BOOK REVIEW: Villains Inc by Marion G Harmon (Wearing The Cape 2)

Villains Inc. is the second book in the Wearing The Cape series written by Marion G Harmon. It is an indie book that was released through CreateSpace on 30^th March 2012. The ISBN for this book is 1475125968. I bought this in paperback form can’t remember if it was eBay or amazon worth checking as there was a price difference.

There are lots of spoilers in this review so be aware. I would also recommend that if you are interested in this series then you should start with Wearing The Cape by Marion G Harmon.

WHY I BOUGHT THIS

I picked up the first book for free after trying to populate my newly bought second hand Kindle with a few books I might actually bother to read and was blown away.

WHAT I THOUGHT

Chicago sounds like a fun city and it has always been an American city that I wanted to visit even without its own superhero team. The world painted in the Wearing The Cape series is rich and detailed by the end of this book you know everything you need to know about how superhero bureaucracy.

Can we also talk a bit about how awesome Hope is as a lead character? Even though this is only the second book she has already been through so much but it is the fact that we can believe her journey, dealing with her PTSD while still doing her best to do her job and getting on with her life which was hardly settled now as she still feels the push and pull between her life as a hero and the life she knew before.

Villains Inc. is a pretty straightforward idea as a plot in a world with superhumans why wouldn’t organised crime want their own team of enforcers after all when one bullet proof man can knock over a bank or a police station by himself.  I also like the fact that this idea was opposed strongly by the super powered law abiding community in the past.

I’m not going to go over everything that happens in the book I just really enjoyed reading it and I am impressed by the fact that the quality of the writing improved in this book and that the author isn’t settling into a rut.

BOOK REVIEW: Wearing The Cape by Marion G. Harmon

Wearing the Cape is the first in the Wearing The Cape series written by Marion G Harmon and published by CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform on 10 July 2011. The ISBN is 1463539657 and I picked up a Kindle copy of the book through Amazon which can currently be picked up for free.

THE PLOT

Who wants to be a superhero? 

Hope did, but she grew out of it. Which made her superhuman breakthrough in the Ashland Bombing, just before starting her freshman year at the University of Chicago, more than a little ironic. And now she has some decisions to make. Given the code-name "Astra" and invited to join the Sentinels, Chicago’s premier super-team, will she take up the cape and mask and become a career superhero? Or will she get a handle on her new powers (super-strength has some serious drawbacks) and then get on with her life-plan? 

In a world where superheroes join unions and have agents, and the strongest and most photogenic ones become literal super celebrities, the temptation to become a cape is strong. But the price can be high—especially if you’re “outed” and lose the shield of your secret identity. Becoming a sidekick puts the decision off for awhile, but Hope’s life is further complicated when The Teatime Anarchist, the supervillain responsible for the Ashland Bombing, takes an interest in her. Apparently as Astra, Hope is supposed to save the world. Or at least a significant part of it.

WHY I BOUGHT THIS

Well it was free but the fact that it was all about superheroes and the fact that it kept popping up on my amazon suggested list as I was browsing through made me take the leap. Plus I wanted to have a few more books on my Kindle as I am still pretty new to actively using it.

WHAT I THOUGHT

An interesting idea Superheroes as part of the bureaucracy might sound a bit boring at first but it is a novel look at things especially for someone used to reading Marvel and DC. The superhumans in this world are larger than life but not on the same level as a Superman. This world is a lot more like ours with those capes just slotted in as the first line in disaster response and the military’s not so secret weapons.

The world building in this book is excellent with a series of excerpts from factual books and other sources which talks about everything from the early days of superhumans to the nature of powers.

The characters are well rounded and generally very interesting, this is an example of a book that makes it feel like you are looking at a world that always existed and was just not crafted for the story you are reading and that is something that is not always the case even in the good books.

I can’t really go into plot specifics as it is intricate but I can discuss the beginning of things in the world. In the past there was a mass event of lost time for the entire world population and when everyone recovered a select group of people had superpowers. From then till the present during life or death circumstances some people develop super powers.

While over the years that makes for a high number of super powered individuals they are still in the minority and have been made a part of society. Even without the characters just learning about that world is engrossing and I am looking forward to learning more about the world.

I would recommend this to any fans of the superhero genre who wants to see something new.