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The Weight of Our Choices
Vendetta: Legend of the Iron Warrior, Vol. 3 follows a fallen hero who is pulled back into a war between heaven and hell, forcing him to confront his past, his faith, and his failures as he decides whether redemption is earned through power or sacrifice. How does Vol. 3 deepen or challenge Travis’s sense of identity compared to earlier books?
Volume 3 peels back the layers of The Iron Warrior like an onion. Volume 1 is the introduction, where we get introduced to him and gain an understanding of who he is. Volume 2 takes it another step up, where he must confront the darkness in him. As challenging as those obstacles were, there was still very much left in the man underneath the armor. Candace attacks him at the levels that no one is supposed to know about. His darkest secrets are exposed. So that leads to the question he has to face throughout the book. What happens when every bit of you is exposed? There is truly nowhere for him to run. It’s one thing to be a public figure, but it’s another when every part of your being is displayed for the world to see. Now he must choose if he should try to be the man he is expected to be or be the broken man he is without worrying about what everyone thinks. We all face that challenge in life. If we are truly aware of ourselves, can we choose the higher choice all the time. And at what point do we break down from the weight of our choices?
Candace Loveless is driven by something deeply personal. What makes her more than just an antagonist?
Candace was introduced in Volume 1: Slaying Paradise. Every scene with her became so much more. It sounds weird, but her voice was so easy to hear. There is so much life in who she is. She felt powerful. Candace is a fully realized person. Because there is so much to her, she can’t fall simply into one category. She is a well-rounded woman with so much more story to tell.
The novel reframes greatness as service rather than glory. When did that idea become central?
That was born in the moments when service is spoken about. Many of us chase greatness and the glory that comes with it. We’ll do things in hopes of attaining that attention, but when you truly look at what makes those who are great, you see service. Unapologetic service to someone or something else. They are unmoved by what they do, and their works capture our attention. It’s their service to others and what they give that we are drawn to. Those who serve the most, who give the most, are the greatest because it shows us what is possible. They become the ones whom we can strive to be. They become the example. Greatness for the sake of glory is worthless. Service is greatness. That is what’s remembered.
What does this volume reveal about the long-term journey of The Iron Warrior?
The Iron Warrior has been tested inside and out. Volume 3 was originally meant to be the end of the story, but Candace changed that. She brought so much to the table that the story with her deserved to stand on its own. The second half of this story literally takes us to hell, Brimstone, where it will end. We’re going to follow The Iron Warrior, who is almost a completely different man from whom we met in Slaying Paradise. It’s taking a man who is potentially at his most reckless and throwing him into a place where his nature will be right at home. A volatile man in a place where there are no limits. What’s the worst that can happen?
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A new enemy, Candace Loveless, knows every secret Travis buried and is determined to destroy him from the inside out. His reputation is destroyed. His allies begin to question him. His faith is pushed to the breaking point.
Now, Travis must face an enemy who knows his past, exploits his weaknesses, and forces him to confront the man beneath the armor.
Vendetta: Legend of the Iron Warrior Vol. 3 delivers cinematic action, emotional conflict, and supernatural warfare in a dark superhero noir fantasy readers have compared to The Batman and City of Bones.
Trouble in Cyborgia (Night Crusaders Series Episode 4)
Trouble in Cyborgia is a compact superhero adventure with a pulpy, futuristic setup and a surprisingly earnest moral core. It is the fourth entry in the Night Crusaders series, and the book frames itself as one of the series’ shorter “companionless mini adventures,” with the spotlight falling mainly on Simeon while Thomas Givens serves as the first-person narrator who pulls readers through the story. That choice gives the novel a nice angle. Instead of feeling distant or mythic, Simeon is seen through the eyes of someone who is impressed by him, puzzled by him, and gradually changed by what he witnesses.
What the book does best is establish its world in bold, direct strokes. Georgia City, nicknamed Cyborgia, is a place where cybernetics shape public life, work, policing, media, and power. The novel leans into that setting with real conviction, turning corporate technology into the engine of both wonder and abuse. The early dungeon sequence is especially memorable because it takes a bright futuristic city and reveals the machinery underneath it as cruel and predatory. Even a line like “Because I am a Night Crusader” works with a straight-faced sincerity that tells you exactly what kind of heroic register the book is working in. It’s not coy about heroism. It believes in it.
The book is also very much a story about labor, dignity, and the spiritual cost of letting convenience replace conscience. Thomas opens the novel by asking, “Whatever happened to that good old-fashioned work ethic?” and that question ends up shaping far more than the background. It gives the whole story a distinctly moral and social frame. This isn’t just a tale about a hero punching robots. It’s a tale about what kind of society gets built when efficiency, profit, and technological expansion stop answering to anything human. The novel keeps returning to institutions, jobs, media narratives, and public responsibility, which gives the action a larger civic backdrop.
What I found appealing on a craft level is the book’s plainspoken confidence. It moves scene to scene with very little fuss, and that gives it an old-school serial energy that fits the “Episode 4” label. Simeon isn’t presented as an unreachable icon. He gets trapped, weakens, makes risky choices, falls for people, and has to rely on others. That matters, because it turns the book into more than a victory lap for a superhero. It becomes a story of exposure, endurance, and community, with journalists, coworkers, allies, and ordinary citizens all helping shape the outcome. By the time the corporate collapse and legal reckoning arrive, the novel has built a world where public evil has public consequences.
Trouble in Cyborgia is a sincere, energetic blend of superhero fiction, dystopian corporate thriller, and moral fable. It has the feel of a story told by someone who likes heroes to be heroic, villains to stand for something rotten, and settings to carry an argument about the world. Its tone is openhearted, its themes are clear, and its best moments come from how fully it commits to its own vision of justice, technology, and human worth. If you meet the book on those terms, it’s an engaging ride through a futuristic city where the fight isn’t only against machines, but against the system that built them.
Pages: 145 | ASIN : B0FZDGXPFZ
T.V. Holiday’s Vendetta: Legend of The Iron Warrior Vol. 3
Vendetta: Legend of the Iron Warrior, Vol. 3 is a melodramatic and unexpectedly tender superhero novel about a man trying to outrun destiny and discovering that duty, grief, and faith won’t let him go so easily. Travis Holiday begins the book trying to leave Carnage Coast behind with Crystal and Ashley, only to be pulled back into its holy war, its conspiracies, and its emotional wreckage. What follows is part urban-fantasy action saga, part spiritual crisis, part intimate family drama. The novel moves from bank sieges and villainous set pieces involving Diversion, Hypnotion, and Candace Loveless to a far more inward struggle, as Travis’s identity is exposed, his moral legitimacy is shredded, and he is forced to reckon with what it means to be chosen at all. The strongest thread, for me, was not the mythology on its own, but the way the book keeps yoking cosmic warfare to personal longing, especially Travis’s ache for his son, his bond with Crystal and Ashley, and the late, quietly moving conversation with Mark in jail that reframes greatness as service rather than glory.
T.V. Holiday writes as someone utterly unafraid of intensity, and that conviction gives the novel an entertaining pulse. I was struck by how often the story pauses amid the violence to make room for vulnerability: Leslie’s fear of motherhood in a war zone, Crystal’s private unraveling when doubt creeps into her trust, Ashley’s simple, devastating declaration of love, the strange sweetness of a family barbecue trying to hold itself together while everything around it frays. Those scenes give the book a lived-in heart. Even when the dialogue leans broad or the sentiment comes in hot, I never doubted the feeling behind it. The novel’s deepest interest isn’t spectacle for its own sake. It’s in wounded people trying, sometimes clumsily and sometimes beautifully, to remain worthy of one another.
The prose is maximalist, earnest, and unapologetically larger than life. At its best, that gives the book a comic-book grandeur that suits Carnage Coast perfectly. The opening image of Travis racing the White Ghost across a desert he can’t quite escape is vivid and genuinely memorable, and the action sequences have a propulsive, pulpy swagger. The novel often prefers excess to restraint. Even those rougher edges became part of the experience for me. The book is never coy, never slick, never interested in cool detachment. It wants redemption, love, faith, corruption, sex, betrayal, and apocalypse all on the same canvas, and there’s something oddly winning about how fully it commits to that ambition. The ideas are most compelling when they move away from simple chosenness and toward the harder question the book keeps circling: whether a flawed man can still become meaningful through sacrifice, service, and endurance.
Vendetta: Legend of the Iron Warrior, Vol. 3 is a novel with a fierce emotional engine, a taste for chaos, and a sincere belief that spiritual struggle and human intimacy belong in the same story. The book has conviction, and conviction carries it a long way. I’d recommend it most to readers who enjoy dark superhero fiction, religiously inflected urban fantasy, and stories where the battles in the soul matter just as much as the battles in the street.
Pages: 400 | ASIN : B0GRSZV3YF
Lab Rat (Chronicles of Avilésor: War of the Realms Book IV)
In Lab Rat, author Sara A. Noë drops readers into Cato’s head the way the story drops Cato into captivity: abruptly, violently, with the taste of metal already in my mouth. He wakes bound inside a closed truck bed, is delivered to the underground Agency of Ghost Control, and gets reclassified as “Subject A7,” a “half-breed” anomaly whose powers can be forced on like switches. The book’s early movement is a gauntlet, chemical “Detox,” electrical testing, and surgically implanted ports, before Cato lands in Project Alpha’s cages beside other young prisoners (Ash, Jay, RC, Finn, Reese) and the feral, feared A6, while a larger prophecy thread hums in the background: seven and eight, roles and fates, pieces being placed whether anyone consents or not.
My first reaction was physical. Not “oh wow” physical, more like clenching-my-teeth, shoulders-up-by-my-ears physical. The prose leans into sensation with a kind of unblinking stamina: the “Detox” sequence reads like a ritual of dehumanization dressed up as procedure, and I kept noticing how often Cato’s dignity is treated as an inconvenience to be managed. When the story escalates to the port implantation, drills, the cold ring, the doctor who refuses the comfort-lie of “you won’t feel a thing,” I found myself admiring the author’s nerve even as I wanted to look away. It’s body-horror with a bureaucratic clipboard hovering nearby, which somehow makes it worse.
Alpha isn’t just a scary room; it’s a system that tries to “unname” people, sanding them down to numbers and compliance. That idea, identity as contraband, is what gave the brutality a point beyond shock. And then there’s Ash: her quiet endurance, the way the others speak around her pain because naming it out loud would re-open the wound, and the night-raid scene that is written to disgust rather than to titillate. The book’s tenderness arrives in odd places, like a stolen conversation with the holographic system ECANI, or Cato insisting on names instead of serials, and those small mercies felt hard-won.
Lab Rat is for readers of dark fantasy, paranormal fantasy, dystopian science-fantasy, and YA-adjacent captivity/escape thrillers, especially anyone who wants a morally ugly villain structure and a stubborn ember of found-family refusing to go out. The premise gave me flashes of The Institute by Stephen King, kids turned into “subjects,” cruelty rationalized as research, but Noë twists it through ghost physiology, Divinities, and prophecy math until it feels like its own bruised mythology. Lab Rat explores the cost of being remade by force and how a name, spoken, claimed, and defended, can be a kind of escape.
Pages: 460 | ASIN : B0G4SXMQ6C
Talisman: Subterfuge
Aaron Ryan’s Talisman: Subterfuge kicks off with a hero who is anything but heroic. Liam “Foxy” Mayfield is a celebrated veteran from a past alien war, but he’s a total wreck. His wife, Janine, was killed by a stray alien, and he’s completely shattered. He’s estranged from his sons and his father-in-law, who just happens to be the President. Then, some mysterious cosmic power called the Aeterium Axis shows up. They give him a crazy deal. He has to save one thousand human lives. If he pulls it off, they’ll bring his wife back from the dead. So Liam accepts, and he becomes this secret vigilante known as “The Talisman,” using new superpowers like teleportation and foresight to save people. It’s not all straightforward, though. A dark, twisted version of himself called The Zorander is hunting him. Plus, a reporter who looks identical to his dead wife is getting dangerously close to the truth.
The writing is fast, it’s raw, and it’s full of emotion. I really felt Liam’s grief. It was heavy, and it made his decision to take this impossible deal feel completely real. I mean, who wouldn’t take that chance? The core idea of “balance” was fascinating. Liam is out there saving lives, which is great, but he’s also killing the bad guys without a second thought to do it. It really makes you wonder. Is he still a hero? Or is he just a desperate man who will do anything to get his wife back? I found myself rooting for him, even when his actions were pretty questionable.
The plot is just non-stop. One minute Liam is saving a wedding party from a landslide, and the next he’s in a brutal, supernatural fight. And then the government, the very people he helped save in the last war, turns on him. Talk about a rough week. I was genuinely angry for him. The author, Aaron Ryan, just keeps piling on the pressure, and it makes for a story you can’t put down. It felt like a dark, gritty comic book. I also liked getting the different viewpoints. We get inside the reporter’s head, and we even see the world through the villain’s eyes. The Zorander is a really spooky dude, and his chapters were intense.
I’d absolutely recommend this book. It’s an emotional rollercoaster. If you loved the author’s Dissonance series, this is a no-brainer. You’ll love seeing Foxy again. If you’re new to this world, that’s fine too. The book does a great job of giving you the backstory you need. This is the perfect read for anyone who likes their sci-fi fast, full of action, and packed with a whole lot of heart.
Pages: 320 | ASIN: B0FV8PL7ZG
Moral Awakening
Switch and Blue Eagle is a coming-of-age superhero novel where a young sidekick battles villains, expectations, and his father’s outdated ideals in a world that no longer sees justice in black and white. What inspired you to explore the father-son dynamic at the heart of the story?
It’s actually an element from my worldbuilding. When I first started doing this, I was inspired by the TTRPG Masks. When me and a gaming group I was part of were preparing to start a campaign in that, I looked over the basic information and saw that the ages of comic book history–the Golden Age, the Silver Age, and so on–were canon as Generations in Masks. So I decided to follow suit with in-universe Ages of Heroism. I’ve always loved the contrast between more serious, darker takes on superheroes and their lighter, more kid-friendly takes of old. So Blue Eagle and Switch ended up being the first two characters I created–along with Queen Venus and one more character that you can likely guess who it is if you read the epilogue–as a contrast between the Silver Age and the Modern Age of Comics and Heroism.
So, in my larger world, I have Silver Age characters and their values, I have Dark Age characters and their values, and I have the younger Modern Age characters trying to find their place in the world.
I know that sounds like an answer to a different question, but the father-son dynamic in this story was actually built from worldbuilding rather than character exploration, at least in the beginning. Once that foundation was built, I started asking myself, “What would people from different Ages of Heroism disagree on when it comes to superhero-ing? What differences would a superhero from each era of comics have, like Superman of the 1950s and Rob Liefeld’s Youngbloods characters in 90s Image Comics, and today’s teen heroes like Miles Morales and Kamala Khan? What complications would those differences create when the people who have those differences also have a father-son and superhero-sidekick relationship? What are some real-life, dare I say political, equivalents to those disagreements?” And this was ultimately my answer.
Jack often questions what makes someone truly “good.” How do your own views on morality shape the story?
Haha, when I was a dumb, edgy 20-something, I really hated Superman (now that I have a fully functioning frontal lobe, I’m now a huge Superman fan). I thought he was way too powerful to have good stories with suspense and stakes, but I also hated how he was essentially a paragon of perfect morality. It was like being super strong allowed him to dictate what was right and wrong. One thing I always said was that, unless a hero possesses “super-morality” as an actual superpower, they have no more credibility on morality and ethics than anyone else.
I now see Superman in a different light, but Blue Eagle represents that part of the old me that was right. That feeling that those in power—churches, pundits, corporate compliance departments—shouldn’t get to dictate what is right and wrong just because they have societal power. A conservative media influencer has no grounds to determine that trans people are immoral while saying nothing about school lunch programs being defunded; a company shouldn’t be able to say an employee having outside income is a conflict of interest while it funds destructive pipeline construction on sacred indigenous land; an elected official shouldn’t be able to say that the presence of migrants is immoral criminal behavior while they take bribes and makes laws that help their rich friends at the expense of education, healthcare, and the environment.
Switch, on the other hand, represents in his teens the moral awakening I didn’t have until my thirties. That society has a real responsibility to lift up its “lowest” and give people real chances to succeed. People don’t succeed in life on their own. We all have support from family, friends, community, and institutions. And when those systems fail people, they are left with paths in life that we would never choose for ourselves. So instead of using force to punish those we deem to be immoral, rightly or wrongly, I believe there is a duty for society at large to ensure that we all have the tools to live happy, dignified lives.
It was that moral conflict that I wanted to place at the core of Blue Eagle and Switch’s disagreements. The father-son conflict and Switch’s desire for independence aside, there is a difference regarding the moral responsibilities that come with power.
The book blends superhero action with introspective realism. Did you set out to challenge typical comic tropes from the start?
Not really. This is another thing born from worldbuilding. This is not the first story I’ve written in this universe, only the first one that I’ve published. And even before I decided to write SWITCH and Blue Eagle, the Blue Eagle Universe, as I call it, was always a superhero universe played mostly straight. It certainly plays with, satirizes, celebrates, and challenges, as you say, comic tropes as well. But it also is one played straight, meant to exist alongside the Marvel, DC, Image, Astro City, Valiant, and other shared universes.
If anything, I would say that the world this book is set in is less “What if superheroes existed in the real world?” and more “What if realistic people existed in a superhero world?”
Jasper’s subplot humanizes the villains. Was it important for you to blur the line between hero and antagonist?
Not really. Not for this book, at least. That’s because I don’t really view Jasper as an antagonist, but one of the two main characters. He just works for the bad guys. The actual antagonists of this book—other than any high-minded literary concept like “Switch’s inner struggles” or something—are the villains. Queen Venus is the primary antagonist, which is fitting as she is the primary member of the Blue Eagle Rogues Gallery.
Actually, the idea for Jasper and the broad spot he sits between the two conflicting ideological positions presented was inspired by a movie I saw from 1990. It was a very high-brow, snooty, underground arthouse film you’ve probably never heard of, called Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Haha. But seriously, in that movie, there are two characters in that film whose fate is really the thematic center point of the movie, and that’s Charles and Danny Pennington. Fatherhood and family are the central themes of that film, with the Turtles and Splinter representing a nurturing and loving family and Shredder and the Foot Clan representing harshness and distance. They present two sides of it, while the Penningtons are teetering on the fence. In the end, they fall into the Turtles’ side, reuniting and beginning the process to reconcile and become closer.
Broadly speaking, Jasper is the same as the Penningtons. Switch believes in societal responsibility and rehabilitation, while Blue Eagle touts personal responsibility and tough love. Jasper’s the case study to prove one of them right and one of them wrong.
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Switch the Blue Eaglet is the son and teen sidekick of Blue Eagle, one of Herald City’s top superheroes. But being a sidekick isn’t all glory. Switch is tired of living in his father’s shadow, tired of his strict rules, and tired of being told he’ll never be strong enough to stand on his own.
Jasper Clemens is just another faceless villain henchman. All he wants is to get out of the criminal business. But his debts to the mob keep piling up, and he’s stuck taking the riskiest jobs in order to protect his family.
When a dangerous supervillain launches her deadliest scheme yet, it’s up to Switch and Jasper to stop her. Can Switch prove to the world he’s more than just a sidekick? Does Jasper have what it takes to be a true hero?
Or is Herald City doomed?
Perfect for fans of coming-of-age superhero tales, this short novel delivers action, heart, and a fresh twist on what it really means to be a hero.
Don’t miss this adventure of SWITCH and BLUE EAGLE!
SWITCH and Blue Eagle: A Superhero Sidekick Novel is a short prequel to my main series currently under development, SWITCH and the Challengers Bravo, and the introduction to my larger superhero world of Herald City. It has two focus characters. There is Switch the Blue Eaglet, the sidekick of Blue Eagle, who deals with the self-doubt that comes with the constant criticisms he gets from his father, as well as his unreliable powers. He wants to eventually become a superhero on his own, but he feels the need to prove his worth first. And then there is Jasper Clemens, a supervillain henchman who wants to get out of the business. But his debts to the mob keep piling up, and the only way to keep his family safe is to take on more and more dangerous jobs. And in the background of all of this, Queen Venus, the archenemy of Blue Eagle and Switch, is sprouting her deadliest plan yet and the whole world might be at stake.
Trigger warnings include fantasy violence, father-son family drama, and mob debt.
SWITCH and Blue Eagle: A Superhero Sidekick Novel
Switch and Blue Eagle tells the story of Jack Dufraine, a teenage sidekick known as Switch, and his father David, the legendary superhero Blue Eagle. Together, they protect Herald City from villains like Blizz Kid, Queen Venus, and the eerie Poster Boy. Beneath the flashy battles and high-speed heroics lies a story about legacy, pressure, and the uneasy relationship between generations. Jack struggles to live up to his father’s impossible expectations while questioning the morality of their world, a world that seems to see justice in black and white. The novel blends comic-book action with genuine emotional conflict, making it more than a simple superhero tale.
Author Joseph Safdia’s writing is clear and visual, almost cinematic, and I could picture every fight scene as if it were on a big screen. But what really grabbed me wasn’t the action. It was Jack’s internal struggle. He wants to be a hero in his own way, to think rather than just punch. His dad, though, is stuck in an older mindset, all muscle and certainty. That tension hit home for me. It reminded me of those times when your elders just don’t get what the world feels like now. Safdia captures that gap perfectly. Still, the dialogue sometimes felt a bit heavy, almost like it came from a comic book bubble. It worked in places, but I wanted a bit more subtlety.
What stuck with me most were the small human moments. Jasper, one of the criminals, trying to save his family from the mob, it made me rethink the idea of “villains.” Safdia doesn’t just show the shiny side of heroism. He looks at the cracks in it. The book asks what makes someone good or bad, and whether society even gives people the same chances to choose. Those questions stayed with me. Sometimes leans into comic-style melodrama, but it’s sincere, and that sincerity carries it.
I’d recommend Switch and Blue Eagle to readers who love superhero stories but want something deeper than capes and catchphrases. It’s for those who like action that also makes you think, and who appreciate a bit of heart beneath the heroics. Teen readers will see themselves in Jack’s doubts, and adults might see a bit of their own reflection in Blue Eagle’s rigid worldview. It’s an entertaining, heartfelt story that mixes the thrill of superpowers with the pain of growing up.
Pages: 351 | ASIN: B0FS2718R1
CRIMSON BLOODLINES The Rise of King Musa Africa’s First Vampire
Crimson Bloodlines tells the story of Emma Woodford, a passionate genealogist whose quest to uncover her family roots leads her to a shocking discovery, she is descended from King Musa I of Mali, the famed ruler of the 14th century. Her curiosity takes her from the quiet hum of city life to the scorching heart of Africa, where history, myth, and horror collide. The story starts like a historical mystery and slowly turns into a supernatural thriller, blending the grandeur of West African history with the dark myth of vampirism. The book pulls readers from scholarly research tables to ancient ruins and secret cities hidden beneath the desert sands, creating an atmosphere thick with tension and wonder.
I didn’t expect a vampire story to weave so neatly into African history, but author Aubin Jack makes it work. His writing has a cinematic feel. You can almost hear the hiss of the desert wind or see the gleam of a gold-encrusted citadel rising from the dunes. At times, the prose is lush and descriptive, even indulgent, which slows the pace but also deepens the mood. I found myself swept up in the worldbuilding, the Tuareg warriors, the sacred baobab trees, the mystery of Old Mali, though I occasionally wished for a tighter focus. Still, the book’s heart beats with genuine curiosity about ancestry, identity, and power. I felt Emma’s excitement, her fear, her awe at discovering she might be part of something ancient and monstrous.
Underneath the fantasy and bloodshed is a sharp commentary on legacy and climate change, a surprising but fitting connection, given the author’s background in public safety and activism. Some passages veer into lecture territory, but they come from a sincere place. What stood out to me most was how human this story feels despite its supernatural premise. The vampire lore isn’t just for thrills; it’s used to explore how power, greed, and immortality twist even noble intentions. By the time King Musa’s transformation unfolds, the horror feels earned. It’s not just about monsters feeding on blood, it’s about humanity feeding on the planet and on each other.
Crimson Bloodlines is part adventure, part history, part warning. I’d recommend it to readers who like their historical fiction with a bite of the supernatural, especially those drawn to African mythology, lost civilizations, or climate-driven allegory.
Pages: 150 | ASIN : B0DTRL2D52
