Super Powereds: Year One (1 of 3) (Dramatized Adaptation)

By: Drew Hayes

Narrated by: full cast, Jonathan Lee Taylor, Darius Johnson, Alejandro Ruiz, Rana Kay, Megan Poppy, John Kielty, Zeke Alton, Yasmin Tuazon, James J. Johnson, James Konicek, Kay Eluvian

Knowledge is power. That would be the motto of Lander University, had it not been snatched up and used to death by others long before the school was founded. For while Lander offers a full range of courses to nearly all students, it also offers a small number of specialty classes to a very select few. Lander is home to the Hero Certification Program, a curriculum designed to develop students with superhuman capabilities, commonly known as Supers, into official Heroes.

Five of this year’s freshmen are extra special. They have a secret aside from their abilities, one that they must guard from even their classmates. Because for every one person in the world with abilities they can control, there are three who lack such skill. These lesser super beings, Powereds as they are called, have always been treated as burdens and second-class citizens. Though there has been ample research in the area, no one has ever succeeded in turning a Powered into a regular human, let alone a Super.

That is, until now....

Performed by Jonathan Lee Taylor, Darius Johnson, Alejandro Ruiz, Rana Kay, Megan Poppy, John Kielty, Zeke Alton, Yasmin Tuazon, James J. Johnson, James Konicek, Kay Eluvian, Jacob Yeh, Chris Stinson, Michael John Casey, Matthew Schleigh, Lise Bruneau, Matthew Bassett, Matthew Pauli, Emlyn McFarland, Jessica Lauren Ball, Henry Kramer, Steven Carpenter, Carolyn Kashner, Colleen Delany, Bianca Bryan, Rick Rohan, James Lewis, Scott McCormick, Joel David Santner, Delores King Williams, Nora Achrati and Nanette Savard.

©2014 Drew Hayes (P)2021 GraphicAudio

Good stuff

Makes regular audiobooks seem boring. Hope they expand into other books I love. Almost better than a movie

Excellent Graphic Audio

Do not trust the negative reviews. They mostly come from fans is the audiobook version who dislike change. The fact is, aside from the obvious differences inherent in the new format, the changes made here were for the best.

Kyle McCarley did an excellent job on the original with varied, distinct, and consistent voices for each character. That said, the huge variety of characters meant the voices could get a little bit silly—see Mr. Transport sounding like Kermit the Frog. Also on the subject of voices, it sounds like they cast a black voice actor for Vince, which adds some very welcome variety to the cast.

It sounds like the story got an editing pass as well, which was sorely needed due to the serialized nature in which chapters were published. I sincerely hope someone hit Ctrl-F "to his credit" and deleted that phrase from the script in upcoming releases, because if I hear it one more time I'm going to intentionally burst my own ear drums.

The SFX and music are usually well-picked, so few complaints there. The only one I can think is that sometimes the SFX are a tad superfluous. I don't need someone to say "he walked" and then hear the clomping of footsteps. I'd prefer to hear background, ambiance, or big set piece noises.

Overall, though, a stellar Graphic Audio release. Possibly one of the best I've heard.

Simply Amazing

First, I’d like to say Kyle McCarley, you are the voice of this series. You’re range has no bounds and you brought this series to life. That being said, this dramatization is like adding bacon to a burger or doughnut. The story is richer, deeper and more vibrant.

Yes, it’s a third of the book, but you knew that going in, it says 1 of 3 in the title. It’s 2021, vaccines are rolling out like Roy on a bender. Super Powereds is back and all blinged out like Alice after therapy. The story has been dressed up like Silver waiting tables at Supper with Supers. This might be the closest we ever come to this story being made into a series or movie.

Great!!

Even better the my first time listening to the original. Highly recommend to fans and new listeners!

Well worth it.

I am a huge fan of the series and the Kyle mcCarley narration.
While I may not love every voice cast in this edition the positives greatly outweigh the negative. This is a very well edited and acted graphic audio. I truly can not wait for the next part.

Best Dramatized Audible Original

I love the way this brought Super Powered to life. one of my favorite series that made me a huge fan of Drew Hayes. This being part 1 of 3 for Year 1, I just hope that I don't have to wait a year for part 2. This is definitely worth the credit or the $!

I really like the idea, execution could use work.

It isn’t as good as the original audiobook. I’ll start off there. The sound effects are nice but nothing special. They realllllyy overdo the voice effects, everyone sounds like they are in a giant empty concrete room, but not in an accurate way. Most of the voice actors are fine, some aren’t. Almost all of them feel like they are reading their lines for the first time, you can even hear the little pauses when they have to go down a line and it’s super distracting and makes the conversations feel unnatural.

They also cut out a lot, which I am fine with in this book but it makes me super worried about the next books in the series as those are way more action packed and it’d be cool to listen to all the fights with the sound effects and stuff (in particular I don’t think they will do all of the intermural fights well, and will probably cut a lot of them out). I kinda get why they did it, because a full cast is a lot, but also I don’t listen to audiobooks to just get part of the story.

I’ll probably end up listening to some of the future releases, but definitely not all of them.

50/50

Kyle nailed it in the original. This one is 50/50. Some of the casting choices made me want to pull my hair out. Roy and Vince come to mind. Some were good. Alice and Sasha come to mind. There are some story points that are cut out, for time I assume.

Brings the characters to life in a new way!

So for those of you who love the Kyle McCarley audiobooks, I can assure you, this adaptation did not leave me disappointed. I'm going to compare it to those for this review. For the record, I have listened to all of them, including Corpies.

Pros for GraphicAudio:
- Full Cast means each voice is unique. McCarley's adaptations are a fan favorite, and he does a great job trying to give each character a unique voice, but this series has about a billion unique characters, and some of McCarley's voices sound very... similar. Anyone with a more cerebral power gets a "nerdy stereotype" voice, for example. I love McCarley, and it's not really his fault, he's just one person. This version absolutely avoids that issue though, and some of the characters have voices that surprised me and made me think of the characters in new ways. Roy, for example, takes on a "charismatic black cowboy" persona and it really works to make the character more interesting than before.
-The sounds and music work great, for the most part. The audio levels are well balanced and I never had any trouble distinguishing voices, sounds effects, or music, and the production quality is very high, to the point where it often felt like this could have been a movie with the visuals missing. There are lots of excellent little touches like TV shows droning on in the background of a conversation, characters continuing to talk in the background of a more important conversation, and music that accompanies most fight scenes really well.

Cons of this adaptation:
-It's only a third of the book. The McCarley versions are a whole book each. So, you know, there's that.
-Some may find the sound effects can be a little much. It didn't really bother me, so I'm not docking any points for it, but if you think that hearing footstep sounds every time a character is described as moving around sounds annoying, this audiobook might not be for you.

If you're a fan of the McCarley versions and are looking for something a little different, you might really enjoy this! If your first instinct is "It's different. I hate it" then maybe steer clear.

If this is your first time reading or listening to Super Powereds, I would actually recommend this adaptation over the McCarley ones if you're ok with the facts that 1: It's less audiobook for your buck and 2: It's (at the time of this review) not finished yet.

Cautiously optimistic

I'm a big fan of the series so I was excited to see this adaptation. Having listened to the series it set some expectations and I won't lie it wasn't up to my expectations but if you don't judge it against previous audiobooks it's a pretty good listen. If you haven't listened to it before then this is a great way to start and give you an idea of what to expect but I feel as if a better stopping point could have been chosen. All that being said the voice actors do a pretty good job of bringing their presentation of the characters and I greatly appreciate Herschel's voice which could have easily been the stereotypical type. The background atmosphere also helps bring forth the settings throughout the story and makes it very easy to imagine what is occurring. I'm looking forward to the other parts to truly see this adaptation as a whole.