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A review by ian
An Apple for the Creature by Charlaine Harris, Toni L.P. Kelner
3.0
Playing Possum by Charlaine Harris
This story stars Sookie Stackhouse. I’ve never read a Sookie novel before, but this story was surprising easy to get into. Sookie and her nephew have to use their mind reading powers to stop a gunman determined to shoot up the elementary school. While this story is easy to read I found it a little boring.
Spellcaster 2.0 by Jonathan Maberry
As a college project Trey and a group of his friends are making a database of all the spells in the world, with the idea of selling access to it to make money after school. Unfortunately for him, someone is trying to sabotage their work. Is it merely the work of another student or is something darker going on?
I really liked this story, I think its one of the best stories in this collection. I’d never read anything by this author before but I’m intrigued enough to look him up.
Academy Field Trip by Donald Harstad
What if the FBI not only knew about Vampires, but had a special task force dedicated to the case? Claire is taking a class about information gathering, but is taken on a recruitment field trip to learn about vampires.
I didn’t like this story at all. The story takes a long time to get going, and meanders around a lot. I did like the twist, but I’d seen it coming since midway through the story.
Sympathy for the Bones by Marjorie M. Liu
This story is about a hoodoo witch apprentice trying to get free of her teacher’s control. But can dark powers really be turned to good?
The writing in this is very visceral and dark. I really got sucked into this one. This is another author I want to read more of.
Low School by Rhys Brown
This is the classic nightmare story of showing up for a test totally unprepared. Of not knowing where you classroom is, and showing up naked for class. There is a deeper story here, but I don’t want to spoil this one. The writing is tight, and the twist is fun.
Callie meet Happy by Amber Benson
If you used to watch Buffy, Amber Benson played the part of Tara. I didn’t know that besides being an actress she is also a writer.
This is a spinoff story from her Calliope Reaper-Jones series, about Callie the CEO of Death, Inc. In this story Callie is taking a remedial wormhole class so she doesn’t have to rely on her assistant to get around. Callie gets asked to demonstrate her wormhole summoning in front of the class things go wrong. She ends up in a different dimension and can’t figure out how to wormhole herself home. This story is ok, but again because its a spinoff story it helps if you know the characters.
Iphigenia in Aulis by Mike Carey
This was my absolute favorite story in this collection. Melanie’s elementary school experience is interrupted by an attack of ‘Hungries,’ man eating zombies. But something is off about the school, and Melanie has to figure out what is wrong before the Hungries take over the school.
Golden Delicious by Faith Hunter
Another spinoff story, this one from Faith’s Skinwalker series. I had a really hard time understanding what was going in this story. There were a lot of characters dumped in all at once, and the situation isn’t clear at first. All the characters have a lot of background too.
The storyline felt mushed in and too big for a short story.
Magic Tests by Ilona Andrews
Set in Ilona Andrew’s Kate Daniel’s world, this story is told from Julie’s, Kate’s ward, POV. Julie is sent to a boarding school to investigate the disappearance of one of the students. Julie is one of my favorite characters in this series, and I loved this story. Magic, dragons, dryads, and of course, school, all wrapped up in a fun story.
An Introduction to Jewish Myth and Mysticism by Steve Hockensmith
I loved the twist of this story, because I never saw it coming. This story is about two college professors, and one of them sets about to teach the other a little something about relationships.
VSI by Nancy Holder
VSI stands for Vampire Scene Investigations, and is about two cops sent to a two week training course about how to spot vampire related crimes. But does the subject of vampires hit a little too close to home for one of the agents?
Another fun story with tight writing and a nice twist.
The Bad Hour by Thomas E. Sniegoski
A simple class on dog training goes wrong when ‘The Bad Hour’ shows up. I loved that one of the main characters of this story was a dog. This seems to be another story set in an established universe, but the author does an excellent job of introducing the two characters.
Pirate Dave and the Captain’s Ghost by Toni L. Kelner
This story comes in close second for my favorite story of the collection. Newly minted werewolf Joyce is attending a werewolf retreat to learn more about her new-found status in the supernatural world. But one of the attendees is more interested in finding out more about her, and won’t take no for an answer.
Overall, this collection has a wealth of good stories and very few duds. I probably would have appreciated it more if I’d been familiar with more of the other authors in the collection, but overall I enjoyed it.
This story stars Sookie Stackhouse. I’ve never read a Sookie novel before, but this story was surprising easy to get into. Sookie and her nephew have to use their mind reading powers to stop a gunman determined to shoot up the elementary school. While this story is easy to read I found it a little boring.
Spellcaster 2.0 by Jonathan Maberry
As a college project Trey and a group of his friends are making a database of all the spells in the world, with the idea of selling access to it to make money after school. Unfortunately for him, someone is trying to sabotage their work. Is it merely the work of another student or is something darker going on?
I really liked this story, I think its one of the best stories in this collection. I’d never read anything by this author before but I’m intrigued enough to look him up.
Academy Field Trip by Donald Harstad
What if the FBI not only knew about Vampires, but had a special task force dedicated to the case? Claire is taking a class about information gathering, but is taken on a recruitment field trip to learn about vampires.
I didn’t like this story at all. The story takes a long time to get going, and meanders around a lot. I did like the twist, but I’d seen it coming since midway through the story.
Sympathy for the Bones by Marjorie M. Liu
This story is about a hoodoo witch apprentice trying to get free of her teacher’s control. But can dark powers really be turned to good?
The writing in this is very visceral and dark. I really got sucked into this one. This is another author I want to read more of.
Low School by Rhys Brown
This is the classic nightmare story of showing up for a test totally unprepared. Of not knowing where you classroom is, and showing up naked for class. There is a deeper story here, but I don’t want to spoil this one. The writing is tight, and the twist is fun.
Callie meet Happy by Amber Benson
If you used to watch Buffy, Amber Benson played the part of Tara. I didn’t know that besides being an actress she is also a writer.
This is a spinoff story from her Calliope Reaper-Jones series, about Callie the CEO of Death, Inc. In this story Callie is taking a remedial wormhole class so she doesn’t have to rely on her assistant to get around. Callie gets asked to demonstrate her wormhole summoning in front of the class things go wrong. She ends up in a different dimension and can’t figure out how to wormhole herself home. This story is ok, but again because its a spinoff story it helps if you know the characters.
Iphigenia in Aulis by Mike Carey
This was my absolute favorite story in this collection. Melanie’s elementary school experience is interrupted by an attack of ‘Hungries,’ man eating zombies. But something is off about the school, and Melanie has to figure out what is wrong before the Hungries take over the school.
Golden Delicious by Faith Hunter
Another spinoff story, this one from Faith’s Skinwalker series. I had a really hard time understanding what was going in this story. There were a lot of characters dumped in all at once, and the situation isn’t clear at first. All the characters have a lot of background too.
The storyline felt mushed in and too big for a short story.
Magic Tests by Ilona Andrews
Set in Ilona Andrew’s Kate Daniel’s world, this story is told from Julie’s, Kate’s ward, POV. Julie is sent to a boarding school to investigate the disappearance of one of the students. Julie is one of my favorite characters in this series, and I loved this story. Magic, dragons, dryads, and of course, school, all wrapped up in a fun story.
An Introduction to Jewish Myth and Mysticism by Steve Hockensmith
I loved the twist of this story, because I never saw it coming. This story is about two college professors, and one of them sets about to teach the other a little something about relationships.
VSI by Nancy Holder
VSI stands for Vampire Scene Investigations, and is about two cops sent to a two week training course about how to spot vampire related crimes. But does the subject of vampires hit a little too close to home for one of the agents?
Another fun story with tight writing and a nice twist.
The Bad Hour by Thomas E. Sniegoski
A simple class on dog training goes wrong when ‘The Bad Hour’ shows up. I loved that one of the main characters of this story was a dog. This seems to be another story set in an established universe, but the author does an excellent job of introducing the two characters.
Pirate Dave and the Captain’s Ghost by Toni L. Kelner
This story comes in close second for my favorite story of the collection. Newly minted werewolf Joyce is attending a werewolf retreat to learn more about her new-found status in the supernatural world. But one of the attendees is more interested in finding out more about her, and won’t take no for an answer.
Overall, this collection has a wealth of good stories and very few duds. I probably would have appreciated it more if I’d been familiar with more of the other authors in the collection, but overall I enjoyed it.