An Apple for the Creature [Hardcover]

Charlaine Harris (Editor), Toni L. P. Kelner (Editor)

Book Description

Release date: September 4, 2012

Includes a never-before-published Sookie Stackhouse story!

What could be scarier than the first day of school? How about a crash course in the paranormal from Charlaine Harris and Toni L. P. Kelner, editors of Home Improvement: Undead Edition? Your worst school nightmares—taking that math test you never studied for, finding yourself naked in school assembly, not knowing which door to enter—will pale in comparison to these thirteen original stories that take academic anxiety to whole new realms.

In #1 New York Times bestselling author Charlaine Harris’s story, "Playing Possum," Sookie Stackhouse brings enough birthday cupcakes for her nephew's entire class but finds she's one short when the angry ex-boyfriend of the school secretary shows up.

When her guardian, Kate Daniels, sends her undercover to a school for exceptional children, teenaged Julie learns an all-new definition of "exceptional," in New York Times bestselling author Ilona Andrews's "Magic Tests."

For those who like fangs with their forensics, New York Times bestselling author Nancy Holder offers "VSI," in which FBI agent Claire is tested as never before in a school for Vampire Scene Investigation.

And in New York Times bestselling author Thomas Sniegoski's "The Bad Hour," Remy Chandler and his dog Marlowe find evil unleashed in an obedience school.

You'll need more than an apple to stave off the creatures in these and nine other stories. Remember your first lesson: resistance is fruitless!

Includes stories by: ILONA ANDREWS, AMBER BENSON, RHYS BOWEN, MIKE CAREY, CHARLAINE HARRIS, DONALD HARSTAD, STEVE HOCKENSMITH, NANCY HOLDER, FAITH HUNTER, TONI L.P. KELNER, MARJORIE LIU, JONATHAN MABERRY, THOMAS SNIEGOSKI

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Charlaine Harris is the author of the #1 New York Times bestselling paranormal fantasy series featuring Sookie Stackhouse (the basis for the HBO series True Blood), the New York Times bestselling mystery series featuring lightning-struck corpse locator Harper Connelly, and other acclaimed novels.

Toni L. P. Kelner is the author of the “Where Are They Now?” mysteries and the Laura Fleming mystery series. She has won an Agatha Award and a Romantic Times Career Achievement Award, and has been nominated for the Anthony and Macavity awards.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 352 pages
• Publisher: Ace Hardcover; 1 edition (September 4, 2012)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 9780425256800
• ISBN-13: 978-0425256800
• ASIN: 0425256804
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 5.9 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (55 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #32,837 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #86 in Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Fantasy > Anthologies

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

35 of 39 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Ilona Andrews will have yet another hit on their hands. . . September 3, 2012

By Dee18 TOP 1000 REVIEWER

Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase

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Review of `Magic Tests' by Ilona Andrews
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Julie Lennart-Olsen is princess of the Pack and ward to pack-master Curran and his mate, Kate Daniels. She knows her important place in the pack hierarchy, and what is expected of her as ward to two of the most powerful people in Atlanta. But what Julie cannot abide, what is far too awful for words, pomp and circumstance is . . . school. Julie once went so far as to mail herself back to Kate rather than remain at her hated boarding school. That's why Julie can't quite believe that Kate is insisting Julie start attending a new school, and the horrible cycle is going to begin all over again. Or is it?

Kate has ulterior motives for sending Julie to a particular Atlanta school, where a young girl called Ashlyn has gone missing - and nobody seems to be lifting a finger to find her. Luckily Julie is up for the task, but she may not be prepared for what she uncovers in her search for a missing schoolgirl . . .

`Magic Tests' is the new short story set in the `Kate Daniels' universe, by Ilona Andrews and appearing in the paranormal anthology `An Apple for the Creature'.

I said it after reading `Gunmetal Magic', and now I really, truly believe it. Kate Daniels's young ward, Julie, is utterly deserving of her very own spin-off. If not a stand-alone book, then Julie could most assuredly carry her own young adult spin-off series. And to anyone who doesn't think she's up to the task, I would direct you to `Magic Tests', which highlights Julie's mettle and sprouts a cast of interesting secondary characters around her.

On her first day of school (and on the hunt for missing Ashlyn) Julie is paired with Brook, a straight-A student with blinkers on but who nevertheless agrees to help Julie in her investigations. Tagging along, if only to nag at Brook, is class clown Barka and keeping a weathered eye on Julie's progress is class telekinetic, Lisa, who is adamant that Ashlyn is dead and Julie is wasting her time.

But the story takes a particularly interesting turn when Julie's investigations lead her to the "odd Chinese guy" who everyone seems convinced is an ex-convict, and mafia-affiliated. Yu Fong certainly encourages the rumours swirling around him, even going so far as to appoint two student bodyguards to watch over him in the cafeteria. When Julie lays eyes on him, she's amazed at his physical perfection and clear magic force - and speaking to him clears nothing up. He recognizes Julie's `Lennart' surname, and seems disturbingly knowledgeable about all things pack. But in the midst of her investigations, Yu Fong also becomes rather interested in Julie.

There was nothing better than reading Julie turn gumshoe and finally get a chance to see how much of an influence Kate has had over her moral character. Julie absolutely shines in `Magic Tests', and it was wonderful to read her own world (at once connected, and outside the Pack) take shape and expand.

The real highlight of this book is the mysterious Yu Fong. Not necessarily a romantic connection for Julie (she has more than enough on her hands, between Derek and Ascanio) but once we discover what Yu Fong is, and the potential power he wields, there's no mistaking he could be a formidable force in Julie's life . . . and this is Julie's life now, we are left to assume. She makes connections and friends at this school, and finds that she can stand on her own two feet away from Kate and the Pack (much as she may love them both, respectively.) Of course what this short is missing is the aforementioned Derek and Ascanio - but like I said in the beginning, `Magic Tests' reads like a delicious teaser of endless possibility. I dare think that if (or is that, when?) Derek and Ascanio move into Julie's new orbit, Ilona Andrews will have yet another hit on their hands. . .

18 of 20 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Scary, creepy, and Deliciously Golden September 10, 2012

By K. D. Davie

Format:Hardcover

Series:
Playing Possum (Sookie Stackhouse, 11.2)
Callie Meet Happy (Calliope Reaper-Jones, 4.5)
Golden Delicious (Jane Yellowrock, 4.5)
Magic Tests (Kate Daniels, 5.5)
Bad Hour (Remy Chandler, 2.5)
Pirate Dave and the Captain's Ghost (Pirate Dave, 2)

An anthology of--appropriately--thirteen educational, creepy tales in the supernatural.

The Stories
Charlaine Harris' Playing Possum finds Sookie being the good auntie and bringing cupcakes to Hunter's kindergarten class for his birthday. Only she and Hunter are trapped between the car and the school by a raving psychotic who wants to kill.

This is a good one combining events that have happened in real life and making you wish there were more telepaths in the world.

Jonathan Maberry's Spellcaster 2.0 is full of sarcasm and arrogance which melts into belief. Nothing like a good look at what's behind the curtain to make you humble as Trey LaSalle finds out when it comes to the debut of Spellcaster 2.0 for the anthropology department.

This one is good! I'm putting Maberry's name down in my TBR pile!

Donald Harstad's Academy Field Trip is sneaky and creepy! Harstad did a marvelous job of leading you in and on until the twist at the end. It's your standard law enforcement seminar. Well, standard if you consider this is about catching vampires. Seems there's a slow-mo serial killer on the loose and the law has realized it's a vampire. They have been trying for some time to get someone in undercover to spy on him and gather information, and it looks like they've finally managed it. With a twist.

Marjorie M. Liu's Sympathy for the Bones is just not the Liu I expected. This was a seriously creepy story that was well-written but I did not like it. And I still don't understand the why. It's quite possible that the creepy factor was so high and grotesque that I didn't want to understand. Ughh.

Rhys Bowen's Low School is another creepy story whose concept you will grasp long before the protagonist grasps it. Even then you will wonder why she deserves it. Until the end. It's all your high school nightmares come true. Ms. Bowen, you are wicked good!

Amber Benson's Callie Meet Happy is rather funny with Callie Reaper-Jones having to attend night school or possibly lose her position as president of Death, Inc. It's annoying, embarrassing, and why she should have to do this... Well, she'll just have to suck it up. Only to find herself in an alternate universe, being rescued, and rescuing right back.

Mike Carey's Iphigenia in Aulis is another creepy one! Carey keeps it very vague and disturbing. Soldiers forcing children into wheelchairs and restraints for classes and showers. Never being fed. No water. No touching. The focus is on one particular little girl and what she thinks and feels. The minute joys she finds in her life. The loyalty she has and displays at the end. It'll make you wanna cry.

Faith Hunter's Golden Delicious is about Rick LaFleur's new, hoped-for career with PsyLED, if he can just get through the training camp and survive his teammate. Oh, and whoever it is who's sabotaging him... This is a pip although I do have to confess that I love this series, heck, I love all Faith Hunter's writing. It's the stereotype of being a shifter and all the negatives that cops and others see. It doesn't help that someone wants him to fail.

I'm wondering if this is a test to see if Rick spins off into his own series. What with a new character, Soul, being introduced. Y'all know what my vote is on it.

Ilona Andrews' Magic Tests finds Kate insisting on Julie continuing her formal education. In a proper school. Whether she's accepted or not depends on how well she does on her test--using her skills to locate a missing student.

It was cute enough, providing us some time getting to know an older Julie and her stubbornness and compassion for a fellow student. A couple new characters at her school could well provide some interesting future stories.

Steve Hockensmith's An Introduction to Jewish Myth and Mysticism is pretty funny in a dry way when Professor Andy Abrams comes to the rescue of a fellow professor, Karen Mossler. An ex-boyfriend returns to town. One who requires a restraining order. Only, he don't read too good. He'll be sor-r-y...

Nancy Holder's VSI reads like a test dip in the water for a new series. Please, please, please! It's another entrapment, but with a reverse intention as a select group of FBI agents take a course in vampire evidence collection.

Thomas E. Sniegoski's Bad Hour finds Marlowe helping Remy with a case at a local dog obedience school where some thing or someone is stalking the trainer. I do so enjoy Marlowe's conversations with Remy. Makes me wish I could communicate with my cats although I'm not sure, it might be too esoteric for me...

Toni L.P. Kelner's Pirate Dave and the Captain's Ghost finds Joyce and Pirate Dave quite happy together even though Joyce has gone off to a seminar intended to "help interpack relations" and she's feeling the need to howl with her fellow wolves. As well as eat mass quantities without looking bad! Only one of the lectures provides a little too much material in the form of a bigoted ghost who is anti-vampires.

I did enjoy the last short that Kelner wrote about Joyce and Pirate Dave in Home Improvement: Undead Edition and I was pleased to find another. They're a cute couple with an unusual business.

The Cover
The cover is very like their last collaboration, Home Improvement: Undead Edition, with a collage of cartoonish effects. A green carpeted landscape and a lovely blue-green sky with a glowing, foggy light behind the one-room, red schoolhouse and its dead tree beside it (Magic Tests perhaps?) with the dog bones and pencils providing the extras for the pièce de résistance, a skull-cored Red Delicious apple grinning with glee.

The title represents both the theme of education and refers to a thank you in Faith Hunter's Golden Delicious.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars The Apple Has Been Poisoned September 24, 2012

By Coffee Ramblings TOP 1000 REVIEWER

Format:Hardcover

I had kept an eye on my local library's online catalog when An Apple for the Creature would come in and luckily the library actually got a new book on the week that it came out. I rushed over to the library and checked it out. I only wanted to read the new Sookie Stackhouse story, but I ended up reading the entire book.

Playing Possum by Charlaine Harris finds Sookie Stackhouse arriving at her nephew's (Hunter Savoy, who is actually her cousin) classroom with cupcakes to celebrate his birthday. She meets his new teacher Ms. Yarnell, who happens to be a witch! Hunter assists Sookie by going out to her car and getting the rest of the party stuff. The school's secretary's psycho ex-boyfriend has arrived at the school with a gun. Sookie tells Hunter to return to his classroom and tells his teacher to get the students under their desks. Sookie hopes to stop the madman before anyone gets killed.

The story isn't as boring as other reviewers have stated. Unlike most of the paranormal plots that Sookie gets involved withh, this plot feels real and it could happen to anyone. Plus, we get Sookie and Hunter using their telepathic powers together.

Spellcaster 2.0 by Jonathan Mayberry is a complete bore from start to finish.

Academy Field Trip by Donald Harstad is interesting blend of a police procedural and vampires, but it held down by its slow pacing. It does have a neat little twist at the end.

Sympathy for the Bones by Marforie M. Lu is a creepy tale about a young girl who is kidnapped by a witch and forced to kill people with a voodoo doll. The story is one of the better ones from this anthology.

Low School by Rhys Bowen is about a girl going to a new, weird school. There is nothing "new" about this story. The plot has appeared in countless books and movies.

Callie Meet Happy is by Amber Benson, aka Tara from Buffy the Vampire Slayer, where the main character Callie is a grimkeeper and she unleashes a wormwhole in her classroom. I'm not for sure why this story is even in the anthology as it is written more for middle graders than for adults.

Iphienia in Aulis by Mike Carey is a strange story about a little girl at a military/school that is isolated by everyone else. It is a well written story, but it is depressing.

Golden Delicious by Faith Hunter gives a new twist on the werewolf storyline as the main character is a werewolf detective. The story is slow paced, the plot is great, but it doesn't fit in with the other stories.

Magic Tests by Ilona Andrews is set in the Kate Daniels world and involves a missing girl that Julie is searching for. The plot is clichéd, but well written.

An Introduction to Jewish Myth and Mysticism by Steve Hockensmith is a boring and overall just a horrible mess that doesn't go with any of the other stories.

Vampire detectives in training is the main plot of VSI by Nancy Holder, who has written countless Buffy the Vampire Slayer tie-ins, is an interesting tale full of romance, mystery and blood. It is one of my favorites from this anthology.

Pirate Dave the Captain's Ghost by Toni L. Pl. Kelner is the second the part of the story that started in the anthology Death's Excellent Vacation. I've never read the first part, so I was a little confused about what was going on.

There are a few great stories in An Apple for the Creature and then there are several that should have never been written for this anthology. I'm sure the editors had a great premise about supernatural happenings in a classroom, but I don't think some of the authors understood the theme. I'm glad that I checked the book out at the library instead of buying it.