Superhero Fiction (not comics)

I think they are slowly re-releasing the original series. It's probably Martin's distractions and the adding of new material that's been slowing things down.

A topic on Superhero Fiction, and no mention of a free online story that I've thoroughly enjoyed in the past? This must be amended.

Interviewing Leather by Eric A Burns is a tale of a reporter asked to do an interview. With a villain. Written in the reporter's perspective, you get an interesting glimpse into a world of super-heroics and villainy.

And now I have to re-read it. ._.

(And on starting to re-read it I'm seeing the linking system for these stories is... not great. Urh... here starts off the search results for the archives with the stories in.)

Maybe I've missed it, but has anyone read the Wearing the Cape series? I think there's only two of them right now, but it looks interesting. Also, not sure if it's the same, but I've seen books in the Kindle store where they appear to have collected various stories of The Shadow. Not sure if y'all count him as a superhero though, just thought I'd mention it since he was one of the inspirations for Batman.

At one time, some of the pulp stories of *The Spider,* the Shadow's always-italicized and over-the-top cousin, by Norvell Page, were also available on the Kindle, but I haven't been able to find them recently. Anyone have any luck? I had been waiting for the classic "The City That Dared Not Eat."

Knew someone who went through a pulp fiction phase a few years ago but his collection were all real books and radio dramas. I remember there was a fair size chunk dealing with "The Spider". But this was pre-Kindle era so he wouldn't be on the lookout for e-book versions.

Well, this was fun while it lasted. I probably won't get through the other books on my to-read list before the lights go out.

Thanks for playing, gang.

Goodreads group for superhero discussions and recommendations, anyone?

Ironik, I’ve enjoyed reading your reviews on Superhero fiction & I hope that you will consider recreating this thread over at Unleashed & continue to review more Superhero Novels.

http://unleashed.philotix.net/

I was at the bookstore today because that's fun for me (surprise!) and I ran across this book by comic book writer Paul Tobin, Prepare To Die!.

Unlike other recent superhero books like A Once Crowded Sky which come across as stilted and a little too cutesy for its own good (Ultimate's sidekick is PenUltimate? Really?) when I leafed through them, Prepare to Die seemed a bit more hardcore. I did land on a few pages that had sex scenes which I'm not a fan of -- they tend to bring the story to a screeching halt because authors (and filmmakers) never seem to use the scenes to do anything with plot or character -- but the action scenes I browsed through more than made up for it. I got it, so we'll see.

This thread caught my attention. I picked up 7 wonders today and I am planning on ordering ex heroes, ex patriots, and wild cards I. Definitely have some reading to do. Thanks ironik for this thread

Perusing my Amazon wishlist, I rediscovered some superhero books I had put on it. Here's the list for your edification.



The Black Stiletto. A 48-year-old guy discovers his mom was the famous crimefighter known as "The Black Stiletto." Apparently a sort of female version of The Shadow, or perhaps the original Black Widow-type. One of her old enemies reappears, endangering her, him and his granddaughter. (Just from that I assume the granddaughter becomes Stiletto II.) He's also written a book about her adventures in 1959: The Black Stiletto: Black & White and a third book due next year. The prose is plenty serviceable and the guy has a track record with pulp adventure, having written original James Bond novels, as well as books based on Hitman and Metal Gear Solid.



Burn Baby Burn: A Supervillain Novel (WHOOSH! BAM! POW!) is an ebook by James Maxey. It looks like fun. Here's the first line: "Sunday Jimenez was fifteen when she killed her first nun." Okay, James, color me intrigued. Maxey wrote a superhero book that I kind of liked called Nobody Gets the Girl, which reads an awful lot like City of Heroes fan-fiction... written two years before the game came out. "Burn" seems to be a loose sequel to "Nobody", but you apparently don't need to have read the first one.



Wearing the Cape and its sequel look interesting, the first one being an origin story, it seems. The costumes look straight out of the CoH character creator.



Secret Identities: The Asian American Superhero Anthology. I don't know anything about this other than what you see here. I must've put it on my list for a reason, if only to check out later.



Corrupts Absolutely? Dark Metahuman Fiction has a story by Joe McKinney, who is currently writing my favorite zombie apocalypse books. His books have moved onto my "buy on release" list, so this collection went on my list purely on the strength of his name among the authors.



In Hero Years... I'm Dead by Michael Stackpole seemed intriguing as I read the sample.



Chicks in Capes. Seems pretty straightforward.



Pulp Heroes - More Than Mortal looks like pulp fiction that mashes up Doc Savage with various other heroes and villains of the day.



Damned Busters: To Hell and Back, Book 1. I actually bought this and it's been sitting on my to-read pile for months, maybe a year. (My to-read pile is taller than a 5-year-old.) But it looks quirky and odd and slightly different from the usual superhero fiction.

I just finished Seven Wonders and I really enjoyed it. I had to rush out and pick up the other book by Adam Christopher, Empire City. Looking forward to this one.