A loser every-guy works as a janitor and tech at a local club and has no hope for the future. Then two superpowered men fight to the death right in front of him, one of them with his dying words telling the lower to take a device from him and run. Ty does and joins the ranks of superpowered.
Enhancer
Enhancer Book 1
by Wyatt Kane
Grave Audio Productions
September 2018
The device snaps onto Ty’s arm and he is instantly transformed as nanobots enter his blood stream and analyze then enhance his DNA and capabilities. When he wakes from the initial transformation he finds his body is enhanced and he has a new skill based on his DNA – enhancing technology. Think Toby McGuire in Spider-Man. He’s an almost perfect version of himself. No longer a loser. No longer destined for cleaning toilets.
The setup is pretty standard fare, but the idea that he becomes a technology mastermind rather than an overpowered superman is interesting. His power works well in allowing him to support and enhance the other superheroes. Where this goes would have been interesting to find out. But the book has several key drawbacks, not the least of which is repetitive, low reading level writing and a completely unnecessary and gratuitous focus on sex.
As for writing, every couple of sentences it seemed that the author reworded what he just said. And the same things get repeated throughout the book. How many times did Ty think that the two female heroes were “perfect?” Apparently, every couple pages. How many times do we need to hear about how loathsome Bane is to Ty? Every time they think of each pother. We get it. A thesaurus and an editor who could help tighten this up and raise the reading level. “Some superhero you are!” and “Get them! Don’t let them get away!” and “You little insect!” (real quotes from Bane to Ty at the end of the book,) isn’t exactly The Killing Joke level banter. This isn’t a big deal though as most books that I’ve seen and read recently – especially small publishers or independents – suffer from this gap. It goes with the territory for books in genres like this.
The main reason I’ll not be finishing the series is the juvenile focus on sex. There are three sex scenes in the book. But the conversations and focus is throughout. Ty and other superheroes who have the same alignment (neutral good, Ty’s case) have an overwhelming attraction for each other. From the moment that Ty meets the two female supers all the book is about is how amazingly attractive they are. Tempest is the perfect blonde. Dina is a deer-kin (her body has been adjusted to have hooves, antlers, and mottled skin). The author obviously has some kinks that I don’t share. The first scene is pretty short and a fade to black type scene. Not so bad if they were all like that. The second is a threesome with some more details. The third comes after Dina is kidnapped and the two heroes are despondent about her capture and not sure how to survive so they take the few moments they have before the showdown to have some rough sex. The fourth and final is a full fade to black. To clarify: Ty has known Dina and Tempest for maybe 3 days and there were 4 sex scenes wrapped around a day at work for Ty and a final battle with Dina kidnapped. It’s all about sex, which doesn’t make sense if the story is the point. But since sex is the point, it makes total sense.
This should have been placed in erotica even though this is mild compared to some of that stuff. It isn’t a superhero book or a LitRPG book. As such, I have no time for a poorly written harem erotic book and don’t recommend it.
Scott Asher is the Editor-in-Chief of BookGateway.com and a believer, a husband, a dad, a geek, an artist, a gamer, a teacher, a learner and tired.