Book 1, Forging Hephaestus: Villains' Code Series

Thought it would connect to Super Powereds and Corpies, which were books I really enjoyed. I'm glad it didn't. Although it's weird how hard it is to become a hero in the other series and this one it takes a week to debut. Can't wait for book two and hurry up with the next super powereds Drew, I know these books are a couple thousand pages each, but hurry up. All you need to do is write a few hundred pages a day.

Drew Hayes has taken another shot at writing Superheroes and Villans, and he hit a pretty solid mark. Set in a different universe than his other series Drew came up with an enjoyable tale that managed to keep me enthralled and on the lookout for the next in the series.

Good Job!

Having loved the world of Corpies and Super-Powereds, I was initially sad this book was written outside that world, but I can't imagine him managing this excellence within those constraints.

More excited for book two of this than book four of SP at this point! Keep blowing me away, Drew.

Do Villains have a Code? Who Punishes the ones that go too far? Find out the answers to all this and more as you fall in love with an entire universe of brand new characters and powers that you see develop right before your eyes. I promise you, this book will be a seductive temptress keeping you from getting sleep until you finish it.

Drew is a master of bringing you to the edge of your seat and keeping you teetering on the knife edge the entre time your reading. I didn't want to put the book down until I finished, when I was at work I was wondering what was going to happen next. If you enjoyed Drew's other works such as SuperPowereds and Corpies, you'll LOVE this new series.

Forging Hephaestus is a darker path than I've seen in Drew's books, and I loved it from start to finish. A complete departure from the Superpowereds universe, Forging Hephaestus focuses almost entirely on the wonderfully twisting and plotting Super Villains you didn't know were hiding in plain sight. Sprinkling the seriousness of the book with his trademark sense of humor, Drew will have you laughing and crying out in frustration as you fall for his characters.

Follow the discovery of powers, the formation of Heroes and Villains, and try to stay calm through the climactic battle between Good and Evil that is FORGING HEPHAESTUS (VILLAINS CODE #1).

** I received an Advanced Reader Copy in exchange for a fair review

There are already more than enough reviews talking about how awesome this book was. Still, I've read (almost) all of Drew's books and this one has to be my favorite so far. I'm looking forward to more.

Drew Hayes is rapidly becoming my favorite author. The amount of forethought and detail in his novels is terrific, and he has a knack for making the reader really care about the characters. And action is second to none. Can't wait to read the next one!

Loved reading about the darker side of powers. Curious if the guild will have interactions with super-powered group? I like where it ended, great setup for the next one. I recommend this to anyone looking for a fun read with some dark twists.

Fantastic book, both the audio version with a great narrator and the actual book. Drew Hayes has quickly become one of my favorite authors for his imagination, for the worlds that he creates, and for the subtle and outright humor in his stories

For all of you superhero junkies out there, this book is a must-read. From the amazing characterization, to the super powered plot, and the witty jokes that take a whole book to come out (looking at you, Johnny 3-D), Forging Hephaestus is a book you won't regret picking up.

Excellent read. If you like the genre or not, this is a good book.
Enjoyed it more than I have many books in a while, reminds me of the D-list super villain books.
Nice to find a book longer than 200 pages these days.
Look forward to sequels!

With an interesting take on hero vs villains, Drew Hayes has written a book that is impossible to put down. His writing and character development are so vivid that you feel like you are a part of the story.

The story and characters are so different from everything else out in this genre. The author leaves a lot of mystery that's so intriguing and a little frustrating. Super fun read, definitely recommend

This is such a great concept. Unfortunately, this book is desperately in need of a copy editor. I have no idea how something with a degree in English and a word processor with spell check can misspell accidentally over and over or mix up bauble and bobble.

Despite following a few tropes (superheroes not really good, villians not really evil, etc.) Forging Hephaestus manages to draw you in to an interesting, although not entirely unique, world from the get go. The personalities are again, mostly not that original and most of the heroes and villains in the world have pretty basic powers, although there are a few original ones as well. The main character herself is a bit more original then most. Despite the unoriginality Mr. Hayes manages to tell an enthralling story, that while fun is easily predictable. Still fun ranks pretty high with me. Fun Book. Good read.

Drew Hayes writes long books in genres that I like. His writing is technically sound, barring the occasional wobble in point of view. His protagonists do the right things for the right reasons and generally get rewarded for it. Action scenes play out like you'd expect. The plot moves competently from A to B to C in predictable fashion. If you're looking to kill a few hours reading about superheroes and supervillains, this book fits the bill.

What you're not going to get is interpersonal conflict that keeps the reader in suspense about how things will play out. This book exacerbates the problem by raising the stakes to a ludicrous degree. The main character has to get her act together OR DIE... well, nothing in the book ever convinces me that her death is a real possibility, so I can figure out what's going to happen from there. The other big issue is that all of the characters that we are supposed to like all basically think the same, at least in so far as what behavior they think is appropriate in the situations that come up in the book (for example, there are selfish vs. teamwork based approaches available for some of the villain tests, but everybody who we're supposed to like thinks that a teamwork based approach is the way to go; as a result, even in a life or death situation, there's never any real danger of our protagonist choosing the selfish option despite living her life as a petty crook who wants to stick it to the system instead of being a sucker by playing along with it).

Hayes also has a couple of writing tics that really annoy me: (1) clever-silly worldbuilding and (2) characters with snapchat backstories.

Hayes follows some recognizable steps with all of his fantasy worlds:
- Start with a popular trope (the long term existence of villain teams)
- Deconstruct the trope (why don't the heroes go after these guys?)
- Reconstruct the trope (the evil league of evil fills a valuable niche in the super ecosystem by killing budding young omnicidal villains before they can go on murderous rampages)
- Studiously ignore questions raised by the reconstruction (what kind of society tolerates vigilantes who regularly engage in extrajudicial killings, and why doesn't anybody in the book act like they live in that kind of society?)

Basically, don't think about it too hard and just enjoy the story. Which is easier said than done when angsting about the purpose of the evil league of evil takes up large chunks of the book.

The snapchat backstory problem is a little more subtle. Here's the thing: at some point the reader is going to notice that our protagonists are basically decent people with options who have decided to join up with a team full of murderers. In order to explain this, we are treated to little snapshots of backstory to explain otherwise out of character choices. Then these bits of backstory disappear. They never affect on screen behavior, even when it's logical that they do so. Apparently they're just supposed to vanish from the reader's mind once they have served their purpose. It's very frustrating to me and makes it hard to get into the mindset of treating the characters like real people.