

Each primary, and many secondary, characters are fully fleshed out. They mature over the course of the novel, as well as the series. The training is well thought out and the faculty have individual personalities and backstories.

What other book might you compare Super Powereds: Year 1 to and why?

In an oversimplification, you might think of this series as Hogwarts for Supers, but MUCH better in every way.

Which character – as performed by Kyle McCarley – was your favorite?

I enjoyed them all. The individualization of voices is very well done, which is no easy task with such a large cast of characters.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

It's hard to pick a single moment above all others, but perhaps when the core team finds itself challenged by harsh environmental conditions (no spoilers here).

Any additional comments?

I seldom bother to take the time to write a review, so the fact that I am for this book (and the series), is high praise indeed. It may seem that I am gushing in this review, which is unusual enough for an old man ("GET OFF MY LAWN!"), but I can't imagine any reader/listener that wouldn't enjoy this entire series. My wife and I enjoyed listening together and are eagerly awaiting the fourth installment, but with the same mixed feelings that you get as you approach the end of any great novel, never wanting it to end.

In conclusion, BUY this book immediately. After listening to this series, I bought every Audible audio book available of Drew Hayes' writings, though we haven't listened to them yet.

91 of 96 people found this review helpful

Brillant!

I loved this story.

This story centers around 5 super powered kids, who until an experimental surgery, haven't had control of their powers.

The narrorator does an excellent job with changing his voice for each character and pulls you into the story.

To me, the story is more like a season of a TV series, unlike most books which strive to be a movie.

Love the all the details, and the way it was written. And as an added bonus, I now know which super power I wish I had...

49 of 52 people found this review helpful

Excellent story, characters; adjust for narrator

I was reluctant to purchase this book at first because of the narrator, whose voice I didn't care for, but playing the book at 1.25x speed solved that nicely. Loved the characters and story. Can't wait for the next installment to be available.

42 of 46 people found this review helpful

Fun, but in a YA way

I think that this book needs to be marked more clearly as a YA book. The whole college scene is in full glory with emphasis on drinking, dating, parties and clubs, etc. Personally, I am 100% not interested.

Barely visible between the stereotypical college activities is a world of ENORMOUS potential. The social interactions of supers vs. powers, the economic implications, the political players (who do Mr. Numbers and Mr. Transport work for anyway?), the nature of the superpowers in general... But these topics are barely touched upon. Instead, we have beer pong.

The narrator was mediocre, and I wasn't planning on continuing the series after this book... until the last 30 minutes. It finally got interesting. REALLY interesting. All that potential came flooding out and hooked me into giving the next book a try (although I may wait for it to go on sale).

All in all, if you've already read Brandon Sanderson's Reckoners and Rachel Aaron's Heartstrikers (two phenomenal YA series), and you're looking for something light and fun (maybe you want to relive your college years?), then go ahead and give this a shot.

21 of 24 people found this review helpful

give it a chance

this book starts out really slow, with boring generic characters and crappy names like mr numbers and mr transport. I was about to give up on this, but i didn't have anything else to read, so i stuck with it. and i'm glad i did.

it's like a standard teenage movie / tv serie AT först, which is mildly entertaining, but it morphs into more superhero stuff as The characters grow.

now i'm off to get The second book. i'm itching to hear the rest!

19 of 22 people found this review helpful

"[NAME] SAID" almost ruined it

This was a pretty good book to let play in the background, entertaining but you don't miss much if you space on it for a while.

Good:
- Strong characters I thought - well conceived with complex-ish back stories.
- Good heroes journey. Author takes you along with their development where as other (shorter though) books do the literary version of a training montage.
- Super powers were acknowledged to have some science and not absolutely ridiculous. So often now there isn't a set of "rules" for super powers and they end up controlling monsters from other dimensions and breaking the laws of physics. It wasn't organized like Mistborn or anything, but there was some order, a nod to that they are still understanding them, and nothing was absolutely over the top or unbeatable Superman type.

Not Good:
- No story really. This book just kinda of wanders through like its a season of Real World following super powered college kids. Which is fine but I like story arcs and the feeling that if I'm reading something I know it is driving the plot/story forward. Stuff happened and there was a climax, but it wasn't together feeling.
- The plot was moved forward often by the author telling you something was happening but offering absolutely no details about, like two characters discussing what is coming but with saying one specific about it. Which is fine in small doses but it was the main mechanism used and just isn't very nuanced.
- The narrator. I thought the voices were good but almost quit listening several times because of the "[name] said" or "[name] replied" were so frequent and off putting. At first I thought the author abused the use of it (too frequent) but the more I listened the more is was the way the narrator delivered it: flat, loud, and hard... even if was the character whispering. It honestly sounds like they recorded him saying every characters name and every speaking verb, and just spliced them in during post production where needed. It was really incongruous and off-putting.

I realize my negatives are longer than my positives but short of the 5000 times i heard the dead pan "VINCE SAID" it was an enjoyable listen.

67 of 81 people found this review helpful

only negative is "x said".

I love comic books but they're just too short to enjoy. a novel about super hero's in training is just perfect though. if not for the repetitive "x said" the audio book would be great. in written form that's easy to ignore in an audio book its rather painful but it was worth it.

24 of 29 people found this review helpful

Fun book. Harry Potter in tights

I liked the book, Fun and imaginative twist on the superhero genre. I thought the dialogue was a bit cumbersome in the flow at times but overall great. I will definitely read the next.

3 of 3 people found this review helpful

Super powered college students gone wild.

"Super Powereds: Year 1" is about super powered college students attending college. If you are expecting much more from the story than that, such as taking on villainy or saving people, then you will find yourself disappointed in that department for roughly 90% of this experience. Instead, the entire audiobook is pretty much stereotypical college ridiculousness all the way. Studying, dorm room drama, clubbing, bad decisions, awkward dating, one night stands, pointless grudges and lots of partying with alcohol are all featured here with a dash of superpowers. It's fun and entertaining, with character personality clashes of all types just experiencing life with an extraordinary twist.

 The story is mainly told from the perspectives of five main characters who enter a super powered training program with a shared secret. In the setting of this book, super powers are split by a class distinction. Supers, are people who can control their powers and are smiled upon. Powereds, are people whose powers are uncontrollable traditionally and are considered social pariahs. The five main characters are powereds given an experimental treatment that allow them to control their powers and entered into the school to secretly see if they can measure up to supers after a bit of training. Their goal is simply to graduate without being discovered.

With a entire college campus' worth of characters to keep up with, Kyle McCarley does a great job with his narration. With so many names keeping each of these characters voices separate must have been a challenge, but he pulled it off.

This book is recommended to both listeners who love stories about college students gone wild and listeners who love superpowers. It is an interesting take on a setting that will satisfy both interests on a level not looked at too often. While it does drag out college chaos for more hours than was entirely necessary, there are plenty of action sequences during the training sections that will hold comic fan interest. There is also a more comic book styled cliffhanger ending that promises hidden agendas and possible villainy afoot that is both satisfying and makes a listener look forward to book two.

3 of 3 people found this review helpful

Any interest in super heroes? Then get this.

I don't usually review things online, in fact this might be my first ever, but there's a reason I'm taking the time to type this. This book is awesome and was very hard to put down. The story has a great pace and the characters are deep and well written.

This is my first audio book as well, and as far as the narration goes, the only thing I'm worried about is whether or not it has set my expectations too high for other narrators. Each character has a distinct voice and for a story that relies heavily on dialogue between lots of different characters, it made keeping track of the story effortless.

3 of 3 people found this review helpful