Villains Inc.

Wearing the Cape Series, Book 2

By: Marion G. Harmon

Narrated by: Caitlin Kelly

Astra has finished her training and is now a full-fledged Sentinel, but things are not going well. She suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder, and the public revelation of her relationship with Atlas has caused her popularity to nosedive.

To complicate things, the Teatime Anarchist's intervention has changed the course of events - leaving her with lots of knowledge about the way the future was before the Big One, a complete future-history that is now out of date.

And just when she thinks she's getting a handle on things, unfolding events (a bank robbery and a horrific murder) show that one of the nastier pieces of the old future isn't so out of date after all; unless she solves a murder before it happens, Blackstone is going to die.

©2011 Marion G. Harmon (P)2019 Tantor

Such an interesting world

I really enjoy the Wearing the Cape world, listened to the first book and immediately purchased the second but was disappointed with the change in narrators. The voices in this on just aren't quite as distinct as the previous.

Fun but flawed sequel!

This was a fun, popcorn superhero story. I feel that it improved on the first book, but in a few ways slid back as well. The ending is a bit abrupt in my opinion, with some fights skimmed to get to the ending. Really could have expanded on those fights to get 5 stars from me. Looking forward to the rest of the series!

Oh, and it took a bit to get used to but the new narrator is pretty good!

High-Powered Sequel!

Villains Inc picks up a few months after Wearing the Cape ends. Astra is in a bad way becoming a source of tabloid headlines over a few missteps she has made between books. None of these are particularly bad things from the reader’s perspective but it’s easy to imagine the tabloids twisting facts to sell some papers. Add to that that Astra is still dealing with having lost Atlas, the love of her life, to the Ring attack at Whittier Base.

Then Godzilla strikes—or at least a Godzilla—and we are immediately reminded why Harmon is so good with his superhero worldbuilding. A green terrorist is trying to save the environment by planting Godzilla eggs in major water sources near big cities. New York and Tokyo have already been hit, now it’s Chicago’s turn and boy is it exciting—even though it’s just a teaser to introduce the new book.

The real plot revolves around a mysterious shape-changing thief and the super villains trying to kill him (or her). The Sentinels discover that Villains Inc (a supervillain enforcer group) has been resurrected by the Chicago mob and now the mob is in a civil war as members of Villains Inc try to take over. Chicago’s Sentinels are trapped in the middle and the population is furious that they can’t stop the villains from fighting. There is plenty of excellent action and a couple of great new supers added to the mix and once again Astra is forced to grow. This is an excellent story all around.

I listened to the book in audio this time and was disappointed by the change in narrators. Perhaps I would feel differently if Caitlin Kelly had read both of the books, but K. F. Lim’s reading of Wearing the Cape was a hard act to follow that I was halfway through Villiain’s Inc before I started to warm to Kellyl’s characterizations. It’s not that she’s not a competent reader, but it’s almost always a bad decision to switch narrators midstream. Lim had brought these characters to life for us and now we had to get acquainted with them all over again. It was as if we had slipped over into a parallel universe and as a result all the characters were just slightly off from what we were expecting.

New Story Flavor, Same Heart -- True Continuation

I actually enjoyed the change of narrator. Caitlin has wider range, and appropriately mature MC.