Superhero life? Super-Sized troubles!

Self-Published

Community Rating

Description

Months after an extra-dimensional invasion ravaged Florida, the world is still reeling from the consequences; global economy is in crisis, political relations are strained, religious and scientific beliefs have taken hits. By far the greatest upheaval is the development of superpowers; originally seen only in survivors of the invasion, now they're appearing randomly to dangerous results.

Maya Wennefer has spent months recovering from the horrors of the invasion and now only wants to rebuild her life. Unfortunately, as one of the survivors with the strongest powers, she will have to get involved in the developing situation before others do it for her...

A strong-lead, progression superhero story with LitRPG elements.

[completed the November 2023, April 2024, November 2024 and November 2025 Writathon]

Information

Status: Ongoing
Year: 2023
Author: Belial666

Royal Road Stats

Rating: 4.6/ 5.0
Followers: 2,033
Views: 695,148

Reviews

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Community Reviews(10)

VaporiRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
The book is decent so far and relies heavily on worldbuilding of the prequel that I can also recommend for now it's a slice of life with world building and superpower from the perspective of this worlds most likely strongest superheroine that earned her powers in that prequel.
It's still early in the story so many things in the story are still undefined and will hopefully addressed in the future.
So now a few pros and cons
+ I can say little about grammar and style other than that I found no flaws I remember so far.
+ strong superpowers that seem mostly balanced and for my mind more importantly consistent, other than many other superpower stories on rr the author seems to know math and science to such a degree that powers don't suddently become by 2 magnitudes more powerful with no explanation.
+some in my option realistic interaction and good worldbuilding so far as it is given.
+ lot's of fun action
+interludes to give different perspectives and are also fun.
Some important things seem to happen offscreen and are at least for now not really explained so it's a bit of a mystery or are off no interest to Maya when they should be and feel a bit like they happen because the plot says so.
+Overall as far as superhero stories on rr or really everywere go I would say this is a cut and then some above the rest (with a few to short exceptions) so I want way more. :)
ArgRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
This book changes pace from post apoc to a Superhero Story. This might not be everyone’s cup of tea but I found very satisfying. Pacing slows down from book one and we get some more slice of life activity as it builds on the world building setting up a world that’s got some depth to it.
CylentLurkerRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
One of my favorite stories (and the prequel, too)! The take on powers/magic is continually interesting. No trite harems. Well written and interesting. I'm always looking forward to chapters. Only wish there were more, faster.
Sheesh. Minimum word counts. How do writers do it?
The different characters have different stories and personalities. This is quality stuff.
DartmorinRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
...with a compelling main character. The continuation of the authors previous work is, as properly indicated by the fact that it is in fact a different work, a tonal shift from the previous fast-paced, almost hack-and-slash in literary form, action story about being one of the few survivors at the very beginning of an alien invasion/ magic apocalypse, to a still fast paced but lesser so story about being the most powerful hero in the world, having to work within a failing system to achieve the greatest possible good for all.
The story builds upon its predecessor in both world-building and story line, and exceeds in all the aspects a proper sequel should have, in distinction from a mere continuation of an already finished story line. Anybody interested in super hero politics that doesn't take the stance that all heroes are villains pretending to be good, and is instead about a genuinely good human being intending to do good while working with a flawed system, while being unwilling to accept those flaws unthinkingly, will enjoy this.
The continuation of the established magical system is also delightful and wonderfully unique.
The biggest draw to the story is said previously mentioned good human being, Maya Wennefer, who is doing an adequate job of acting like a human Kal-El, both in her powers and broad intentions, while not being some idealised paragon and instead genuinely interesting.
The grammar is impeccable within my ability to perceive it, and the prose is great, but there is some ill-definable -sorry belial- quality to it that somewhat disagrees with me, which plays into the only flaw I perceive with the story, which is the for me occasionally jarring flow. Individually within each chapter the flow is great, but between chapters my 'expectations', for lack of a better word, are uncomfortably subverted. This is a supremely subjective judgement, and should not be something that puts anyone off the story, but I feel it still deserves mentioning.
IstyaturRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
This has a lot of tropes I normally consider yellow flags, which is why I was very surprised that I was up at four AM obsessed. In light of that I can’t honestly give less than five stars.
Characters are interesting and distinct, and consistent. The prose is well edited and generally flows well. My only quibble about it is at the beginning there is a fair amount of ‘Remember from Book 1’ exposition which is a little tedious if you are coming directly from book 1, but can be very appreciated if you aren’t, and considering the update schedule I will likely be glad of next year.
While the setting can be considered a standard modern The Magic Comes Back, Belial666’s implementation is particularly well done, and works well to allow the many different sort of power sets typical of a superhero setting, while still feeling like there is underlying structure and not just rule of cool.
You can probably guess the sort of plot from the descriptions; the addition of magic and superpowers comes with fairly easily anticipated challenges. But the joy is in the details and Belial666 juggles several plot lines, possibly too well (See being up at 4 AM).
MrMaturityRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
Nice meaty chapters, MC is powerful enough to have agency, but not so much that issues seem trivial.
She needs to have some level of thought behind what she does and how she applies her powers. Its a nice touch to get an inside view to what she is doing, it makes it seem more believable, rather than just writing "and the explosion did nothing to her".
Provided the content keeps coming at the same level of quality, I see this one being a front pager for sure.
SleepyKittenRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
Taking into account I've read the first apocalyptic part of Mayas story. Which is now Book 1 on the Authors Page.
General bias, I do quite enjoy this read, I binged all the chapters in a day after reading the whole Book 1, and feel it deserves a good review for sure. That being said I'll try find something to say to help. But its hard!
Start with Style, So Superhero life generally good writing throughout, it doesn't get too tedious though, there is a lot of exposition to get through because the author is trying to explain all of Mayas complex powers for new readers. And then the Author does have some interesting but complicated powers to show off as well. Though once the original exposition is out of the way I feel its fine. And we all get used to it like in Book 1.
I feel like it has good pacing, good writing and and genuinely excited to see what happens as the world realizes their true hero is back. As Maya is the hero of earth according to the cosmic being that helped save earth in the original book. So after reading the first book I am quite looking forward to seeing old characters coming back, how the world has changed them and what will happen! So I'll give a perhaps generous 5 stars for that. I don't really see a fault besides a lot of exposition. But its bearable and not glaringly problematic I think. Additionally exposition is normal in litrpgs so there is that too.
Grammar I don't have anything to say really because its all coherent, smooth and well written. Easy five stars, maybe some errors but every writer does this, we're humans not machines.
Story is a good so far, feel like we're just starting to get into the beef of the story, and Maya is just starting her new life, and if it gets better and keeps the pacing of the first book. I think it will be just fine. Mainly predicting Maya will gradually gain more and more renown and then the big elephant will come out to the public as she was the Hero in book 1 and probably the single most powerful hero on th
Endless PavingRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
I have read the previous book this one os a sequel too but will try to review it in its pwn terms if anyone isn’t sure they want to read that one first, because this can likely stand on its own.
Our protagonist is a reimagining of Super Girl. She’s all of the Superman without the kryptonite but as a regular non-paragon human who gained epic Strategic Asset level superpowers, all while staying in a simplistic power “Theme” mostly, with cunning exploits to justify the weirder Superman powers and even more. All from a very flexible magic based power progression and she’s now doing New Game+ after taking a vacation and the world turning into “random people are getting wacko powers and the rule of law is soft tissue paper” that she magnanimously decides to help deal with.
The big draw of this story like the previous story is the power dynamics and tactics. Superpowered problem solving in exotic scenarios. The villains of the previous book were pretty much an “unsolvable problem that you can mostly only make worse” as a gimmick and are still somewhat around. You would think that Overpowered Flying Brick with X-ray vision, Superspeed, and Laser Eyes would be checkmate against the unbelievers but the adversaries often have weird exotic powers so far that can counter our Supergirl while still being beatable with the right insight and tactical advantages. Also the classic “can’t solve problems in two places at once” kind of stuff that even absurd superspeed struggles with.
The characters and drama mostly revolve around the political disasters which is a near anarchy of unregulated and belligerent superpowers, petty warlords, terrorist cultists, criminals, and deep depravity justified by the corrupting influence of the villains of the previous book when they introduced magic powers. Trust has become precious and rare with unpredictable magic hacking and mind control and manipulation making any sense of security a fantasy even using secrecy given detection superpowers also exis
GriffingamezRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
This book is decent by itself, good pacing and decent character who so far has shown some depth and I'm not even 10 chaps in. The story is kinda tame so far but still a little action, the real fun began after catching up with the prequel and giving it a reread. The prequel should really just be considered the first book to the series as while this book is a decent standalone it works best if you e read the first one first. It explains how the mc got her powers and how she got so overpowered. It also makes you understand why the mc in this story comes off so abrasive and uncaring.
I am of course referring to the part where she basically says "I don't really care" after a general rants about the hundreds of laws she broke speeding up a helicopter.
The book is good alone, but it is amazing after reading the first one
Update here. This book went from amazing to so much better than amazing. It was a 4.5 but now it's definitely a 5 out of 5. The writing changed quite a bit from the last book and I wasn't quite sure about it but the writing has definitely gone in a great direction. It's decently fast paced without being painful and it is incredibly entertaining to see. The only downside I see with it is that the character is definitely a Mary Sue who has no problems and is completely overpowered strongest person on the planet type vibe. That is mostly circumvented by the unique powers being a counter to her own but I can't help but think the author might run out of unique counter ideas soon. The problem with making a perfect superwoman type character is that eventually you realize she's perfect and nobody can challenge her. Shes one punch man who need a couple more punches.
DeathlyOreoRoyal Road
★★★★★ 4.5
So far, this has been relatively solid superhero story with extremely complex powers that has a basis in reality and actual physics. If you're at all interested in a complex system of vast op superpowers that you can dive deeply into, then you'll definitely enjoy this story. If you're more like me and don't necessarily care for the in-depth meticulous explanations behind each power use, you'll likely still be able to enjoy it by skimming through much of the "power application" paragraphs.
The biggest negative to this story, for me, is that this actually follows an already written long prequel following the same mc, as (I'm assuming) an explanation of the world and how the mc got her powers. I haven't yet read that prequel, which an authors note said wasnt necessary to read this story -- which I STRONGLY disagree with.
I'm not too far into this story, but there already have been a LOT of facts, explanations, characters, and world building referenced as if the reader should already know about them and understand what's going on. I presume most of them were explained in the "prequel", but to me this feels waaaaay more like a "book 2" than it does a slightly connected, but standalone, story.
I'm planning on checking out the "prequel", but I'll be dropping this one until I finish it. There are just too many things that are referenced but not explained for this story to be enjoyed in isolation.
Still giving 4.5 stars based on how much it seems like id enjoy this story if I knew what was going on.