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Just Cause Universe #12
Arena: A Superhero Novel with an Alien Invasion
"The enemy of my enemy . . ."
Humanity has spent decades calling into the stars, seeking assurances that we are not alone in the galaxy. After many years of silence, someone has answered. The Hind came from afar, not to extend the hand of friendship, but the axe of conquest.
The Hind drop an impenetrable force field over New York City, creating a cage where their shock troops will battle a handful of superheroes. They intend to conquer, but threaten annihilation if humanity doesn't surrender. In their desperate bid to save first their city and then the rest of the world, the heroes of Just Cause must do the unthinkable and ally with the greatest supervillain the world has ever Harlan Washington, the Destroyer.
Humanity has spent decades calling into the stars, seeking assurances that we are not alone in the galaxy. After many years of silence, someone has answered. The Hind came from afar, not to extend the hand of friendship, but the axe of conquest.
The Hind drop an impenetrable force field over New York City, creating a cage where their shock troops will battle a handful of superheroes. They intend to conquer, but threaten annihilation if humanity doesn't surrender. In their desperate bid to save first their city and then the rest of the world, the heroes of Just Cause must do the unthinkable and ally with the greatest supervillain the world has ever Harlan Washington, the Destroyer.
350 pages, Kindle Edition
Published April 1, 2018
3 people are currently reading
6 people want to read
About the author
Ian Thomas Healy
127 books101 followersIan Thomas Healy is a prolific writer who dabbles in many different speculative genres. His superhero novel Deep Six: A Just Cause Novel was a Top 100 Semi-finalist in the 2008 Amazon.com Breakthrough Novel Award. He’s a seven-time participant and winner of National Novel Writing Month where he’s tackled such diverse subjects as sentient alien farts, competitive forklift racing, a religion-powered rabbit-themed superhero, cyberpunk mercenaries, cowboy elves, and an unlikely combination of vampires with minor league hockey. He is also the creator of the Writing Better Action Through Cinematic Techniques workshop, which helps writers to improve their action scenes.
His goal is to become as integral to the genre of superhero fiction as William Gibson was to cyberpunk and Anne Rice was to urban fantasy.
Ian lives in Colorado with his wife, three children, and a plethora of housepets. When not writing, which is rare, he likes to take road trip, enjoys watching football and hockey, and listening to or playing music. His ebooks can be found on Smashwords, Kindle, Nook, iBook Store, and other online retailers.
His goal is to become as integral to the genre of superhero fiction as William Gibson was to cyberpunk and Anne Rice was to urban fantasy.
Ian lives in Colorado with his wife, three children, and a plethora of housepets. When not writing, which is rare, he likes to take road trip, enjoys watching football and hockey, and listening to or playing music. His ebooks can be found on Smashwords, Kindle, Nook, iBook Store, and other online retailers.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
April 28, 2021
Oh wow. I loved this book. Mustang Sally and the rest of the Just Cause super hero team is back, bigger and better than ever in there biggest battle yet. This is an all out war, where even mortal enemies must come together for the greater good of man kind and only an invading alien's attack can cause this. The author has stepped it up for this story and let his imagination run wild. With so many great super hero characters contained in one book (a lot we have already met in the previous books and a few new faces) it is not a surprise that earth could not handle all the action. If this is your first adventure into the world then this might be a bit confusing as there is so many characters (think avengers where everybody is involved) and no time to go into too much back stories and relationships, but great if you have been by there side from the very start. The story is told by the five main characters, as they each do there part in ramping up the action and hurling twist at you that will have far reaching repercussions throughout the series. I like that one of the aliens also gets a voice in the story giving you his side and thinking behind the actions of both his kind and Sally's team. Gear up and be ready for action, where not every hero will make it.
Harlan Washington formally known as The Destroyer and the arch enemy to super hero's everywhere is the first to sound the alarm from his moon base that aliens are on there way to earth and they mean business. With little time to do anything the Just Cause team is divided as a giant force shield is placed over New York, cutting team mates off from each other. If earth isn't handed over to the Hinds, a half lion half horse like alien creature then they will annihilate the planet. But the aliens have never faced off against creatures quite like humans before. Can Sally and a trainee of Just Cause find a way to meet up with the rest of the hero's trapped in the city? And with an evil genius on there side in Destroyer, who is trapped outside, can they send the aliens packing?
With a big book like this the author has chosen to go with not one but five different narrator's, which really works well. I really loved all the different voices they were able to use, especially the deep booking voice of the alien and you never had a problem knowing which character you were following in each chapter.
I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.
Harlan Washington formally known as The Destroyer and the arch enemy to super hero's everywhere is the first to sound the alarm from his moon base that aliens are on there way to earth and they mean business. With little time to do anything the Just Cause team is divided as a giant force shield is placed over New York, cutting team mates off from each other. If earth isn't handed over to the Hinds, a half lion half horse like alien creature then they will annihilate the planet. But the aliens have never faced off against creatures quite like humans before. Can Sally and a trainee of Just Cause find a way to meet up with the rest of the hero's trapped in the city? And with an evil genius on there side in Destroyer, who is trapped outside, can they send the aliens packing?
With a big book like this the author has chosen to go with not one but five different narrator's, which really works well. I really loved all the different voices they were able to use, especially the deep booking voice of the alien and you never had a problem knowing which character you were following in each chapter.
I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.
February 3, 2020
As this is book 12 in the series, you would miss quite a lot of background on a lot of the main characters if you hadn't read others in the series, but at the same time, it still works just fine as a standalone story too. This time round, the heroes of Just Cause face an entirely new foe in the form of alien invaders and the threat is great enough to results in their former foe, the destroyer, siding with them in this battle. If you are familiar with comics, the idea of heroes and villains being forced to team up is a frequently used idea, but the author's take on this plot device is executed well.
One area that didn't work as well for me was the seemingly sudden marital problems for Sally and her husband, which I can only assume were brought up in book 9, which is a main team book, but doesn't have an audio version yet. Besides this slightly jarring situation, both the setting that was somewhat reminiscent of a battle royale game and newer characters becoming more prominent resulted in a compelling listen that helps to further expand the scope of the just cause universe.
The narration of this book took a different approach from all the previous ones in that chapters centred around particular characters were assigned to different narrators and on the whole it worked pretty well, the contrast between a Sally chapter and an alien chapter being very significant, but I'm not entirely convinced it wouldn't have been just as effective with only two people to provide the contrast. It was certainly a neat idea though and presumably could potentially also result in audiobook versions being released more quickly as well.
Overall, some major personal and personnel changes to the Just Cause team result in an entertaining listen in this expanding book universe.
[Note - I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.]
One area that didn't work as well for me was the seemingly sudden marital problems for Sally and her husband, which I can only assume were brought up in book 9, which is a main team book, but doesn't have an audio version yet. Besides this slightly jarring situation, both the setting that was somewhat reminiscent of a battle royale game and newer characters becoming more prominent resulted in a compelling listen that helps to further expand the scope of the just cause universe.
The narration of this book took a different approach from all the previous ones in that chapters centred around particular characters were assigned to different narrators and on the whole it worked pretty well, the contrast between a Sally chapter and an alien chapter being very significant, but I'm not entirely convinced it wouldn't have been just as effective with only two people to provide the contrast. It was certainly a neat idea though and presumably could potentially also result in audiobook versions being released more quickly as well.
Overall, some major personal and personnel changes to the Just Cause team result in an entertaining listen in this expanding book universe.
[Note - I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.]
May 14, 2018
I'd never read superhero fiction before reading Ian Thomas Healy's ARENA. I had no idea what to expect. The only fear, really, was that I'd get sleepy, because if any movie I watch has extended action for no other reason than to have action, I fall asleep during the explosions/sword fight/car chase and wake back up when I hear an exchange of dialogue.
ARENA didn't have that effect. It was engaging. It was fascinating to get into the real-person lives and emotions of characters who happen to have parahuman superpowers. The braiding together of the larger conflict, the interpersonal conflicts and goals, and the action - along with the shots of un-forced humor and deep tenderness - made it an addictive read. And I loved the ending.
ARENA comes late in Ian Healy's Just Cause Universe series, but that doesn't matter. Starting on book 12 didn't make me feel like I was missing critical information. But it did make me want to go back to the beginning to see where and how the characters started.
ARENA didn't have that effect. It was engaging. It was fascinating to get into the real-person lives and emotions of characters who happen to have parahuman superpowers. The braiding together of the larger conflict, the interpersonal conflicts and goals, and the action - along with the shots of un-forced humor and deep tenderness - made it an addictive read. And I loved the ending.
ARENA comes late in Ian Healy's Just Cause Universe series, but that doesn't matter. Starting on book 12 didn't make me feel like I was missing critical information. But it did make me want to go back to the beginning to see where and how the characters started.
March 14, 2019
Kind of feel like this series has been going downhill lately. In particular, with several books (3 of the last 4) being focused on characters other than Sally, the protagonist of 7 of the 12 books, it was a bit jarring to come back to her and out of nowhere, there's this huge, ongoing conflict with her husband, who's then killed almost negligently - it wasn't even clear for a while if he was dead, or just thought to be dead. It felt like I had missed a book. Sure, not everything happens on page, and the status quo should change, but this sudden change in their relationship and his death this far in felt sloppy, like the author wanted to take Sally in a different direction, but didn't want to take the time to write a transition.
There's a part of me pointing out that a lot more women than men have been stuffed in refrigerators over the years in superhero stories, so this is just turnabout. The problem is the marital conflict that seems to have come out of nowhere (yes, it's explained, but show, don't tell), and the fact that his death scene was inconsequential - until the end of the book, I wasn't sure if he was actually dead, or just injured and Sally thought he was dead. I ended up trying to figure out where this shift came from instead of actually getting into the book.
There's a part of me pointing out that a lot more women than men have been stuffed in refrigerators over the years in superhero stories, so this is just turnabout. The problem is the marital conflict that seems to have come out of nowhere (yes, it's explained, but show, don't tell), and the fact that his death scene was inconsequential - until the end of the book, I wasn't sure if he was actually dead, or just injured and Sally thought he was dead. I ended up trying to figure out where this shift came from instead of actually getting into the book.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews