This is the final book in the Enemies Trilogy (parts one
and two here). I tried not to spoil things in the part two review, but I
am just going to go for it here. So read the books if you have a stake in this,
they aren’t very long, but you have been warned.
Walk a Mile ends with Alex Manners dying inside
Malcolm Quick’s body. Mal is left stranded in Alex’s body with no way of
getting his best friend or his original body back. Since then, Dodger (a
psychic superhero) has been orchestrating a series of replacement Good Guy’s,
to replace Alex. Mal is the obvious choice, but he refuses to take up the
mantle that belonged to his friend. When Sidekicks begins, Cliff Awesome
is the current Good Guy, with Ajax Gadzinski (son of Indestructoman) as his
sidekick the Private.
This doesn’t last very long, Cliff gets murdered in a mugging
gone wrong and a vacancy is left in the ranks of the supers. Ajax wants to quit
out of self-preservation, and Mal is still in a depressive state after the loss
of Alex. Meanwhile, Dodger has gone missing. Unbeknownst to the other supers,
he’s somehow gotten himself trapped in a parallel universe. One where a lot of
supers are still alive, and his counterpart is already dead. Alex killed him
when he turned out to be a supervillain. Additionally, back in his home
universe Mal swears that he’s been seeing Alex turn up out of nowhere. Mal
starts trying to figure out a way to get his friend back, while Ajax seeks
revenge for his. Clearly this is someone’s origin story in the works. But
you’re left guessing as to whose it is until the end.
The beautiful thing about this entire series is that it all
anchors on a friendship. The only couple that makes it through the book is
Xavier and Kyle, also supers and enemies that decide to retire together. Mal
and Alex’s relationship is reinforced time and time again by how the two meet
in different universes but still feel the same connection.
Which only makes it sadder that Mal in the original universe
is left alone, without an Alex. And what I really like about this book is that
it isn’t about how Mal gets Alex back, it’s about how Mal learns to carry on
without him. It’s really a fantastic story about coping with grief and loss.
Mal learns to have faith in himself without needing his friend by his side.
Beyond that, it is also really nice to see Ajax take on a
larger role. He’s been a minor character of each story, and it is great to see
him also come into his own. Which makes this “origin story” thing work really
well since it could just as easily apply to Ajax.
Finally I thought this was a really cool take on the
“parallel universes” trope. Similar to Walk a Mile, P.K. takes a very
common sci-fi trope and puts a unique twist on it. The result is familiar to
fans of the genre, but also still engaging. Makes me wish that there was more
to the series, but this is also a spectacular way to end it.
If you haven’t started the series yet, I really strongly
recommend it. The first one is free on Kindle, and the rest are both so good
they make the (rather cheap) price worth it. A great way to spend quarantine!
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