A review by crystalisreading
Naked City: Tales of Urban Fantasy by Ellen Datlow

3.0

What a strange hodgepodge of stories. Despite a central theme, of fantasy in cities, many of the stories were nothing like each other. Some were straight up fun urban fantasy, set in fascinating locations like Mexico City and Vegas, as well as the standard NYC, others were almost mythic, high fantasy, and others were incredibly creepy and basically horror stories. Many had very unlikable characters. I liked some stories and not others; since reviewing the book overall is difficult, here's a breakdown of story by author.

Jim Butcher--a Dresden story. I haven't read the series, and I don't really care about baseball, so this story was mildly interesting at most. It didn't recommend his series to me. The cover art was clearly for the story, though, and very cool.
Delia Sherman--I never heard of a pooka before. The characters and story and setting were all interesting, and I appreciated the introduction to Irish mythology and historic immigrant culture in NYC>
Richard Bowes--Another story that barely registered with me. a boring, world-weary older male protagonist walks around having a crappy life and feeling sorry for himself until something finally happens. and there are "sliders", people who want to travel around in time. or something. yawn.
Ellen Kushner--Another story that seems to be part of a series. Considering that I only mildly liked one character, the swordsman, and didn't like the setting, I would not read the series in which it's set.
Christoper Fowler--extremely unpleasant and creepy protagonist, in a dystopian setting that felt forced, and perhaps edited in after the story had been written. The ending was weird and somewhat creepy. I should have liked it, given the commentary on consumerist society and all, but I didn't.
Patricia Briggs--My favorite story in the collection, and not just becuase it's set in Mercy Thompson's world. Darker than the Mercy books, perhaps, but engrossing and involving, with an interesting setting and mythology. When I realized that this was the Thomas Hao of the most recent Mercy book, I was so excited, because he had been really badass, my favorite supporting character in the book, and I thought he deserved a story of his own. However, this isn't enough. I want more Hao!
Pat Cadigan--Uninteresting story about a woman constantly picking up the pieces behind her crazy sister, and somehow some magic/ fantasy worked into that. only the Berlin Wall falling made the story interesting at all.
Peter S Beagle--bleh. I did not like this story. The protagonist was unpleasant at first, increasing to absolutely disturbing by the end. Despite the creativity of a troll under a bridge, I detested this story.
Naomi Novik--I liked the evocation of NYC and its various neighborhoods/ cultures, and imagining how openly supernatural beings would fit into those cultures. The characters weren't memorable, and the story felt silly, but I guess that's better (for me) than creepy. This is the second short story I've read by this author, and second one that felt silly.
Matthew Kressel--Luminously, timelessly beautiful mystical story. extremely creative, mostly sad but with a twist at the end. well done.
Kit Reed--I hated this story so much I didn't even read the whole thing. It was creepy and dark and depressing. I disliked the protagonist. Also, it was written in a really annoying semi-second person tense. I glanced at the end to see if I'd missed anything worthwhile, but I didn't feel that I had. ick.
Lavie Tidhar--I was fascinated by the retro Israeli setting. I could care less about performance magic, but this story was intriguing anyway, fleetingly beautiful, and hauntingly mysterious. My only actual complaint was the abrupt, vague, unsatisfying ending.
Nathan Ballingrad--Bizarre haunting story, with rivers flowing out of chests and homeless men and family estrangement and so on. I did not like it at all, and couldn't make myself read it the whole way through.
Melissa Marr--Purgatory as a frontier town is an entertaining concept, although not original. It reminded me of another story I'd read, starring a character named Velvet. I liked the other story better, as I didn't much care for the protagonists in this story. I don't really care for criminals or crime capers, dead or undead, I guess.
John Growley--This story felt pointless and made no sense. No characters with which to connect. Just the world's population shuffling into NYC to stand around for a day or so and then shuffle back out again, for no apparent reason. Unless of course, the argue was making some sort of commentary about population growth not being an issue, in which case the story is even more stupid, and I dislike it even more.
Holly Black--My other favorite story from this collection. I didn't expect to love a story about a ghoul and a dying rock star, but the characters were sympathetic and likable, and the ghoul concept was unusual, creative, and interesting. I thought the ending was a bit abrupt, but perhaps it's simply that I wanted more of the characters.
Lucius Shepherd--My third favorite story of the collection. Mexico City made a fascinating culture/ location/ setting. The main character was not exactly likable, but that suited the story, same as the Skinny Girl herself. The story was strange, creative, and only a little bit creepy. The ending was too ambiguous for me, but the story was otherwise enjoyable.
Caitlin Kiernan--meh. intricate steampunk Wild West setting. interesting, somewhat likable characters. But just went in a creepy direction, especially the whole weird and seemingly unneccesary dream sequence.
Elizabeth Bear--a weird story about two lovers who are both the "genius" or spirit of Las Vegas. Vegas is an interesting, if unappealing, setting, and the magic, such as bottle trees and the mnemophage, were creative and interesting. I didn't love the two main characters, though, and found the story creepier than I liked.

Overall, the book was really long, and while I really enjoyed a few stories, I came away with very few authors I'm interested in adding to my to-read list.