Just Cause: Revised & Expanded Edition

Just Cause Universe, Book 1

De: Ian Thomas Healy

Narrado por: Leslie Howard

A new hero for a new era.

Mustang Sally has some speedy shoes to fill. This young superhero has waited her whole life to join Just Cause - the premiere team of American heroes. Now she's hoping her super-speed will earn a spot on the same team to which her parents and grandparents belonged.

An old grudge from an old enemy.

A chance encounter with the villain who killed her father changes everything. Even though she's only an intern, Sally devotes herself to finding the man known as Destroyer. With the help of her eagle-winged best friend Sondra and her super-strong love interest Jason, her investigations uncover a sinister plot stretching all the way back to her grandparents' era. Sally and Just Cause must risk everything to halt Destroyer's plans and save the entire world.

Bonus features

Beyond the revised original text, this volume contains three all-new short stories that expand upon the history of Mustang Sally's family line in the context of the Just Cause Universe. It also contains a summary of the historical and contemporary superhero teams that have been part of the legendary history.

©2012 Ian Thomas Healy (P)2016 Ian Thomas Healy

Fans of The Incredibles are in for a treat

If you're a fan of the Avengers movies, this is your book. But-fair warning-it is very genre. If you're not a superhero fan, there's not a lot here for you.
Focusing on Mustang Sally, trainee superhero just out of Academy with a proud family history and a familial foe to best, this story starts off as a romp and keeps the energy high. It reminded me of several favorite teen-superhero shows from my younger days, and I found that charming. Many TV tropes show up here on the page: the Meet Cute, the Man With No Past, and of course the Sad Origin Story. It's perfectly in character for this perfectly in genre dash through The World Of Supers.
Now, where Healy sets himself apart is in the world integration. Para-humans are an acknowledged part of society. They have specialized academies and training facilities that are publicly recognized. They are a component of law enforcement and government. They even need insurance. I found that utterly charming. The focus of this story is procedural events and action scenes a la the Avengers or Young X-men. Drama is kept to a minimum aside from a little young romance, for which I'm always grateful. I hate pages of angst (looking at you, Daredevil). What hand wringing there was had a purpose and was kept in perspective.
The reader's voices are very good, but her narration style is a bit wooden and detracted somewhat from the energy of the story.
Overall, a fun piece.

Just Cause is Just Spectacular!!!

Just Cause is Book 1 in this series and a great beginning. I love that it is not like your everyday SuperHero story and contains uncommon Superheros. The narrator does an amazing job bringing the story to life. I look forward to more in this series and from this Author and narrator.

Entertaining

The story is not ground breaking as there are a plethora of young supers books out. This one did have a very likable, although, simple cast. Background story was very interesting, especially the original supers in Just Cause. Wasn't thrilled to listen to nearly an hour past stories at the end, thought that could have either been tied in or material for other books, but didn't take away from a good listen.

“I was voluntarily provided this free review copy audiobook by the author, narrator, or publisher.”

A dark hero tale with unclear resolutions

More dark than my cup of tea for a hero book there is a very evil background plot here. If you like gritty hero stories you will likely like it.

Just Cause this one is pretty cool

This was an enjoyable listen. There are many things to like about the start of the series but I think the two most important are the character building and also the universe building. Both of these things are done incredibly well. There are many characters described throughout this book and as the list grew I thought it would be hard to comprehend and to follow who does what, surprisingly it was very straightforward and very easy to follow. I was not confused with which powers going to which character. I very much enjoyed the background and in-depth detail that went into each characters description and backstory. It was very refreshing and you got a sense of the characters past and present. This was great because you really got a feel for our characters. Also, the universe building was very very awesome! The author does a great job of painting landscapes into vivid pictures in my mind. It is easy to see why I flew through this one. Best thing about this is I get the sense the author is a little quirky and his writing reflects that in the best way possible. The narration and performance is done very very well. There’s lots of subtle tone changes and each character almost has a unique voice so you’re never confused at who is speaking. As I like to say, the performance really adds value to the authors writing and brings the words to life. A lot of times what the characters were saying almost jumped off the page to me just because of the way they were said. It appears I have many more great audiobooks to enjoy in this universe.

Third Generation Hero

Mustang Sally is a third generation speedster superhero. Both her parents were super heroes. And two of her grandparents. So she has big shoes to fill. Trained from a young age by her family she is highly skilled and thus after graduating from a super hero academy is quickly invited as an intern onto the premier super hero team - Just Cause. Just as she is joining the team a long dormant villain - the only one to continually beat Just Cause and the person responsible for Sally's father's death - rears his head. Will just Cause be able to work out his plan and stop him before it is too late?

Just Cause is somewhat a coming-of-age story (the teenage romance is there), while also an intriguing story of super heroes. The story nicely ties together three generations of heroes, with the prior two providing some mystery and depth to the current situation.

The story is nothing ground breaking, but is interesting and keeps up the pace for it's entirety. Solid and enjoyable.

The universe is generally much like our, but just with heroes. For example, the 1994 and 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Centre both happened, but rather than being some form of terrorism they are both super hero attacks. So super powers have changed the world from what we know, but in subtler ways than you might expect. Each chapter opens with a quote - some real, from real people, and some from people who only exist in this universe speaking specifically about powers. It's a nice mix that gives the world a bit more of a 'lived in' feel.

The additional three short stories at the end expand and deepen the world, telling relevant adventures of the previous generations, telling detailed stories of events that are only briefly covered in the main story. They are a nice cap to the end of the main story.

Narration by Leslie Howard is really enjoyable. She is well paced, giving emphasis where required and matching her reading pace with the mood of the story. She provides voices, accents, emotions etc to all the characters, really bringing them off the page. I would not hesitate to pick up another book read by her.

I was voluntarily provided this free review copy audiobook by the author, narrator, or publisher.

Expanded Fun

What made the experience of listening to Just Cause: Revised & Expanded Edition the most enjoyable?

The large scale of the story

Who was your favorite character and why?

Mustang Sally

Have you listened to any of Leslie Howard’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

No. The narration was spot on.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

The birthday party.

Any additional comments?

Took me right back to my Saturday morning cartoons....right from my mp3 player.

Great Book

I loved this book, it was amazing. Every character, superheroes and villains alike, was depicted beautifully. The narrator was fabulous.

Good Story, Lousy Narrator

I'm enjoying the story - it's nothing special, but it's fun. Just a nice, fluffy superhero story, which is what I was hoping for. However, the narrator's slow delivery and poor pronunciation, especially of Spanish names like Echevarria (EckaVARria? REALLY?) is driving me crazy. PLEASE re-record this with a better reader!

Enter the JCU with a Charming & Wonderful New Hero

I met Ian Healy at a sci-fi con. Dashing with his cool had and warm smile, he is a fine advocate for his own work. I was a guest at the show, he a book seller. As I was already wanting to start reading more superhero fiction, he had little trouble convincing me to check out his work. It didn't hurt that he's also a fellow gamer.

I started asking about continuity - it's important to me when I get into any new property. He made it clear that the Just Cause Universe has a lot of complex depth... and I was hooked before reading the first book, Just Cause.

Now I am even more hooked. Every character has a richness to them, no matter how little screen time they get, and Mustang Sally's journey from up-and-coming legacy hero to one of the premiere heroes of the JCU (you'll discover in later books) is a well-crafted through line in this series.

Welcome to the JCU, and enjoy the ride!