Synopsis
With her new product line launched and an updated version of her suit to test, Tori Rivas is ready to focus on her work for a while. But when an eruption of power elsewhere in the multiverse sends monsters bursting into her world, the young villain will find herself in the crosshairs of an unexpected invader.
As if being pursued by an unknown entity from outside her own reality wasn’t enough to handle, there’s also developing her product line, exploring her suit’s new capabilities, and maybe even making some extra money on the side. Add in extradimensional monsters popping in without warning, and Ridge City is even more chaotic than usual.
Yet more danger lurks unseen, as the Rookstone escapees have begun to hatch their own schemes. One of which is a primal force whose goal cannot be denied. No matter what, or who, stands in his way.
Review
Though this is Book #3, I’ll touch upon the previous two books as this is one of the best Superhero Fantasy series around hopefully anyone reading this will be excited to pick up this series.
Book #1: Forging Hephaestus
Book #2: Bones of the Past
Tori Rivas is a super-brilliant yet intensely independent tech genius who also has superpowers. To avoid being ripped off by mega-corporations, she starts forging her own path and turns to the Villains side to fund her experiments. The series follows her adventures and experiences as she navigates the fine line between good vs evil and realizes that it’s not the same as Heroes vs Villains.
Let’s start with the world. Set in the uber-fascinating melting pot of Ridge City, Tori, after becoming a Villain ends up fighting alongside a group of trainee Heroes against true evil. But then, things are never easy. Just as she relaxes to upgrade her meta-suit to it’s next iteration, things really go south. The world is suffering from a dimensional flux which is leaking monsters and other personalities with their own agendas from other dimensions into their own. Ofc, it never worse enough, one of the dimensional invaders is set upon the trail of Tori in what seems a personal mission. Drew Hayes proves to be a master of his craft as he weaves the main plot around Tori with the macro-events not just spanning across multiple dimensions, but also reaching across time all the way back to history of creation of both the Alliance of Heroic Champions and the Villains Guild.
The books builds upon the earlier stories and really amps up the character development greatly. Not just Tori, pretty much all the characters face their own tribulations and we get to see who they really are and who they want to be. As get down to who people really are, the delineations between Heroes and Villains gets blurry in a delicious mix of moral and ethical quandaries. Not just for this book, but the future of the entire series just became far more interesting as each camp develop their own cracks and new alliances form.
This is a long book definitely more than previous two in series, but it just feels like one smashing ride. From the get go till the climax, the action is non-stop and the plot rolls like a runaway boulder. The prose is simple and immersive enough to drag you down to to the gritty world and the plethora of characters who all stand out on their own…oh, I wish I was living in Ridge City!
Overall, a brilliant book that takes an already superb series to next level. I can’t recommend this enough. And also can’t wait for the next book!
Highly Recommended!
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