The Stats
📖 BOOK REVIEW⠀📚
BOOK: Forging Hephaestus: Villains Code I
AUTHOR: Drew Hayes
@drewhayespt
Publisher: DC Ink @dccomics
Stars: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Published: February 24th 2017
The Review
Drew Hayes is one of my favorite authors. He’s also one of the most long-winded authors I’ve ever had the pleasure of reading. This book (far from his newest) is over 1400 pages long. That’s a 24 hour audiobook. Wow. I also don’t think it’s his longest. So, if you plan on reading along with me, stock up your minifridge. You’re in for a haul.
Tori has superpowers. She can turn into living flame. She also has no intent on making that her only source of power. Intending to steal supertech from a major company, she gets nabbed by the vault’s security. Oddly enough, they don’t arrest her or kill her on site. She inadvertently robbed the Guild of Villainous Reformation, and they are offering her a spot. If she fails training, however, she’s dead. To teach her is an utterly ordinary middle-management type named Ivan… formerly the supervillain Fornax.
The point of Drew Hayes’ stories is never the plot. That, of course, is why they take so long to get to the plot. No, they are about the characters. He lovingly crafts these people in a rich world, and lets them be themselves. Even if the character concepts aren’t all that original (several of the kids from the Super Powereds series were straight up stolen from various anime), the way he brings them to life renders the whole thing moot. Also, there really isn’t good guys or bad guys. Even the antagonists in this story are people you kinda get, who have honestly good intentions if a bit warped.
If you liked Super Powereds or NPCs, you’ll love this book, although it is a different universe from either of those.
The Summary
Gifted with metahuman powers in a world full of capes and villains, Tori Rivas kept away from the limelight, preferring to work as a thief in the shadows. But when she’s captured trying to rob a vault that belongs to a secret guild of villains, she’s offered a hard choice: prove she has what it takes to join them or be eliminated. Apprenticed to one of the world’s most powerful (and supposedly dead) villains, she is thrust into a strange world where the lines that divide superheroes and criminals are more complex than they seem. The education of a villain is not an easy one, and Tori will have to learn quickly if she wants to survive. On top of the peril she faces from her own teacher, there are also the capes and fellow apprentices to worry about, to say nothing of having to keep up a civilian cover. Most dangerous of all, though, are those who loathe the guild’s very existence. Old grudges mean some are willing to go to any length to see the guild turned to ash, along with each one of its members. Even the lowly apprentices.
I voluntarily read this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.