Super Supportive

As of the time of writing this review, I have read the available chapters and I need more. MORE.

Blurb

Everyone wants to be a superhero.

Including Alden Thorn.

Even if he’s lucky enough to be one of the few humans granted powers by the extraterrestrial system that’s been running things on Earth for decades, his goal of being a battlefield support hero is still a long way off. Old-school sidekicks haven’t been popular in years.

He’s got determination on his side. And maybe a murderous alien desk clerk, too.

It might be enough to change his life in ways he never expected.

However, the universe is a complicated place, and Alden is about to meet it.

Thoughts

Holy shit, I’m mad at myself for sleeping on this. I’m not normally a superhero genre fan. The Perfect Run has been, until now, my reading foray into that subgenre. What a damned fool I was. This story is exceptional.

Alright, so let’s set some expectations. This is a character-driven story. It’s set in a world where aliens visited Earth in the 60s, and bought with them a complicated spell, which we know as the System. From then on, some people are chosen to receive glorious powers, and that subset are the superheroes. Now, this story is not a “superheroes vs villains” plot out of the gate. It follows Alden’s journey from childhood (just the opening chapter) and then to his fifteen-year-old self as he finds out that yes, he’s been picked, and he’s going to receive a (tradeable) class.

The hook I really enjoyed here was that the Artonans (ie the aliens) can summon heroes off-world on contracts. Immediately the scope of the plot goes beyond our planet, and there is an incredible amount of really cohesive worldbuilding that comes into the off-world segments. Unfortunately, I can’t go into them without spoiling some of the fun, but watching Alden get up to speed and learn about all of this is a fulfilling experience with minimal info dumps.

The story is light on stats. Alden has his class, and it comes with a primary skill and the primary focus is on how to effectively use this simple skill, what it was actually designed for, and how he can level it up and upgrade/modify it. There is so much potential that we can see on the horizon as readers (knowing our MC will naturally have to become overpowered as that’s the genre). This, to me, is perfect. The skill is quantified and easy to understand. Upgrade paths make sense. And we don’t have to worry about crazy number bloat as characters get hundreds of random stat points that ultimately mean nothing. This is how I personally think LitRPG should be done. With deliberation, care, and a pruning to the heart of the story mechanics.

While we follow Alden around, there are heaps of side characters, and the amount of effort that’s gone into giving them distinct personalities is astounding. It was to the point of me assuming that “Oh yeah these guys must be a big part of the future because why else would they be so developed?” But as I read on, I realised this was just the norm for Super Supportive, and I cannot commend Sleyca enough for this.

Let’s talk about what I didn’t like in the story.

Alright, that’s all done. It’s been a while since a brand new story has gone right to the A-tier for me. Check it out.