Through the Looking Glass Children's Book Reviews
The Feros
Fiction Series
For ages 12 and up
Penguin, 2013 ISBN: 978-0399256554
Five months ago James, Sam, Hayden, Emily, and Lana were ordinary teenagers who admired the League of Heroes from afar. Then they were kidnapped by the Vindico, a group of super villains, who set about transforming the five teenagers into a new generation of villains with super powers or enhanced abilities. Sam became a telepath, Hayden was given telekinetic abilities, James and Lana became incredibly strong, and Emily’s already considerable computer hacking abilities were built upon. She was also taught how to use a wide variety of weapons.
The plan was that the Vindico and their protégés would bring down the League of Heroes and take over the world, but at the last minute the young people turned on their teachers and stood shoulder to shoulder with the League of Heroes.
Four months have passed since the Vindico was defeated. The teens have returned to their families with the understanding that they cannot tell anyone about their abilities or allow anyone to see what they can do. In only a few months they will be inducted into the League of Heroes and they will not have to keep their true selves a secret anymore. It has not been easy to keep their abilities a secret and they miss being together, so the teens arrange to meet at Hayden’s house for a reunion.
The friends are not together long before it becomes clear that someone is watching and following them. Then, during a big party, a group of rogue Heroes, led by Flame, attempts to arrest them, saying that they have “violated” the terms set by Thunderbolt, the leader of the League. They have used their powers and therefore need to be taken into custody.
Not trusting Flame and his friends, the teens manage to escape and go on the run. They want to contact Thunderbolt to find out what is going on but he has disappeared. The teens, who decide to call themselves the Feros, go to the mansion where they were taken by the Vindicos. There they learn from Blue (another League of Heroes member) that Thunderbolt is in hiding and that several League members have been kidnapped. Clearly someone is out to get the League, but who? The Vindicos are in a League prison that they cannot break out of, so the enemy cannot be them.
When Emily and Blue are kidnapped the Feros come to realize that there is a new enemy on the stage, one they know nothing about. This enemy manages to free the Vindicos from their prison and it becomes apparent that he or she has managed to create new super villains, perhaps using the same technology that the Vindico used to give the teens their superpowers. How on earth are the teens going to be able to defeat an enemy they know nothing about, and who has so many human weapons at his disposal?
In this second title about the League of Heroes, the author takes his readers on another action-packed adventure that is full of surprises, betrayals, and revelations.
