A Fun Superhero/Antihero Story
5 out of 5 stars
Striker V reminded me A LOT of the Supervillainy stories that I’ve read by C.T. Phipps. Like to the point that every time Vidmar mentioned “Gary” I would jump right back into thinking this was just another book in that series. Now, saying that, I mean it completely complimentary, and I might only have one point of reference since those are the only other superhero-like stories I’ve read. But I LOVE Phipps’ books so any comparison to those from me is great.
I thought that Vidmar did a great job of writing a character that was likable even if I couldn’t put my finger on why I liked him. He seemed to be a bit off and aloof but he also seemed to be going in the right direction (even when it appeared that he was going way off course).
I really found myself liking the over-arching storyline that Vidmar had – basically, superheroes are great and do all of this good, but when do they get to take a break? When can they have a little bit of time off to rest and recover? That was a unique angle I’d never even thought about before but will now every time I see or read another superhero story. Striker V being the 5th Striker was something unique as well, I know that the movies have done it when replacing one Batman with another actor – but they never acknowledge that this is the 5th batman or anything. I don’t read enough comics to know if that’s commonplace there or not, but I really liked that idea and thought that it would cause an interesting feeling – replacing a superhero once something happens to them.
Overall, I really enjoyed this one and absolutely flew through it. I really liked Striker/Neil as a character. He was funny and had me cracking up throughout. I want to know both more about him and hear more of what he ends up getting into. I also wanted to point out that I love that this is probably the first superhero story where the main character was gay. I almost didn’t mention it because it was just so natural and normal but because Vidmar included it, I thought it was worth mentioning. Their story was super cute and really added to the overall feeling that this book had (and really added to why I liked Neil even more – he was such a caring partner).
Honestly, I give as much info about the narration as I can, but I can’t tell if it’s because of the book and the way the story was told of if it truly does – Patrick Boylan’s narration reminded me a lot of Jeffrey Kafer’s – but Kafer mixed with a little bit of Steve Campbell which tells me maybe it’s a Canadian version of Kafer?). I say that because they are both some of my favorite narrators – so to combine them was great. I really enjoyed Boylan’s narration. He was able to really tell the story and make it jump off of the page.
Book Description:
Striker V by Josh Vidmar
Narrator: Patrick Boylan
Length: 9 hrs and 25 mins
Series: Striker #1
Published by Self Published on August 4th 2021
Genres: Fantasy
Format: Audiobook
Also by this author: Striker V: In the Meantime, Striker V: In Memory, Striker V: Each Moving Piece
Also in this series: Striker V: In the Meantime, Striker V: In Memory, Striker V: Each Moving Piece
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