Mean Streets

A brief, okay, collection of relatively fast paced urban fantasy stories featuring four authors long running magical detective protagonists. I'm a little unsure what the goal of the collection was. While some of these novellas serve as reasonably good introductions to the worlds and characters that are otherwise centered in long running series, others are perhaps not the best pick if that was the goal. And I'm reasonably sure they're all available in other collections elsewhere.returnJim Butcher's Dresden novella isn't a bad one, in fact I quite enjoyed it when I read it in one of the two collections of short fiction specifically for Dresden stories. However, it seems like a weak choice for this collection. Its plopped right in the middle of ongoing events in the Dresden series and requires a lot of pre-existing knowledge of long-running characters and relationships to carry much weight.returnInteresting, while I'm not a fan of Simon Green's Nightside series, I think the novella here works really well as a stand alone. I wonder if I'd feel the same way in general, that maybe that world works better for me in short form than long? The short form does solve some of the issues of repetitiveness that the full novels suffer from. Just be aware that mileage may vary between this as an introduction to that series, and the series itself, in terms of quality. returnI had not read any of Kat Richardson's Greywalker books, but "Little Clay Dog" was a fun and touching introduction to that world that leaves me curious about. Which I would assume is the point.returnI'm a little ambivalent about the final story by Sniegoski, both in quality and how well it serves to introduce and entice the reader into a new world they may want to explore.returnOverall, I'd say skip this unless you find it cheap, you're a fan of these series already, and are a bit of a completionist. I think there are probably better collections that can serve as exposure if you're curious about these series, or for that matter you could pick up the first book of each, used, for cheap enough to go that route instead.

If you're an urban fantasy fan, you'll want to put serious consideration into checking out the anthology Mean Streets, which brings four stories to the table, two of which are heavy hitters long familiar to my recent book buying habits.

Harry Dresden fans will first and foremost want to check out Jim Butcher's contribution, "Warrior"--as long as you're up to date on the series. This story is set between the novels Small Favor and Turn Coat, and there are definite spoilers for the former. Still, it's a solid, compact Dresden adventure, distilled down to the essence of awesome that is Jim Butcher. All the involved characters are note-perfect, and in fact, the only complaint I have about the story is the lack of Murphy.

Kat Richardson's story "The Third Death of the Little Clay Dog" is also excellent. No real spoilers for the Greywalker series, since Richardon's heroine Harper Blaine is taken out of her usual locale and goes all the way down to Mexico to carry out the last wishes of a client. There's a lot of nifty, spooky Day of the Dead mileage in this, so if that particular holiday is your thing, you'll go for this.

Simon Green's "The Difference a Day Makes" was harder for me to get into. I'm not familiar with the Nightside novels, so I didn't have the advantage of familiarity to ground me with the protagonist, and that lack of context kept bumping up against said protagonist's penchant for telling the reader in great detail about how Weird and Badassed the Nightside is. He's even called on it by another character, and yet, he keeps doing it. Sorry, Mr. Green; I have to agree with your other character. ;) Plus, the OHNOEZ Big Reveal at the end of the story fell kind of flat for me. I'll admit though that Mr. Green does have a vivid way with a description, so other readers may find this story works better for them.

Thomas Sniegoski's "Noah's Orphans" intrigued me, though. Again, I'm not familiar with the novels this story comes out of, but the concept of an angel who's been masquerading as a private detective caught my interest, and Sniegoski does good things with utilizing Biblical mythos in setting up this story. Remy Chandler, a.k.a. the angel Remiel, is a poignant character as well in his struggle to cling to humanity he's learned from a loved one he's lost. I may have to go check out the Remiel books just to learn more about him--which, I daresay, makes this story a win.

All in all this is a solid volume and worth checking out. Four stars.