‘V is for Villian’, by Peter Moore, tries desperately hard to be a stand-out in the already crowded field of superhero fiction, but ultimately fails. As somewhat of a ‘superfiction connoisseur’ (A term I totally just made up, but that works), I know what does and does not work for superhero fiction (henceforth to be known as SF), and I could see Moore attempting to Weave it into his story, but it comes across as hastily and poorly done. I know that right now I’m being fairly vague, so I’ll give you a synopsis of the story, and some examples.

Synopsis, Straight from the Blurb:”Brad Baron is used to looking lame compared to his older brother, Blake. Though Brad's basically a genius, Blake is a superhero in the elite Justice Force. And Brad doesn't measure up at his high school, either, where powers like super-strength and flying are the norm. So when Brad makes friends who are more into political action than weight lifting, he's happy to join a new crew-especially since it means spending more time with Layla, a girl who may or may not have a totally illegal, totally secret super-power. And with her help, Brad begins to hone a dangerous new power of his own.

But when they're pulled into a web of nefarious criminals, high-stakes battles, and startling family secrets, Brad must choose which side he's on. And once he does, there's no turning back.”


Now, on to my problems with the book. Before I move on and completely tear this thing down, I’d like to make it clear that this is not a terrible book. It’s pretty decent. The narrator has a funny, if dry, style, and his writing is average, though not anything to write home about (see what I did there?). He had an interesting concept going, but it’s dated. The idea of there being a school of people with special abilities is so over done. I’m not saying that it can’t be done any more, but the author would have to introduce a completely unique and new concept or character into the story to balance out the cliché nature of the trope.  But, considering that this is a novel for Young Adults (way below my reading level, I was proof reading it for my little brother, checking and making sure it was appropriate), the mediocrity of the story can perhaps be forgiven.

                What I find slightly more difficult to forgive, however, are the massive, gaping, dripping, partially stars-mostly void, cavernous, bottomless, PLOT HOLES AND INCONSISTINCIES that this story displays.

1.       Brad jumps into the decision to be a supervillian way too quickly, and make this decision too lightly. Considering that, in his world, Supervillians are generally killed swiftly and without mercy (it’s also televised, did I mention that?), it doesn’t make sense that he would do this so easily, with so few issues. In fact, the idea of being a Supervillian at all was completely unnecessary in his situation, and seemed to be only a plot device. What started off as a group of politically minded anti-Hero teen dissidents somehow warped into a group of Teen Supervillians, and the line they crossed to get there is extremely fuzzy.

2.       His character development is weak. Not only for the Main character, who, being the first-person narrator has a fairly easy to track character development (despite the jumps in logic that the plot necessitates, but make very little sense), but for the supporting characters as well. For the most part, they’re all flat characters, capable of the one characteristic that the narrator describes them as having, and nothing more.

3.       Too many ‘When did this happen?!’ moments! I know this kind of loops back to the character development, but the author spent an inordinate amount of time building up romantic tension between two characters, and then it never reached a climax! At one point, the narrator just started calling her his girlfriend, with no mention of when this happened! I really dislike when a story does this, and the author makes a bad habit of doing it.

There’s more, a lot more, but what would be the point in going through all of it?  Just take my word for it when I say this book was average, nothing more. I give it a 6 out of 10, with one point docked for bad plot development, shoddy characters, and unoriginal concepts

The Well of Ascension

The Well of Ascension,by Brandon Sanderson, takes place one year after the events of Mistborn: The Final Empire, when the lands of the Final Empire,no longer under the thumb of the Immortal Lord ruler, are still in chaos after the end of the revolution. The mists are behaving strangely, appearing in daylight and murdering people in the countryside. And the city of Luthadel stands as a solitary beacon of stability in a world of anarchy and death. Until it is besieged by three different armies, bent on conquest and destruction...

I won't go into any lengthy description of the story and the characters, as that would certainly include spoilers for the first volume in the series, and since I also covered the setting in my previous review of Mistborn. Just take my word for it when I say that The Well of Ascension is a great fantasy novel. As Logan  Sutherland, fellow Sanderson fan said, it does seems to suffer slightly from the infamous second book syndrome, in that it lacks a lot of the aspects which made the first book so brilliant, and pales in comparison to the first book's absolute genius. The story is slightly less appealing, the characters are a teensy bit less interesting (and neurotic, due to a certain plot element I shall not name) , and the antagonists are not as mysterious as they were in The Final Empire. However, Sanderson makes up for this by giving us peeks into the minds and perspectives of some of the more one-dimensional characters in his first book, giving us a chance to sympathize with them, and rounding them out. There are a couple of great twists, a handful of new characters, and the ending is absolutely excellent, leaving the reader eager to jump into the last book in the trilogy, The Hero of Ages. As is the case with any Sanderson title, this book is a wonderful addition to an amazing series.