Scan barcode
papidoc's review against another edition
3.0
Short novella featuring Julie, Kate's foster daughter. She solves her first mystery, and finds a school at the same time.
lectorliber04's review against another edition
4.0
The apple has not fallen far from the tree. Julie is certain Kate has set up the appointment with Seven Stars Academy to enroll her. To Julie's surprise Kate is there to help out the principal because one of the students, Ashlyn, has vanished. Because Julie is a 'kid' she is asked to pretend to be interested in attending the school and investigate. There is also the fact that Julie can see magic. There are some hints regarding Julie's feelings for Derek. I think that we are going to see more of Ashlyn, Brook, Barka and Yu Fong in future Julie-oriented books and I venture that Derek has some competition in Yu Fong.
Kate has been a good teacher because Julie sounds and acts a lot like her adoptive mother. Not only did Julie solved the mystery but as she originally suspected Kate wanted her daughter to attend Seven Stars Academy and how could Julie say no when she is now worried about some of the students she met and helped? Quick and fun read.
Kate has been a good teacher because Julie sounds and acts a lot like her adoptive mother. Not only did Julie solved the mystery but as she originally suspected Kate wanted her daughter to attend Seven Stars Academy and how could Julie say no when she is now worried about some of the students she met and helped? Quick and fun read.
angels_gp17's review against another edition
5.0
I only read Ilona Andrews story Magic Test.
5 Magic Test Stars
Magic Test is #5.3 in Ilona Andrews Kate Daniels sereis. I enjoyed a peak into Julie’s mind and life. What a fantastic read! Ilona knows how to pull her fans into the world of Atlanta and it's Magic/Technology.
Magic Test is done from Julie's POV. Ilona does a superb job of explaining how the world works with and without magic. Just like all kids they don’t want to attend school, but must to learn all the things they need to know to get them by in life. It starts with Julie and Kate waiting in the principles office. One of the students is missing and Julie is asked to help. Julie has a feeling that this is a test, but she still goes through with it to help a kid she has never meet. Julie’s magic is exceptional, invaluable and rare. She must keep it a secret. If people found out what she is they would use her. The end is fantastic!
I enjoyed everything about this short story. I love the world created by Ilona and all the characters. She infuses mythology, humor and action, creating a fun-filled short story that is sure to be enjoyed by all.
I highly recommend checking out the Kate Daniels series.
5 Magic Test Stars
Magic Test is #5.3 in Ilona Andrews Kate Daniels sereis. I enjoyed a peak into Julie’s mind and life. What a fantastic read! Ilona knows how to pull her fans into the world of Atlanta and it's Magic/Technology.
Magic Test is done from Julie's POV. Ilona does a superb job of explaining how the world works with and without magic. Just like all kids they don’t want to attend school, but must to learn all the things they need to know to get them by in life. It starts with Julie and Kate waiting in the principles office. One of the students is missing and Julie is asked to help. Julie has a feeling that this is a test, but she still goes through with it to help a kid she has never meet. Julie’s magic is exceptional, invaluable and rare. She must keep it a secret. If people found out what she is they would use her. The end is fantastic!
I enjoyed everything about this short story. I love the world created by Ilona and all the characters. She infuses mythology, humor and action, creating a fun-filled short story that is sure to be enjoyed by all.
I highly recommend checking out the Kate Daniels series.
ofearna's review against another edition
Playing Possum • [Sookie Stackhouse Short Fiction] • novelette by Charlaine Harris
* Spellcaster 2.0 • novelette by Jonathan Maberry 12/2/2016 & 12/5/2017
Academy Field Trip • novelette by Donald Harstad
Sympathy for the Bones • short story by Marjorie M. Liu
Low School • novelette by Janet Quin-Harkin [as by Rhys Bowen]
Callie Meet Happy • [Calliope Reaper-Jones] • novelette by Amber Benson
* Iphigenia in Aulis • [The Hungry Plague] • novelette by Mike Carey 5/26/2017
Golden Delicious • [Jane Yellowrock • 4.2] • novelette by Faith Hunter
Magic Tests • [Kate Daniels Universe] • novelette by Ilona Gordon
An Introduction to Jewish Myth and Mysticism • short story by Steve Hockensmith
VSI • novelette by Nancy Holder
The Bad Hour • [Remy Chandler] • novelette by Thomas E. Sniegoski
Pirate Dave and the Captain's Ghost • [Pirate Dave] • novelette by Toni L. P. Kelner
* Spellcaster 2.0 • novelette by Jonathan Maberry 12/2/2016 & 12/5/2017
Academy Field Trip • novelette by Donald Harstad
Sympathy for the Bones • short story by Marjorie M. Liu
Low School • novelette by Janet Quin-Harkin [as by Rhys Bowen]
Callie Meet Happy • [Calliope Reaper-Jones] • novelette by Amber Benson
* Iphigenia in Aulis • [The Hungry Plague] • novelette by Mike Carey 5/26/2017
Golden Delicious • [Jane Yellowrock • 4.2] • novelette by Faith Hunter
Magic Tests • [Kate Daniels Universe] • novelette by Ilona Gordon
An Introduction to Jewish Myth and Mysticism • short story by Steve Hockensmith
VSI • novelette by Nancy Holder
The Bad Hour • [Remy Chandler] • novelette by Thomas E. Sniegoski
Pirate Dave and the Captain's Ghost • [Pirate Dave] • novelette by Toni L. P. Kelner
golden_lily's review against another edition
3.0
An Apple for the Creature is the fifth anthology collaboration between Charlaine Harris and Toni L.P. Kelner. Even if you're not a big UF reader, I'm sure you've seen them. They have amusing titles and bright, attractive art that's always drawn me towards them. They're filled with big names in the fantasy and UF genres: Seanan McGuire, Ilona Andrews, even Brandon Sanderson.
Unfortunately, what they're not known for is great reviews.
Whether it's the anthology format or the odd prompts, these books never seem to reach beyond middling. I did pick this one up from the library specifically for Magic Tests, but I decided to give it a full read through to see how such great authors can be involved in such mediocre scores.
Playing Possum by Charlaine Harris - ⭐️
Well here's the problem.
Look, I loved the first four Sookie books. I have positive feelings on 5 - 9. The less said about the conclusion of the series, the better, but I liked Charlaine's stories, including the short stories up until Lucky or Gift Wrap.
Fuck this story.
Sookie has to take cupcakes to her nephew's school. The story acknowledges there's no reason for this, except to get Sookie into the location. She states, in the text that there's literally zero reason Remy or his girlfriend couldn't have brought them. Pointing out your plot holes is not the same as fixing them, Ms. Harris. Anyway, the school secretary's boyfriend goes crazy and shows up shooting. Sookie plays possum. Hunter's teacher turns out to be a witch. (Super convenient!) She stops the bad guy. Sookie lies on a floor.
I...why?! I know you hate your characters, Charlaine, but it's not interesting or fun or a good read. It's just a woman, lying on a floor, waiting for the cops to arrive.
Spellcaster 2.0 by Jonathan Maberry - ⭐️ 1/2
I almost kind of saw something in this plot. A group of anthropology students, under their hard-ass, fame-hungry professor, assemble a database of magical spells from ancient civilizations around the world, in an effort to create a master spell that may be able to show how linguistics and religion traveled across the globe.
Unfortunately, the main character is a pompous ass and the sub-plot about corporate sabotage didn't work for me. The real reason for the score, though, is after they succeed in accidentally summoning a demon, the story becomes obsessed with its religious message. I've read actual religious fiction that preached less and was certainly less insulting to atheists and agnostics. It's vastly unpleasant.
Academy Field Trip by Donald Harstad - ⭐️ ⭐️ 1/2
Cool motive, stillmurder slut-shaming.
Sympathy for the Bones by Marjorie M. Liu - ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️
This story is a turning point for the collection. While I found the writing a little overstuffed, particularly in the first few pages of scene setting, the plot made up for my reservations.
An apprentice witch is forced to make voodoo dolls to kill, while her mistress keeps her captive though guilt, manipulation, and a doll of her own. It’s dark and unpleasant. Our character is asked to make a lot of tough decisions. She kills for her own gain. Yet she strives to break a cycle, so is it worth it? I enjoyed the ambiguity.
Low School by Rhys Bowen - ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ 1/2
I actually think Low School has the best plot of all the stories in this collection. I’m just not sure about the execution.
It’s morning in high school. The narrator has forgotten her number two pencils. She’s directed to a classroom at the end of a hallway she never seems to reach. She’s regained all the weight she lost and is wearing hideous hand-me-down’s she thought she got rid of, when? She’s unprepared for an impossible exam and her pencil snaps in the middle of the final question.
Yo, I feel this. My go-to stress dream is a schedule I’ve forgotten, which is locked in a locker I don’t know the combination to, sends me to a math class I haven’t been attending, which is several stories up and on the other side of a school I can’t navigate. And I’m late. I’m thirty years old. Going back to high school is definitely my idea of hell.
Unfortunately, the eventual meeting with principal Lucy Fer, left me scratching my head. Am I supposed to root for the narrator, a shark lawyer who never put her family first and fought against environmental causes? Am I supposed to root for literal Satan, who tricked a 14 year old girl into selling her soul? Like, the narrator is told she’ll start every day without memory. Her response is to go to the library to study? Sure.
Callie Meet Happy by Amber Benson - ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ 1/2
This is one of the few stories in the anthology that are explicitly linked to a larger series, and the only one that made me want to read that series. As a stand alone story, I’ve read better. It feels like a Marvel/DC crossover one-shot, except as far as I can tell, Happy only exists in this book? But I liked Callie. I loved the idea of Death as a corporation. It reminded me of Dead Like Me, though a bit more serious. So I enjoyed the story, even if it didn’t feel like it mattered if I read it or not.
Iphigenia in Aulis by Mike Carey - ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️
This is the story that was eventually reworked and expanded into The Girl With All the Gifts, AKA my favorite book ever. As such, I recognize this is not an objective rating. Seeing Carey’s revisions and changes was absolutely fascinating. I’d love to know the decision to swap Miss Mailer and Miss Justineau’s roles in the final story. The setting is moved from California to Carey’s native England. What made that choice? (It’s a good one, I think. London just lends itself to zombies.) And of course, the end is completely different, as Melanie and Sarge face off against scavengers together. Oh Sarge.
Golden Delicious by Faith Hunter - ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️
Where Callie Meet Happy made me add the author’s series to my TBR, this story felt incomplete without existing knowledge of Hunter’s world, but didn’t encourage me to seek it out. A newly turned werewolf is accepted to a supernatural taskforce, where he works with another werewolf and a green catmonkey. Something something, angels, full moon, love interest, evil witches, demon. It’s fine but not memorable.
Magic Tests by Ilona Andrews - ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️
JULIE.
Ahem. Following Julie’s latest expulsion, we finally get a story from her POV. Kate offers her a choice between two schools for magically inclined children, and as added incentive, sends her as an undercover operative to find a missing child at one. Julie’s arc has been her desire to prove to Kate that she’s adult and competent and amazing, (like all fourteen year old girls, with the added bonus of magic,) so a little challenge is all it takes to get her on campus.
Guys, Julie fights a demon wolf with a dragon. What did we do to deserve such good from Andrews?
An Introduction to Jewish Myth and Mysticism by Steve Hockensmith - N/R
Each story begins with a brief bio on the author, who they are, what they write, and why we should care what they say. Hockensmith chose to write a book specifically called An Introduction to Jewish Myth and Mysticism and then chose to introduce himself as “a typical WASPy, Midwestern Goy.” He hopes he did a good job, you guys!
I don’t think white people should be banned from writing minorities, but literally everything about that bio made me nope right the fuck out. I didn’t read. I didn’t rate. I didn’t include my zero stars in the book’s average. We’re just going to pretend this...this this didn’t happen.
VSI by Nancy Holder - ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️
This is the third story in this book about FBI trainees catching supernatural creatures, and the second specifically about them catching vampires. It reads like X-Files fan fiction. It’s fine for what it is.
The Bad Hour by Thomas E. Sniegoski - ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️
Personal preference, but I don’t read paranormal or UF based in Christianity. No Constantine, no Angelfall, not even Supernatural. So finding out the main character Remy is actually Ramiel, fallen angel? I was pretty solidly aboard the nope train.
And then I read he had the power to talk to his dog, Marlowe, and everything changed. Dogs are amazing. Talking dogs are better. A story about a ghost/evil spirit haunting an obedience school, giving MAXIMUM DOGGY SCREEN TIME is best. The villain was kind of silly, but I actually liked the writing. I would think about continuing the series if I saw it at my library.
Pirate Dave and the Captain's Ghost by Toni L.P. Kelner - ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ 1/2
One of the sillier stories in the book and probably the one that plays loosest with the “school” idea.
Joyce is a werewolf. She’s also apparently the owner of a pirate theme park, along with her vampire husband, Pirate Dave. This hasn’t made her overly popular with the local packs, so Joyce enjoys status as a pack of one. Now the annual werewolf conference has arrived, and a lonely Joyce decides to join breakout sessions like, “hunting small woodland animals” and “here’s a ghost to tell you why vampires are bad.”
Now, don’t get me wrong, as a frequent conference attendee, that makes me laugh. What doesn’t is everything after Dave arrives to check up on her. Sexy times are totally cool, but these felt abrupt and forced. The mad scientist was a fine villain, but the important conflict all took place off screen. Joyce never got to seem like the cool, capable werewolf she was advertised as.
So there we go, thirteen stories from a wide range of UF authors featuring a good mixture of humor and thrills. A fair representation of creepies and crawlies and the average score is…!
3.2. Completely and totally average.
Damn.
Unfortunately, what they're not known for is great reviews.
Whether it's the anthology format or the odd prompts, these books never seem to reach beyond middling. I did pick this one up from the library specifically for Magic Tests, but I decided to give it a full read through to see how such great authors can be involved in such mediocre scores.
Playing Possum by Charlaine Harris - ⭐️
Well here's the problem.
Look, I loved the first four Sookie books. I have positive feelings on 5 - 9. The less said about the conclusion of the series, the better, but I liked Charlaine's stories, including the short stories up until Lucky or Gift Wrap.
Fuck this story.
Sookie has to take cupcakes to her nephew's school. The story acknowledges there's no reason for this, except to get Sookie into the location. She states, in the text that there's literally zero reason Remy or his girlfriend couldn't have brought them. Pointing out your plot holes is not the same as fixing them, Ms. Harris. Anyway, the school secretary's boyfriend goes crazy and shows up shooting. Sookie plays possum. Hunter's teacher turns out to be a witch. (Super convenient!) She stops the bad guy. Sookie lies on a floor.
I...why?! I know you hate your characters, Charlaine, but it's not interesting or fun or a good read. It's just a woman, lying on a floor, waiting for the cops to arrive.
Spellcaster 2.0 by Jonathan Maberry - ⭐️ 1/2
I almost kind of saw something in this plot. A group of anthropology students, under their hard-ass, fame-hungry professor, assemble a database of magical spells from ancient civilizations around the world, in an effort to create a master spell that may be able to show how linguistics and religion traveled across the globe.
Unfortunately, the main character is a pompous ass and the sub-plot about corporate sabotage didn't work for me. The real reason for the score, though, is after they succeed in accidentally summoning a demon, the story becomes obsessed with its religious message. I've read actual religious fiction that preached less and was certainly less insulting to atheists and agnostics. It's vastly unpleasant.
Academy Field Trip by Donald Harstad - ⭐️ ⭐️ 1/2
Cool motive, still
Sympathy for the Bones by Marjorie M. Liu - ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️
This story is a turning point for the collection. While I found the writing a little overstuffed, particularly in the first few pages of scene setting, the plot made up for my reservations.
An apprentice witch is forced to make voodoo dolls to kill, while her mistress keeps her captive though guilt, manipulation, and a doll of her own. It’s dark and unpleasant. Our character is asked to make a lot of tough decisions. She kills for her own gain. Yet she strives to break a cycle, so is it worth it? I enjoyed the ambiguity.
Low School by Rhys Bowen - ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ 1/2
I actually think Low School has the best plot of all the stories in this collection. I’m just not sure about the execution.
It’s morning in high school. The narrator has forgotten her number two pencils. She’s directed to a classroom at the end of a hallway she never seems to reach. She’s regained all the weight she lost and is wearing hideous hand-me-down’s she thought she got rid of, when? She’s unprepared for an impossible exam and her pencil snaps in the middle of the final question.
Yo, I feel this. My go-to stress dream is a schedule I’ve forgotten, which is locked in a locker I don’t know the combination to, sends me to a math class I haven’t been attending, which is several stories up and on the other side of a school I can’t navigate. And I’m late. I’m thirty years old. Going back to high school is definitely my idea of hell.
Unfortunately, the eventual meeting with principal Lucy Fer, left me scratching my head. Am I supposed to root for the narrator, a shark lawyer who never put her family first and fought against environmental causes? Am I supposed to root for literal Satan, who tricked a 14 year old girl into selling her soul? Like, the narrator is told she’ll start every day without memory. Her response is to go to the library to study? Sure.
Callie Meet Happy by Amber Benson - ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ 1/2
This is one of the few stories in the anthology that are explicitly linked to a larger series, and the only one that made me want to read that series. As a stand alone story, I’ve read better. It feels like a Marvel/DC crossover one-shot, except as far as I can tell, Happy only exists in this book? But I liked Callie. I loved the idea of Death as a corporation. It reminded me of Dead Like Me, though a bit more serious. So I enjoyed the story, even if it didn’t feel like it mattered if I read it or not.
Iphigenia in Aulis by Mike Carey - ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️
This is the story that was eventually reworked and expanded into The Girl With All the Gifts, AKA my favorite book ever. As such, I recognize this is not an objective rating. Seeing Carey’s revisions and changes was absolutely fascinating. I’d love to know the decision to swap Miss Mailer and Miss Justineau’s roles in the final story. The setting is moved from California to Carey’s native England. What made that choice? (It’s a good one, I think. London just lends itself to zombies.) And of course, the end is completely different, as Melanie and Sarge face off against scavengers together. Oh Sarge.
Golden Delicious by Faith Hunter - ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️
Where Callie Meet Happy made me add the author’s series to my TBR, this story felt incomplete without existing knowledge of Hunter’s world, but didn’t encourage me to seek it out. A newly turned werewolf is accepted to a supernatural taskforce, where he works with another werewolf and a green catmonkey. Something something, angels, full moon, love interest, evil witches, demon. It’s fine but not memorable.
Magic Tests by Ilona Andrews - ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️
JULIE.
Ahem. Following Julie’s latest expulsion, we finally get a story from her POV. Kate offers her a choice between two schools for magically inclined children, and as added incentive, sends her as an undercover operative to find a missing child at one. Julie’s arc has been her desire to prove to Kate that she’s adult and competent and amazing, (like all fourteen year old girls, with the added bonus of magic,) so a little challenge is all it takes to get her on campus.
Guys, Julie fights a demon wolf with a dragon. What did we do to deserve such good from Andrews?
An Introduction to Jewish Myth and Mysticism by Steve Hockensmith - N/R
Each story begins with a brief bio on the author, who they are, what they write, and why we should care what they say. Hockensmith chose to write a book specifically called An Introduction to Jewish Myth and Mysticism and then chose to introduce himself as “a typical WASPy, Midwestern Goy.” He hopes he did a good job, you guys!
I don’t think white people should be banned from writing minorities, but literally everything about that bio made me nope right the fuck out. I didn’t read. I didn’t rate. I didn’t include my zero stars in the book’s average. We’re just going to pretend this...this this didn’t happen.
VSI by Nancy Holder - ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️
This is the third story in this book about FBI trainees catching supernatural creatures, and the second specifically about them catching vampires. It reads like X-Files fan fiction. It’s fine for what it is.
The Bad Hour by Thomas E. Sniegoski - ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️
Personal preference, but I don’t read paranormal or UF based in Christianity. No Constantine, no Angelfall, not even Supernatural. So finding out the main character Remy is actually Ramiel, fallen angel? I was pretty solidly aboard the nope train.
And then I read he had the power to talk to his dog, Marlowe, and everything changed. Dogs are amazing. Talking dogs are better. A story about a ghost/evil spirit haunting an obedience school, giving MAXIMUM DOGGY SCREEN TIME is best. The villain was kind of silly, but I actually liked the writing. I would think about continuing the series if I saw it at my library.
Pirate Dave and the Captain's Ghost by Toni L.P. Kelner - ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ 1/2
One of the sillier stories in the book and probably the one that plays loosest with the “school” idea.
Joyce is a werewolf. She’s also apparently the owner of a pirate theme park, along with her vampire husband, Pirate Dave. This hasn’t made her overly popular with the local packs, so Joyce enjoys status as a pack of one. Now the annual werewolf conference has arrived, and a lonely Joyce decides to join breakout sessions like, “hunting small woodland animals” and “here’s a ghost to tell you why vampires are bad.”
Now, don’t get me wrong, as a frequent conference attendee, that makes me laugh. What doesn’t is everything after Dave arrives to check up on her. Sexy times are totally cool, but these felt abrupt and forced. The mad scientist was a fine villain, but the important conflict all took place off screen. Joyce never got to seem like the cool, capable werewolf she was advertised as.
So there we go, thirteen stories from a wide range of UF authors featuring a good mixture of humor and thrills. A fair representation of creepies and crawlies and the average score is…!
3.2. Completely and totally average.
Damn.
vmorenojackson's review against another edition
4.0
I got this for the Ilona Andrews and Charlaine Harris stories and discovered a new author that I'm enjoying reading - Faith Hunter.
muhrrynn's review against another edition
3.0
As expected, there were some stories I liked and some I thought about skipping. On the whole, though, it entertained. Favorites, in order of appearance: Sympathy for the Bones by Marjorie M. Liu, Iphigenia in Aulis by Mike Carey, and An Introduction to Jewish Myth and Mysticism by Steve Hockensmith.
jasmiinaf's review against another edition
4.0
I bought this about two years ago because I love to read short story collections and Charlaine Harris is one of my favorite authors. The best stories in this collection were in my opinion Playing Possum (Charlaine Harris), Low School (Rhys Bowen), Iphigenia in Aulis (Mike Carey) and Pirate Dave and the Captain's Ghost (Toni L.P. Kelner). Probably Mike Carey's story was the best. I have read his comics, but I think I have to find his books too.
desiree_mcl's review against another edition
4.0
This rating is just for Magic Tests by Ilona Andrews.