{"id":2263,"date":"2011-02-24T21:31:07","date_gmt":"2011-02-25T02:31:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/?p=2263"},"modified":"2021-06-04T12:58:33","modified_gmt":"2021-06-04T16:58:33","slug":"masked","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/2263","title":{"rendered":"Masked"},"content":{"rendered":"

Masked<\/a><\/em> (2010) edited by Lou Anders<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Masked<\/em> is a collection of superhero stories by a variety of writers, many of whom are well known comic writers.<\/p>\n

Matthew Sturges, who writes House of Mystery<\/a>, wrote the opening story, “Cleansed and Set in Gold.” …and I just ended up rereading the story when I flipped through to remind myself of whether I liked it. So yeah, I liked it. David Caulfield has “variable” powers, and those powers are the crux of the story. Fabulous.<\/p>\n

“Secret Identity” by Paul Cornell was another story I especially liked. What does the hero identity do to the man who carries the hero around?<\/p>\n

Mike Carey<\/a> is another favorite author, especially his Felix Castor series. “Non-Event” begins at the end, with the supervillain being interrogated after the plan goes all wrong.<\/p>\n

Gail Simone’s story “Thug” was both amazing and horrible.<\/p>\n

“Head Cases” by Peter David and Kathleen David was an odd story. Interesting, and there were a few bits that were hilarious, but I did spend much of the story going, “huh?”<\/p>\n

Joseph Mallozzi’s story “Downfall” was one of the longer stories, but I loved the twists and turns of a reformed villain being pulled out of retirement by his government minders.<\/p>\n

“Tonight We Fly” by Ian McDonald was another story I particularly enjoyed–what’s it like for a superhero as he gets older–apparently he becomes crotchety and yells at the damned kids to get off his lawn.<\/p>\n

The final story in the series was Bill Willingham<\/a>‘s “A to Z in the Ultimate Big Company Superhero Universe (Villains Too).” I love Bill Willingham’s Fables<\/a> so I was looking forward to this story. It was another odd one, and it took me a bit to figure out what was going on.<\/p>\n

All in all, it was a fun collection, and well worth checking out.
\nRating: 8\/10<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Masked (2010) edited by Lou Anders Masked is a collection of superhero stories by a variety of writers, many of whom are well known comic writers. Matthew Sturges, who writes House of Mystery, wrote the opening story, “Cleansed and Set in Gold.” …and I just ended up rereading the story when I flipped through to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[12,30,2,8,291,16],"tags":[423,336,130,111],"class_list":["post-2263","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-8-10","category-british","category-fantasy","category-mystery","category-paper","category-supernatural","tag-bill-willingham","tag-matthew-sturges","tag-mike-carey","tag-paul-cornell"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/siQkW-masked","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1613,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/1613","url_meta":{"origin":2263,"position":0},"title":"The House of Mystery Vol 3: The Space Between","author":"Michelle","date":"February 9, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"The House of Mystery: The Space Between (2010) Matthew Sturges, Luca Rossi, Jose Marzan Jr I'd somehow managed to forget that Fig's father had shown up at the end of the last episode. Needless to say, he's causing trouble for Fig, at a time when the house is having enough\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Fantasy"","block_context":{"text":"Fantasy","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/fantasy"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/House-Mystery-Space-Between.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2400,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/2400","url_meta":{"origin":2263,"position":1},"title":"House of Mystery Vol 6: Safe as Houses","author":"Michelle","date":"June 10, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"House of Mystery Vol 6: Safe as Houses (2011) Matthew Sturges, Luca Rossi, Werther Dell Edera, Jose Marzain Jr I was intrigued by the first volume of House of Mystery, and the subsequent volumes were also interesting, but this volume fell flat for me. I think the primary reason was\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Fantasy"","block_context":{"text":"Fantasy","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/fantasy"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/House-Mystery-Safe-Houses.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1841,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/1841","url_meta":{"origin":2263,"position":2},"title":"House of Mystery Vol 4: The Beauty of Decay","author":"Michelle","date":"July 20, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"House of Mystery: The Beauty of Decay (2010) Matthew Sturges, Luca Rossi, Werther Dell'Edera, Jose Marzain Jr Fig and friends are now stuck in The City in the Space Between, and no one can come up with a way out. Stories are still told--stories told and histories remembered where we\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Fantasy"","block_context":{"text":"Fantasy","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/fantasy"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/House-Mystery-Beauty-Decay.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2204,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/2204","url_meta":{"origin":2263,"position":3},"title":"House of Mystery Vol 5: Under New Management","author":"Michelle","date":"January 29, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"House of Mystery Vol 5: Under New Management (2011) Matthew Sturges, Luca Rossi, Jose Marzan Jr I think what I like best about the House of Mystery are the stories between the story. Like the House at World's End, it's full of tales and stories told by the visitors to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Fantasy"","block_context":{"text":"Fantasy","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/fantasy"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/House-Mystery-Under-New-Management.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1279,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/1279","url_meta":{"origin":2263,"position":4},"title":"House of Mystery: Vol 1 Room & Boredom","author":"Michelle","date":"August 16, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"House of Mystery: Vol 1 Room & Boredom (2008) Matthew Sturges, Bill Willingham, Luca Rossi We wandered into a Borders while we were in Denver, and I noticed House of Mystery: Room & Boredom becuase of Bill Willingham's name across the top. I love Fables, so I'm willing to try\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Fantasy"","block_context":{"text":"Fantasy","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/fantasy"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/08\/House-Mystery-Room-Boredom.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1295,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/1295","url_meta":{"origin":2263,"position":5},"title":"House of Mystery Vol 2: Love Stories for Dead People","author":"Michelle","date":"August 20, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"House of Mystery Vol 2: Love Stories for Dead People (2009) Matthew Sturges, Luca Rossi, Jose Marzan Jr The story opens with some of Ann's back story. We still don't know what brought her to the House of Mystery, but we know some of what shaped her--and that she doesn't\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Fantasy"","block_context":{"text":"Fantasy","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/fantasy"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/House-Mystery-Love-Stories-Dead-People.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2263","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2263"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2263\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2263"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2263"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2263"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}