Former Heroes

by Pete Sutton (Editor), Kimberly Nugent (Editor)

Pick up the cape that may no longer fit, strap on that armour which may need letting out, grab the sword, that is heavier than you remember, and join us for these seven exciting tales of Former Heroes. Stand shoulder to shoulder with heroes of former wars, find out what it takes to be a gentleman, join former enemies as they discover that all is not as it seems, come back from war changed, or stalk the enemies of former years. Former Heroes is a brand new collection of never before published stories from some of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror's brightest voices. It collects a vibrant and eclectic range of stories from Kate Charles (Faisollus), Andrew Goodman (The Oliver Drummond Adventures), Jim King (Far Horizons Magazine), Gaie Sebold (Babylon Steel, Shanghai Sparrow), David Gullen (Shopocalypse), \Sara Jayne Townsend (The Shara Summers Series) and Pete Sutton (Far Horizons Magazine)

136 pages, Paperback

First published July 25, 2015

About the author

Peter Sutton has lived in Bristol since the late 80’s on and off and now considers it his home. He is one of the organisers of Bristol festival of literature and is published by Kensington Gore. You can follow him on Twitter at @suttope and read his blog at http://brsbkblog.blogspot.co.uk/ & see more at his website: https://petewsutton.com/

Reviews

[Danielle Miller · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the first of three anthologies by Far Horizons Press, which came out of Far Horizons eMagazine (showcasing unpublished, thinly published and self-published authors). This collection concerns what happens to heroes afterwards; an intriguing question.
I must confess to being slightly put off by the foreword, as it was made clear that the authors were all involved in Live-Action Roleplay (LARP), with the suggestion that this made them good writers. To me, that gave a message of "oh no - lots of derivative froth to come", but actually the stories were all good and pretty well told. A few very good ideas, some that didn't quite work for me, but no real howlers. Mostly fantasy and SF, with one contemporary and one superhero story. The heroes range from a "monster" to a building, through more typical war heroes and paladins.
There were a few typos in there, which distracts me from the story that I'm reading (sorry - I'm a writer too).
A good effort, and I'm looking forward to the next two anthologies (due out soon).