The Dragon Quintet (Marvin Kaye, editor)

The Dragon Quintet
Marvin Kaye, editor
Tor
Fiction, Anthology/Fantasy
*** (Okay)

DESCRIPTION: Five short novels by top writers explore the wonders and dangers of dragons:
"In the Dragon's House," by Orson Scott Card: A storied Victorian house bedecked in gables and gargoyles holds a secret within its ancient wiring, a heartbeat and a whisper and waking dreams that speak to one orphaned boy.
"Judgment," by Elizabeth Moon: The human villager Ker doesn't know what to think when he spies the rocks that looked like eggs scattered along the path, but suspects they belong to the other folk, the people of stone or song, and are thus best left alone. When Elder Tam breaks one open to discover crystals within, a dark change overtakes the people... and only Ker and his mother seem immune.
"Love in a Time of Dragons," by Tanith Lee: An enslaved young woman lives a cold and brutal life until she glimpses her true love in the autumn forest, shortly before a warrior arrives to confront the drakkon that's plagued the area for centuries.
"Joust," by Mercedes Lackey: After dragon-riding invaders conquered his nation and turned the people into slaves or serfs, young Vetch has been filled with anger. But then a rider selects the boy as a new servant, to tend the needs of himself and his dragon... giving Vetch an unexpected opportunity for both freedom and, perhaps, vengeance.
"King Dragon," by Michael Swanwick: In a faerie world of magic and malice, young orphan Will is enthralled by the great iron war dragons that scream overhead... until one crashes in the nearby woods and becomes the cruel overlord of his village, recruiting him as its ambassador.

REVIEW: I found this anthology, originally published in 2004, for a very good (cheap) price at a local thrift store, so even though I have some mixed opinions on a few of the authors, I figured it was worth a try because dragons usually are worth a try. I shouldn't be too surprised that I had a mixed reaction to the stories within.
Orson Scott Card's tale is a long walk of a setup to a somewhat vague payoff in a way that makes me suspect that it was intended more as some manner of allegory or sermon than a story in and of itself. It takes a long time to get to even a hint of a dragon (save a gargoyle that dumps water on the sidewalk in front of the house after every rainstorm), and the boy Michael doesn't really do much or have much agency as he comes to understand his unusual bond with the old house and the energy humming through its walls. Much of the wordcount is devoted to the aging homeowners' love of theater and plays and how they take in foster children (Michael being one), but that all becomes so much wasted word count by the end. The dragon itself is an interesting concept, but generally too vague to really invest in.
"Judgment", set in a world of primitive villages and fae beings (and, of course, dragons), delivers a stronger story. Young Ker initially only hopes to earn the goodwill of the respected elder Tam, whose daughter Lin he intends to marry, but the moment he spies the peculiar "rocks" he knows they're bad luck, while Tam reveals a selfish, greedy streak at the thought of the "pretties" that may be within. This is a world where magic and luck aren't just abstractions, and there are very real reasons for the superstitions that abound in the people's lives, very real and powerful entities about that might take offense and inflict real harm. A fair bit happens, though the ending feels a little unfinished, as though Moon intended to expand it or write more. (I'm not familiar enough with her works to know if she ever did, or if this was a spinoff of an existing world or series.)
Tanith Lee's entry paints a vivid portrait of desperation, cruelty, and almost otherworldly wonder and danger in the tale of Graynne, who has been used and abused terribly in her young life, and finally takes a desperate chance to chase love and freedom by following a handsome would-be dragon slayer... but not all is as it initially seems. It feels somewhat long for the tale it's telling, wallowing at several points rather than progressing, and there's something dark and twisted but also cathartic at its heart. Lee uses language brilliantly here, particularly in the descriptions and in the last parts as she evokes a time jump with subtle terminology shifts.
With an Egyptian-flavored fantasy setting, "Joust" should've been more interesting, but everything seems to work out forever in Vetch's favor despite lip service given to long odds and difficulties, robbing the story of its tension. Yes, he starts out a serf to a cruel landowner (the first of many flat characters), but he's quickly plucked away by the world's kindest and most understanding dragon rider, who has a coincidentally unusual backstory and philosophy that basically hands Vetch a blueprint for his own freedom on a silver platter, and despite being new to the world of dragons and being ostracized by other dragon-boys he excels at everything he puts his hands on. It struck me quite early on that it felt familiar somehow, and then I realized that, in essence, Lackey had just given a light massage to the basic story of Jane Yolen's Pit Dragon books - in which an enslaved boy steals a dragon egg from his master, training it in secret for the pit fights that are the only path out of poverty on his desert world, only Jakkin faced steeper odds and setbacks and took far greater risks - with a light touch of Pern and a dash of Dick King-Smith's children's book The Cuckoo Child, about a bird-loving boy who steals an ostrich egg from the zoo to raise at the family farm (only again, the boy Jack Daw and ostrich Oliver encounter more obstacles and stumbles than Vetch). Lackey later expanded the idea of this novella into a series, but if this story is any indication, I've already read it all elsewhere. Even the titular dragon "jousting" barely enters into it. There are a few nice descriptions along the way, and maybe if I hadn't read the other books it borrowed so heavily from I'd have been more invested (or if something had actually gone wrong or been complicated enough to create genuine tension), but overall I found it too derivative to be interesting.
I have only read one book by Michael Swanwick, The Iron Dragon's Daughter, which shares a universe with this tale. I did not like The Iron Dragon's Daughter, despite some intriguing ideas, but it was a long time ago when I read it; perhaps, I thought, I just wasn't ready for the story he was telling. Perhaps it was a younger me that felt so utterly repulsed by the ugly subtexts of his world and its hateful, sadistic, monstrous dragons. Well, if it was just me then, it's still just me now. While Swanwick weaves a suitably surreal fairy realm - the sort that hearkens back to older, stranger, colder ideas of fae magicks and ways - I was just plain sickened by much of what occurred there, and did not like anyone or anything I encountered in it, least of all the beastly dragon (let alone Will)... and that's not even getting into the unsubtle rape themes. This is a world that can kiss a basilisk full on the lips and burn to ash and probably be a more pleasant place for it.
At the end, editor Marvin Kaye discusses more dragons in various media... but he not only confesses ignorance about one of the most popular draconic franchises of the time (Anne McCaffrey's Pern series, still classics to a degree), and further mentions a couple movies just because he dislikes them, but then he provides a selection of recommended dragon media that is... quite eclectic. For instance, 1962's Harryhausenesque (but not actually the work of stop-motion FX master Ray Harryhausen) family fantasy romp Jack the Giant Killer (which I've seen brilliantly riffed by the Rifftrax crew - highly recommended, and the movie's entertaining enough, of a bit goofy and thin on logic, to keep one interested on its own) barely features a dragon at all. The websites are, as one might expect more than twenty years after this book was published, largely defunct, save "urbandragons.com", which appears to be a fossil site that hasn't been updated in quite some time. There were many great dragon websites back in the day I would've recommended over this one, though most have long gone to the Wayback Machine.
In any event, having only paid a couple of bucks, I can't say I'm too disappointed in my reading choice here. The five stories did, at least, all feature actual dragons (not "pseudo-dragons" or "dragons within" or other dodges I've seen passed off as dragon stories in other anthologies), and they each are distinctive in their own ways, even if I wasn't fond of the tales themselves. Some of the imagery does linger. But I still found myself wishing for better...

You Might Also Enjoy:
We Three Dragons (Bill Fawcett, editor) - My Review
A Diversity of Dragons (Anne McCaffrey with Richard Woods) - My Review
Here, There Be Dragons (Jane Yolen) - My Review

Serendipity (Marissa Meyer, editor)

Serendipity: Ten Romantic Tropes, Transformed
Marissa Meyer, editor
Feiwel and Friends
Fiction, YA Anthology/Romance
**** (Good)

DESCRIPTION: The matchmaker who doesn't expect to find their own match... the fake relationship that reveals real feelings... the vacation mix-up leaving two people sharing a room... the grand romantic gesture... In this anthology, several notable authors explore these and other tropes of young adult romance tales.

REVIEW: For all that I don't generally read many romances (especially romances that aren't crossovers with some other genre, such as sci-fi or fantasy), I'm familiar enough with the tropes and with rom-coms (also not generally my go-to entertainment, but ubiquitous enough I've absorbed the gist through cultural osmosis) to see what these stories were trying to do and where they were working to subvert them, even though some of the subversions didn't feel as subversive as I'd expected given the title and its promise of tropes "transformed". As one might expect, I enjoyed some tales more than others, though none were outright clunkers. The stories present a spectrum of personalities and attractions, with some cultural variations as well. All things considered, it made a nice break to change up my reading selections. As with all anthologies, I rated on a cumulative score.

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The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2018 (N. K. Jemisin, editor)

The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2018
N. K. Jemisin, editor (John Joseph Adams, series editor)
Mariner
Fiction, Anthology/Fantasy/Sci-Fi
**** (Good)

DESCRIPTION: Rivers take human form to escape captivity... a young woman discovers a dark family secret in the worst possible way... a robot on a galactic spaceship is forced into an impossible choice by a stowaway... These and more stories are collected in this volume, edited by author N. K. Jemisin.

REVIEW: Yes, it's a few years old, but I keep meaning to read more short stories, and this book was free to me. (I also, as I've noted in previous reviews, have somewhat iffy luck with anthologies, but I like what I've read of Jemisin's work and decided to trust her judgement... and, again, free to me.) As with the majority of anthologies and collections I've read, the results are a bit of a mixed bag. A few I thoroughly enjoyed, some others were decent explorations of their concepts (if not quite my cup of cocoa), a few more I just could not connect with, and one I admittedly had to resort to skimming to get through. More than one of these seemed a bit long, not just for the anthology but for the stories they were telling. Many of the tales reflect the year in which they were written, the tumultuous gut-punch fallout of events in 2016 that continue to resonate unpleasantly through the nation and greater world; not surprisingly, the overall tone of the anthology leans dark and bleak and more than a little angry. At the end, information about the authors is presented, along with statements about the tales included, their inspirations and influences. I wish the stories had been more clearly connected, or at least the author notes had been presented in the same order as the stories appeared instead of just alphabetically; by the time I reached the afterword, I had to flip back and forth to even try matching up who had written what. This extra behind-the-scenes discussion helped lift the volume to a solid four stars. Overall, it's a decent assortment of tales reflecting the modern state of the genre.

You Might Also Enjoy:
The Improbable Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (John Joseph Adams, editor) - My Review
Some of the Best from Tor.com: 2012 Edition (Liz Gorinsky, David G. Hartwell, and Patrick Nielsen Hayden, editors) - My Review

Great Classic Science Fiction (BBC Audio, editors)

Great Classic Science Fiction
BBC Audio, editors
Blackstone Audio
Fiction, Anthology/Fantasy/Sci-Fi
**** (Good)

DESCRIPTION: Compiled in audio format, eight classic tales of speculative fiction from eight masters of the field:
"The Door in the Wall", by H. G. Wells: A prominent politician at the height of his career is haunted by a green door and memories of a garden of great joy and wonder that lies beyond.
"All Cats Are Gray", by Andre Norton: A derelict spaceship hides an elusive danger.
"A Martian Odyssey", by Stanley G. Weinbaum: Rescued after several days lost on the surface of Mars, an explorer relates his wild adventures and even wilder alien companion.
"Victory", by Lester del Rey: With aliens waging war against humanoid allies and our own colony worlds, Earth's strangely passive stance infuriates one veteran.
"The Moon is Green", by Fritz Leiber: With all of humanity under lockdown following nuclear annihilation, a housewife discovers a strange face outside her window, where no human should be able to survive.
"The Winds of Time", by James H. Schmitz: A captain-for-hire grows suspicious of his secretive passenger's true motives when something flings their ship into utterly unknown space.
"The Defenders", by Philip K. Dick: Eight years into a forced underground existence, while a global war is waged by specially-designed machines, one man learns the startling truth.
"Missing Link", by Frank Herbert: After a starship disappears, possibly at the hands of uncontacted primitive aliens, a young diplomat investigates to learn the truth and whether the chimpanzee-like beings pose a greater galactic threat.

REVIEW: Yes, another audiobook to kill time at my job... Like many anthologies, the selection feels a bit random; I can't help wondering if these were really the greatest stories these authors wrote, though they were decent enough (even if they age around the edges, particularly in their presentation of women and races, plus the persistent belief - repeated across more than one story - that humanity is simply going through a stage with its pesky wars and evolution dictates that it must inevitably "grow up" and become a responsible adult species that puts all conflict behind it). The first story doesn't even seem like science fiction at all; a randomly-appearing door to a garden paradise (which might or might not be Heaven), returning at particular junctures in a character's life, seems far more in the realm of fantasy, even if the author might be better known for his science fiction titles. Several evoke a decent sense of wonder and adventure, but a couple felt scattered and a bit pointless, not to mention drawn out (especially for "short" stories). None of them were outright clunkers, though, even if a couple edged close, so - given my usual iffy luck with anthologies - I rounded up a half-star for a Good rating.

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The Best of Damon Knight (Damon Knight) - My Review
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City (Clifford D. Simak) - My Review

Wanted: A Western Story Collection (The Western Writers Group)

Wanted: A Western Story Collection
The Western Writers Group
Solstice Publishing
Fiction, Anthology/Western
*** (Okay)

DESCRIPTION: A boy is trapped after encountering an enraged grizzly... a bounty hunter intervenes when a crooked cattleman bullies a family of sheepherders... a retired Pinkerton agent and his daughter run into trouble while buying horses... a pair of ex-outlaws find trouble on the trail while trying to go straight... These and other stories of the Wild West are compiled in this anthology.

REVIEW: It was cheap, and I need to explore outside my usual reading comfort zones/genres every so often, so I gave it a try. Like most anthologies in my experience, the results are mixed. Most of the tales here are part of larger series; the degree to which these adventures stand alone varies greatly by author. Likewise, my reaction - from interested page-turning to eye-rolls and barely-suppressed groans at hackneyed stereotypes - varied greatly by author. Though these are written by modern Western writers, a few felt so stale I'd have pegged them as relics from half a century ago. (I suppose this may be one of the attractions of the genre, but not for me.) I enjoyed two or three of these, actively disliked a couple, and the rest fell into a bland middle that already fades in my memory. It makes a decent sampler if one is looking for a new Western author to follow, though.

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Killing Dirty (Pete Clark) - My Review
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Unwanted: Dead or Alive (Gene Shelton) - My Review

The Dragon and the Stars (Derwin Mak and Eric Choi, editors)

The Dragon and the Stars
Derwin Mak and Eric Choi, editors
DAW
Fiction, Anthology/Fantasy/Sci-Fi
***+ (Okay/Good)

DESCRIPTION: In an alternate America, a group of friends heads to exotic Anglotown for a celebratory dinner... the Man in the Moon comes to Earth in search of his future bride... an artist crafting clay sculptures for the emperor's tomb finds an unexpected love and more unexpected talent... a dying North Canadian town's future hinges on a methane-powered orbital craft... These and other stories appear in this anthology of Chinese-themed speculative fiction tales.

REVIEW: For many years, science fiction and fantasy have generally been dominated by white, often male voices, despite the great wealth of material and history to be explored around the world. More recently, the balance has been shifting, with a welcome spread of diverse settings, characters, and authors appearing on the shelves. This anthology turns to China and (generally) Chinese authors for its stories. Like many anthologies, I found the contents a mixed bag. A few lacked cultural context and left me a little lost. Some (and I find this in several anthologies) never quite came to a point, or felt either too long or too short. I didn't consider any outright terrible, though "Going Down to Anglotown" had an ugly darkness about it - which I suspect was quite deliberate, if rather heavy-handed, considering the stereotypes endured by Asian Americans. If you're looking to expand your cultural horizons and explore new authors, this is a decent choice.(The title and cover, though, have little to do with any of the stories presented - a minor enough irritant, but there it is. Plus, it's a "Western" dragon.)

You Might Also Enjoy:
Magical Roads (Kia Zi Shiru) - My Review
The Dragon Keeper (Carole Wilkinson) - My Review
Serpent of Time (Eugene Woodbury) - My Review

The Blue Fairy Book (Andrew Lang)

The Blue Fairy Book
(The Andrew Lang's Fairy Book series, Book 1)
Andrew Lang
Open Road Media
Fiction, CH? Anthology/Fantasy/Folklore
*** (Okay)

DESCRIPTION: From Red Riding Hood's fateful encounter with the wolf to Beauty's imprisonment with the Beast, from the magic lamp and ring of Aladdin to a prince's encounter with a talking white cat, Andrew Lang collects many traditional stories.

REVIEW: Fairy tales and folk stories embody traditions of storytelling older than civilization, and Lang's Fairy books are classic collections of classic tales. Many, however, read rather stiff and stilted to modern sensibilities, having been filtered and retold through countless tellers and countless cultures before being written down and (often) sanitized with a Christian slant for Lang's audience. One can see fragments of much older stories in recurring themes and seemingly incongruous plot twists and elements, lost bits of symbolism and cultural touchstones. Some are tangibly based on similar roots; "The Bronze Ring" has clear elements of Aladdin's tale, and another story is a thin reconstruction of the tale of Perseus and Andromeda. After a while, the grandiose descriptions started running together (there are only so many jewel-encrusted palaces and silken brocades and hosts of hundreds or thousands of courtiers and soldiers in gleaming armor one can differentiate), and several stories felt overlong or too short, again reflecting fragments of larger, likely lost oral traditions. They can't help dating, with virtue invariably linked to beauty and royalty and wickedness with darkness and, usually, non-Christian roots. Lang also inexplicably includes chapters from Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels, the journey to Lilliput. Most of the other stories were recorded folk tales, composed in ages past, while Swift's work was comparatively recent, written by a known hand, and intended for a clear satiric purpose. It just didn't fit. On the whole, while the stories in The Blue Fairy Book reflect important roots of modern storytelling and fantasy tales, inspiring writers and artists even today, I just couldn't really get into them.

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The Folktale Cat (Frank de Caro) - My Review
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The Improbable Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (John Joseph Adams, editor)

The Improbable Adventures of Sherlock Holmes
John Joseph Adams, editor
Night Shade Books
Fiction, Anthology/Horror/Mystery/Sci-Fi
***+ (Okay/Good)

DESCRIPTION: A family's curse takes the form of a white fox... an inventor's experiments with gravity lead to his suspicious demise... a famous author witnesses lights in the sky... Literature's most popular detective Sherlock Holmes and his faithful chronicler and sidekick John Watson return in new tales penned by prominent authors, several of which blur the boundaries between improbable and impossible.

REVIEW: Sherlock Holmes is one of the most invoked names in fiction, for good or ill. For the most part, the authors collected here do well by the name, though the stories themselves are a mixed bag; once again, novelists don't always make the best short story authors. Some tales wandered, but only a few seemed ultimately pointless, with two reading more like fanfic exercises and one an outright clunker so out of character (and out of sync with the other entries) that it seems like an insult than an homage. As for the "improbable" label, I found it misleading. While some stories did indeed incorporate supernatural or sci-fi elements, most had perfectly mundane explanations, which my improbable-loving self found a trifle disappointing. On the whole, it's not a bad collection, adding some interesting new adventures to the great detective's archives.

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Some of the Best from Tor.com: 2012 Edition (Liz Gorinsky, David G. Hartwell, and Patrick Nielsen Hayden, editors)

Some of the Best from Tor.com: 2012 Edition
Liz Gorinsky, David G. Hartwell, and Patrick Nielsen Hayden, editors
Tor
Fiction, Anthology/Fantasy/Sci-Fi
*** (Okay)

DESCRIPTION: A painter of magic renders her embittered mentor's final portrait, an expectant mother uses breakthrough technology to visit her own unhappy childhood, alien bounty hunters seek a human criminal hiding among primitives, Doc Holliday escorts an unusual group to an otherworldly derelict outside of Tombstone... this anthology features these and more stories written by some of Tor's top names.
An eBook-exclusive title.

REVIEW: This freebie download is clearly intended as an enticement to explore the authors' works. Unfortunately, novelists don't always make the best short story authors. Many of these stories ramble on (and on), focusing on unpleasant characters in depressing situations who often do unlikeable things. I liked a few of the ideas, but only one or two of these short stories worked for me. The rest were quickly forgotten.

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The Dragon Book (Jack Dann and Gardner Dozois, editors) - My Review
Flights of Fantasy (Mercedes Lackey, editor) - My Review

Dragon Poems for Smiletrain.org 2011 (M. R. Mathias, editor)

Dragon Poems for Smiletrain.org 2011
M. R. Mathias, editor
Amazon Digital Services
Fiction, YA? Anthology/Fantasy/Poetry
*** (Okay)

DESCRIPTION: A selection of poems about dragons, from silly haikus to epic retellings of classic tales. Proceeds from the sale of this volume benefit Smiletrain.org, a foundation providing cleft repair surgeries for children in need.
A Kindle-exclusive title.

REVIEW: It was a free download, and I needed something lightweight to read, so I gave this a try. I enjoyed some of the poems, and the worst of them were merely forgettable. I've read far worse.

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Dragons Composed (James Ferris, editor)

Dragons Composed
James Ferris, editor
Kerlak Enterprises, Inc.
Fiction, Anthology/Fantasy
*** (Okay)

DESCRIPTION: From feudal Japan to modern America, from our own past to alternate worlds, the mighty dragon thrives in this collection of tales.

REVIEW: This was offered as a free-for-Kindle download, so - despite my reservations about anthologies - I figured it was worth a try. On the plus side, every single story in this volume actually featured dragons: not metaphoric dragons, not misidentified pseudodragons, but real dragons. They also, with two exceptions, were self-contained tales, not part of other universes or series. On the minus side, the quality and interest level varied significantly. While few outright annoyed me, almost none lingered in my mind in any way, and several simply bored me - telling me about the tale rather than engaging me as it unfolded, or dawdling to foregone conclusions, or simply failing to intrigue me.
Since I'm trying to write short stories of my own, it made for interesting study, but to be perfectly honest I would've much rather had an interesting read.

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The Dragon Book (Jack Dann and Gardner Dozois, editors) - My Review
Dragons: The Greatest Stories (Martin H. Greenberg, editor) - My Review
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The Return of Sherlock Holmes (Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

The Return of Sherlock Holmes
(A Sherlock Holmes collection, Book 3)
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Public Domain Books
Fiction, Anthology/Mystery
***+ (Okay/Good)

DESCRIPTION: For many years, the world - and Doctor Watson - believed they had seen the last of the great detective Sherlock Holmes. Then the widowed Watson finds himself with a peculiar visitor... a man he thought had perished at the hand of his arch-enemy that fateful day at Reichenbach Fall. Many more adventures await the duo, dutifully recorded by the good doctor.

REVIEW: Thirteen more adventures with the intrepid, nearly-infallible Holmes mark Doyle's return to his iconic character, one he evidently resisted for some time before popular demand (and the comparative failure of other endeavors) forced him back to Baker Street. The quality seems on par with previous installments, with singular characters often outshining the plot and occasionally dizzying leaps of logic. By modern standards, they seem prone to telling more than showing how the mystery unfolds, with long stretches of explanatory dialog taking the place of active investigation, but they still managed to hold my interest.

You Might Also Enjoy:
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Sherlock: Season Two (Amazon DVD link)

The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes (Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes
(A Sherlock Holmes collection, Book 2)
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Public Domain Books
Fiction, Anthology/Mystery
***+ (Okay/Good)

DESCRIPTION: In this second collection, Doctor Watson relates more stories of his escapades with the singular detective Sherlock Holmes, ranging from a glimpse at his earliest cases to his fateful meeting with the criminal mastermind Professor Moriarty.

REVIEW: Once more, while exposure to previous renditions no doubt colored my reading, I could still enjoy these tales for their original characters and the variety of crimes and criminals. It lost half a star because a couple stories felt over-talky, with one being entirely related via flashback. I also felt there ought to have been a little more build-up to a nemesis like Moriarty... especially one who proves so pivotal in Holmes' life and canon. (The fact that Doyle, likely for financial reasons, bowed to public demand and resurrected his seminal detective for more stories also takes some of the bite of "The Final Problem.") Still, I enjoyed it overall.
(My reaction to "The Final Problem," I suspect, is strongly tainted by the many movies and other interpretations that build up Moriarty as a long-running antagonist... most notably the recent BBC Sherlock, whose second series finale blows Doyle's conclusion out of the water.)

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes
(A Sherlock Holmes collection, Book 1)
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Public Domain Books
Fiction, Anthology/Mystery
**** (Good)

DESCRIPTION: For several years, the London doctor and war veteran John Watson was privileged to be a companion and friend to Sherlock Holmes, the greatest detective of all time. Following along on his investigations, he chronicled their various adventures - the scandalous, the dangerous, even the occasional minor diversion - in these stories.

REVIEW: After the character Sherlock Holmes proved wildly popular, Doyle featured him in several short stories beyond his novels. This, the first collection of those stories, includes many titles made famous by various interpretations through the years. Sometimes Holmes seems a little too brilliant to be believable, and one story at least - the infamous "Case of the Speckled Band" - simply could not happen in our universe, but even at their most implausible the characters remained interesting and singular. Given my notoriously poor luck with anthologies, I gave it an extra half-star for not boring me to tears or making a mockery of its stated subject matter. I expect I'll be reading more of Holmes in the future, especially as the originals have lapsed into public domain (and are therefore available free on my Kindle.)
(I've also greatly enjoyed the latest BBC revival of the character; the more stories I read, the more references I'm finding in the new Sherlock episodes.)

The Dragon Book (Jack Dann and Gardner Dozois, editors)

The Dragon Book
Jack Dann and Gardner Dozois, editors
Ace
Fiction, Anthology/Fantasy
**+ (Bad/Okay)

DESCRIPTION: Fierce, proud, magical, majestic... Few fantastic creatures have infiltrated the human imagination like the dragon. This short story collection contains 19 tales from some of the top names in fantasy and science fiction literature today.

REVIEW: After finishing this book, I started wondering if, perhaps, my problem with anthologies isn't with the stories, but with me. Maybe I don't understand what a short story is. I always thought that a short story was a condensed tale, either taking place in a very short time or simply distilled into its purest form, without the subplots or scenery or false starts or deadweight characters that populate longer works. After reading this collection, each one written by a best-selling author who presumably knows more about writing and stories than I could begin to comprehend, I've been forced to conclude that I was mistaken. Apparently, most short stories are about unlikable characters doing unlikable and uninteresting things which only rarely advance whatever passes for a plot, only to end with either a non-event or an out-of-the-blue twist that feels like it was spliced in from another work of fiction. "Short" also apparently can be expanded to cover forty or more pages worth of this aforementioned meandering prose.
Anyone who has read my reviews knows that I have notoriously bad luck with short stories; Bruce Coville, who seems to rely more on story integrity than celebrity name-dropping, seems to be the only safe bet, in my experience. But I've read and enjoyed books by several authors included here, such as Naomi "Temeraire" Novik, Jonathan "Bartimaeus" Stroud, and Tad "Shadowmarch" Williams. (It was also at Half Price Books for a very good price.) So, I figured I'd make an exception to my standard No-Anthologies-Edited-By-Anyone-But-Bruce-Coville rule. Sadly, the stories by two of my favorite authors, had I read them alone, would've turned me off of their larger, better books completely: Williams gets too clever for his own good with malapropisms and other English language maulings in "A Stark and Wormy Knight," while Novik's "Vici" - about the beginning of the dragon-human bonding that forms the heart of her alternate-universe series - lacks the character depth and sense of historic realism that I so love about the Temeraire books. Out of the whole book, I only enjoyed maybe three or four of the stories (including the one submitted by Bruce Coville.) The rest varied between pointless and boring, lacking sympathetic characters or situations I gave a rat's tail about, and often relegating the titular dragons to bit parts. Once again, this seems to be a case of editors (or, I suppose, publishers) collecting Big Names to drop rather than good stories. Lesson learned the hard way... again...

Oddest of All (Bruce Coville)

Oddest of All
Bruce Coville
Harcourt
Fiction, YA Fantasy/Anthology
*** (Okay)

DESCRIPTION: Bruce Coville, prolific author and editor, compiles nine of his original short stories in this anthology.

REVIEW: Usually, I find Coville a fairly safe bet when it comes to anthologies. His previous collections (Oddly Enough and Odder than Ever) had a nice range of tales, from silly to scary to downright bizarre. Comparatively, this collection feels flat. The stories all read fairly fast, but only a handful linger in the memory for any length of time. More than one feels like an unfinished start to a book that never happened. Though not a terrible anthology by any means, I suppose I just expected a little more from Coville.