Get ready for the action-packed follow up to The Rules of Supervillainy. This time with zombies, zombified heroes and villains, cults, magic, super-science, a dragon, a giant Nazi robot, a Greek demigod, and so much more! Gary and Cloak have returned from the supervillain prison on the moon only to discover the city he plans to conquer and rule with an iron fist has been overrun with the living … the living dead. Once again taking up the mantle of Merciless: The Supervillain Without Mercy™, Gary will have to pull it together quickly, find his wife, his gang, and a whole lot of help to stop the Brotherhood of Infamy from slaughtering the population of Falconcrest City and opening a portal to summon a primal force of destruction.
But Gary has a plan, or at least he’s sure he’ll have one soon. Just give him a second.
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Merciless returns to earth after a month on the moon to discover that the zombie apocalypse has overrun his home city. And as if that wasn’t bad enough, his beloved wife has been kidnapped by a rival supervillain who is challenging him to a showdown to decide which of them gets to be top dog in their town. And that’s just the opening chapter. A sorceress cult is looking to bring about the end of the world (and the zombie apocalypse suggests they are succeeding) and death (yes, the grim reaper herself) wants Merciless to come be her henchmen. And that’s still not everything that’s happening.
Whereas the first book was very much a supervillain versus superhero novel, this one is all about the black magic. There are zombies, sorcerers, death, a Cthulhu-like being, vampires, and need I go on? The series takes a dark turn in this novel, but it never loses its peculiar sense of humor. The only real question is how a bright guy like Merciless can still argue with a straight face that he’s a villain, not a hero.
C.T. Phipps’ knowledge of the superhero genre was quite impressive in the first book of this series. Now he dives in deep to the magical side of the genre, managing to both parody the medium while still producing an exciting plot with characters you love.
This review is for the audio book.
I enjoyed this book, in fact I am loving the whole series, it is so different from my normal type of book and a lot of fun. I think it is the humour that makes it so enjoyable. Of course there is also plenty of action to keep it entertaining and with a good all round cast of unique characters it is a must listen in my books, if you like super heros with a twist. You also have the added bonus of having no idea where the author is going to take you next. This book does continue from where the last book finished off so I do recommend that you start with that one but other than sit back and let the book take you on a wild ride.
Gary and Cloak escaped being imprisoned on the moon to find his home town over run by zombies. Can they put the band back together to fight them off because what it the point of taking over the world if it is already destroyed. Cloaks relatives have been busy while he has been gone and now they want to bring back a prime evil force to yes you have guessed it take over the world. Gary might just have to team up with some bad guy’s, some unexpected good guys and even make a deal with death herself to get the job done. Then he can take over cue evil laugh.
I like the narrator chooses for this series as he does a very good job giving the characters there own voices
The Games of Supervillainy (The Supervillainy Saga #2) by C.T. Phipps is book 2 of the series but you won’t get lost if you haven’t read book one. This book, like the first, is not your everyday super hero book, oh no. These guys and gals are very different, very different indeed. The books start where the first ends and I think this book is better than the first. More humor, more creatures, more craziness, and more action. Did you know they keep the super villain prison on the moon? Bet you didn’t know there were zombified super heroes either! Well, you are just missing out! Of course there are regular old zombies, dragons, and we all knew that, right? This book is a hoot. I liked the first book but this one is better. I used the wonder of KU to get this. Come read some “super” fun characters and plot and enjoy their crazy dialogue.
In this excellent follow up to the The Rules of Supervillainy, Gary Karkofsky (AKA Merciless: The Villain Without Mercy) has returned from the Moon prison to find Falconcrest City over run with zombies. Yep. Freaking zombies. Add to that, it appears his wife was kidnapped. Merciless and his henchpeople set out to stop the Brotherhood of Infamy, rid Falconcrest of zombies, and rescue his wife. Nothing goes as planned.
Once again, there’s a ton of humor in this book. The characters all take their jobs very seriously and that makes the humor stand out. Most of them have ridiculous supervillain/hero names but some of them have cool powers. So it’s this wonderful balance of the silly and the serious.
It’s a good thing that Gary has his sidekick, Cloak, which is his actual cloak. Gary needs all the advice he can process and Cloak is definitely willing to dish it out. Cloak used to be a superhero and one could argue Cloak is still trying to be that hero even though he is tied to Merciless at the moment. This creates some tension for Gary, who is relying on Cloak’s powers part of the time, yet Gary (especially when he’s dressed as Merciless) isn’t nearly as goodie-two-shoes as Cloak.
Some new characters are introduced into the story (and some are killed shortly thereafter, but every good superhero story needs it’s Red Shirts). I loved all the Canadian superheros. A fit of giggles overtook me on that one. I’m married to a Canadian so that whole section struck me as super funny. Then we have the supervillain Angel Eyes. His sheer beauty can overwhelm most mortals. Much to Gary’s consternation (and my amusement), he finds Angel Eyes attractive.
Besides all the humor, there’s little bits of seriousness tossed in. Gary and Mandy have hit a rough patch in their relationship. There’s all these zombies tearing up their beloved city. Then the author kicks it up a notch and Gary and crew have to deal with gods from the underworld. Without spoiling anything, there were some unexpected twists to the story. I was stunned and also impressed. I’m so very glad the next book is already out in audio format so I can jump in and see what happens to these characters next!
I received a free copy of this book.
The Narration: Jeffrey Kafer continues to do an excellent job with this series. I’m really enjoying his voice for Cloak this time around. His Canadian accents were great. His voices for female characters are good.
I liked the second volume of the villainy, but at times it dragged a bit and it was because there as too much banter and not enough action/character development. The author manages to go deeper with some of the characters, but some of them felt added just for the purpose of trying to make the story more interesting. Still a solid read and I’m already looking forward to the next book.