Villains vingettes by Drew Hayes

 In preparations for my Uppsala trip I restarted my Audible account. I didn't actually use it then but once I got home I have been listening on and off. The first book I got was this one. A collection of three short stories set in the same world as Forging Hephaestos. If you haven't read that or the second book then this is not for you. This ties quite heavily into the second book and does contain spoilers for it.

The Plot

The Meta...villain? Spooky Trudy has returned and she has turned a random small town into a Halloween experience. Within the town wearing any costume lets you have the abilities associated with that character. People flock from all over to experience the powers of superheroes and villains alike although in a weaker form. It's harmless fun... during the day at night the town turns dangerous. But staying the night will grant magical boons or even powers especially for whoever wins the nightly battle royal at the grave yard. 

Chloe is adamant that she wants the gifts offered. Tori and Beverly being good friends and roommates tag along to help her and keep her safe. As do their neighbors the superhero team The new science sentries though they have their own hopes for the night. 

However the meta Fashionistadore sees his opportunity to gather powers. He can assume another metas powers if he wears a part of their costume and in a place where all costumes are real this is prime hunting ground.

My thoughts

The Hallowville setting is a nice way to organically contain the story. Fashionistadore is not actually a threat that some of the more powerful characters couldn't deal with instantly. But with Spooky-trudies rules stopping Lode-star from using her power there and the rest unaware he and his grab bag of powers are enough to cause problems. Add to that Beverly, Tori and Cloe are all using borrowed powers and so can't access their own. The question becomes how they can solve this. I personally would have liked to see another solution. 

The problem of is Fashionistadore that bad is one I kept thinking about while listening. Granted we don't know of his final plans this is just to gather power, but still Tori and Beverly at least are villains and even if all the people he stole costumes from died that's still a low death count compared to several other characters. 

I do like how random the powers are. How some people just gets a shitty power and have to make the best of it. It's always a thought with most random powers universes of how useless most are in a non combat environment. This doesn't solve that but rather leans into it occupationally giving powers that are useless in every situation. 

The series has a very large set of characters and I would have liked if this took the chance to explore some of them. Actually that was what I had expected it to be or doing new team ups They are all the ones explored in previous stories. Tori and her roommates, the new science sentries in the first, Ivan in the second, Tori and Ivan in the third along with quick scenes from other familiar characters. Don't get me wrong I did enjoy it and I think anyone who has read the first two books will as well but I expected something more. 

If you have read it what did you think? Leave a comment. If you haven't read it you can check it out here Vingettes.

Forging Hephaestus by Drew Hayes

 This is a story about superheroes and villains but more realistically portrayed. And I don’t mean that in a The Boys, everyone's an arsehole, way.
The heroes are mostly just people trying to do their best, even if they are a bit too obsessed with public perception. The same goes for the villains. Their focus is on having the freedom to do what they want and are in general nice to one another. 
Several decades ago a scientist, who would later become the world's first superhero Professor Quantum, broke physics with an experiment and since then people have been randomly getting superpowers, becoming metahumans. There followed a time of general chaos where superheroes and villains regularly fought in the streets but for the last or so decade things have been mostly quiet.
The story mostly follows Tori Revas. She gained fire powers after an accident trying to design a meta suit (think iron man) and is caught stealing plans from Indigo technologies a company that unbeknownst to her is owned by Wade Wyatt aka Doctor Mechanical a legendary super-villain and founder of the guild of villainous reformation. Taking an interest in Tori he offers her a place at the guild (the other option is death so she agrees) and then blackmails his old friend and former roommate Ivan Gerhart (aka the infamous Fornax) to mentor her.
She befriends the other new recruits, learns to harness her powers, how to hold down a regular job and generally manage her public persona as well as her villainous one. During this she finds out that the reason for the quiet is that the guild follows a strict code of conduct and brutally murders anyone who doesn't follow it. But things aren't always what they seem and there are forces that lurk frying to get back to the good old days of murder and mayhem.
I've read it three times now, well listened to it and its sequel as an audiobook. The things that make me want to reread a book are usually characters I like and this one has several.

If you have read it what did you think? Leave a comment. If you haven't read it you can check it out here Forging Hephaestus