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Michael Owen Carroll

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Super Human Hardcover – Bargain Price, May 13, 2010

by Michael Carroll (Author)

4.5 167 ratings

Book 4 of 7: The New Heroes/Quantum Prophecy series

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Four thousand years ago the world’s first super human walked the earth. Possessing the strength of one hundred men, skin impervious to attack, and the ability to read minds, this immortal being used his power to conquer and enslave nations. Now plans are in motion that will transport this super human to the present, where he’ll usher in a new age of tyranny unlike anything the world has ever seen.

Determined to stand against them, using powers they’ve only just begun to master, is a ragtag group of young heroes. For them this first test may be their greatest . . . and last.

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Author Q&A with Michael Carroll

Michael Carroll lives in Dublin, Ireland. His work has been translated into French, German, Italian, Swedish and Polish. In addition to his novels, he has published many award-winning short stories.

Q. Why superheroes? Why not write about wizards or secret agents or something equally exciting?

A. Simple: I’ve always loved superheroes! Everyone--I don’t care what they might tell you--everyone has at some time or another daydreamed about having extraordinary abilities. Who wouldn’t like to be stronger, faster or smarter than everyone else? I’ve often been asked why I didn’t write this story as a comic-book: after all, superheroes and comics go together like strawberries and cream, Laurel and Hardy, peanut-butter and jelly… But that’s precisely why I chose not to write the story as a comic-book: superheroes in comics aren’t exactly a rare occurrence. In books, however, there are (or were, when I first started writing the series) almost no superheroes. I quickly discovered that there’s a good reason for that: it’s hard to write prose superhero stories! Once I realized how tough it was, I knew I had to do it… You don’t learn much by always taking the easy path.

Q. How does Super Human fit in with your Quantum Prophecy series?

A. Super Human is a prequel to the Quantum Prophecy series; it’s set about 23 years before the main plotline of the QP books, which is about thirteen years before all the older superheroes (and supervillains!) lost their powers. Super Human is a stand-alone story: it’s not necessary to know anything about other books. At the same time, it’s also designed to act as a sort of second jumping-on point for the series… readers can start with Book 1 (The Awakening) or with Super Human. I’ve been careful not to put too much in Super Human that might act as a spoiler for the other books!

Q. So, did you always plan to write a prequel?

A. Not as such, no. The whole QP series has been carefully worked out (my notes on the series run to around 250,000 words--about three times the length of Super Human), a process that took many years to complete, and--taking an idea from J. Michael Straczynski, the creator of the TV show Babylon 5--I built in several trap-doors. These allow me to completely drop certain characters and plotlines should that become necessary. One of the first trap-doors I’d built in led directly to Super Human: the story of Krodin, the first superhuman. Originally I’d planned that Krodin’s tale would be told in a later book through a series of flashbacks, but when then opportunity came to write a stand-alone novel connected with the series, I realised that Krodin’s tale would be ideal suited for that purpose. It introduces the world of these superhuman beings and shows us the origins of many of them.

Q. How do you actually write a book?

A. Every writer develops his or her own approach. Some writers come up with a strong opening and then figure out the rest of the story as they go along. That doesn’t work for me: I’ve tried it a couple of times and the results were… pretty bad! My approach is the opposite: I plan my stories in great detail in advance, creating a sort of blueprint for the tale, then, when I’m satisfied with that, I write the first draft. Once that’s done, I set it aside for a week or two, then come back to it armed with a red pen. I’ve trained myself to be pretty ruthless at this stage: anything that’s not working is marked, whether it’s a simple phrase or a whole sub-plot. Then I begin the second draft, and again I attack it with the metaphorical red pen. The first approach--making it up as you go along--has been described by Stephen King (who uses that approach) as akin to archaeology: the story exists, buried in the ground, and it’s up to the writer to uncover it. However, I’ve always felt that writing is more like sculpture: the story only exists because the writer creates it from the raw materials. The fact is, no matter how big or impressive a book is, every story starts with an idea. But an idea is not a story, no more than an acorn is an oak tree. The writer’s job is to turn that acorn into an oak tree, or--in some cases--a forest. For example: the Quantum Prophecy series started from a pretty basic idea… Like all story-seeds, it was a “What If?” idea… What if the most powerful person in the world was only thirteen years old? Now, as it stands that idea could describe a heck of a lot of books, so I had to build on it… Why is this character the most powerful person in the world? What do I mean by “powerful”? I decided that my central character would be a superhuman, because--as I mentioned earlier--superheroes hadn’t really been done in prose form (not counting novelisations of movies or novels based on existing comic-book characters). Another reason I chose to make my character a superhero is that I really, really didn’t want to write about wizards or magic! Now we have the most powerful person in the world, and he (or she) is a superhero… But we still don’t know why he’s the most powerful. So, suppose that there used to be other superheroes but they all lost their powers for some reason, then years later one of their kids starts to develop superhuman abilities. We still don’t have an actual story, but we’re getting closer…! For each book this process continues--often for many months--until the time is right to write the story.

Q. What’s going to happen in the next book?

A. Oh, all sorts of exciting things! (What, you really think I’m going to tell you what’s coming up? No chance--I never give spoilers!)

Q. Who are your influences?

A. Pretty much every book or comic book I’ve ever read has probably influenced me in some way. But my greatest influence is the science fiction legend Harry Harrison. One of Harry’s books--The Stainless Steel Rat--was serialised in the British weekly comic 2000 AD. I loved the story and bought the novel. It’s a cracking tale of a far future, when mankind has spread to the stars. Careful genetic screening has more or less bred all criminal elements out of humanity… But there are exceptions, and James Bolivar diGriz is one of those exceptions! He’s a crook, a con-man, a thief--and in the first book he’s recruited by the mysterious Special Corps because there’s someone out there attempting to start an interplanetary war… Set a thief to catch a thief! In the following years I managed to get a copy of every book Harry Harrison has ever written, and they are all tremendous fun. Other influences include Terry Pratchett, Douglas Adams, Tanith Lee, Stephen King, Orson Scott Card, Carl Hiaasen, Christopher Fowler, James Morrow, Bob Shaw, Alan Moore, John Wagner, Stan Lee, J. Michael Straczynski, Joss Whedon, Alan Plater, and of course my friend Michael Scott (author of The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel).

Q. I want to be a writer too! What should I do?

A. Write! Simple as that. If you want to be a writer, you write. If you don’t write, you’re not a writer. And you need to read, too. Read everything, every kind of book you can find. If it’s something you don’t think you’re going to like, read it anyway (if you only ever read the sort of books you think you’ll like, the only thing you’ll learn is how to write the same sort of book over and over). When you come up with a good idea for a book or a story, write it down. Don’t tell anyone else (not even other writers) about your idea. If you do, they’ll either tell you that it’s already been done, or you’ll have got the story out of your system and you won’t feel the need to write it. Equally important: Finish what you start. This is of course true for everything in life, but it’s especially true for writers. Very few unfinished books are ever published.

Q. But the day-to-day process of writing is really tough! Isn’t there an easier way?

A. If there was, I’d have discovered it a long time ago!

Q. I’ve got a great idea for a book but I don’t know how to write it. So, I’ll tell you the idea, you write the book, and we’ll split the money.

A. Sure! But let’s split the money fairly: Coming up with the basic idea is .0001% of the work, so you’ll get .0001% of the money. This means that if the book makes $10,000 your share will be one cent.

Q. How did you get started as a writer?

A. I sort of fell into this almost by accident. I suspect that happens to most writers! I’ve always been a voracious reader and somewhere along the way I decided that I wanted to be a writer. But, of course, I wasn’t a writer then: “Sayin’ it’s so don’t make it so.” In other words, wanting to be a writer is not the same thing as being a writer. A writer writes. A wanna-be writer talks about the writing he or she is going to do one day. I was a wanna-be writer until I was about twenty-two, when I joined the Irish Science Fiction Association and began to submit short stories for their fiction magazine FTL. I’d had quite a few short stories published by the time I met Michael Scott in 1991. Even then, Michael was an accomplished full-time writer, and he encouraged me to attempt a full-length novel. Long story short: I was working in the software industry and wrote many books in my spare time (and even had some of them published), then in 1999 the company for which I was working laid off a whole bunch of us, and I decided to give full-time writing a go. So far, it’s worked out pretty well, but I wouldn’t recommend my path as suitable for anyone else. I’m very lucky in that my wife has a very good job and kept us afloat in the “lean” years--such as the year I earned less than a thousand dollars from my writing! (A thousand dollars might seem like a large sum, but break it down: that’s twenty dollars a week, and for an eighty-hour week that comes to 25 cents per hour… and I didn’t even earn that much!)

From School Library Journal

Grade 6-9 Nearly 4500 years ago, the Fifth King a godlike, violent man who brought the entire known world under his rule vanished from his palace balcony in full view of hundreds of his subjects. Now, in the present-day United States, a group calling themselves the Helotry is determined to bring him back. These fanatics create a plague that affects adults all over the world, including the contemporary superheroes who had the best chance of stopping them. But the Helotry has not counted on opposition from a newly formed group of teen superheroes (and one normal but extremely clever and resourceful 14-year-old) unaffected by the plague and determined to use their powers to save the day. The characters are introduced at a rapid-fire pace that may be difficult for less advanced readers to follow, and the book's ending is somewhat abrupt. However, the continuous action and entertaining interactions among the teen protagonists will likely win over some fans of superhero comics and adventure novels. Hayden Bass, Seattle Public Library, WA
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B005DI9HK8
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Philomel; 1st edition (May 13, 2010)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 336 pages
Reading age ‏ : ‎ 12 - 14 years
Lexile measure ‏ : ‎ 690L
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 14.4 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.88 x 1.21 x 8.58 inches

Customer Reviews:
4.5 167 ratings

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Michael Owen Carroll

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Michael Carroll is the author of forty(ish) novels, including the acclaimed New Heroes / Super Human series of superhero novels for the Young Adult market. He currently writes Judge Dredd, Dreadnoughts, Mayflies and Proteus Vex for 2000AD and Judge Dredd Megazine. Other works include Jennifer Blood for Dynamite Entertainment, contributions to the Titan Books edition of John Higgins' Razorjack graphic novel and a bunch of Judge Dredd-related novels for Abaddon Books. A former Herald of Galactus, Mike lives in Dublin, Ireland with his wife Leonia and their twin imaginary children Tesseract and Pineapple. He is over half-a-hundred years old and some days it really shows.

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Customers find the book easy to read and enjoyable. They appreciate the interesting plot and adventure-filled story. The book is suitable for teens and adults alike, with relatable characters.

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Readability Plot Age range Character development

12 customers mention "Readability"12 positive0 negative

Customers find the book easy to read and engaging. They appreciate the hardcover edition and the author's skillful writing style.

"...series and I can say without a doubt that it's one of my favorite book series ever...." Read more

"this was agreat book i couldnt put it down...." Read more

"A pretty good book with some interesting ideas... ...but not great. But makes me excited to read the rest of the series." Read more

"Amazing book, great read after the quantum prephecy series. Being a prequel it adds some insight to some great characters you know and love." Read more

7 customers mention "Plot"7 positive0 negative

Customers enjoy the interesting plot and find it adventure-packed. They describe the book as fun, cool, action-packed, and with some interesting ideas.

"this was agreat book i couldnt put it down. its very interesting and you start to grow on the characters and think to you self how you would act if..." Read more

"This book has a really good plot line and the characters are relatable. Lance was a very interesting plot choice." Read more

"...and dc movies it'll be like watching a movie but reading an awesome adventure-packed book. -Gabe" Read more

"A pretty good book with some interesting ideas... ...but not great. But makes me excited to read the rest of the series." Read more

4 customers mention "Age range"4 positive0 negative

Customers find the book suitable for teens and young adults. They also mention it's a good series for kids who like Marvel and DC movies.

"Good for teens." Read more

"...this is a good book for kids who like the marvel and dc movies it'll be like watching a movie but reading an awesome adventure-packed book. -Gabe" Read more

"...The whole concept of young adults is fine but I did not expect them to be 12 and 14 year olds...." Read more

"good series for early teens" Read more

4 customers mention "Character development"4 positive0 negative

Customers find the characters relatable.

"...its very interesting and you start to grow on the characters and think to you self how you would act if you were in a similar position...." Read more

"This book has a really good plot line and the characters are relatable. Lance was a very interesting plot choice." Read more

"...melodrama this initial outing introduces novel representations of the standard character types...." Read more

"...Being a prequel it adds some insight to some great characters you know and love." Read more

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Berr
Wonderful Hardcover
Reviewed in the United States on March 5, 2018
Verified Purchase

I mean, this is just a book. But, it did, however, arrive in very good condition, and looks nice in its place on my bookshelf. I was a little bit worried about how ordering physical books would turn out with Amazon, but I was happily surprised. The sleeve was a little bit crinkled, perhaps a result of shipping, but other than that, the book came in great condition.

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Jack ganney
Amazing book
Reviewed in the United States on September 2, 2015
Verified Purchase
I love this book. I ordered the whole new heroes prequel series and I can say without a doubt that it's one of my favorite book series ever. Michael Carroll is one of my favorite writers and this book shows how much of an amazing writer he is. The book arrived in good condition. There was no torn pages, the cover came really clean and shiny, and there was no scuffs or marks on it. Love this series so much I bought all the books with my birthday money

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Jack ganney

Amazing book

Reviewed in the United States on September 2, 2015
I love this book. I ordered the whole new heroes prequel series and I can say without a doubt that it's one of my favorite book series ever. Michael Carroll is one of my favorite writers and this book shows how much of an amazing writer he is. The book arrived in good condition. There was no torn pages, the cover came really clean and shiny, and there was no scuffs or marks on it. Love this series so much I bought all the books with my birthday money

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2 people found this helpful

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Reacher Creature
An entertaining read
Reviewed in the United States on June 28, 2010
If you've read Michael Carroll's other superhero series, then you know what a talented writer he is. He has a lot of great ideas, and nice plot twists to keep the reader glued to the page ti the very end. Superhuman is the same way.

The world is over run but a plague. Billions are effected and nobody can come up with a cure. Why are the human adults (the plague doesn't effect kids) coming down with? Could it be bad timing, or a much more detailed reason for it? It seems that a group called The Helorty want to bring a super bad god called, Krodin from 5000 year into the past, to present day. Now, Krodon is the baddest of the bad. He has the strength of over 100 men, and can't be killed. It's up to some superhero kids to stop Krodiin from coming to our time, stop Helotry, and find a cute to the plague. Not only are there good superhuman people, but also bad superhuman people.

The characters in Superhuman are fantastic! You have Lance, who's just a regular boy with no superhuman powers, but he has certain skills that the superhumans don't have, and they'll come in useful. I like Lance, he was pretty darn funny. Other superhuman kids are Abby, Thunder (I really liked Thunder. I thought his superhuman abilities were going to be the weakest, but I'm glad to say I was wrong. If you want to find out his superhuman ability, you'll have to read the book) and Roz. If you've read Carrol's other superhero series, then you'll see some familiar faces along with some one superhumans.

Carroll had some nice plot twists that kept me hooked till the end. The writing was crisp, witty, and funny at times. The guy has a good imagination.

If you want you kids to read, esp boys, then this is a great book to introduce to them. I also highly suggest his other series about superheros too.

It was a good book, and I'm glad I read it, I'm sure you'll like it too.

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nic
superhuman
Reviewed in the United States on November 3, 2012
Verified Purchase
this was agreat book i couldnt put it down. its very interesting and you start to grow on the characters and think to you self how you would act if you were in a similar position. please if anyone knows of other books similar to these let me know im very interested thanks you

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this game is awesome and cool
Great book
Reviewed in the United States on November 28, 2016
Verified Purchase
This book has a really good plot line and the characters are relatable. Lance was a very interesting plot choice.

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Jessica
Good read
Reviewed in the United States on April 9, 2022
Verified Purchase
Good for teens.

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amydygd
5 star book which kids and adults will like
Reviewed in the United States on August 9, 2019
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I loved this book I recomended this book to all my friends and my dad. this is a good book for kids who like the marvel and dc movies it'll be like watching a movie but reading an awesome adventure-packed book.
-Gabe

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K. Harris
Pretty cool
Reviewed in the United States on February 27, 2015
Verified Purchase
A pretty good book with some interesting ideas...
...but not great. But makes me excited to read the rest of the series.

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Simonhsj
An entertaining read
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 24, 2012
Verified Purchase

Super Human is a comic without the pictures; Fast-paced action, snappy dialogue and, regretfully, a little cluttered and confusing at the start.
I wouldn't go as far as to say that SuperHuman is the new X-men but the characters are entertaining in their differences and amusing in their disparity. Equally the world of SuperHuman is one to be appreciated, already set up in the Quantum Prophecy series, SuperHuman offers fans a chance to look back to this classical tale of Golden-Age heroes and new readers are equally welcomed into this diverse and colourful world of Heroes and Villains.
A must for any who calls himself a comic fan, but great for any reader who wants action and an interesting story.

Highly recommended.

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Kindle Customer
Okay
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 12, 2015
Verified Purchase
It was... different. I prefer the first three, in fact I miss them...I don't like the past, only the present and the future...

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Super Human Hardcover – Bargain Price, May 13, 2010

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