Tricia Reeks

I adore superheroes. They are one of my weaknesses and as soon as I saw this book, I jumped on it. It did not disappoint. The stellar line-up of authors have crafted short stories that all approach superpowers differently, and in often unusual ways. Like the story where gaining superpowers means you end up being forgotten. Or the one where a retired superhero doesn't realized she's retired. A number of the stories showed the human side of superheroes, the stories about those who were in show more their lives or on the sidelines.

There were a lot of stories that seemed to just end, which was a bit frustrating. I wish those had been expanded upon just a bit so that they felt more complete. But overall, a really enjoyable collection of stories. Well worth the read for every superhero junkie.

Review copy courtesy of the publisher via NetGalley. show less

I thought I had reviewed this a while ago, but apparently I only finished the first half. The nice thing about that is that as I read my way back through, I paused at almost every story to reflect that I had liked it the first time around, and, inevitably, I enjoyed it again. The conceits in these stories are not new, but the handling of them feels fresh. "Destroy the City with Me Tonight" could be a serious version of The Tick's origin, and Lavie Tidhar's story should send you to his show more excellent novel with the same characters. Many, probably most, of the authors here are polished, experienced writers, and it shows. show less

I haven’t read short stories since my teenage years and I must say I have been missing out.

What a great collection this was, we are introduced to a myriad of new superheroes, villains with a range of quirky powers. I especially loved the truth serum beard; this particular one had me laughing out loud. We follow these characters as they not only try to save or destroy the world but also their daily struggles of whether they should change their appearance, listen to their guilty conscience show more or if their body odour is really that noticeable.

If you’re looking to escape reality for a bit on your daily commute or when you have nothing better to do, you have 20 marvellous worlds to visit where superheroes and villains are the norm and a whole cast of unusual, but likeable characters to meet.

All in all a great read and I look forward to seeing more from all the authors featured in this book. show less

A collection of prose stories that look at life for superheroes away from the action, as interpreted by a variety of different authors, well known or otherwise. It often looks like what normal life would be like for superheroes (and the occasional villain), away from saving the world. There’s a range of different styles and tones, some being comical and others being serious, but I found them to be of generally high quality throughout. For an anthology, it had a fairly high success rate for show more me, with only two or three stories around the middle of the book that I didn’t really care for. A few that stood out for me were: Pedestal by Seanan McGuire, which looks at superheroes through the lens of celebrity culture, with her trying to just do her shopping without constant criticism from celebrity bloggers or the paparazzi trying to get embarrassing pictures; Inheritance by Michael Milne, which follows a boy who has inherited some powers from his superhero father, who he rarely sees due to his busy schedule of constantly dealing with crises; Origin Story by Carrie Vaughn, where a woman recognises a supervillain to be her old boyfriend; and Over an Embattled City by Adam R. Shannon, which twists reality in a way that’s hard to say without counting as a spoiler for the story. That’s just a few but there are plenty of other good stories amongst the twenty in this collection. One of the better anthologies I’ve read recently, and with an interesting concept to go with it. show less