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    Hero
    Hero
    Hero
    Audiobook11 hours

    Hero

    Written by Michael Grant

    Narrated by Amanda Dolan

    4/5

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    About this audiobook

    The mind-blowing conclusion to the Monster trilogy and the final installment in the Gone series from science fiction and fantasy master Michael Grant is perfect for superhero and Stephen King fans alike.

    After the fall of Perdido Beach dome, a new set of humans developed mutant powers from the rock infected with alien virus. They are the Rockborn Gang: Dekka, Shade, Cruz, Malik, Armo, and Francis. With their superpowers, they have defended the earth from other rockborn who used their powers for evil, like Dillon Poe.

    When another rock carrying the virus strikes New York, a new foe, Bob Markovic, rises with a horrifying and nearly unstoppable ability. Markovic’s unending ambition and lack of a moral compass made him unbearable before the virus. And that was before he was a swarm of plague-ridden insects, with the power and means to take over the city—and maybe the world.

    As the Rockborn Gang try to defeat their latest villain, they will find themselves on morally gray grounds and have to make tough decisions if they want to save the world.

    In this pulse-pounding finale to the saga more than ten years in the making, Michael Grant delivers an unforgettable conclusion while asking: What does it take to be a hero?

    Praise for Monster:

    “Ratchets up the gore and action, and features a diverse cast of characters. An evocative, intricately plotted companion series.” –ALA Booklist

    Read the entire series:

    • Gone
    • Hunger
    • Lies
    • Plague
    • Fear
    • Light
    • Monster
    • Villain
    • Hero
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherKatherine Tegen Books
    Release dateNov 5, 2019
    ISBN9780062964878
    Author

    Michael Grant

    Michael Grant, author of the Gone series, the Messenger of Fear series, the Magnificent Twelve series, and the Front Lines trilogy, has spent much of his life on the move. Raised in a military family, he attended ten schools in five states, as well as three schools in France. Even as an adult he kept moving, and in fact he became a writer in part because it was one of the few jobs that wouldn’t tie him down. His fondest dream is to spend a year circumnavigating the globe and visiting every continent. Yes, even Antarctica. He lives in California with his wife, Katherine Applegate, with whom he cowrote the wildly popular Animorphs series. You can visit him online at www.themichaelgrant.com and follow him on Twitter @MichaelGrantBks.

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    Reviews for Hero

    4/5

    26 ratings2 reviews

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    • 4/5
      I loved this book but I hate the ending,such a cliff hanger! What happened?
    • 3/5
      Though I’ve said it in every review of the GONE saga and its spin-offs, it bears repeating that I am very far removed from the YA demographic these books are aimed at, but I good story is a good story and always worth reading. HERO is the final book in Michael Grant’s spin-off from his popular teen dystopia saga of the trapped children and teenagers in the FAYZ, the previous books in the series being MONSTER and VILLAIN. In this spin-off, mysterious meteors crash to earth and unleash a mutagenic virus giving humans various abilities, usually manifesting itself in a physical transformation. As Grant stated at the beginning, these three books were his hand at trying to create his own superhero universe extrapolated from his original series. I had some criticisms of the previous two books, but thought they worked because Grant is good writer when it comes to action, suspense, and the ability to create really good antagonists.In HERO, the Rockborn Gang—Dekka, Shade, Cruz, Malik, Armo, and Frances—having saved Las Vegas in VILLAIN, now find their hands full when another meteor comes down in New York City and creates a new and particularly nasty Big Bad. This time around, the Gang is joined by Sam Temple, Astrid Ellison, and Edilio Escobar from the original series. The plot is simple: the threat makes itself known, the Rockborn Gang confront it, have their butts kicked, regroup, double down, and come up with a plan. There is a final confrontation, which to Grant’s credit, is not an easy victory. In between there is a lot of personal drama as the protagonists sort out who they are, their feelings for one another, and the price of being a super hero and doing what has to be done to stop equally empowered villains who have no guilt when it comes to the harm they do. It is pretty much what we have seen in the other two books. And when I said Grant had a knack for writing great villains, I was talking about Vector, HERO’s main nasty, a sentient hive of insects capable of inflicting unending suffering and pain upon their victims that not even death will deliver them from. That Vector was a rapacious capitalist before being transformed is something of a trope—nobody writes about a mutated barista gone bad.HERO is enjoyable, but it breaks no new ground, pretty much following the same path laid out in the previous two books, which is one problem I have with this spin-off series. A good trilogy should build action and suspense throughout, with the establishment of an ongoing threat at the beginning and a final well earned payoff in the finale, with conflicts and subplots resolved. What Grant did was basically write three potboilers. There is nothing wrong with that, but he managed the art of an ongoing series so well in the GONE books, it felt like a letdown here. Grant stated in the Author’s Note that it was his intention to create a superhero universe, and freely admitted to being influenced by Stan Lee’s X-Men. Another problem with HERO is that certain characters prominently featured in the first two books, like Tom Peaks and Jason DeVeere, barely made cameos in this one. I thought they would do way more with Drake Merwin, a hateful piece of work from the GONE series, who it seems was brought back for no other reason than him being a fan favorite, and that he helped strengthen the connection to the original books. It might have been better if Grant had started over from scratch when creating his super hero universe and not tied it to his previous success. It can be said that he used the tired tropes of present day super hero comics such as heavy handed diversity and overrepresentation of queer characters, though some of that might have been editorial dictates.But the big problem with HERO is the final Big Reveal with the mysterious Watchers in the final chapter, and the cliffhanger Grant winds the series up with. I won’t go into the details except to say that I found it very unsatisfying, and disliked the way it undermined the entire GONE saga. After reading it, I couldn’t help but wonder if Grant really had his heart in this spin-off all along, and didn’t just write it to wring more money from its avid fans. In the end, he openly invites writers of fan fiction to finish the story. Michael Grant, you are no Stan Lee. So this is where the GONE saga truly comes to an end as teen dystopias have gone out of style recently. It was a decent ride even if a tire blew on the last turn. There is still hope of a live action adaptation, but as I’ve stated in previous reviews, that might prove to be problematic now due to the content. Maybe we should just be thankful with what we’ve got on our bookshelves.