Short fantasy stories about a diminished hero and an exiled villain

September 15, 2020 5:20 AM

"Captain Midrise" by Jim Marino is a loving description of a flying, people-helping superhero who loses some of his oomph but keeps on going, from the point of view of a journalist trying to cover the story responsibly. "Would the paper be liable if he stopped helping in emergencies? Would we just get sued forever until we died?" "Tuesdays With Molakesh the Destroyer" by Megan Grey is a humorous, then bittersweet short fantasy about a bullied fifteen-year-old shoveling her demonic neighbor's driveway and coming over for hot chocolate. "Destroyer he may be called, but he kept his yard tidy and pulled in his trash cans at night, so the Homeowners Association turned their scowls on other targets."

("Tuesdays with Molakesh the Destroyer" was nominated for a Hugo Award as part of a Sad Puppies slate; some people mistakenly nominated it in the wrong year.)

posted by brainwane (6 comments total)

These made my morning, thanks for posting them.
posted by PussKillian at 6:17 AM on September 15, 2020 [1 favorite]

I'm so glad!

Also - as I mentioned in another thread, here are the RSS/Atom/syndication feeds for a bunch of good science fiction/fantasy publishers in case you want to read more free sf/f online more regularly.
posted by brainwane at 6:19 AM on September 15, 2020

Those were both lovely and unexpected. I'm surprised that Molakesh was a Sad Puppy nominee -- I thought they were all about nominating those sad, overlooked white dudes who wrote about men with swords and/or phasers?
posted by jacquilynne at 7:36 AM on September 15, 2020

In one of the later years, there was an attempt to co-opt other writers with independent fandoms, so as to claim success if they won. That's why you got the Sad/Rabid Puppies split.
posted by tavella at 9:09 AM on September 15, 2020 [2 favorites]

Those were both quite great. "Captain Midrise" reminded me of the clearest dream I've ever had of flying. I could only fly three feet off the ground, and I remember clearly thinking in the dream, damn, only three feet? Then: hey, it's flying! Don't look a gift horse in the mouth! And then: hey, I'm going pretty fast, it would probably hurt if I suddenly ran out of flight power, how do I stop? Superpowers are weird, and this story gets that really, really well.
posted by Halloween Jack at 9:24 AM on September 15, 2020

These were terrific! Captain Midrise reminded me of Samaritan's complex relationship to flying in Kurt Busiek's excellent Astro City comic book series.
posted by JDC8 at 10:18 AM on September 15, 2020