Theme-oriented anthologies, especially those about holidays, tend to throw up (no pun intended) too much of rubbish, resulting only in bad hangovers and lengthier regrets (I already sound blue, and it’s not even Christmas-eve!). This book, dealing with Werewolves and Christmas, came pretty close towards fulfilling that destiny (sheesh!), but was eventually redeemed by some very good stories. But let me hold my reindeers (I mean horses) and get on with it, story-by-story.Apart from the editorial Introduction, by Charlaine Harris and Toni L.P. Kelner, the book has: -1. “Gift Wrap” by Charlaine Harris: A Sookie Stackhouse story that was as enjoyable as a wafer, and had as much depth. B+2. “The Haire of the Beast” by Donna Andrews: Now, this was one fun read that was entirely predictable, totally juvenile, and really enjoyable! A3. “Lucy, at Christmastime” by Simon R. Green: A maudlin piece, which is quite literary, quite ornate, quite sad, and oughtn’t to be read unless you are in a heavy-drinking mode. B4. “The Night Things Changed” by Dana Cameron: Neat, action-packed story that introduces us to the author’s “Fangborn” universe, with snappy dialogue and solid characterisation. A5. “The Werewolf Before Christmas” by Kat Richardson: The only rubbish story in this anthology, where the author seemingly remained confused till the end as to whether she was writing a horror story, or a comedy, or a tragedy (it eventually became a farce, but there lies the catch of anthologies). D6. “Fresh Meat” by Alan Gordon: This story is the wet-dream of a dog-lover, and ought to be f*****g essential reading! A7. “Il Est Ne” by Carrie Vaughn: Formulaic and typically average fare. No point reading it. B8. “The Perfect Gift” by Dana Stabenow: Even more formulaic and typically average fare. No point reading it. C9. “Christmas Past” by Keri Arthur: Again, formulaic and typically average fare. No point reading it. C10. “S.A” by J.A. Conrath: One of the BEST stories in this collection. A+11. “The Star of David” by Patricia Briggs: Solid, action-driven, poignant, intriguing, and eventually redeeming. A+12. “You’d Better Not Pyout” by Nancy Pickard: Began nicely, got bogged down into self-defeating stupidity. C13. “Rogue Elements” by Karen Chance: Felt just like Dresden Files, only with the protagonist being of a different gender, and the setting slightly askew. Enjoyable. A14. “Milk and Cookies” by Rob Thurman: Again, formulaic and typically average fare. But this time, the catch (that gets revealed at the end) makes it slightly interesting. B+15. “Keeping Watch Over His Flock” by Toni L.P. Kelner: Began just like a horde of other stories in this very anthology, became very realistic in its depiction of teenage angst, became very grim & very real in the critical situation, and outshone almost all other stories in its throatlump-inducing ending. A+So, where does all that grading leave us with? Suppose A+ means 5 out of 5, A means 4, B+ means 3, B means 2, C means 1 and D means 0, we have 48 spread across 15 stories. Being slightly charitable on this festive season, let me round it off on a little higher note. Recommended, with season’s greetings. So far, the stories in here that I enjoyed are "Star of David", "Il Est Ne", "SA", and "Keeping Watch over His Flock". "Il Est Ne" made me go get a book by this author from the library, and I was already a fan of Patricia Briggs ("Star of David").Most of the stories have only been sort of okay."The Perfect Gift" is nonsensical. I kept waiting for it to explain what was going on and then it just ended."Milk and Cookies" takes a long time to get to the wolfy part, long enough to kind of annoy me, and in the end it happened so quickly that I don't think it was explained enough, but it was still fairly amusing.I do kind of wish that so many stories didn't rely on Santa. There are a lot of other things about Christmas, so seeing that one element played over and over became tiresome.
What do You think about Wolfsbane And Mistletoe (2008)?
Patricia Briggs - Mercy Thompson series #1.5 - The Star of David - read
—Kenneth
a fun read, and now I have more authors I need to investigate
—Cody
book 1.5 - The Star of David by Patricia Briggs
—maggiejayne
