Monday, September 23, 2013

The Awakening by Michael Carroll Review


"It has been ten years since the great battle that wiped out all the superhumans. Whether they all died that day or simply lost their powers and blended back into society, only one thing is certain: They are gone. Or are they? Thirteen-year-olds Danny and Colin have recently begun changing. How can they explain Dannys newfound ability to move at the speed of light, or Colins surprising strength? They can't, but their parents the lost generation of superhumans can. They have been watching and waiting for these changes. So have others and not everyone is happy about the boys new powers. Some will do anything to stop them.
Michael Carroll delivers an action-packed story in the tradition of the Alex Rider Adventures and the X-Men, with enough twists and intrigue to keep the pages flying by."

The Awakening is similar to X-Men, but I'm not so sure about Alex Rider. Alex Rider is an espionage book, not a superhuman power book. The characters aren't Alex Rider types so this isn't following the Alex Rider/James Bond type. 

The Awakening isn't very exciting for me. This is me for like the entire book: uh huh, uh huh, uh huh. Okay I'll just go along with that. That okay. Whatever. (And that's pretty much it). Truth is, when writers put this into words, instead of awesome comic books, the mutants (X-Mens, too) aren't as awesome as they used to be. Comic books should never be converted into regular old books. That is a huge no-no unless you're Tahereh Mafi and writing about a love triangle. 

The Awakening's plot is okay. I spend years reading comic books and Batman comic books, among other heroes like Superman, Wonder Woman, Flash, Zatanna, Supergirl. (There's a lot.) This was the time when I was pretty young and liked nothing better than to waste my time and drool over Bruce Wayne's muscular body (the abs) and pretty face (on film and in comics). It was before I found my one and true love (Long and anticipating series with awesome characters) Anyway, that's beside the point, but the point is that comic books are filled with action and thrills while this book is um...not filled with action and thrills? Wait, let me say this again. The Awakening is not exciting. It is not amazing. It is a X-Men wannabe book, that fails competely. 

The ending is even worse. At least, comic book writers could put an intriguing and curious ending in their books. This one in Awakening only made me fall asleep and sleep and sleep for a bit longer than usual. (Okay that was the weirdest sentence I'd ever typed). 

Since, I'm kind of bored, I decided to include a list of heroes in The Awakening and compared them to comic book heroes.

Colin and his dad: Superman's strength and hearing
Danny and his dad: Flash's speed and the future telling ability from Jedi from Star Wars
Diamond: (You should be able to guess this) Emma Frost's ability to turn her skin into diamond. 
Facade: Mystic (Who else?)
Energy: Hints of Storm
Paragon: Steel (DC) 

Rating: One out of Five

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