Reign of the Unfortunate, by Daniel Aegan, is a villain punk novel set in Pristine City and follows five supervillains’ attempt to kill Cricket Man and the aftermath once they succeed.
The five supervillains are dubbed the Unfortunate Five by the media and are led by Dr. Everything, whose biomechanical tentacles reminded me a lot of Dr. Octopus’s. This is a recurring theme, as Aegan mentioned in the afterword that this story began as fan fiction, which isn’t a bad thing, if you like comics/superhero movies.
The other Unfortunate five members are Kilowatt, who manipulates electricity; Osprey, who has no powers but is a technical genius and was lovers with Dr. Everything; Bad Juju, a dark magician whose illusions are real; and Glam Gargoyle, a demoness who controls hell fire.
One thing I loved about this book is that each of the Unfortunate Five got page time, so you could get into their heads. I also loved how this book reminded me of the animated series and comics I read in the ‘90s during the height of the “Death of Superman” story arc. I also loved how Aegan handled romance in the book. It was there, but it didn’t take over the story like in so many books.
As self-published books go, this was one of the better ones. While there were typos and clunky sentences, it wasn’t to the point the book was unreadable. However, it could have undergone another round of edits to catch the things I mention above. I also thought the book went off the rails toward the end. While Aegan managed to get things back on track and wrap things up brilliantly, I felt the plot twist was only added because once the Unfortunate Five gained control of the world, there was no more tension/conflict.
That said, I did love this book and recommend you pick it up if you like comics/superhero movies.
I give Reign of the Unfortunate 4.0 out of 5 stars.
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