Review: Good Heroes Academy Story Lacking World Building
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 10 30, 2012
The Games Heroes Play (the Academy Trilogy) by Joshua DeBenedetto imagines a world of heroes and villains, and where a world famous Academy exists to train the next generation of heroes.  Meet Jay, your average teenager who inexplicable is accepted into the Academy at the very last minute.  Soon enough, we learn that Jay has superhuman abilities that defy the categories of Titans (superhuman strength), Hermes (superhuman speed), and Prometheus (mind readers).The Games Heroes Play follows Jay's first year in the academy, as he learns to control his powers and discover new ones.  The story is quite similar to Harry Potter in that the protagonist is a prodigy with extraordinary abilities, and attend school to learn to use them, substituting hero power for magical power.There are two issues that need to be raised.  First, the author spends no time developing his world.  Why is there a need for a superhero academy?  Are heroes organized by some governing body, like officers from some governmental agencies?  Or are they free standing vigilantes?  There are a lot of holes in this alternate world, and I took off a star in my rating for this reason.Additionally, we have not encountered any villains.  Who are the students being trained to fight against?  Again I believe the author needs to spend more time fleshing out his world.  Hopefully, he will spend some time doing so in the next book.