Superhero Fiction (not comics)

Thanks to Sho for alerting me to this book's existence.



Masked, edited by Lou Anders

A short story collection of 14 brand-new superhero tales written just for this book. Overall this is a terrific collection. There are a couple stories which aren’t as good as the rest, but they don’t detract too much from the general quality. A few of the stories have adult language and themes, so it’s not for little kids, but certainly fine for teenagers and up.

Everyone knows that Superman is a dick. There’s even a whole website devoted to just that. So it is en vogue to make fun of big-time overpowered superheroes and I expected a lot of that. There is some of that, but most of these stories are so good that I didn’t mind at all.

The specific stories:

Cleansed and Set in Gold – Matthew Sturges

A B-string superhero in a superteam like the Justice League or Avengers who has to face a monstrous supervillain alone after all the top-flight heroes (the equivalent of Superman and Captain America) have been killed or grievously wounded. He has an unusual power which causes him to have serious doubts about his worth as a hero, but once the premise is revealed, Sturges takes it to the logical and satisfying conclusion. Superb writing, excellently timed reveals, interesting internal conflict and a great battle.

Where Their Worm Dieth Not – James Maxey

Maxey pushes the comic book conceit of superheroes and supervillains coming back from the dead to the breaking point, willing to go all the way in the exploration of the idea. With superb results.

Secret Identity – Paul Cornell

From a writer of the Doctor Who series, this seemingly frivolous tale inverts the idea of a secret identity. It’s somewhat humorous but has a serious point to make about the differences between a superhero’s private life and his public persona… which isn’t all that different from how we behave, is it? That the story is also clever is a bonus.

The Non-Event – Mike Carey

This is a character piece, told as a police confession, about a robbery gone wrong. Sometimes the easy way isn’t as easy as one hopes, and when it comes down to it, you have to face the responsibility for cleaning up your mess. Brutally excellent.

Avatar – Mike Baron

This is essentially the good version of Millar’s “Kick-***.” A young guy realizing the difference between fantasy and reality, even though he had his head on straight from day one. That’s why he didn’t see it coming.

Message from the Bubblegum Factory – Daryl Gregory

This story seems a little too self-aware at first but as it goes along you realize why that’s so. Imagine if Robin were the ward of Superman but then turned on him and became an insane criminal mastermind. That’s pretty much the plot of this story. But the sidekick has a POINT. And the story I so much better than that simplistic plot decription.

Thug – Gail Simone

This is a heartbreaking tale of a simple man who is taken advantage of. It’s as if Charly from “Flowers For Algernon” could pick up a Sherman tank.

Vacuum Lad – Stephen Baxter

More way-out sci-fi than a superhero tale, it sort of bridges the two genres. It’s mostly a story about superpowers as an evolutionary step, but said abilities are based on science rather than flights of fancy.

A Knight of Ghosts and Shadows – Chris Roberson

This is the only real pulp-style story in the lot. It comes across as pretentious, stilted and clunky. It’s serviceable enough, I suppose.

Head Cases – Peter David and Kathleen David

This one is fine, but rather slight. It’s one of the weaker entries, but even Peter David on autopilot and with a co-writer is still pretty good.

Downfall – Joseph Mallozzi

A satisfying and complete story about the interconnections between heroes and villains. This reads like the best of stories from something like Busiek’s Astro City series.

By My Works You Shall Know Me – Mark Chadbourn

This is a really twisty – and twisted – tale of a hero and his arch-nemesis. It’s the kind you can’t really talk about without giving it away, but even correctly guessing at what the reveal will be doesn’t spoil it. Darkity dark dark.

Call Her Savage – Marjorie M. Liu

This story was okay, but it’s one of the weaker entries for me. It’s a bit vague on the superhero connection and why the titular character is considered such, and clearly takes place in an alternate universe where our natural laws don’t apply. It’s not a bad tale, but it just kind of sits there.

Tonight We Fly – Ian McDonald

Since I grow more curmudgeonly as I get older, I can relate to two older superbeings grousing about how crappy the world is these days. No action to speak of, but these are my peeps representin’. Now get off my superbase’s lawn, you damn kids!

A to Z in the Ultimate Big Company Superhero Universe (Villains Too) – Bill Willingham

This is Willingham showing off… and I loved it. Not just because I’m the Alt Alphabet guy, but because it does a number of things at once: makes fun of DC/Marvel cross-over events, sends up the “comic book universe” type of publication, is witty, and manages to tell a complete story in vignettes, some small and some downright microscopic. This was an awesome finish to the book.

NICE!!!!
always on the look out for new superhero fiction

THANKS

I also recommend Black and White as well as its sequal Shades of Gray by Jackie Kessler and Caitlin Kitteredge It takes an interesting spin on corperate sponsored Superheroes.

I'm also about to crack open Ghosts of Manhattan STEAM PUNK + SUPERHEROES!!!

Thanks for bringing this to my attention, Sho and Ironik. (Our tastes tend to differ, but I try to snag all the superhero prose out there.)

***

Quote:

Originally Posted by ShoNuff I'm also about to crack open Ghosts of Manhattan STEAM PUNK + SUPERHEROES!!!

Ghosts of Manhattan was not bad. It's pretty much a pulp hero story, as you might find in an issue of the Shadow or Doc Savage magazine, but with somewhat better writing and about an original character. I'm not sure why he included the steam "punk" angle, since he doesn't do much with it, other than having cars powered by coal. (I italicize punk because the book doesn't have the sort of nasty, anti-establishment edge characteristic of the first crop of steampunk stories or their progenitor subgenre, cyberpunk.) Regardless, I found it a fun, quick read. Interestingly, the most predictable parts were the ones I found the most entertaining.

And you forgot Soon I Will Be Invincible by Austin Grossman.

Masked is a very good anthology book, if you enjoy short stories.

I just so happened to have noticed it on the shelf during my monthly "run" through the book store and picked it up.

It's got some very good stories and it's quite an enjoyable read.

My only issue with it is my basic issue with most short stories...I want more. Especially from the really good ones, I want full novel length and I'm often left with "whaaa? what's next?" when the story just ends abruptly.

But, if you like short stories, definately pick up Masked.

There is also "Nobody Gets the Girl" by James Maxey. It's a decent read.

I'll definitely be picking up some of the titles listed here.

Hhmmm... quite a few options to choose from. Thanks for this thread. I don't live near a book store and always wondered if the Super-hero fiction trend ever lasted beyond 'The Death and Life of Superman'. I'm probably not the authority on good writing, but I always thought it was a good read and wanted to see more.

A few months ago, I picked up Tek Grrl at Big Lots for 2 bucks. A quick perusal of the cover showed it was about superheroes, the title character used super-technology that she apparently made (which is a hero/villain type I like that can only be somewhat realized in CoX), and it was the second book by that author. Also, the two books were related, sharing the same universe. A great deal, says I!

Got it home, and a deeper look soon showed, to my horror, that it was a superhero romance novel. I didn't know they existed!

Wife laughed her @$$ off, and the book is now sitting in her pile o' books to read.

Looks cool!

I'm currently reading "Busted Flush", part of the Wild Cards series. I highly recommend it.

I would suggest hitting a used book store and picking up the several years worth of the Wild Card series. The books range from short story collections to individual hero novels to mosaic novels. Mosaic novels are written by the authors of all the characters involved with each author contributing their own heroes actions.

I picked up this book on a mad dash through the bookstore so I didn't give it the once-over I usually do. I so wish I had, because it's just not good. It's at least honest about its pulp root, as you can see right on the cover. I was in the mood for some good pulp fiction but this failed to deliver on the "good" part of that.

Captain Midnight Chronicles is a collection of new short stories based on the popular classic radio character who later was translated to movies, TV and comic books. I've never seen the earlier incarnations, but surely they must be better than this if the tales of the Secret Squadron had millions of fans and spawned a multimedia franchise. Some of the stories in this book are passable while others are just downright terrible, as bad as the worst fan-fiction you'll find on the internet. The tales range form the outlandish to the downright silly, but the overall impression I've been left with so far is not a pleasant. I'm a little over halfway through the book and I doubt I'll finish it any time soon.

I get annoyed by typos in books, but worse offenders are grammar and punctuation errors. A couple of these getting through the writing, rewriting and editing process are understandable. Captain Midnight Chronicles has the most egregious amount of typos and misspelling I've ever seen in any book, ever. Internet fan-fiction is actually preferable in this regard. One story was almost literally a long string of typos and mistakes with hundreds of those weird little figures one gets when dumping a Word document into any program. That sort of thing is simply inexcusable because it doesn't take someone with any understanding of English, just someone who has eyes.

Another thing that has just been irking me immeasurably is the fact that this character is a pilot yet there has not been a single time where they've spelled "hangar" correctly. I mean, seriously guys, it's not an "airplane hanger." That just looks stupid. It makes me leery of ever wanting to pick up another book from this publisher, Moonstone.

One star. Avoid.

Marking for future reference, thanks!

Been a fan of Wild Cards for years, I definitely recommend them.

Also worth a read is Superheroes, a superhero anthology.

I'll throw in a recommendation for Devil's Cape by Rob Rogers.

Next generation heroes learning about their powers and legacies in a corrupt city with a supervillian pulling the strings.

Both Devil's Cape (4 stars) and Superheroes (I don't recall how many stars) are waiting for me to re-read so I can pop up a couple small reviews on them. Devil's Cape is quite good, very much a prose comic book story.

Also coming soon are Nobody Gets the Girl and another novel called Superheroes.