Super Powereds: Year 1

Super Powereds, Book 1

De: Drew Hayes

Narrado por: Kyle McCarley

Knowledge is power. That would be the motto of Lander University, had it not been snatched up and used to death by others long before the school was founded. For while Lander offers a full range of courses to nearly all students, it also offers a small number of specialty classes to a very select few. Lander is home to the Hero Certification Program, a curriculum designed to develop students with superhuman capabilities, commonly known as Supers, into official Heroes. Five of this year's freshmen are extra special. They have a secret aside from their abilities - one that they must guard from even their classmates.

For every one person in the world with abilities they can control, there are three who lack such skill. These lesser super beings - Powereds, as they are called - have always been treated as burdens and second-class citizens. Though there has been ample research in the area, no one has ever succeeded in turning a Powered into a regular human, let alone a Super.

That is, until now....

©2012 Andrew Hayes (P)2016 Tantor

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.

Wish I could read the second chapter.

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

Yes I would, characters are fun, and the narrator is pretty good.

Any additional comments?

Make an audio of year two and three already! I know the books exists already, where are they??

Great story, bad narration

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

Great world building for a world full of superheroes.

What did you like best about this story?

The world building was very good. I liked the idea of Powereds: people with powers that they are unable to control. Its an interesting idea and he does very well with it in this story.

How could the performance have been better?

While the narrator gave a good performance delivering the characters lines, every time a "he said" or "the said" or "She whispered" came up it was so jarring it started to grate on my nerves. It almost seemed like the record the main book sperate from the "HE SAIDS" and then just copy-pasted them into the book because it didn't sound like it was part of the same sentence.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

I had previously read the book before, but I feel like someone that listens to this book first might be put off by the harsh way the narrator says "he/she SAID!"

Very Entertaining

I am not the target listener for this book (40-something female) but I am always willing to branch out to new books. Due to overwhelming positive reviews, I picked this up with a credit. I don't know what I expected, but this book exceeded my expectations. This character driven book hooked me right away and I found myself walking to work more so I can listen to this book longer. Luckily, as this book ended, my next credit was coming up so I picked up Year 2 right away. I am excited to keep up with the Melbrook students in another wonderfully written and engaging book. My only quibble ( and I am used to it finally) is all the he/she said, exclaimed, yelled or other descriptive word used to indicate talking. I know the author had to indicate who was talking but it's noticeable. But if that's my only issue then I consider this book a must read.

Very good start to a series

This series popped up on my recommended as I was looking for a book to kill time with and I figured I'd give it a shot. Well, I'm glad I did. The world building in the beginning is a little slow but is necessary, I have listened to the entire series a couple of times and caught little things that I missed the first time through.

I appreciate Drew Hayes writing style coupled with the narration by Kyle McCarley and the voices he provided to the characters. They really brought this story together.
This series maybe considered a "young adult" story but as a middle aged adult I can safely say that it is for anyone that enjoys fantasy/super hero type reads.

I was skeptical but loved it

Was a great series!!!
Very different but great!!
Story, character development and relationships are all done fantastically

Good story. Narrator? Not so much.

Good story. The only thing is the narrators voice. It's like having Sheldon from Big Bang Theory read to you. Speed it up to 1.25 and it will make it a little more tolerable. Otherwise it is a good story and worth getting. Enjoy.

If you like....

This book was ok at best...kind of repetitive and not near enough action. And it kinda drags on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on 140+ chapters😞

Slow Start, Good Middle, & Strong Ending

This book was hard to listen to for the first few chapters of introductions. I felt somewhat lost at times as to who everyone is. I usually like books that are from a single characters prospective. Instead this book is more combination as to what everyone is thinking and doing. Also the writers building of the super hero world in his eyes was hard to imagine at first. But after the kids go to college the book began for me. Luckily this book was very long. And so I got to see how each character developed. I believe the author missed some golden opportunities to expand some events within the book. For example: one boy builds a 4d device so they can watch movies as if they are in the haunted movie. They set up the device and start the movie and bam next chapter. Than a few chapters later they brush on it slightly saying the boy is scared to use the device that it was too realistic. Strong ending. I'll buy book 2. The narrator was good as well.

You wont regret it.

Great book. It is long but it doesn’t drag at all. Keeps you begging for more.