Though I am reading another of Mr. Gold's books, this was the first one I completed. I have been wanting to read his work for some time now and am glad I finally have a chance to review one of his pieces. The anthology all together as a whole is pretty well done. The stories are individualistic, yet contain enough elements from one to the other that they they all tie into each other. This brings the series of short stories together and gives it the feel of a novel rather than just an anthology. I was told that Gold took out some of the sex from the stories and I have to say that it works for the most part throughout the entire thing. There is still sex in the anthology, and you can tell Gold's preference fairly easily from what he pays attention to when it comes to describing those sex scenes, but they don't over power the stories themselves. Instead, we're left with some rather enjoyable stories that are more about the plot than they are about the erection. In my opinion, the best story in the collection is 'Stop The World'. The way that Gold handles a speedster hero is realistic, believable, and honestly amazing. There's no sex in this story, and instead it is very character driven with how Red deals with the world around him and his almost addictive need to slow down time. It also captured a lot of grey areas and such that super heroes face when it comes to having to face down things that are perhaps not evil in their own right. All in all, this story was extremely enjoyable to read, well written, and overall my favorite. The story that didn't work for me was 'Vicious'. Looking back, though it does introduce the League itself, there doesn't seem to be a lot of character development to V. We see her go about her life as a model, and as a crime fighter. We get to see her attitude issues when it comes to various people, and also her tenderness when it comes to some of the other models. And yet, something seems to fall below where it should be with the story. The writing is still well done, the combat scenes are well thought out and planned, and the characters are all well done as well. Yet still, there is something missing from V herself. Perhaps that's the flaw of the character herself, but planned or not, it takes away from the story. In the end this is a wonderful super hero collection and well worth picking up. I hope there may be more in the future, as there is no conclusion to one of the singular characters and elements that ties a lot of the stories together, but for now, I recommend you pick up this collection. Furry or otherwise, it's worth a read.
- Voice