Review: Superheroes, time-travel and romance. Absolutely awesome!
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 09 22, 2012
Tomorrow is yesterday.It is for Michael Hunter and the men of his Bio-Mechanical Recon Unit. The Boomers. In 2115 this group of men with forbidden superpowers is sent back in time, in order to prevent the future that has branded them worse than outlaws.In 1969 they start over as sleeper agents, blending in and waiting. Hoping to prevent the key events that their future believes will make a better tomorrow. In addition to the superpowers they were born with, they've been given a chemical cocktail to help them heal and survive the 150 years of waiting...while they change the future. Or is it the past.Telepath, shapechanger, bioweapon, supersoldier, and tactician. A team. With instructions about the key points and people that should make the timeline shift in favor of less retrictions on supers. Heck, less restrictions on everyone.9/11 was one of those key points. That's a chilling thought. And it grounds the story in the real. The only problem is that the Boomers weren't successful in derailing the train to future nightmare city.Forty plus years after their insertion point, things aren't going so well. They've missed their targets. The bad future is still on course. That's when the story begins, and the future changes.The Boomers know who the bad guy is in 2115. Their plan is to wipe him out before he takes power. In order to bring Hans Geiger out of the shadows, the plan is to assassinate his daughter, Aurora Greystone.But the data is faulty. Aurora Greystone is a super. Just like the Boomers. She thinks they're responsible for the disappearance of two of her teammates. So instead of a planned hit, this is a game of cat and mouse. Her super ability to sense the probabilities cancels out his tactical skills.Michael Hunter has to confront the only person he's ever shot at, and missed. He's followed her for weeks, and she tempts him beyond all reason. This confrontation, it shouldn't happen, but he can't resist.Rory knows she's being stalked, and she's let it happen. She's told herself it's to find out what happened to her teammates, but that's not all it is. She wants to hunt the hunter. He tempts her beyond all sense.Their confrontation is explosive in a way that neither of them imagined. They should kill each other. Instead, they claim each other. To the point that Michael turns on one of his own to protect Rory.And his implant, silent for twenty years, comes back to life. Rory might bring the future back on track. Or destroy it.If they can figure out which before it's too late.Escape Rating A-: Mix the Terminator with the X-Men, and add some werewolf fated mate trope for flavor, and you've got something like Yesterday's Heroes. But there's more.The idea of traveling back in time to fix the present is definitely Terminator-esque, but what I liked about the way that it gets handled in Yesterday's Heroes was that knife-in-the-gut twist, that the Boomers might have created the bad history they want to prevent by going back in time.There's also the heartbreak that one of the Boomers had a life in the future he wanted to get back to, one way or another. Once Rory and Michael change the path, the future that the Boomers came from will not be the one they live to see, if they manage to live to see it. For Rex, there's a ton of pain in the new future. His story would be a three-hankie special.I ended up with some questions. Who is/was Hans Geiger? In the future, he's the dictator. He's supposed to be Rory's father. She says he's not. She's being honest, but that may mean that she doesn't know that he's her father. Or, since in the future he's the big bad (he's also immortal) the whole Boomer project may have been designed to bring about his reign of terror. The whole thing could be a conspiracy.I'd also have liked a bit more explanation of why Michael and Rory literally had the instant chemistry. And it seemed to be actual chemistry. It was necessary for the plot to work, but it never got explained. Was it something about them both being supers? Did it have to do with the chemicals used on the Boomers, and if so, why did it also affect Rory? Or was it part of Rory's talent for finding the only avenue to survival, and if so, why did it work on Michael?Too many possibilities, and no way to get answers until the next book. I want the next book!Originally published at Reading Reality.I received a complimentary copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.