Heroes and Villains

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Pub Date 31 Oct 2017 | Archive Date 01 Nov 2017

Description

Tales of adventure and suspense:
- Five stage magicians set out to topple Hitler in 1934

- A middle-aged lawyer finds himself battling new, predatory species

- A hate-filled demagogue threatens the peaceful existence of the cats and dogs at the city dump

- A secret agent in 1963 Egypt must stop a madman bent on world domination


The four long pieces in this volume show Lewis Shiner writing "hard edged, often political genre fiction at  its finest," as Publishers Weekly said about his Collected Stories. These are some of the most accessible stories Shiner has ever written, featuring, as he says in his introduction, "car chases, ticking clocks, and things blowing up in slow motion." At the same time, all four stories deal with the abuse of power in a way that has never been more timely.


For those new to Shiner's work, Heroes and Villains is an ideal starting point, offering the complex characters and moral issues of his acclaimed novels in condensed and action-packed form. For Shiner's many fans, who include George R. R. Martin, Jonathan Lethem, and Karen Joy Fowler, no further incentive is required.


"The Black Sun" was nominated for the Sidewise Award for Alternate History.


"What Shiner is doing with these familiar elements is neither emulation nor parody but deconstruction... This is a political and an ethical work, dark-shaded, more in the spirit of Le Carré than Fleming...a love letter to Egypt, at least to the Egypt that was in 1963, and the Egypt that might have been."—Lois Tilton, Locus, on "Doctor Helios."

Tales of adventure and suspense:
- Five stage magicians set out to topple Hitler in 1934

- A middle-aged lawyer finds himself battling new, predatory species

- A hate-filled demagogue threatens the...


Advance Praise

Publishers Weekly:

“Common folk rising to depose despots with unchecked power is the theme running through Shiner’s compilation of three action-packed novellas and one short story... High adventure, exotic locales, and beautiful women all triumph. Shiner (Collected Stories) merges well-researched and detailed historical elements with cinematic action and crisp writing.”

Publishers Weekly:

“Common folk rising to depose despots with unchecked power is the theme running through Shiner’s compilation of three action-packed novellas and one short story... High adventure...


Available Editions

EDITION Hardcover
ISBN 9781596068407
PRICE $40.00 (USD)

Average rating from 3 members


Featured Reviews

In Heroes and Villains, Shiner provides us with what he describes as three short novels and a fable. Remarkably, each of the four is so radically different than the others you would think that a different author wrote each. The Black Sun is the first such novella and really the beating heart and soul of this enterprise. To me, it brought back echoes of the movie Inglorious Bastards with its unorthodox methods of attacking the leadership of the Third Reich. It pits a group of magicians who are experts at sleight of hand in a long con to destroy the Nazi machine from within. Quite interesting in theory and, of course, great fun in making them look like fools. The Next takes place in modern day California and us an ode to lawyers and vampires and those who think they can distinguish between the two. At times, the Next meanders into silliness with law partners, hypnosis, and secret retreats. Doglandia is indeed a fable about talking dogs and cats and what it means to band together when a bully is calling the shots. It's an enjoyable tale on its own and quite unusual to be paired with these other offerings. The final tale is Dr. Helios, a spy fiction espionage piece that brings alive Egypt in the 1950's, part-modern and part-ancient. Overall, quite a disparate and intriguing selection of tales.

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