Salaset Reviews - Super Sales on Super Heroes - William D Arand

When I first found this book on Audible, it came across because the algorithm apparently knows me. I was taken in by the cover out of curiosity; then the description got my attention. To top it off, it was narrated by Nick Podehl, one of the best audio-book narrators there is (Fight Me). So, with that out of the way, here is the brief blurb that Audible gave.

In a world full of super powers, Felix has a pretty crappy one.

He has the ability to modify any item he owns. To upgrade anything.

Sounds great on paper. Almost like a video game.

Except that the amount of power it takes to actually change, modify, or upgrade anything worthwhile is beyond his abilities.

With that in mind, Felix settled into a normal life. A normal job.

His entire world changes when the city he lives in is taken over by a super villain. Becoming a country of one city. A city state.

Surprisingly, not a whole lot changed. Politicians were still corrupt. Banks still held onto your money. And criminals still committed crime.

Though the black market has become more readily available.

And in that not-so-black market, Felix discovers he has a way to make his power useful after all, and grasps a hold of his chance with both hands.

So, my review without spoilers can be boiled down to a single phrase: Acquired taste. Parts of the plot have to be forced, parts of the story don’t really make sense, plot points bounce around quite a bit, and the stakes seem to be forced more than anything. There is an abundance of adult jokes, sexual references, and overall sexual themes that can be a bit over-the-top at times. The main character starts off as a bit of a nothing-burger without too much to his name, though he is admittedly a very relatable everyman.

Despite that, this is one of my favorite books and series. The characters carry this series from books one to six, and I cannot sing the praises of William D. Arand enough for that. Each character is flushed out, interesting, and enjoyable to hear their conversations.

Spoilers ahead.

The book opens up with the main character Felix stumbling into a black market trade and, genuinely, accidently buys nearly dead slaves. See, Felix has a superpower that has been almost useless for him; he is able to modify or change anything he owns. Due to the city being run by a supervillain, he legally owns the slaves. He discovered, however, that the more powerful ‘things’ he owns, the more he is able to change and modify them.

Luckly for these slaves, Felix has no interest in owning slaves. He uses his newfound beefed up power to heal the slaves, bringing them back from the brink of death, and his only condition is he wants to keep the legality part of it so that he can still benefit from the boost they give.

As a fair play game, the slaves aren’t too upset about this, given their prior circumstances. In fact, one of them, Kit, was a prior superhero who loves the idea of helping others that were in their situation. So, they conspire to purchase more ‘slaves’ so that Felix can accomplish his main goal of making money $$$.

Now, Like a stated above, there are a lot of sexual themes in this book. Thankfully, Felix has a code of ethics (though severely flawed) that makes it so he flat out refuses to do anything with the slaves for fear of the power difference between them. That changes later on as the slaves are freed and choose to stay with him, however, I wanted to make clear that this isn’t that kind of story.

They continue to buy slaves, build a few businesses, and through the help of a mind-reading superhero who’s perfect in HR, a soul-eating lawyer, a duplicating dog-girl who’ll do about anything for pancakes, and more, Felix is able to build his empire.

There are costs, though. Kit has people looking for her, her former friends in the superhero guild, and they will stop at nothing to get her back. She is of two minds about returning to them, which Felix is accommodating for, however the guild will take her back, at any cost.

That’s the gist of the story. Blood, gore, sex, and rock and roll.

Now, as much as I love the book, it has its issues. As I stated above, some things are very outlandish in terms of what happens. Bits and pieces seem to come out of left field, the gore can be a bit out of place at times, but the humor and characters carry this book through all these sections. I found it easier to imagine listening to this book and imagining an anime instead my normal visual hallucination.

So, on my Sal-ometer, I’d give this book a 4/5. I might give a more detailed review of all the books separately, but as of right now, having binged the entire series again because self control is only a fantasy in my mind, this review will essentially be for most of the series.