Wearing the Cape

Wearing the Cape Series, Book 1

By: Marion G. Harmon

Narrated by: K.F. Lim

Length: 10 hrs and 31 mins

Publisher's summary

Who wants to be a superhero?

Hope did, but she grew out of it. Which made her superhuman breakthrough in the Ashland Bombing, just before starting her freshman year at the University of Chicago, more than a little ironic. And now she has some decisions to make.

Given the code-name "Astra" and invited to join the Sentinels, Chicago's premier super-team, will she take up the cape and mask and become a career superhero? Or will she get a handle on her new powers (superstrength has some serious drawbacks) and then get on with her life plan?

In a world where superheroes join unions and have agents, and the strongest and most photogenic ones become literal supercelebrities, the temptation to become a cape is strong. But the price can be high - especially if you're "outed" and lose the shield of your secret identity.

Becoming a sidekick puts the decision off for awhile, but Hope's life is further complicated when The Teatime Anarchist, the supervillain responsible for the Ashland Bombing, takes an interest in her. Apparently as Astra, Hope is supposed to save the world. Or at least a significant part of it.

©2011 Marion G. Harmon (P)2018 Tantor

A bit of a jarring narration, a fantastic book!!

Greetings all:
This audiobook is a companion to an excellent book. I understand that narrator is an author and quite a good one. But, she reads with extreme dictation which sounds very stilted.
That said. This book, aside from Drew Hayes’ Superpowereds series and Villain’s Code series is one of the most intelligently written Superhero series out there. You would do well to read or listen to them. Trust me, you will love how well-rounded their universes are. If you are tired of “The Message” being pushed by Marvel and DC, give these series a try!

A superhero story for girls

Chicago girl transforms into a superhero, and is embraced by the other superhero's on the planet to become one of them. There's intrigue, romance (very G rated stuff, they never do more than snuggle cause she's a good catholic girl), suspense, some trippy multiple timelines because of a guy who pops around in time stuff, generally a good read. Read it for a book club (zoom because of pandemic) and then forgot to attend till they were wrapping up so can't tell you what the group consensus was. The performer did voices fairly well and was an enjoyable listen

This one is great

This book is well done entertaining has a decent balance between the fantastic and real world physics the story is pretty good. if you treat this series has a trilogy it its pretty good.

Warning: unfortunately the further down the series it goes the more radical left it goes the cast become a diversity checklist more muh representation and less interesting story etc.

this series is so good

this is is a gritty realistic look at what it would be like to become a superhero I have your life built and broken in the main characters promise

K.F.Lim does a superheroic job

I am not the best critic, so let me get the obvious items out of the way.

Narrated by: K.F. Lim. I don’t recall anything else narrated by Lim, but I frankly hope she becomes the voice of Astra in the series. At the same time, I hope a different person, with a lower voice, does Artemis/Bite Me. Just because. A test of a narrator is can they capture the emotions of the story in the voice(s) used. Lim couldn't have done a better job in some of the most intense scenes

Mechanically, I noted (only) two instances where lines got repeated. Perfectly tolerable. Intolerable would have been dropped text or paragraphs. I joked about wishing I didn’t have the text nearly memorized? I’d have noticed gaps. No gaps.

Overall experience. Not everyone can listen to audio books. I can. I love them. Someday, I’ll get a car radio that lets me plug in thumb drives of books. This as a welcome addition to my collections.

Emotional Reader

This was a well written book with an interesting storyline. I had trouble accepting the 27 year old mentor encouraging a relationship with an 18 year old groupie/student, and the Catholic virtue signalling got old.

I wanted to give a 5

Story is great and had a lot of unique outlooks and power options. But, and this is a personal sore spot in my reading, you have to mix up descriptions or names. I found myself counting how often “Jumpsuit” was used. But all said and done, that’s a small problem for a book.
Narrative was Well done and Emotive for the most part but a deeper male voice dose not mean a quieter male voice. Many time I would crank the volume just to hear the male characters.

Average superhero story

I enjoy superhero stories, but this just didn't grip me for some reason. I'm not sure why. It seems like the characters should have been interesting, the plot developments engaging. But I quickly demoted this book to the list of those I listen to while falling asleep as night, as I wasn't particularly concerned about missing bits of the story. Some of the developments near the end of the book were surprising and made it more interesting, but I still doubt I will continue the series.

It was more interesting to me to guess at the author's political inclinations than pay attention to the story. I don't know for sure, but I feel like the author is a political conservative trying to appear liberal. Any attempts at appearing to be more progressive or diverse seemed to feel wrong.

This is the story of a Catholic upper middle class white girl, daughter of two loving parents, who becomes one of the most powerful superheroes in existence.

The President of the United States is a woman and a Native American - and a Republican.

Every world power that isn't America has fractured into multiple warring states. The world is held together by America's military might, as they intervened around the world to keep the peace out of the goodness of their hearts, creating the Pax Americana.

At one point the American superheroes interact with a muslim superhero - who is a jihadist bent on killing white American Christians, naturally.

The heroine is tempted, but refuses to give up her virginity before marriage. Keeping that is sacred, of course. We wouldn't want to disappoint God.

Now of course other people could have a different perspective. It's nice to see a story where the powerful superhero is a woman, right? And sure, christianity (specifically catholicism) are a major part of the book, but the priest is so open minded he's interested in adding a statue of a Chinese deity to the church. There are a few other momenets as well - so isn't the author trying to create a diverse, progressive world?

Well, all I can say is how it felt to me.

Good Story

An excellent superior story with a solid character plot and feature films.. I look forward to reading next book in the series..

It’s Ok

I liked the background story of the protagonist. There were a variety of capes with different power sets that I found interesting. I did not relate to the religious overtones in the story. The sexual content / powers really doesn’t make it a better story. I wish it was left out so I could listen to this with my kids around. No cliff hanger or unexplained event to lead me into buying the next book.