Interesting collection

I agree with the reviewer who said the Cinderella story was the best, but only by a narrow margin. They were all well crafted and had fleshed out characters. Definitely worth reading.

The premise: ganked from publisher's website: Best known for her New York Times bestselling urban fantasy novels, Carrie Vaughn has also written dozens of short stories for Talebones, Realms of Fantasy, and many other magazines and anthologies. Collected here for the first time are ten of her favorite hard-to-classify stories covering the full range of speculative fiction – science fiction, fantasy, horror – sometimes all in the same story. Read about Emily Dickinson's dog, women pilots in WWII, future Hollywood, a haunted Europa, and more! Acclaimed author and editor Jay Lake contributes an introduction to this unique collection.

My Rating: Couldn't Put It Down

You'd think I'd already have a taste of how Vaughn's non-paranormal fiction would read, because after all, I've read Discord's Apple, Voices of Dragons, Steel, and After the Golden Age. But yet this collections puts nearly all of her novels (including many of the Kitty ones) to shame. For a long time, I've wondered what Vaughn SF would happen to look like (she's obviously well-versed in the genre, based on her blog), and this book gave me just enough of a taste that I really want her to seriously consider a major SF project next. Hell, a military SF project with a kick-ass heroine next, because not only does SF seem to suit her natural writing voice, but nearly all of her stories are influenced by the military -- which, I could be wrong, she was never a part of, but had close family members who were. And she handles it with such ease that I think it's time to retire Kitty and the whole urban fantasy gig and move on to something else.

The collection itself is a lovely mix of SF and fantasy, and you won't find a bit of paranormal or urban fantasy fiction in these pages. Mind you, this isn't ALL of her SF/Fantasy short fiction, which gives me hope for ANOTHER collection in the future, because there's short stories I want to read that I don't want to hunt down. That said, if you've been wanting to try Carrie Vaughn but her novels aren't appealing to you? This is the gateway book. Unfortunately, it's rare, so get your hands on it while you can, but this is by far her best publication this year, and that's saying something, since she's had several. You don't want to miss this, and no, I'm not saying that because I consider Vaughn a fave. I'm saying it because the short stories are engaging, compelling, and definitely worth reading. Like the title suggests, these stories stray from the path you expect Vaughn to take in her fiction, and it makes a world of difference.

Spoilers, yay or nay?: Nay. I don't like spoiling short stories, especially in short story collections, so you can read the full review, which has commentary of each story, without fear. The full review is at my blog, and as always, comments and discussion are most welcome.

REVIEW: Carrie Vaughn's STRAYING FROM THE PATH

Happy Reading! ( )