Reviews

short and sweet anthology of stories. as another reviewer mentioned, the writing quality in most of the stories isn’t the best and the majority of the worldbuilding doesn’t stand out apart from a few cases mostly in the second half. i don’t think i’ll find myself thinking more about most of them, but i can see lots of these authors putting out better stories when they refine their style a bit :)
individual story ratings:
mountain god - 2.5/5
forests edge - 3/5
the vixen - 3/5
potions and practices - 1.75/5
freeing the bitch - 2/5
the knighting - 2.5/5
undoing vampirism - 4/5
i shall remain - 3.75/5
dreamborn - 3.5/5
failure - 2.5/5
perisher - 3.75/5

balsamicmoon's review

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adventurous funny hopeful inspiring medium-paced

3.5

librarian_nic's review

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious medium-paced

Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.0

Some of the stories I couldn’t get into, but others sucked me right in. Undoing Vampirism (Lilah Sturges) and Dreamborn (Kylie Ariel Benis) especially left me craving more.

lindsayholladay's review

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3.0

I enjoyed the premise of this anthology but found most of the stories heavy handed, a bit overloaded with complex world-building for short stories, and not the highest quality writing. The three exceptions were: “Undoing Vampirism” by Lilah Sturges, a clever piece of first person, short-horror writing; “Dreamborn” by Kylie Ariel Bemis, an anti-colonialism space piece that was saved from being too preachy thanks to the well-paced, dreamlike prose; and “Perisher” by Crystal Frasier, a hard-boiled-detective-ghost-story mashup that mostly worked - I only wish it had packed a little bit more of an emotional punch and that it had been titled “Geistenhund”.

griffinaria's review

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Mountain God - two mercenaries
Forest’s Edge - mother goes to Fairy to get cure for daughter and also brings back her wife
The Vixen, With Death Pursuing - Werefix is chased as she tries to find plant to save wife from Death/pollution incarnate. Finds plant but may end up stuck as fox
Potions and Practice - queen takes person to secret outside of time place to learn so person can complete mission personal to Queen. Little time-y whim-y and ended up confused
Freeing the Bitch - written DnD campaign scene. Magic user, bard, dwarf, and unsure need to rescue rebellion leader “the bitch” from a prison
The Knightling - nurse saves a lot of soldiers and queen decides to knight her. Title of knight = address of Sir and as a trans woman nurse is unsure if wants that title.
Undoing Vampirism - world where most people are vampire but an illusion has been cast so they do not know. Trans woman saw through because trans and this is her TedTalk about resisting being a vampire
I shall remain - strange Lucifer/Olympian gods mashup. Gorgon mentioned
Dreamborn - two-spirit - two-spirit elder rescues children of tribe from residential school through ability to see/touch/influence dreams
Failure - becomes one with a tree . . . I think
Perisher - trans women who transition when someone near them dies. MC was in WWI and first death was a German soldier. Works as ghost/death PI. takes case involving local mafia and money in cigars

bunny_boy's review

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adventurous hopeful medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? N/A
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

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