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A collection of seventeen short urban fantasy stories by various authors featuring vampires, werewolves, witches, zombies, and other creatures of the night.
I got this for the Lord John story, but a lot of the stories in this collection were really good. I either listened to or read all of them, so here’s the rundown:
“The Bastard Stepchild” Interesting introductory essay by George RR Martin-worth the read.
“Death by Dahlia” Not Charlaine Harris’s best, though I’ve never been particularly impressed with her short stories. I like the novels more. The reader for this story was annoying too.
“The Bleeding Shadow” Joe R Lansdale’s version of a crossroads deal was pretty good. I liked this one-it was deliciously creepy.
“Hungry Heart” My first experience with Simon R Green. Nothing super special but enough to interest me in his Nightside series.
“Styx and Stones” Steven Saylor’s mystery set in ancient Rome was all set-up with a Scooby Doo ending. I was bored and annoyed by this one.
“Pain and Suffering” S.M. Stirling’s writing was good, but his detective story felt more like a segment of a book, rather than a short story.
“It’s Still the Same old Story” It was fun for a while to read about Rick the vampire, from Carrie Vaughn’s Kitty Norville series, but the ending was a disappointment.
“The Lady is a Screamer” Loved Conn Iggulden’s story of a con man spiritualist turned believer. This was one of my favorites.
“Hellbender” Laurie R King’s super weird offering was like nothing I’ve ever read by her and quite good.
“Shadow Thieves” It could have been the reader, but Glen Cook’s story from his Garret P.I. world wasn’t my favorite, although I was interested in the characters enough to pick up one of the novels sometime.
“No Mystery, No Miracle” One of the better stories in the collection, a detective story with a scifi twist on religion, was by former Next Generation writer, Melinda Snodgrass.
“The Difference Between a Puzzle and a Mystery” Nice and twisty, I loved MLN Hanover’s (aka, Daniel Abraham, one of my favorites) devilish detective story.
“The Curious Affair of the Deodand” Lisa Tuttle’s old-fashioned detective story that borrowed from the Sherlock Holmes tradition had just the right tone. I snuggled right in.
“Lord John and the Plague of Zombies” Hey, I said this is why I got the collection in the first place. Love Gabaldon. Love Lord John.
“Beware the Snake” Hated it. Hated. Another mystery set in ancient Rome, I was bored and I despised John Maddox Roberts’s characters.
“In Red, with Pearls” Patricia Briggs is another beloved author, and this story featuring Warren as a P.I was a keeper.
“The Adakian Eagle” Bradley Denton’s novella, with an author you might recognize as one of the characters, was probably the best of the bunch. I’ve already ordered another collection of his stories. ( )
Overall an enjoyable collection of stories that mix urban fantasy with detective mysteries. In some cases, having read other books in the series the story is an offshoot from would definitely help. A couple of them are difficult to get orientated in without that reading. But I did enjoy the collection, and there are some great authors who contributed. ( )
A collection of seventeen short urban fantasy stories by various authors featuring vampires, werewolves, witches, zombies, and other creatures of the night.
“The Bastard Stepchild”
Interesting introductory essay by George RR Martin-worth the read.
“Death by Dahlia”
Not Charlaine Harris’s best, though I’ve never been particularly impressed with her short stories. I like the novels more. The reader for this story was annoying too.
“The Bleeding Shadow”
Joe R Lansdale’s version of a crossroads deal was pretty good. I liked this one-it was deliciously creepy.
“Hungry Heart”
My first experience with Simon R Green. Nothing super special but enough to interest me in his Nightside series.
“Styx and Stones”
Steven Saylor’s mystery set in ancient Rome was all set-up with a Scooby Doo ending. I was bored and annoyed by this one.
“Pain and Suffering”
S.M. Stirling’s writing was good, but his detective story felt more like a segment of a book, rather than a short story.
“It’s Still the Same old Story”
It was fun for a while to read about Rick the vampire, from Carrie Vaughn’s Kitty Norville series, but the ending was a disappointment.
“The Lady is a Screamer”
Loved Conn Iggulden’s story of a con man spiritualist turned believer. This was one of my favorites.
“Hellbender”
Laurie R King’s super weird offering was like nothing I’ve ever read by her and quite good.
“Shadow Thieves”
It could have been the reader, but Glen Cook’s story from his Garret P.I. world wasn’t my favorite, although I was interested in the characters enough to pick up one of the novels sometime.
“No Mystery, No Miracle”
One of the better stories in the collection, a detective story with a scifi twist on religion, was by former Next Generation writer, Melinda Snodgrass.
“The Difference Between a Puzzle and a Mystery”
Nice and twisty, I loved MLN Hanover’s (aka, Daniel Abraham, one of my favorites) devilish detective story.
“The Curious Affair of the Deodand”
Lisa Tuttle’s old-fashioned detective story that borrowed from the Sherlock Holmes tradition had just the right tone. I snuggled right in.
“Lord John and the Plague of Zombies”
Hey, I said this is why I got the collection in the first place. Love Gabaldon. Love Lord John.
“Beware the Snake”
Hated it. Hated. Another mystery set in ancient Rome, I was bored and I despised John Maddox Roberts’s characters.
“In Red, with Pearls”
Patricia Briggs is another beloved author, and this story featuring Warren as a P.I was a keeper.
“The Adakian Eagle”
Bradley Denton’s novella, with an author you might recognize as one of the characters, was probably the best of the bunch. I’ve already ordered another collection of his stories.
( )