Chad Leito's The Academy is yet another fantastic world where teens are imbued with super powers and must save society. The standard themes and devices of this genre are pushed to the very limit of believability, I loved it!
Lieto sets up Asa Palmer as an apparently luckless and beat down teen, just looking to get by in a world teetering on the edge of collapse. Nearly everyone Asa knows has been killed by the Wolf Virus and it is unclear how long society can hang on. An impossible chain of events occurs bringing Asa to The Academy, where he is forcibly genetically mutated, grows wings and doesn't shake his apathy. The Academy claims to be a humanitarian aid organization, but clearly it is not.
Lieto's world building is fast and furious, new discoveries pepper Asa and his fellow abducted 15 year old trainees nearly as fast as they die. Seemingly completely average and not belonging in this group of genius kids being trained to either save, or destroy, the world, will Asa's parentage be enough to carry him through?
I'm addicted and well into the second book of this series.
The Academy: Book 1 by Chad Lieto
