Stellar

The Stellar Series, Book 1

By: Ian Graham, Marc A. Hutchins

Narrated by: Gabrielle de Cuir

Length: 10 hrs and 43 mins

Publisher's summary

Meet Stellar - an urban crime-fighter who tackles injustice with swift and decisive action, carrying the burden of freeing society from oppression, fighting for the weak and wounded.

She is brave.

She is beautiful.

She is just a comic book character…or at least she was.

Macy Davis is an athletic high school student with an eye for Patrick Newell, the young artist who created Stellar. When Macy’s best friend, Keri Cartwright, discovers Patrick’s comic book heroine, she convinces Macy to masquerade as Stellar. Because to Macy, Stellar is Patrick’s perfect girl. But when Macy dons a homemade costume to surprise Patrick at the Halloween Dance, her debut takes an unexpected twist and the reveal is more than anyone, including Macy, could have ever imagined.

©2020 Ian M Graham and Marc A Hutchins (P)2021 Blackstone Publishing and Skyboat Media

Enjoyable super hero story!

pros:

characters not annoying like some other super hero stories

thoughtful protagonist = less dumb decisions than most teens story

good pacing

great character dialogue narration

no inappropriate content



cons:

villains forgot about using guns till final chapter

voice actor choices for sound effects during fights wasn't my favorite (preference, not bad acting)


overall:
recommend!

Good clean fun for a younger teen

Maybe not groundbreaking but a nice, long "who dunnit" type of story for a younger teen who isn't interested in blood, gore and sexual situations. The adults giving this a bad review have forgotten how to read and enjoy a book that doesn't rely on titillation and adult content.

If you like Nancy Drew, Stellar is great listen.

This book reminded me of Nancy Drew mysteries, but with updated themes. While the grittier parts of life are glossed over, this is good listen for those who enjoy strong female characters and few twists and turns.

fun little superhero story

it's a fun young adult superhero book. nothing groundbreaking, And it's easy to follow. This is a good get your kids into superhero type story.

Great Story

While I was listening, I expected the book to end so many times on a “simple” resolution, but the story kept going. The story grew more and more complex and I enjoyed every bit of it. What I like most about reading superheroes/hero vigilantes stories is the lives they live outside of the mask and their origins before they put on the mask. This book has everything and I highly recommend it.

An interesting super hero story

It's...good? with caveats I can call it good. How to unpack what makes it good.

It's entertaining if you can suspend disbelief. There's heavy emphasis on suspending disbelief. I liken it to the CW shows "You have failed this city!" I was almost expecting at one point. It's a generic city so feels like those shows, or The Cape if you recall that. There are a lot of typical bad guy tropes to keep the MC alive with some plot armor.

They don't shy away from heavier violence but it's typically kept to extras.

The plot is rather straight forward and you can figure out most things before the MC, there's only one thing that the author fakes you out with with some setup that leads to a twist instead of the payoff that was expected, though there's a couple other ideas with it.

The High school life made me cringe, but with memories of why I hated high school. Some weird things aside perhaps because of the setting of the crime wave was believable.

Overall it feels like an interesting YA tale.

the Narrator/ performer was adequate. the voices are rather generic male/female, except and narration of yells are all female sounding, apparently that's beyond them. Still they had good pacing and didn't butcher any words it felt like so, adequate.

I'll probably give the next in the series a go, if you find a sale or have a stray credit it might be worth a listen if you can suspend disbelief and like this kind of genre.

Good Origin Story

Nothing too surprising in this novel, however, it is still a solid origin story for a super hero.

stellar

unexpected depth of storyline truly pulled me in and kept me listening. When the narrator's style disappointed, the words of the author kept me enthralled. This was a creative story of a super hero that hadn't planned to be a hero. The reality mixed with the whimsy was sometimes stark in a way that made the story very believable. I would have liked a little more whimsy and less suspense but that's just me. The edge of your seat, nail biting moments seem to be what the public craves in the movies and this could easily become a screen play with the author's excellent imagery. I'll be looking for more by this author. Give this a listen and a read!
Something about the lack of distinctive variation in the narrator's voices for each character left this listener wondering who was speaking and what was going on.

Good story, but the combat narrative isn’t it

Honestly my only real fault with this is how badly the narrator is at making kiai noises. She does great everywhere else but the moment combat starts and a thug makes these noises it’s like a record skip lol.

Good young adult superhero story

The main characters are believable. The villains don't act like idiots and the story is compelling.

The voice actor does a great job.

Can't wait to read the second book.