Paragon

An Icon Story, Book 1

By: Riley Tune

Narrated by: Christopher Boucher

Hero or villain. A choice that every Icon, a person born with powers, eventually has to make if they don’t want to live a life of mediocrity. For most Icons the decision is easy. Just do what your parents did. Then, there is Hunter Monroe. A powerful young Icon born from the unimaginable union of a hero and villain.

Seventeen years later Hunter is seen as a half-breed abomination by some, and as a certified powerhouse by others. With his time at Purgatory Academy, the premier institute for Icons, coming to an end, Hunter must embark on a two year internship with a supergroup.

After being selected to intern with The Imperial Lords, the world’s leading supergroup, Hunter’s life begins to slowly unravel.

Between a shaky love life, facing an old rival, and seeing his mentors for who they truly are, Hunter is in for the longest two years of his life. Things get more complex when an Icon serial killer emerges with unthinkable power, and begins to shed light on Hunter’s life that will leave him wondering if he should use his powers to save the world, or conquer it.

©2017 Riley Tune (P)2018 Riley Tune

Everything comes down to a choice: hero or villain?

A world populated with beings with powers. They all reached an age where hey had to make a choice: hero or villain? Once that choice was made they were to never mix again. A hero and a villain having a relationship was taboo. A hero and a villain breeding? That would be an abomination. And abomination is just one of the things they called him. Spawn of a forbidden relationship. Both parents died defending the world side by side. But there is no redemption for a villain. Now their son must try and decide what he will be. His choice will not be easy and as the story develops the choice may be impossible to make. Some serious story changing plot drops will keep you on the edge of your seat. Leaves it open for more to come. Really great story and well narrated. The narrator does a great Christopher walken style voice for infinity. Enjoy it. I did. was voluntarily provided this free review copy audiobook by the author, narrator or publisher

pretty good interested to read/listen to the next

not the best superhero series intro but far from the worst, some good characters, some good mythology, and a pretty predictable but, still interesting twist

A Wild Finish

This novel starts slow but has a wild finish. I can’t stress that point enough. After a couple of chapters I almost stopped reading the book, yet by the time I finished I was very glad I stuck with it—glad enough I’m fairly certain I’ll be reading the sequel. So let me break down the good and the frustrating.

On the positive side, Riley Tune has thought of a large number of superpowers and his characters often use them very well. He builds his story around both a mystery and a conspiracy. I found both fairly transparent, but that didn’t hurt the story. We’re watching a fairly dumb teenager slowly put the pieces together and it’s credible that he has more trouble doing it than the reader does. As he gets closer and closer to the truth, the tension builds and the final battle is highly enjoyable. A couple of the supporting characters are also very well drawn as Tune plays off our knowledge of famous heroes and uses that knowledge to steer our expectations. I respect that. It strengthened the ending considerably.

On the less positive side, I was frustrated by a couple elements in this story. First, I only began to like the main character in the last chapter or two. He’s a fairly stereotypical teen with a huge chip on his shoulders who is also certain that he knows everything he is ever going to need to know about living. That might be realistic, but it’s not attractive in a hero. It also makes him stupid. He has impressive force-field creating powers. But he never figures out very simple things he could do with his powers to quickly defeat just about anyone. For example, making a skintight forcefield around the face of any air-breathing foe. He also fails to simply enclose a mist-form villain in a force field, trapping her. I could go on, but you get the idea.

I also was disappointed in the world building. If you’re going to tell a serious superhero tale—and I believe that’s what the intent was here—there has to be at least some marginal credibility regarding the birth of new heroes and villains. Frankly a prep school for supers in which everyone talks about the need to decide one day if the students will become heroes or villains just didn’t do it for me.

That being said, the actual plot is pretty well thought out with critical elements being introduced early and then “forgotten” until they are needed later in the story. It’s always nice when you see that sort of planning come to fruition.

There’s a lot of potential in this series. I look forward to seeing what Tune will do with it.

Good Start for New Series

While setting up a story in a world where super powers are relatively commonplace, Paragon does a good job of making the world and characters seem believable. Characters are multi-layered and flawed, and the world has evolved coping strategies to accept the presence of icons. I enjoyed the mixture of character development, world building, and adventure, as our MC finds his path. I think the story would fit well with YA readers in addition to Fantasy. Underlying themes like confronting bias, bullying, considering a different path from what parents planned, etc. may resonate with teen readers.

On a side-note this story and world shared enough similarities with lore from an old MMORPG, City of Heroes (and City of Villains), to bring back some fond memories. Perhaps there was some inspiration there? Either way, it was an enjoyable experience. Would certainly recommend if you enjoy this genre.

Narration was competent and unobtrusive. Narrator did a good job of keeping me in the story and conveying energy when warranted.

I received this audiobook for free in exchange for my honest and unbiased review.

Super-students

This one kind of went back and forth. It started out great, but started to go slightly downhill. It's not a complete mess, but it became somewhat predictable. I personally called one of the plot twists about 5 minutes before it actually happened. It's still a good story, regardless of that. The depictions of the teenage super heroes are accurate, and they do have real-life problems. The MC is the product of a union between a hero and a villain, which of course causes him all kinds of problems.
The narration here is good. The voices aren't completely dissimilar, but the voice acting is just that, acting. It's not a long monotone, and the inflection between characters is enough to have some separation between them. The vocalization does not become boring or monotonous at all.
I received this review copy at my request in exchange for an unbiased review.

ebony district?

the author literally wrote that the main crime area of atlas city is the EBONY DISTRICT BECAUSE "It's hard for an area so dark not to have an increase in crime"

I'll give you the benefit of the doubt that you didn't realize how racist that sounds...

Great Narration, Good Coming of Age Hero Story

The main character, Hunter, struggles in a typical coming of age fashion with his identity, even if that identity is anything but typical, as his identity makes him unique even in a world full of superpowers and that is just the start for him. He always seems to lean to the heroic but struggles with what he sees in the heroes of his city and with who his father was. The twists were not too predictable and while I did find myself eye-rolling at Hunter occasionally, I still really enjoyed the journey and thought it set up a really interesting world of heroes and powers. I will be interested in finding out how things progress in the future books in the series for sure.

The narration is just fantastic and really brings the story to life. The main character voice is enjoyable to listen to and done well The final villain has a weird madman voice that is just awesome for his character. Really just made the story more enjoyable.

I was given a free copy of this audiobook in exchange for an unbiased review.

great book

i love the book and cant wait for the second one.Although the walkin voice was a bit too much

Entertaining Superhero Story

Basically a coming of age story of a young man with superpowers. I thought Hunter's journey in this book was well laid out and kept me engaged and in his frame of mind. The world-building was a lot of fun and Riley Tune introduces a lot of things people will be familiar with and turns them slightly on their head. I liked that he played with a lot of established archetypes or situations and kept things fresh enough to make it unique.

The narration by Christopher Boucher was great and he gave a great performance with varied characters, good pacing and all delivered clearly. The book definitely feels like the beginning of a series as there are a lot of things brought up that aren't resolved and characters introduced and not fleshed out that seem like they will be important. I like the intermingling of villains and heroes and the dynamics in this world and thought this story got better as it went. Hunter comes into his own as the book progresses and I look forward to seeing how everything unfolds in the future.

I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

Perfect

So many good things to say about this book and the characters that inhabit it. The plot is well thought out and the narration is on point. If you are into Superheroes/Icons, this book is well worth the time and credit.

This book provided at no cost for a fair and honest review.