Format: Paperback, 368 pages
Release Date: May 3, 2022
Publisher: Ace Books
Source: Publisher
Genre: Fantasy / Paranormal
An all-star urban fantasy collection featuring short stories from #1 New York Times bestselling authors Jim Butcher, Patricia Briggs, Charlaine Harris, Kelley Armstrong, and more . . .
In
this short story collection of courage, adventure, and magic,
heroes—ordinary people who do the right thing—bravely step forward.
But running toward danger might cost them everything. . . .
This collection of short stories has been dedicated to Roxanne Longstreet Conrad, aka Rachel Caine who sadly passed away November 1, 2020. Rachel was one of my top 5 authors and her loss will be felt for years to come.
"Little Things" by Jim Butcher (2022) I haven't read this series yet so I don't know where in the series order this book falls. Apparently this is a new short story. This story features the pixie Toot-Toot who discovers Gremlin invaders unbeknownst to the wizard Harry Dresden who has just lost someone he loved. Ir order to win, Toot-Toot, fellow pixies, and dread cat Mister must put their lives on the line to save Dresden's castle.
"The Dark Ship" by Anne Bishop (2022) Story set in the world of the Others but for the first time, a different area of the world. A young Intuit woman, Vedette, whose fishing village who is brutalized by a man, essentially a pirate, and she by family as well makes decisions to protect and save those most vulnerable at personal cost. She helps and is eventually helped by a Sanguinati sea captain, Corvo, and some very scary Elders.
"Comfort Zone" by Kelley Armstrong (2022) From the Otherworld series, two college students, necromancer Chloe Saunders and werewolf Derek Souza, are trying to stay out of trouble and avoid supernatural hijinks, but when a ghost asks for their help, Chloe can’t say no.
"Fire Hazard" by Kevin Hearne (2022) Set in Australia, An Atticus story from Oberon's POV as the wolfhound finds himself having to be a hero. Another series that I have fallen so far behind, that it almost seems not worth it to start the series right now.
"Silverspell" by Chloe Neill (2022) Story is part of the authors Heirs
of Chicagoland. Elise Sullivan investigates the death of a werewolf
unaffiliated with boyfriend, Connor’s pack. Connor aids in tracking down
who might have been responsible for kicking off the apocalypse. This story seems like a tie-in to the next book in the series. We shall see.
"The Return of the Mage" by Charlaine Harris (2022) Apparently, this story features come mercenary “soldiers” who appeared in All Together
Dead. Batayna and Clovache are tasked with rescuing fellow mercs after
their first mission goes wrong and someone is left behind. Has zero bearing on the Sookie Stackhouse series.
"The Vampires Karamazov" by Nancy Holder (2022) This was a rather odd story about a vampire named Alexei who is concerned for his immortal soul as well as his really nasty father and questionable brothers who are also vampires.
"Dating Terrors" by Patricia Briggs (2022) Asil Moreno aka the Moor has been shuttered by the loss and grief of his mate, Sarai, for centuries. Ghost Hunter Ruby Kowalczyk is in desperate need of help with her magic being bound by a dark force. When her friends and Asil’s pack conspire to have them get together from internet dating service, it becomes clear to Asil that this woman not only needs his help, but might be someone much more to him.
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Little Things
by Jim Butcher
My name is
Major General Toot-Toot Minimus, sprite in service to Sir Harry Dresden,
Knight of the Winter Court and Wizard of Chicago, and captain of his
personal guard. When the skies darken with smoke and ash, when wails of
wrong and woe rend the night, when my lord goes to war with titans and
unspeakable horrors from Outside of reality, someone must protect him
from threats too small to readily discern.
That is my place: not at my lord's side, but at his ankles.
In
the days since my lord had defeated a mad goddess in single combat and
claimed his Castle as reward, pizza deliveries had been spotty. The
troops had begun to express concern. They had, after all, fought for
their right to pizza. Castle stores of inferior frozen stuff could only
last so long.
There was a dark mortal entity my lord
called a conomee. The conomee was very bad, because of all the rubble
and the blocked streets after the Battle. Battles make conomees that
were once good very bad. Now the bad conomee was preventing pizza from
being delivered.
It was a matter of grave concern.
The troops talked in fearful whispers about the conomee all of the time.
"My lord," I said politely. "The troops are worried about the conomee again."
My
lord opened one of his eyes and blew out a little breath from between
his lips. He had been sitting on a pillow on the floor doing absolutely
nothing, which was why I had picked this moment to speak to him. His
hair was mussy. There were circles under his eyes. He wore a cast on one
arm and had an ankle wrapped so heavily that it was almost as big.
"Toot," he said in a bleary voice. "I am meditating."
He hadn't been doing anything at all when I spoke to him, so he must have meant some other time. "When?" I asked.
He
bowed his head forward sharply and sighed. Then he looked up at me and
gave me a tired smile. "Shall we go put a couple of pizzas in the oven?"
"That
would ease tensions greatly," I told him in my most serious voice. It
was good to be very serious when bringing matters to my lord, so that he
knew I would not bother him with trivial things.
"Give me
a second," he said. I waited for practically forever while he unfolded
himself from where he'd been sitting and clambered slowly to his feet.
My
lord did not look well. Death had come for his lady during the Battle.
At night, he would shut the world away from his chambers, and though he
would sleep for hours and hours he never seemed rested. He moved as
though the weight of an ocean pressed down on his shoulders.
"Right,"
he said in a rough voice a moment later. "To the kitchen." There was a
rustling sound behind him. A second later, a large, gray, bobtailed
tomcat named Mister brushed past his ankles, apparently in an attempt to
trip him. My lord absorbed the assault with the reflexes of long
practice and started walking. He stumped slowly through the hallways of
the Castle, down to the kitchens in the first basement.
I
did not like the kitchens. Everything was made of the Bane, which seemed
completely unnecessary. Couldn't they have made it out of plastic? My
lord assured me that the Bane helped keep mortals safe from illness, but
I did not see how. One of the mortal refugees who was residing in the
guest quarters of the Castle had left a little cloth catnip mouse out
for Mister, who had become the mascot of everyone staying in the Castle.
He received all the petting he wished, from which he always seemed
smug. The old tomcat pounced upon the mouse happily and began batting it
methodically around the large kitchen floor.
My lord
tightened the belt of his robe, shivering a little against the Castle's
cold as he started the ovens and walked into the freezer to emerge with a
pair of frozen pizzas. He hit the switch on a battered, ancient-looking
box, and very fancy-sounding human music came out of it, all crackly,
like it was on the other side of a large fire.
It is not my place to judge why my lord likes his music crackly. He is a wizard. They're weird.
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