Lance Woods

A week at the beach this summer. Check.
A weekend at Shore Leave SF convention. Check.
A few days at Heroic Park. Check.

Oh, what's Heroic Park you ask? You never heard of the place? Never heard of the theme park in Arizona where patrons can be infused with superhuman powers that allow them to fly, grant them super speed, or amazing strength for one day?

Where the hell have you been? Dorney Park?

Join Superhuman Times newspaper reporter Kevin Dunbar as he takes you on a tour of the world's most show more thrilling amusement park decked out to resemble Times Square in New York City yet constructed in Pima County, Arizona. During their visit, average humans can choose to be injected with a nano-serum that grants them the abilities of their fellow superhuman citizens.

Superhumans have been around for decades, you know, battling supervillains and saving the planet. However, once the last of the supervillains had fled Earth, what was a pantheon of heroes to do?

Get real jobs, that's what.

Take Nataliya Tzone, for example. A sorceress extraordinaire, Ms. Tzone now owns her own security company, Tzone Defense. It just so happens to be under contract to provide security for Heroic Park. Yet Ms. Tzone has her own reasons for wanting to watch over the place.

And then we have Rei Shinozaki, a superhuman with the ability to fly and fire mean green beams from her eyes. She's also hot and has a past with our intrepid reporter, Dunbar. That past is rekindled when Rei arrives at Heroic Park a few days prior to opening day, having accepted a job as Dunbar's photographer. Surprise, dude!

The creator of the park, Tony Lueras, is idolized by Dunbar who worked New Jersey boardwalk rides as a teen. Lueras is a legnendary theme park designer and visionary. Heroic Park is his greatest accomplishment, but it would not have been possible without the financial backing of Coral Mayhew. Coral not only financed the park but also ponied up the funds for the research into the nano-serum that grants superhuman powers to ordinary folks like you and me. The researcher and developer of the serum is Dr. Juno Moreta, the park's Chief Medical Officer.

Now, you might ask, "wait a minute, how can all this be happening without the federal government's knowledge?" Enter special agent Michael Windham, federal liaison to Heroic Park (which happened to be built on federal land).

After exploring the rides, the posh hotel, and the onsite Crichton Hospital (named for, you guessed it, Michael Crichton), along comes a death to ruin the fun.

The body of a teammate named Jakey is found in his dorm (Teammate is the term given to park employees). The cause of his death was, apparently, high speed collision with a door. Accidental, right? Well, when traces of a new form of untested nano-serum are found on Jakey, things start to get suspicious. See, Dr. Moreta was experimenting with a formula that would grant superhuman abilities for two days, not just one. Yet that serum was not to leave the lab!

The situation is kept fairly quiet by Windham until Jakey's roomate, Vicente, dies in a rather public and gruesome manner the next day. Dunbar, Rei, Nataliya, Coral, and Windham set out to unlock the mystery behind these bizarre deaths and when they do, they get a little more than they bargained for.

Heroic Park is based on characters and situations from Lance Woods' audio drama, Superhuman Times, as heard on Prometheus Radio Theatre. Woods does a delightful job of bringing that world into narrative form for his debut novel. Heroic Park is a fun and easy read with rich and diverse characters in a unique environment. Sure, there are plenty of fictional tales set in amusement parks but how many of their characters have super powers? show less