Peloran

by on May 7, 2019 at 12:01 am
Posted In: The Races of Humanity

The Peloran who made Contact with humanity were nearly indistinguishable from Earthborn humans. But they were only a small minority of the total Peloran population, picked for that mission because of their appearance. The majority of the Peloran race look a bit more alien, or sometimes a lot more alien. They’re still undeniably human, though they look more like some of the traditional cheap aliens of Pre-Contact science fiction stories. Back when makeup artists painted up the actors in different colors and maybe added some minor facial prosthetics to give them an alien appearance. Little did those artists know just how close to the truth they really were.

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Super Powereds Year Four

by on May 6, 2019 at 12:01 am
Posted In: Diaries

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.

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Peloran

by on May 5, 2019 at 12:01 am
Posted In: Art, The Races of Humanity

The Peloran who made Contact with us could have passed for Earthborn humanity if they could act like us. If they walked in a less measured way. If they did not control their every action so carefully. They moved in such an alien way that we could never forget what they were, even as they smiled kindly with faces we could not help but relate to. It was unthinkable that they could truly disappear in a crowd. The way they moved would always betray them. That is why I always knew they had done this before. They were so much like us, you know. Their every smiling face always masked a secret they did not wish to tell us. Which should be no surprise to any of us. They are just as human as we are, after all. In every way that matters.

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Peloran

by on May 4, 2019 at 12:01 am
Posted In: Art, The Races of Humanity

The Peloran were genetically engineered to fight. They look human, more or less. Some more. Some less. There’s a bit of a big range in their looks. The ones who came to Earth on Day One of Contact could have all passed for Earthborn humans with very little work. If any. Many didn’t even have pointed ears, and those who did could easily mask them with well-groomed hair. Their skin color and eyes could easily pass for Earth normal with little or no makeup. Better than normal, actually. They were beautiful. Every last one of them could have been a model; no body sculpting needed. Or wanted for that matter. They were better than sculpted. They were born with it.

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Peloran

by on May 3, 2019 at 12:01 am
Posted In: The Races of Humanity

The Peloran were the first aliens to make open Contact with us. Though they were obviously watching Earth for some time. They understood Earth languages and cultures going back for centuries and longer. And many speculate they walked throughout the streets of Earth as they did so. Some of them could pass for an Earthborn human even when under medical examination. Though they would have completely confused a Pre-Contact genetic history test. Short of that, the Peloran that made Contact could have disappeared on Earth and never been discovered.

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