A Review for Strike: The Hero from the Sky by Charlie Wood

Posted by Guest Reviewer Melanie

Published Date: January 19th, 2012

Finished Date: March 8th, 2012

Source: For Review

Format: Kindle

Pages: 218

The Blurb from Goodreads: Tobin Lloyd's life is perfect: he's a senior at Bridgton High, he's one of the funniest kids in school, and his only worry is whether or not his latest prank is going to result in yet another detention.

But when he wakes up in the world of Capricious, a place where superheroes are real and attacks by super-villains are just another hassle of living in the city, all of that changes. Suddenly, Tobin's last year of high school is not going as he expected.

Far from home and pretty sure he's gone insane, Tobin must join a strange group of companions (including a beer-drinking dog and a genius, three-foot-tall robot) as he desperately tries to find a way back to Earth. However, that may be even harder than Tobin knows: a mysterious super-villain named Vincent Harris has big plans for the planet Earth...and Tobin is the only person standing in his way. A carefree, C-student class clown is the world's last hope? Yikes.

The Review: Well, what a fun read that was! At first I didn’t think this book was for me but I’m glad I took a chance on it because it was really good. As you may guess from the title, this book is a superhero adventure. . . . We start the book with a glimpse into Tobin’s past as a 3 yr old. His Father sets out in the middle of a storm on a matter of urgency, promising explanations when he returned . . . . Only he never did. Fast forward a few years and Tobin is 17 and loving life. What he doesn’t know is that there are forces of evil at work, targeting him and he has no clue until he is attacked by some weird creature and passes out. When he comes to, he finds himself in a strange world known as Capricious. He thinks he’s losing it when an old man explains to him that superheroes are real and that Tobin’s father was in fact a superhero and from Capricious himself and that means as his son, Tobin is also a superhero! It all seems too much and Tobin can’t take it all in especially when he meets a walking, talking husky-man who happens to be their pilot. Things just go from bad to worse when they inform him of the super-villain Vincent Harris and his plan to take over earth and it seems like Tobin is their only hope. . . . . .that is if he can master his powers that he only just found out he has!

I really enjoyed this fun, fresh book as I mentioned I don’t usually read books like this so it surprised me in a good way. Tobin’s character was funny, quite the joker and I enjoyed seeing the world drop from under his feet as he learns about his true heritage. I can honestly say I would probably felt exactly the same when he thinks he has gone insane and has a hard time believing what is going on. I like how he wasn’t all brave and that he doubted himself and his ability to shoulder the burden placed upon him but stepped up to the plate for the greater good, that’s the stuff of a true hero. The other characters were great, I really liked Keplar and Scatterbolt and the banter between them all made the reading light and funny. I look forward to more from these in future books.

I would love to see/read this as a graphic novel because the descriptions of Capricious, the creatures, creations, environment, people etc. all of it would look great visually. It always amazes me when authors create these fantasy worlds and put it into words, how they bring it altogether and help the reader visualise the scene. An imagination like this is indeed a talent. The storyline was good, a lot to get into a 200 page book but I find that with shorter books there is no ‘filler’ and this was all packed with story – not all from Tobin’s pov either, I like to get an insight into other characters and appreciated it in this because we even get the villains’ pov too.  I also liked that even though we are dealing with two worlds that it wasn’t overly complicated where we would require a degree in quantum physics to understand it. It was simple and to the point, all the world building was – easy to read and understand so all of your focus is on the story, and what a story it was.  As yet I don’t know if there will be a sequel but if there is I will be looking out for it. 

So, if you love your superheroes or even just a good fantasy adventure, then this is definitely for you!