Forging Hephaestus
Ratings26
Average rating4.1
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.
Series
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3 primary books4 released books#1 in Villains' Code
Villains' Code is a 4-book series with 3 released primary works first released in 2017 with contributions by Drew Hayes.
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I did not find anything exceptional about the premise: a young woman with super powers is enlisted to be trained in the super villains league. If the ‘villains' here is suppose to be a twist, it is of no consequence. The villains have more rules and codes of moral conduct then the average do gooder hero. I found that to be a bit cringy, but overlookable.
Therefore, this is just a story of people with super powers and how they organize into a league of individuals with the same interest. The book deals with recruiting, training and rules to follow. Other than that, there is a handful of small stories about different super powered humans (and aliens, and AIs).
The mains characters, writing and dialogues are just OK, but the main plot is slowly exposed or non-existent. This is the killer for me. I suspect this books acts as an introduction to the other, possible more interesting, ones.
Read 6:02/26:58 22%
God what a long book, but so worth it. I loved everything about this. Many times the characters knew things that made sense for the story, and this wasn't just pulled out of nowhere. All the characters were unique and diverse in character. But fuck there were a lot of them.
Many times I had totally forgotten either the power, code name or real name of different characters which made some parts a little confusing but I got through it. I also love the fact that being a villain of a hero in this particular context really says nothing of the moral compass of the person. There were bad guy heroes and good guy villains throughout as well.
I also love Nexus basically just being a totally insane omnipotent pest. I don't know why, but I like that he just jumps in sometimes to confuse and frighten everyone while he is bored, super interesting.
This was way more fleshed out and entertaining than I thought it would be. Just a few cookie cutter tropes here and there, but definitely interesting enough to make me wait for the next.
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4,125 books#4,124 in What are your favorite books of all time?
When you think back on every book you've ever read, what are some of your favorites? These can be from any time of your life – books that resonated with you as a kid, ones that shaped your personal...
