So our lovable band of misfits is back for another year at Lander University. Now that they’ve made it past freshman year they have a lot of work to do.
One of the things I like is that they are realizing that they are not as powerful as they think they are. They’re strong supers, sure, but they aren’t the strongest out there, and they still have a lot to learn. Mary, for one, was seen as almost untouchable, and she gets her ass handed to her by one of her professors. Roy realized at the end of the last book that he had a long way to go, Vince has aspects of his power he has to work on, Alice doesn’t want to run away anymore, and Nick may have met his match in one of the new professors.
The students are working in teams this year, with our five obviously on one team, due to their situation and the backlash from last year. They add two more to their team to have seven, and they have to fight against the other teams throughout the year. Mary may be their captain, but Nick is their tactician, and he thrives in that role.
We see little snippets of other characters. Thomas continues to be an awesome pillar of responsibility, Angela shows up again, and Chad and Shane make appearances. Michael continues to be a problem, and Sasha can’t get over what happened at the end of last year. We get some insight into the professors lives and history and get some more hints at whatever big bad is out there. The students are growing into adults, and we get to see that journey in a lot more detail than we usually would. Like in the last book, the big bad rears its head toward the last bit of the book. I like how it’s always looming in the distance, but it’s easy to forget in the day to day operations of the students’ lives. The characters are making hard decisions, and while there may be alternatives, they’re doing what they feel is right at the time. They are training for the decisions they’ll have to make as heroes.
