‘Heroes’ Novel Makes a Man Out of Hiro

Heroes may have screeched to an abrupt halt after this month’s midseason finale, but hard-core devotees of NBC’s sophomore serial need only wait until Dec. 26 (yes, Boxing Day) to get their next fix. That’s when the novel Heroes: Saving Charlie hits the streets to teleport fans back to the heady days of Season One. 

Written with the full cooperation of the show’s creators and published by Del Rey, the 261-page hardcover tells the untold story of the protagonist Hiro’s attempt to teleport back in time to save Charlie, the small-town waitress he falls in love with shortly before the villain Sylar swipes her brain.

"Fans of the show will get to see the scope of Hiro’s life—as a kid, a tween, an awkward teenager," the author, Aury Wallington, tells B&C. "You see his first date, first kiss, the progression of his relationship with Charlie."

And while viewers already know that Hiro fails to save Charlie, they may be surprised—and perhaps a bit unnerved—by the book’s climax, in which the lovably nerdy Hiro loses his virginity to Charlie in a sizzling scene described on p. 254:

"Everywhere they touched caught fire, smoldered, turned to ash. It felt legendary, epic, like they were going to need to name constellations after their love, like their hours together were going to form a whole new mythology."

Such moments aren’t, er, virgin territory for Wallington, who’s written for Sex and the City and Veronica Mars. Her previous book, Pop!, followed a high-schooler trying to lose the big V before graduation.

But Heroes purists may react the same way Hiro does after his shared moment of ecstasy: "Wow…. Really, wow."