I enjoy Speakman's anthologies because they are a nice mix of sci-fi and fantasy. He always manages to get some of my favorite authors in there along with introducing some new people to explore. As with most anthologies, there are some hits and misses but all in all a pretty solid work.

Not Butchers best short Story

Paranoid, fun, classic

Lots of great stories

An intriguing collection by quite a well respected set of fantasy and sci-fi authors. If nothing else the cause that this collection supports is worth some attention (helping pay for medical care for authors).

As with any collection there will always be some variability in the quality of the stories but there were no true stinkers in here - I found them all to be worth a read even if some were more engaging than others. The stand outs for me were generally the ones that took place in worlds I was already familiar with - it is challenging to do proper world building in a short story format! Some stories did give me an interesting short insight to worlds I want to explore - eg Brian Mclellans Powder Mage which has been bumped up my tbr as a result.

All in all an excellent collection that I can highly recommend!

I like these collections from Shawn because, 1) they benefit a good cause as they work as a way to fund their Unfettered counterparts. 2)They are filled with stories by authors I actually recognize the names of and some that are new to me. and 3) The stories are for the most part really good. I find a lot of collections to be very hit and miss, so to have a book where almost all the stories are around 30 pages, and all the stories are enjoyable is a rarity to be enjoyed.

This collection has some great and a number of good stories. There are some that read as if they are fragments from a longer work - hopefully they are or will serve as such for the authors.

read for Dresden story!