Corpies is a spinoff of the Super Powereds books. It fits between Super Powereds Year 2 and 3 – we hear a little bit about it in Year 3, but not much. Hershel and Roy’s father, the hero called Titan, has decided to finally get off his ass and return to hero work. He had previously left the hero business, or the Life, after a sex scandal ruined his reputation. Not only was Titan caught having sex with someone other than his wife, but it was with another male hero. Seeing as his reputation was completely trashed, both for his affair and the abandonment of the Life, he doesn’t have many options open to him. His agent, Lenny, gets him a job as a Hero Liaison for a group of Privately Employed Emergency Response Supers, or PEERS. These are supers who are employed by a company and have corporate sponsors, who assist in emergency situations, but aren’t heroes and aren’t supposed to engage other supers. They are also referred to as Corpies, usually as a derogatory term.
It’s a bit more streamlined in that we’re only following one person rather than five in the main series. Some things are a bit more predictable, but there are plenty of surprises. One of the main themes is prejudice. (Wait, and pride. Pride and prejudice lol.) The Supers that Titan works with have to deal with a lot of garbage from heroes. They are seen as ‘fake’ or ‘pretend’ heroes, but Titan realizes that they’re doing the best they can to help people to the best of their abilities. They may not have the training or experience that heroes do, but they still chose to help people rather than go into a different profession. (I am waiting to see if any were HCP rejects. That could also cause bitterness.) Titan goes from seeing his team as kids he has to babysit (they aren’t that much older than his sons) to respecting them as individuals and as a team. Titan also has to deal with shit from other heroes, including Gale, the leader of the top hero team in town. She starts off the bat not liking Titan, and she finds more and more reasons to dislike him, even as Titan proves that he is not what she thinks he is. She has good reasons to be cautious, but she can’t seem to admit that she may have been mistaken about his character.
Titan sees his team not only grow as individuals, but as friends as well. Each member of the team has something go on in their lives that Titan tries to help them overcome. He came in to a group of supers who were basically colleagues, and he saw them form into friends and an actual team.
And some of the things I hoped would happen happened, which is awesome. And there were some scary moments in there, but Drew Hayes worked his magic. Oh, and one of the characters is Dispatch, and I really hope she’s a real person and not a computer. Because I <3 Dispatch. And I feel like a lot of people, Titan especially, would be kind of crushed if she turns out to be nonhuman.
Aaaaaand I just found out that there are TV Tropes about Drew Hayes’ stuff! It’s kind of awesome!
So, 7 out of the 33 books I reviewed this year are the work of Drew Hayes. And I didn’t get around to reviewing the other 3 that I also listened to! Still, 10 audiobooks by the same author is a lot. And I can’t seem to get enough! I have another 2 1/2 to get through before I run out, and that’s going to make me kind of sad. The way Hayes writes makes me invested in his characters, and I feel like I get to know them. And that’s the way it should be! So thanks, Drew Hayes, for making 2017 a lot less shitty than it could have been. I look forward to what amazing things you’ll come up with in 2018 and beyond!
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