Blind Prophecy

One might think that author Perry Moore (executive producer of The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe movie) send me a questionnaire asking exactly what would make me love a book. Hero is instantly being placed among my most prized pieces of fiction: Mercedes Lackey’s The Last Herald-Mage Trilogy, Marvel Comic’s Young Avengers trades, my DVDs of Beautiful Thing and Latter Days, and my black market recordings of Bare (official album being released this Tuesday!)

Hero combines the things that always get to me:

1. A teenage coming out story
2. A sappy love story
3. Genre form I already enjoy
4. At least one scene that makes me cry (usually involving unexpected love and support from the family, but not always)

So, yes, I loved it. However, I can’t really fully review it without seriously spoiling it, and I really do recommend you read it, so the rest of my comments are after the jump…

First off, it’s impossible to read Soon I Will Be Invincible and Hero back-to-back without comparing the two. SIWBI is a darker story, less uplifting and less neat in its resolution (as is necessary for a novel asking you to sympathize with a super-villain). SIWBI was also more clever in the use of superhero archetypes and stock stories, and did a better job of adding unexpected twists to the story. Hero, on the other hand, goes to a more emotionally touching place, but ends on a clear high note where the heroes save the day and find love. SIWBI may be darker in tone, but Hero actually kills people off.

In Hero, Thom is the son of a Batman-type hero, Major Might, who never had any actual superpowers, but was world-famous as he fought evil on the strength of his own wit, training, and determination. Something went terribly wrong, and in the process of saving the world from an alien monster, he allowed thousands of people to die. Hated and reviled, he retired from superheroics and did his best to bring up his son. His anger and shame ate at him until his wife (Invisible Lass) left him to raise Thom alone.

The novel picks up as Thom, a high school basketball star, is coming to grips with the fact that he seems to be able to heal people and that he’s gay. I love that the novel doesn’t waste time with Thom figuring this out, but figuring out how to come out about being queer and superpowered instead. His father hates both. Thom gets off on free previews of superhero porn online (in a world where they’re real, of course it would exist), can’t bring himself to enter the local gay bar, and is terrified at how much people will hate him (especially his homophobic father) when they find out. He’s afraid to test his powers except in emergencies, isn’t allowed to talk about his father’s past or ask questions about his mother.

His troubles and his efforts to be a good citizen (volunteering at a youth center) put him into contact with Goran, a boy he can’t seem to say the right thing around. When Thom tries to run away, he gets caught up in a fight with super-villains and the mysterious loner Dark Hero. After saving some lives, the League offers him the opportunity to try out for their huge roster of heroes. The Dark Hero (a very Batman-like figure) seems disappointed and begins shadowing Thom. If you’ve already linked Goran and the Dark Hero in your mind, you picked up on one of the book’s biggest “secrets” as early as I did. If you’ve also guessed that this will be true love… okay, so anyone who knows the rules of economy of characters can figure out some important plot points. Not just the romantic ones, but also things like who the ultimate villain of the story will be and who will die at the end of act 2.

Speaking of the ultimate villain–Moore does one incredibly interesting thing that I respected, even if I guessed it less than halfway in. Justice, the leader of the league, is an alien from a destroyed world with eye beams, flight, superspeed, superstrength, near invincibility… the only thing that hurts him are fragments of purple rock from his destroyed planet. Yeah, it’s impossible not to just think “Superman” every time he pops up. The only unique power justice added was mind control, which was necessary for the plot. What Moore does that makes it interesting is that he turns Justice into the villain. A selfish, evil, angry, callous villain willing to destroy the planet to end his own loneliness. It makes the loneliness of Clark Kent in Smallville and Superman Returns seems to hold so much more potential to turn sinister.

Anyway, just like SIWBI, the characters were unique and memorable. Moore does a great job of diving into the psyche of people who lived in a world where superheroes were real. Heroes even ups the ante over SIWBI, using alien monsters and nearly god-like super-powers in the story along with seemingly lame powers like making people sick or no powers at all.

Over the course of the story, Thom must explore his past, uncover the secrets his parents tried to hide, learn to be part of a team that doesn’t want him, make difficult choices between doing the right thing and doing the selfish thing, and save the world. What’s not to love?

Filed under: books by Jere Keys