Somewhat decent but not worth the price -

It's a crapshoot sometimes with these collections if you get your money's worth and unfortunately this time I came away with a loss, for the full set of stories there's less than half that are decent.

Little things - Jim Butcher is why I bought this, a novellette from the perspective of Toot Toot, who wouldn't be interested in seeing that and as expected it was VERY good, enjoyed it a lot.

But

It was marketed as a team up between the Za Lords Guard and Mister, the old Tom Cat of Harry's and in my head I expected to at least have some sort of communication between the cat and the Fae. Alas it wasn't to be, so it gets a lil demotion for that in my book, but outside of that it worked well and fit the themes of this book collection.

Dark Ship - Freaking amazing premise and detailed characterisation and story, but one thing bugged me about it. It was rushed, seemed to be forced to get the amount of words probably needed for this collection, meaning it ended WAY too quickly for me. Would love to see more from this world though.

Comfort Zone - One of three stories in this collection that feels less like the unlikely hero and more the romance genre as this story is heavily laced with themes of romance and couply issues. Not that its a bad thing - I enjoyed it for what it was - but it felt wrong in places.

Train to Last Hope - If the author has a series for this world, I would but that right this second, I would LOVE to find more things from this author, the writing style and world are nicely fitting - if a little confusing at points - but if this were a full novel and/or series I would jump on it, feels dark and mysterious in places.

Fire Hazard - Its from the perspective of a Dog, who doesn't love dogs?! It was fantastic, funny and has an interesting backstory that I would love to see more of, like previously this is a W in my book.

Grave Gambles - A ghost body jumping to save people from monsters, WOW! freaking amazing idea, I love this! And well thought out, with a decent set of characters, would definitely read more of this universe.

Silverspell - Stilted and hard to get through, with weird ideas put in and a narrative that jumps from first to third person depending on the point, it's not a W here.

Troll Life - Clunky and yet heartwarming in places, it fits the theme and it works well, but like I said - clunky - I need more of this world to fully understand it and the full reasons for how the world works, I mean having magical creatures BE a subway train is a cool idea but...where were they before we invented trains? It's okay but a lesser bit here and there, though characters work well.

Return of the Mage - It feels like it's part of a wider world that I just don't know about, but as far as I can see it's not got anything else out there. Not good imo.

Vampires - You'd think that having a religious Vampire who is repentant and fearful of being rejected by God would be a good story, it's got a good Idea to it, but nah. Was bored during all of it, nothing worked and it felt more like a badly done crime novel than something fitting for a vampire story.

Necessity of Pragmatic Magic - Like another in this series it feels like its part of a wider world and like before I can't find anything else in this series.

Dating Terrors - worst of the collection by far, definite harequin romance novel gussied up as a fantasy story (and that's perfectly fine) but it just doesn't work when you include statements that show modern sensibilities to tell certain members of the public its okay to do something and its not to do for others. Add to that the slave themes and the strange duel personalities made by the wolf idea it's bad.

So out of all of them I liked 5 and thought 6 were either meh or terrible. I like enough to keep it but if I'd known this beforehand I'd have waited to get them on their own.

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Some great short stories

Some great stories, but none really stood out as memorable unfortunately. And the Iron Wizard one narrated by Luke Daniels, unfortunately had to be skipped. I really can’t stand his narration. I really wish Christopher Ragland had been used. He’s voicing of Oberon is not so whiny and annoying. Oberon is a big breed dog that requires a gruff voice that CR does better

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A mixed bag of stories

Liked some, skipped some - this was a bit of a mixture. As some of the stories were by authors I didn’t know, short stories in worlds I’m not familiar with was too hard to get into. Did enjoy the Dresden one and the Patty Briggs one especially. On balance, glad I spent the credit.

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