Melissa’s Review: The Never Hero by T. Ellery Hodges

The Never Hero 
written by T. Ellery Hodges
published by Foggy Night Publishing, 2015

find it here: (affiliate links) Barnes & Noble, Amazon, iBooks, Book Depository, Goodreads

Disclosure: I received a complimentary copy of this book in exchange  for an honest review.

Did I enjoy this book: It’s interesting but poorly written.

Hodges takes his time getting to the good parts (our hero only fights two monsters in Book One), but the story is compelling. He dances around what could be some killer themes but doesn’t quite develop any of them . . . it takes more than just mentioning a string of “hero movies” to solidify a connection between them and Jonathan, and as cool as a comic book about Jesus’s life may be, Hodges needs to show more than just character conversations to really knit things together. I’ll also mention (without any spoilers) that WHY Jonathan has to do what he does seems a little weak to me; I was expecting much, much more. The Never Hero has a lot of story potential, and with some in-depth writing revision, it could very well reach a five-star rating.

. . . and speaking of revision . . .

I’m just going to go ahead and assume for the sake of everyone involved that the author accidentally sent me an ARC that wasn’t labeled as such. It’s the only reason I can think of that he’d leave such blatant usage errors in his book. I’m talking about things like tense agreement, comma usage, and using “breath” instead of “breathe” and “bare” instead of “bear.” They’re not subtle mistakes (just take a look at the second Golden Line for an example) . . .

GOLDEN LINES

“It’s the journey that gets you there that makes a story relevant . . . not the ending.”

“The world didn’t need to like what he’d have to become to save it. Today, mankind didn’t need him to be a champion, it didn’t need him to be a savior. It just needs a killer.”

Would I recommend it: If you can get past the plethora of grammatical, spelling, and usage errors go for it—it’s a neat, if not fully developed, story.

About the book – from Goodreads: Reclusive college student Jonathan Tibbs wakes in a pool of blood, not a scratch on him. His life is about to undergo a massive shift. A violent and merciless otherworldly enemy unleashes slaughter in the streets, calling out in a language only he understands.

And it is seeking its challenger.

In order to defeat the threat, Jonathan must become a temporal weapon… while remaining completely anonymous. Unfortunately, harnessing off-world powers has its own special challenges…

The Never Hero is the first installment in The Chronicles of Jonathan Tibbs — a mind-bending, genre crossing, action-adventure trilogy.