Hiya, super readers. April has given us new books by some big names in the superhero fiction genre, plus exciting stuff from brand new voices. I want to make a pun here about April showers bringing not May flowers but superpowers, but that’s probably too corny. Let me know what you think about these books (and my terrible jokes) in the comments!
As always, I haven’t read all of these novels personally, so please check out the reviews and samples before purchasing. Happy reading!
Recursion (Wearing the Cape Book 7)
by Marion J. Harmon
It’s been just weeks since the state funeral for the Sentinels, Atlas, Ajax, and Nimbus, lost in the Whittier Base Attack. Astra, Hope, is recovered from her own injuries. At least physically. Mentally . . . not so much, but she feels ready to actively wear the cape again. Which is good since, between the revelation of her short-lived relationship with Atlas (nine years her senior) and her virally pungent public comments on the current political debate over breakthrough registration (the National Public Safety Act), she needs to raise her profile. But she’s better now, steady, ready for anything.
Or is she? First her quantum-ghost BF Shell reveals that something’s off. Hope’s CHANGED. Unaccountably and impossibly changed, she’s not the Hope she was even just last week. Confronted with Shell’s evidence, Hope recovers an impossible memory and follows it to the realization that she’s really not the Hope of last week. She remembers three years of memories of a life she hasn’t lived yet. She remembers the fight with Villains Inc., the addition of the Young Sentinels, her adventures in Littletone, Japan, and across a dozen extrarealities. The one thing she doesn’t remember is how she got here.
How did she get here? WHERE is here?
Worse, things here are already starting to happen differently. Is her presence here messing things up? Or is she supposed to fix something already messed up? And what does Kitsune have to do with everything?
Midnight Strikes: A Meta Superhero Story
by Tom Reynolds
The prequel to Tom Reynolds’ hit Meta superhero novel series is finally here.
The world is still reeling from the devastation of the final battle between the world’s strongest metahumans. Empire City has been left in shambles as it struggles to rebuild. Overnight, the world’s metabands, mysterious bracelets that offer their owner’s superhuman powers and abilities, have all ceased working. Guilt ridden over his possible hand in all of this, the masked vigilante Midnight has hung up his cowl.
Instead of fighting crime, he now spends his sleepless nights searching for clues to recover the device that might be responsible for all of it before it can fall into the wrong hands. Along the way he meets Amanda Khan, a teenage girl with a metahuman history in search of her missing friend. Both find the clues to what they’re both searching for lead them to The Receptive, a secretive cult which offers a path to meta humanity to its most loyal followers and may just hold the answers to the missing device.
DIRE : HELL (The Dire Saga Book 6)
by Andrew Seiple
Hell. The final destination for many a villain.
Brought to this infernal realm by villainous shenanigans, Doctor Dire still lives, and fights to free herself and her companions from eternal torment. But the odds are long, and she must struggle to glean resources, recruit Damned souls, and fend off demons and fallen angels. It’s a one-way trip down, to find the center of hell and pass out and back to Creation. But Hell’s master may have other plans for Dire.
But she is Dire, and none shall stand in her way! It’s fallen angels versus ascending supervillain, in a clash that shall change hell for all eternity!
The Gray Wolf of Chicago
by Garret Schuelke
Hitching his way out of Northern Michigan, Gareth Manion, a gutter punk with wolf-like abilities, heads to Chicago to start a new life for himself. Unbeknownst to him, the Windy City is plagued by a super powered gang, whose leader is always seeking ways to increase his own prowess–and Gareth has become their main target.
Unfortunately for them, they don’t realize how powerful Gareth really is.
Friendship, romance, vengeance–this is the explosive origin of the hard boiled superhero, GODAN, back when he was known as THE GRAY WOLF OF CHICAGO
Arena (Just Cause Universe Book 12)
by Ian Thomas Healy
“The enemy of my enemy . . .”
Humanity has spent decades calling into the stars, seeking assurances that we are not alone in the galaxy. After many years of silence, someone has answered. The Hind came from afar, not to extend the hand of friendship, but the axe of conquest.
The Hind drop an impenetrable force field over New York City, creating a cage where their shock troops will battle a handful of superheroes. They intend to conquer, but threaten annihilation if humanity doesn’t surrender. In their desperate bid to save first their city and then the rest of the world, the heroes of Just Cause must do the unthinkable and ally with the greatest supervillain the world has ever seen: Harlan Washington, the Destroyer.
Superhuman
by Evan Currie
From the halls of Montezuma….
Former Marine Captain Alexander Hale only wanted a weekend out with some old buddies. He could have done without the gang war, the shootout, and… oh yeah, the alien abduction.
Now he’s in the middle of something he doesn’t understand, never asked for, and is having quite possibly the greatest time of his life. Semper Fi and which way are the shores of Tripoli anyway?
A Superhero’s Death (The Legacy Superhero Book 2)
by Lucas Flint
Framed for the murder of one of the most famous superheroes in the country, Jack “Trickshot” McDonald finds himself on the run from the police. He and his best friend, Kyle, need to clear his name, which is easier said than done, given how Jack is an illegal superhero who can’t operate in public.
Jack’s job becomes even harder when he is targeted by the local licensed superhero Bug Bite, who has grown tired of Jack’s illegal superheroing and wants to put him in jail. It doesn’t help that Bug Bite was close friends with the murder victim as well.
Now Jack must prove his innocence and catch the real murderer before the police or Bug Bite catch him. If he fails, then a murderer will get away and Jack’s superhero career will end before it even began.
Kristen Brand 