barbarahowe's review

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4.0

Beyond the City Limits is a collection of a dozen stories by writers based in Dunedin, New Zealand. Several of the stories I particularly enjoyed were set in Dunedin, and had a strong local flavour: university students run amok in the Botanic Gardens in Dickie Birds and a tattoo has a will of its own in Invisible Ink, both by Lara M Hewn, and teenage hormones cause trouble among the Elementals in Paper Butterflies by Kura Carpenter. (Paper Butterflies is a preview of Carpenter's terrific novel, The Kingfisher's Debt.)

The Shark Bell is a supernatural romance, also set in Dunedin. It's not bad, just not among my favourites. YMMV.

The Source and The Guardian by Deb E Howell concern renewal and power politics in a fantasy world.

In Pink Unicorns Solvable in O(2), a mathematician learns that even good deeds have repercussions.

Absurdist humour drives Famine to Feast by Justin Elliott.

Be Careful Where You Sleep by R L Stedman is a modern update on Thomas the Rhymer.

In Breathe, by Kura Carpenter, a Water Elemental is determined to save a drowning witch.

The final story, Heart's Desire by Justin Elliott, has a very satisfactory ending for a gentlemanly thief.
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