De-Masked

I would love to make money writing superhero fiction. However, the first step for me would be to not be in New Zealand. It's "well known" that getting science fiction published is dodgy at best, and superhero fiction? Fergedaboudit.

And just to show off how easy it is to do in other countries, we have Masked, editted by Lou Anders, a collection of superhero fiction by a variety of authors, including Peter David and Joseph Mallozzi (just to name two writers that I'd experience in some way before). As collections go, some stories are better than others, but on the whole the average is better than most collections I've read, no complete clunkers in here.

One interesting aspect I want to mention is the anti-power guy. Not anti-"power guy", but "anti-power" guy. I find the idea of someone who can cancel other powers to be a source of mutiple possibilities, and yet it isn't really used that much. Here we have at least two (that I recall) stories that feature that very concept. More interestingly, on the side of the villains, as if having a good superhero being able to cancel an evil superhero's powers wouldn't be a good idea. The main concept I want to play with that is the hero who knows he's in the right against all supers, and none of them can touch him. (That said, that person could easily be countered by a gun, for example, so more than just "no powers" is needed there.)

Anyways, the point is, I should move from New Zealand, but before then you should pick up this book.

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