Daryl Tay.net

Saving Charlie

So the quote from earlier today actually came from the only Heroes book in existence (thus far) by Aury Wallington called “Saving Charlie“, which tells the story “in between episodes” way back in season one, when Hiro went back in time to save Charlie from Sylar (or as referred to in the book, Brain Man)

I quite enjoyed this book (though there was little chance of me not enjoying it because I’m such a big Hiro fan). I felt Wallington captured the character of Hiro perfectly, and his backstory with Kaito really added depth to the characters of both Hiro and Kaito.

I have to applaud Wallington on the research done on the book. From the beginning, the references to Japan, which I sense are generally correct from my own travels there, really add a sense or realism to the book. Heroes always had the premise of powers occurring in the “real world”, and reading about this story in the context of a geographically and culturally accurate world is definitely a good thing.

Hiro And Charlie

There are only two things I didn’t really like about the book, the first being that, well, it’s written by a female writer. I’m not being sexist, but even if I read the book without knowing the author, I would know it was a female writer. Some might argue the continuous emotional bits flesh out both Hiro and Charlie (and arguably they do), but it was a bit much for me, personally.

The second thing I didn’t like about the book, was the ending. We know from the TV show whether or not Hiro saves Charlie. But the reason for it happening, just fell a little flat for me. Perhaps that’s one thing that happens when you write about time travel, although the best explanation for changing (or not changing) the past comes from the Booster Gold comic book.

That said, given the mess that season two was, and the shakeups with season three, Saving Charlie might just be the best Heroes fix for Heroes fans right now.