Jack of Harts

I recently discovered Super Powereds by Drew Hayes. It a world where some people have super powers and some of them train to become certified Heroes to defend the United States of America from Supers with less…patriotic and law abiding ideas in mind.

The four books center around five young adults who were Powered. They had no control over their powers until a top secret experimental procedure changed them. The real story starts with them on their first day of a college where Supers go to become Heroes. Yes, it is a story of young people going to school. And it is glorious.

The five young heroes are all competent in their own ways. Sometimes scarily so. And each have fully fleshed out histories that we learn in time. And they are all relevant to the story that unfolds in the four books that follow. The teachers are much the same. They know what they are doing and do it well. These are no bumbling idiot adults while the smart kids do all the work.

In many ways, I find it most similar to Harry Potter, though it concerns college kids rather than grade school children. But it does follow some of the same tropes. A Great Evil was done ten or so years ago. Family ties and conspiracies are discovered. Climactic battles of good versus evil are waged. Named characters we know die. And no matter how powerful the students think they are, when a Teacher enters the fray, bodies will hit the floor.

Year Four encapsulates the story begun in the first three books very well. It is a bit long, as final novels of a series often are. But it is also worth the read, all the way to the very end. Drew Hayes has an amazing talent for mixing humor and drama, and he has access to a very good reader for his audio books who brings them alive. I liked the writing and reading well enough that I’m now reading the Unadventurous Tales of Fred, The Vampire Accountant and loving and laughing my way through it.

I believe that if you enjoy stories of people doing amazing things in worlds that are a bit more supernatural than our own, Super Powereds may just be a series you will love. I was most satisfied by it from cover to cover. All of the covers.

I give it two fireballs, set to maximum burn.