Sovereign

By: April Daniels

Narrated by: Natasha Soudek

Length: 12 hrs and 59 mins

Publisher's summary

The highly anticipated sequel to Dreadnought, featuring "the most exciting new superheroes in decades." (Kirkus)

Only nine months after her debut as the superhero Dreadnought, Danny Tozer is already a scarred veteran. Protecting a city the size of New Port is a team-size job, and she's doing it alone. Between her newfound celebrity and her demanding cape duties, Dreadnought is stretched thin, and it's only going to get worse.

When she crosses a newly discovered billionaire supervillain, Dreadnought comes under attack from all quarters. From her troubled family life to her disintegrating friendship with Calamity, there's no lever too cruel for this villain to use against her.

She might be hard to kill, but there's more than one way to destroy a hero. Before the war is over, Dreadnought will be forced to confront parts of herself she never wanted to acknowledge.

And behind it all, an old enemy waits in the wings, ready to unleash a plot that will scar the world forever.

©2017 April Daniels (P)2017 Audible, Inc.

Book 2 gave much suspense then I thought it would

The join in this book was connecting the dots like in a Sherlock Holmes novel. Just with the comedy and ethic issues Dreadnought (book 1) started. Totally recommend listening to.

So many tears

This dysphoria tastes like mine. It’s from such a wonderfully true place it hurts and I recommend it to everyone.

Magnificent series

Great voice actor, great story, great characters. Worth your time and dime. This story does what super hero stories do best: tackle on actual social issues through a lens allowing people from all walks of like to experience a side of reality they’ve never explored. It’s great how this story uses gender and sex fluidity as a central part of the plot.

The highs are higher, and the lows are lower

Danielle suffers alot in this book, but she keeps going where others may have given up. This was a book that I figuratively could not put down, and was always looking forward to hitting the "Play" button when I was back in the car.

The author has done her research on multiple subjects that help build the world in a more believable manner (ie: how does a flying superhero navigate when flying in near-Earth orbit?).

I've got to mention that the character Kinetic was confusing to me, because the book refers to Kinetic as they or them instead of he or she, so it sounds like we're talking about multiple people instead of one person. I had to keep remembering that Kinetic was one person, not a group or a team.

The narrator did a great job with the different voices for the different characters, though if I had to nitpick, the voices for Doc and Calamity sound kind of similar.

Greywitch is a character I loved to hate

amazing follow up

not every sequel is a good one but this is not one of those. can't wait for the third installment.

Quite enjoyable

Original and cool storyline. Great characters and development. Flawed beings, being. I enjoyed both books very much. Narrator was outstanding.

Once again I'm fucking in love with the story

I got everything I wanted from this sequel, even the inevitable next step of Danny and Sarah's relationship, that I was left wanting from the previous book, but now has finally happened and I smiled like mad when it did. I CAN'T wait for a third installment in this series and see how Dreadnought's story continues.

Not as good as first book

Formulaic for super hero stories. Lots of zaps and bops against evil super villains. Not so much character building and new perspectives. Narrator is great with very effective voicing of characters.

powerful

after reading both books have just have to say how powerful of an under message these books have. growing up gay in a catholic house was terrifying and this did bring up some bad memories but in a way that made me relate closer to the main character. i truely hope that this series continues.

Even better than the first one!

Picking up shortly after Dreadnought left off, Danielle 'Dani' Tozer's life is busy. Having been kicked out by her transphobic parents in Dreadnought, Dani has filed for emancipation. Living with Doc, the two of them have also come up with some plans for a new superhero group in New Port. Plans for the announcement go awry when Dreadnought is pulled away from the superhero conference they're attending to deal with a supervillain issue in New Port. During the battle, the villain makes some crazy statements that Dreadnought ignores - until things start to go crazy and she can't.

When trying to help a new superhero friend control her powers. Dani/Dreadnought runs afoul of a billionaire supervillain, and that's when things start to go sideways. I can't really say how without giving away some major spoilers, but it's a crazy kind of sideways. In addition, Dani is still dealing with the psychological aspect of the abuse she has suffered in her life thus far, as well as trying to rebuild her own self-esteem and sense of self-worth.

As much as I enjoyed listening to Dreadnought, Sovereign is better. In addition to dealing with Nemesis, which Utopia had warned Dreadnought about, we learn that problem with Nemesis is bigger than dealing with a single supervillain. So, between the bad guys Dreadnought is having to fight, the mental health aspects of surviving and escaping an abusive situation only to have her escape challenged in court, and navigating the difficult landscape of working with Calamity in the public eye when she is classified as a grey cape, and thus often at odds with the New Port police force, when Dreadnought is a white cape, Dani/Dreadnought has a full plate. Of course, we can't forget the Grey Witch - the terf member of the league who revealed Dani's identity to her parents in the previous novel. Though there were several storylines wrapped up at the end of that novel, Grey Witch's was not one of them, nor is she willing to give up on her conviction that Dani doesn't deserve to carry the mantle of Dreadnought.

As a result, it certainly comes as no surprise that she doesn't always respond or react in the healthiest manner. I can't imagine that anyone who has dealt with as much as she has would, much less someone who is only sixteen years old. In fact, I think one of my favorite parts of this book was how much it dealt with Dani's struggle to control her anger and the fallout of how her struggles - and sometimes failures - end up affecting the perception of her by the people of New Port that she wants to help and/or save.

With the way this book finished, I kind of hope the author writes another book in this universe - not necessarily from Dani's/Dreadnought's point of view - because it is an interesting universe, and I, for one, still have questions. That's not to say this book left questions unanswered. It didn't. At least, not any questions related to the plotlines in this book. Those were handled quite well - some expectedly and some unexpectedly.

As with Dreadnought, I listened to the audiobook version of this book, again narrated by Natasha Soudek. Aside from the odd voice choice for Charlie - which wasn't bad, just weird - she gave yet another fabulous performance, and I want more of it.

I want more Calamity. I want more Dreadnought. I want more Doc. I want more Charlie. And I especially want to learn more about the thing that was revealed about Charlie at the end. No, I'm not going to say what it is; you'll just have to read/listen to the book to find out what it is. And you absolutely should because this book is worth it.