Noir and Sweet: Dark and Stormy Knights

Sometimes I think I need to work on joining the 21st century.  I saw books I liked in the store, so I called home on my cell and left myself a message to remember to request them from the library.  If I actually carried my iTouch, I could keep a list of books on my person, or just access the library directly.  Maybe I'd even start reading digitally.  Seems unlikely, though.

My message listed several books that I saw on the new shelves, including Dark and Stormy Knights, a collection about shady heroes defending humanity with their sometimes grim techniques, edited by P.N. Elrod.  The stories I recognized came from established series, but sometimes gave minor characters a chance to strut their stuff. Ilona Andrews gave the background to how Kate Daniels met Saimon, the jealous magic shifter, which was fun but probably rather flimsy for people who have read the books.  Jim Butcher's "Even Hand" starred Marcone, showing that an enemy of Harry Dresden isn't necessarily the bad guy.  Several stories had grim endings, which are a favorite of mine.  I like thinking that everyone is at risk in stories with high stakes.  I was surprised by liking "God's Creatures" by Carrie Vaughn, because her Kitty the Werewolf stories never clicked with me. I'm more likely to pick up her YA book now that I know that it was the character, not the author, that didn't work.

So I guess this book worked for me, because there are more novels I want to read because of the short stories in it.  It's definitely a sampler of authors rather than a pure short story collection.  B

Oh, I'm still on track on the comment challenge, although I'm too lazy to keep much count.  I get my five comments a day, and then don't worry if I put in some more.