Written by: Jason Oritt Illustrated by: Quinton Watson, Self Published – $13.50
Image: “Chosen” Facebook
Premise:
God is bored, so he asks his top 5 angels to come up with something to entertain him or he is going to destroy the earth and start over, again. Their solution, to give 15 mortals Super powers, 8 Heroes, 7 Villains and see what happens; 2 teams, Good vs Evil.
Reviewers note: I am old. Heck, I am old enough to be the father of most of you reading this. With age comes wisdom, with age also comes many hours day dreaming of what it would be like to all of a sudden have super powers. (Mind you I started doing this when the only TV we had was Black and White and the closet thing we got to fantasy was Gilligan’s Island. So I have had a lot of time and energy infested in this past time.)
Such was my high hopes and excitement when I picked up this book and read the above intro.
Who hasn’t, at least once, day dreamed of having super powers and what we would do with them.
The angels, in this adventure, decide to make sure that each “team” is made up of friends without knowing about the other team. All were “turned on” at the same moment, and all live in the same city.
The story of how each discover their powers and start to develop them, takes up the first third of the book, which was a bit confusing. Too many stories to were starting and finishing which made it difficult to care about the events, but each was unique and not the standard comic book stereotype.
Each power fit the personality of its owner: he shy girl can now disappear into the shadows, the normal boring girl can turn into a cat, one gets the power over gravity, one gets electric energy power that appears as tattoos on his arms he can pull off and use. Whether or not the characters were a Hero or villain depended on their friends (Yes Mom, I remember you telling me “you are who you hang out with”) as well as whether they were selfless or selfish (which was a nice touch).
Seeing how each character discovered their team mates and how they interacted together to form the team was interesting and believable, if just a bit too quick. As they talked about names and costumes I found myself smiling since I have played the same scenario in my head more than once (if I had powers that is. More time could have been spent here instead of quick one line statement and everyone agrees that is the best name for that person. Of course with 15 people it took some time doing this, but it all seemed unnaturally quick and agreeable.
Image: “Chosen” Facebook
The heroes wonder how best to help people and the villains how bad they really should be. Once again showing they are who they hang out with. One villain has no problem wanting people to die while others really think they should be over with the good guys but are too afraid to move and change.
Do you wear a mask or go on TV and announce “I Am Ironman”.
The major confrontation is well written, and the battle believable. It was fun watching everyone learn to use their powers and mesh (or not) as a team, this would have been phenomenal to see as panels in a comic book .At times the writing read like a synopsis of a comic book, at others strong action and well written dialogue. Not a bad first time authors try. I should also point out that it is self-published so that earns points with me right there.
I usually lump books in the following categories:
- Must have and will spend my own money.
- Want it so add it to my Christmas gift list
- Want to read so will check it out at library
- Will read it in small increments during trips to the book store
- No thanks the back cover was enough.
This one is a solid Check out of the Library book, the ending hints at a sequel, which I wouldn’t be against reading.