Customer Reviews

Mean Streets

5 star:		(18)
4 star:		(21)
3 star:		(14)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Anthologies usually aren't something I'm interested in - I generally prefer the more fleshed out, complete stories of a novel length book. But I'm a Jim Butcher fan, and the other authors have some solid reviews so I figured I'd give it a try...

Jim Butcher's Harry Dresden story was good. Harry's friend Michael Carpenter, former Knight of the Sword, is being threatened and it's up to Harry to figure out who it is and and stop them - if he can manage to without getting killed himself. The story was well-paced, and can be enjoyed by people not familiar already with the Dresden series. Butcher took care to give enough background information so that new readers wouldn't be lost; but familiar readers won't be bored by repetition. Butcher does a good job, in that while his hero is a powerful wizard, he's far from indestructible, and often gets out of jams by the skin of his teeth. This was the best story of the anthology in my opinion, but then I already admitted to being prejudiced on this count.

Kat Richardson's Greywalker/Harper Blaine story was interesting. I'd never read any of her work before so was totally unfamiliar with the character; but like Butcher enough background information was provided that I could follow the story line easily enough. Basically, Harper is hired to do a simple job in Mexico - one that turns out to be, of course, more complicated that it's first thought to be. Richardson's heroine has the ability to see and communicate with ghosts, and she uses this ability to solve the puzzle of this short story. This is NOT an action-packed tale though - so if you're expecting a lot of intense scenes of peril for our heroine, you'll be disappointed. Overall, the story was good enough that I'll be looking into more of this series.

And then we come to Sniegoski. I'm slightly familiar with his work - mostly through the ABC Family miniseries based on the Fallen stories. Sniegoski has the potential to offend many, many people that are of the deeply religious convictions who aren't open to alternate thoughts on this subject. Remy Chandler - formerly the angel Remiel of the highest order of Angel, the Seraphim - has spent millenia living as human, as much as he can - loving and losing as he marches through time; and now working as a private detective. He's asked to look into the death of Noah (yes, Noah of the Ark) and to find the killer, or killers. The story was interesting, and I think the author did a good job portraying Chandler's fight to live as human while fighting his angelic reality. There is a good plot twist in the story, and like Richardson's story, it was good enough that I'll be looking into this series as well.

Finally, we come to Simon R. Green's Nightside story of John Taylor, private detective. Taylor is hired by a woman who has lost the last 24 hours of her memory, and she wants it found - what happened to her during those missing 24 hours. I admit, I was looking forward to this story most of all - I really enjoy finding a new (to me) series that I can then sit down and devour novel after novel - and Green has written a lot of Nightside novels already. But, I had a real hard time getting into this story for one basic reason. There was little or no tension in the story. We start out with Taylor enlisting his friend Dead Boy - who is like his name implies, dead. And as a zombie he's incredibly strong, pretty much immune to pain, and like Taylor has a rep of not being a person to mess with. Then we get introduced to Dead Boy's car - yes, his car - that is from the future, armed and armored to the teeth, and yep - you guessed it - also has a rep of not being something to mess with. Getting the idea? Basically Taylor and his buddy are so overpowered, that there are in little danger. The one time Dead Boy is overwhelmed, Taylor then pulls out his abilities which seem to be a little precognition and the ability to see all that is hidden and basically just walks amongst the foe disabling them. Every time our hero's party is threatened, our hero just pulls out his trump card and flattens them. You never really get any feeling that they are in any real danger. There is one screen during the 'car chase' that is just badly written in which Taylor is threatened by one thing which then seems to be forgotten about when he decides to take action. Trying to avoid much in the way of spoilers, so I don't want to be more exact than that.

So, in synopsis, one great story, two good ones, and one klunker. Which is too bad as the klunker is the story I was most hoping to enjoy. Granted, it's a short story, and Green can't do a lot of character development in that venue; but then again, both Richardson and Sniegoski managed it well.

Mean Streets succeeds where so many anthologies fall short - pun intended. So if you are buying this one just for the Harry Dresden short, you're going to pleasantly surprised because authors Green, Richardson, and Sniegoski manage to keep up with Butcher and all four authors deliver great urban fantasy novellas packed to the brim with satisfying stories carved from their series

"The Warrior" - Harry Dresden steps in when it appears that his good friend and former Knight of the Cross, Michael and family may be in danger. Someone wants Michael's old sword, a holy weapon against evil, which was given into Harry's keeping and that someone knows that Harry doesn't fear his own death but will go to any lengths to protect those he cares about. - This is one of the better mini episodes from Jim Butcher's Dresden world but Butcher does makes heavy use of the characters from his series so if you are new to the Dresden series you won't love Michael as much as I do or get the same kick out of seeing Butters doctoring Harry, but you will still get a good feel for Harry Dresden, Chicago's only professional wizard and all-around decent guy.

"Noah's Orphans" -- As much as I love Harry, when I skimmed through the book in the bookstore the start of Thomas E. Sniegoski's story is really what made me buy this book. Sniegoski's hero is angel Remy Chandler, who has chosen to leave heaven behind, and spent the last few millenium trying to be as human as possible, now making his living as a private detective. Though Remy wants nothing to do with the fallen angel who comes seeking his aid, Remy ends up on the case when Noah (of flood fame) is found murdered and "Noah's orphans" (the flood survivors denied a place on the Ark) are implicated. - The part of the story that captured me in the bookstore was the poignant beginning of the tale where Remy is dealing with the grief of the loss of his wife and the perfect moment of happiness he had finally achieved after all his endless years on earth. I really liked Remy and his dog Marlowe and the bits of angel mythos woven into the mystery.

"The Difference a Day Makes" -- John Taylor, resident detective of the bizarre world of Nightside, can't resist a dame in trouble. This time said dame wants John, whose talent is finding anything, to help her find her lost memories - I like Simon Green's twisted offbeat writing style, and the weird elements of the world of Nightside so much that the resolution to the mystery is almost anticlimactic, but then Nightside stories are more about the journey than the destination.

"The Third Death of the Little Clay Dog" -- Kat Richardson's first two Greywalker books are buried somewhere on my TBR pile, but I'll be digging them out soon. Richardson's heroine Harper Blaine, is able to walk the spirit world of the 'Grey' and talk to the dead. Turns out that's a skill that's going to come in real handy when Harper is tasked with placing a dog statue on a grave in Mexico during Dia Las Muertos. - Harper is a great character and all the Day of the Dead traditions add texture to tale, as Harper tries to get a handle on the significance of her mysterious task.

These were all four star reads and lucky me, one of the nice perks of anthologies are discovering new authors, I am adding Richardson and Sniegoski's series to my list.

I quite often find collections of short stories from successful writers to be little more than divided effort cash-cows, however Mean Streets was a cut above the rest.

Jim Butcher's story is an action packed story from his regular character Dresden. I'm often leary when swords are mentioned due to my favourite groan-worthy quote "A sword gets you a lot of space, even on a crowded hovertrain" from Saintcrow's Deal with the Devil. This story kicks ass though.

The next piece by Green is a pretty comical work "I opened my third eye; my private eye" (my eyes rolled) that isn't a bad read, probably more of a WTF don't take too seriously work though.

Richardson's story is a lengthy tale of msytery which is a great read, but does become a little convoluted and the author tries to squeeze decent twists into a short story.

Sniegoski risks melodrama of biblical proportions but pulls off a decent story with some cool action and a compelling lead character.

Overall these stories are of a style of urban fantasy that will appeal to boys a bit more especially in a genre dominated by twlight fans. The stories are action dominated with good character development underneath. Well worth the read

Mainly, I'd read this for the Dresden Files story. But the story "The Warrior" is told in Side Jobs. So, if the only author you care about is Butcher, just buy Side Jobs. It even has a bonus story, set 30 min after Changes.

SYNOPSIS:
These are four novellas from four private investigator/paranormal character series. Each of the four has a very different flavor. The page numbers indicate actual print pages for each story. The book is 311 pages long but there are many blank pages and also title and dedication pages which I have not counted toward story length.

Jim Butcher - Harry Dresden in "The Warrior" - 59 pages - 5 stars
This story just jumps right in to the previous relationship between Harry and Michael without filling in much background. Someone is sending Harry photographs of Michael and his family as a possible warning of danger to them. As it unfolds, the messages were actually aimed to get Harry's attention. If you've never read any other Harry Dresden stories, this is probably not going to help you a whole lot with catching up with character development, but it will certainly show you the high quality you can expect from a book written by Jim Butcher.

I saw a statement written by someone several weeks ago where he was complaining about having "Christian propaganda shoved down his throat". If you feel that way also, I need to tell you that this story is full of Christian symbols, history and doctrine juxtaposed very nicely with magical abilities. I loved it!

Simon R. Green - John Taylor in "The Difference a Day Makes" - 63 pages - 5 stars
John Taylor and Dead Boy are spending some quality time at the oldest bar in the world, Strangefellows, in the Nightside when trouble comes walking through the door. This trouble has lost her memory for the last 24 hours and she wants John to find those memories for her because her husband may be in trouble.

Have you ever read a really good parody of a bad Humphrey Bogart film? Well, that's exactly what this story reminded me of and it was fabulous. I had never read any of Simon Green's books, but if this is an example, I knew I wanted to read more. I immediately ordered Something from the Nightside (Nightside, Book 1) to start this series from the beginning. I was really surprised by what was found at the end of this recovery mission, have never even come close to reading about something like that before, but it fit with all the other strange things going on in this story. Dead Boy's car is something else entirely - what an imagination Mr. Green has.

Kat Richardson - Harper Blaine in "The Third Death of the Little Clay Dog" - 90 pages - 4 stars
Anybody who is given a $30,000 bequest from an unknown person should be a little suspicious. Harper Blaine is definitely suspicious but that doesn't stop her from traveling to Oaxaca, Mexico to put the clay figurine of a dog on the grave of Hector Purecete on November 1st as specified in the conditions of the will.

This author is another new author for me. From mentions in this novella the premise is that she died for a few minutes but was brought back to life and can now see ghosts in the Grey. I'll definitely have to check this series out. A little interesting tidbit (at least I found it interesting) is that there is not one chapter break in this entire story. That's quite unusual.

Thomas E. Sniegoski - Remy Chandler in "Noah's Orphans" - 84 pages - 3 stars
Remy Chandler is still mourning the death of his wife. That is made more unusual by the fact that Remy is actually Remiel an angel who is a member of God's heavenly host, but who is trying like all get-out to live as a human. He even has a dog, a black Labrador Retriever named Marlowe who Remy can talk to. This story takes place soon after Remy has saved the world from the Apocalypse (in another book) and he's taking some time off from his PI work. Unfortunately Remy finds out that Noah (as in Noah and the Ark) has been murdered.

What can I say? This was not a favorite of mine but it was interesting to look into the world created by Thomas Sniegoski. For whatever reason I just never seemed to warm up to Remy and I found it a little unusual that this murder took place in such a "human" manner when everybody around seemed to be an angel.

RECOMMENDATION:
This collection is definitely highly recommended as a way to find new authors or to catch up on the happenings of characters you already enjoy reading about. Jim Butcher is already a favorite of mine so I enjoyed reading more of the adventures of Harry Dresden. Simon Green and Kat Richardson definitely gave me a reason for seeking out their previous works. Thomas Sniegoski's name will go on my list of authors to investigate further. I really don't think I could have asked any more from a publisher.

I wish I could say I liked all the stories in this book, but I didn't. Of the four, I only found two enjoyable. First, the Harry Dresden novella, "The Warrior" was great. But that's not so surprising since the Dresden story was the whole reason I purchased this book, and I wasn't disappointed. "The Warrior" picks up where Small Favor left off with the former White Knight Michael Carpenter in retirement and Harry now in charge of two Swords of the Cross. What follows is a fight between radical forces in the Church who don't think Harry is worthy enough to be the keeper of two Swords and Harry as he also tries to protect Michael's family. Butcher crams a lot into this story, but he does it well.

The second novella I liked, "Noah's Orphans," by Thomas E. Sniegoski was a nice discovery for me. I've never previously read anything by the author and had never heard of the Remy Chandler series. What I also didn't realize is Sniegoski is the author of the Fallen series of books. While I've not read the books, I ver much enjoyed the two mini-series ABC Family produced based on them. It's not always easy to jump into a series you've never read previously, but "Noah's Orphans" is written in a way that makes it much easier. In fact, I enjoyed this novella so much that I'll be checking out A Kiss Before the Apocalypse, the author's first Remy Chandler novel.

The other two novellas simply didn't grab my attention. I tried reading both but found myself skimming too much when I was bored. However, for the Butcher and Sniegoski novellas alone, this book is worth purchasing.

- "the Warrior" by Jim Butcher -- I didn't think that I would ever say that a Dresden story wasn't absolutely amazing. This story wasn't bad by any means... It just didn't have that Dresden zing I've come to expect. Maybe it wasn't as gripping since in some ways the story was more about the twist than the actual plot line.

- "the Difference a Day Makes" by Simon R. Green -- I've enjoyed the Nightside novels I've read, but I'd forgotten why I didn't just devour the entire series at a go. See, Nightside is a city full of the icky things of humankind's psyche and sometimes it seems like Green bashes you over the head with that lesson over and over again. Now, usually there is an excellent story to soften the blows, but not with this one.

- "the Third Death of the Little Clay Dog" by Kat Richardson -- I have not read her Greywalker series, but I think this story was probably the best in the anthology. I'm not really sure how much my liking it has to do with her story and how much has to do with me being an anthropology major who enjoyed the heavy description of Oaxacan rituals.

- "Noah's Orphans" by Thomas E. Sniegoski -- it wasn't a bad story. It's just... Been there done that, but with fewer trappings of a noir detective novel? Angel tales are becoming increasingly predictable.

My copy was messed up! Pages 187-250 are upside down and backwards. I am embarassed as I gave this book as a gift. :-(

Loved this book. Having read all of Jim Butchers books I was very familiar with him. However, I had not read anything by the other authors in this book. I must say I was very pleased with the quality of stories. I am definately going to be buying books by the other authors in the collection.

This reviews the audio book. In my experience, the narration of an audio book can dramatically effect perception of quality. For example, I have listened to audio books where the book itself was mediocre, but the narration was so well done that it made what would have been a 3 star book a 5 star because of the quality of the narration (Simon Jones reading the Bartemeus Trilogy, for example). Unfortunately the opposite is more often the case, and the choice of narrator is even more important in first person narratives (which dominate the "super natural detective" sub-genre). Therefore, this audio book anthology earns a 3.25 star average because of a combination of the quality of the writing and the style of effectiveness of the narration.

"The Warrior," a Harry Dresden story by Jim Butcher, is a solid story by Butcher, who has an innate talent for this genre, and Dresden is his wheelhouse. Fans of the Dresden Files will enjoy the story and those who are new to Dresden will probably be encouraged to read some of the novels. The first person narration is mediocre. A different narrator is used from the other Dresden Files audio books, and while his style is not bad, it does not seem to fit Dresden any better than the regular narrator for Dresden (perfect narrator for Dresden: Bruce Campbell). This story standing alone would get four stars.

The Difference a Day Makes", a John Taylor "night side" story by Simon Green, was my first exposure to the night side series. As a regular reader of Butcher and Richardson, I was hoping to get addicted to a new series. However, both the story and first person narration are poor. The story is 1950's science fiction rag quality, with tired moralization about over computerization of society. The narrator sounded like he was doing a Clark Gable impression. He would repeatedly say "in the night side" with what I suppose was intended to be dramatic emphasis, but which was instead repetitious and silly (I expect this would have been annoying in the written work, as well). Also, while the story took place in London the voice characterization made it seem to be taking place in San Francisco. Next time, hire a British voice actor to read a British character. This story standing alone would get one star.

"The Third Death of the Little Clay Dog", a Kat Richardson "Greywalker"/Harper Blaine story, was the best written of the anthology. Blaine takes a road trip and cultural visit to southern Mexico for an interesting series of plot twists. Because this is a novella rather than a full novel, Richardson doesn't have the time to indulge her propensity for overly complex plot lines, and the result is a more compact and interesting story. The first person narration is by the regular series narrator, Mia Baron. I have nothing against Ms. Baron, who has excellent elocution. Her voice simply doesn't fit the character. In other reviews I have remarked that she sounds like a valley-girl reading My Friend Flicka to a pre-school class, which is perhaps a bit harsh, but accurate (perfect narrator for Blaine - Kathleen Turner). However, I liked the story enough despite the narration to give it four stars.

"Noah's Orphans" by Thomas E. Sniegoski is a Remy Chandler "Fallen" story. I have never read this series. It would be quite easy for a story about a fallen angel to become formulaic and trite. However, Sniegoski's handling of the character was interesting and the outcome was not predictable. I found myself wanting to read more books in this series. The third person narration was suitable to the writer's style and neither remarkable nor distracting. I would look forward to listening to other audio books by this author/narrator combination. I give this story standing alone four stars.