Customer Reviews

Down These Strange Streets

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I recently realized one thing I've been liking about multiple-author short-story collections: Most of the contents stand alone. I always appreciate new fantasy and SF set in worlds I've come to love. However, I find it increasingly exhausting to embark on authors who are new to me. I can't just pick up a book any more. When I look up potential purchases on the basis of a review or ad, almost all turn out to be part of some interminable series, so that I'd have to buy umpteen additional books to fully comprehend one. Because I want to read an ongoing story line all at once, I end up setting aside books for years till the author finally completes the series.

Unfortunately, many of the 16 stories in Down These Strange Streets are outtakes from different huge series that I've never heard of. And many of these spend so much room introducing whiz-bang characters and concepts from their world, and feeding new readers bits of backstory, that little room is left for actually telling this story. Plots tend to be thin and character development nonexistent. You can't sympathize with any character when you're constantly trying to get up to speed on exactly how many kinds of supernatural entities exist in this world and what magical gizmos they use. The worst offender is Glen Cook's "Shadow Thieves."

Notable exceptions are: First, Joe Lansdale's "The Bleeding Shadow," a harrowing tale of a Depression-era blues musician seeking supernatural aid for his art. The difficult relationship between the musician's sister and her sometime boyfriend (who have teamed to intervene) has real emotional depth. "Styx and Stones" is an overly cute title that has little to do with the story. It's a competent and well-researched historical mystery by Steven Saylor, set in ancient Rome. I've previously encountered his characters Gordianus and Antipater in an SF magazine and was almost intrigued enough to embark on the series, but decided not when I discovered there are already at least 11 books and more to come. Bradley Denton's "The Adakian Eagle" uses Dashiell Hammett as an important character. If you're not familiar with his real-life bio, it helps to read a short one online. This is the best story in the book. The narrator is a resentful, but still likeable, young soldier stationed in Alaska during World War 2. He is trying to balance military duty with human morals, to discover who and who not to trust, and to control his own destructive impulses, among events that will determine the rest of his life. Character development? Plot? You bet.

Down These Strange Streets probably has a winning commercial formula, a carefully chosen mix of authors and worlds that markets something to every potential reader. It's just that most of the stories are, at best, workmanlike.

This is a book that grew on me as I read. I initially ordered it (Kindle) just because there were several authors I know and read. A couple of those (S. M. Stirling and Diana Gabaldon) were not quite what I would have expected in this book, but as it turned out, they were both enjoyable reads. Those two individuals have an unfortunate habit of writing very long novels that can drone on and on - a short story format precluded that. Some of the stories did seem more like samples/snippets from a longer book - that is; the ending was abrupt and unresolved. Another reviewer mentioned that some of these are outtakes of longer series - it's a challenge to write a short story that can stand on its own and still be meaningful to followers of the series. It CAN be done; one such story in another book drew me into Kat Richardson's Greywalker series. Unfortunately that was not always the case in the stories contained here.

But even those less than satisfying attempts were, overall, better than I was expecting. Some of the worlds introduced were enjoyable enough for a short story but not ones that I would be interested in reading a series about. And some of the story twists were unexpected, veering away from the all-to-common vampire/werewolf "formula." I'll give this book high marks for that.

I bought this for the Diane Gabaldon story, but thoroughly enjoyed the whole book. The stories don't have a linking theme other than their otherwordly-ness, and yet all were enjoyable.

Sixteen approximately 25 page urban fantasy that Martin defines in the introduction as requiring a sort of detective in each short story. (I disagree with that definition. The novels and short stories of de Lint, Bull, Black and Kushner and others require no detectives, for they don't typically write mysteries.) I also didn't read all the stories in collection, if it didn't grab me in its first few pages I went on to the next story.

"Death by Dahlia" by Charlaine Harris is a house or cozy mystery I think it's called, where all the suspects and the murder take place in the same house, in this case for the ascension of the vampire king of Rhodes. "The Bleeding Shadow" by Joe R. Landsdale has a black PI in 1947 investigating what a blues musician recorded. "Pain and Suffering" by S.M. Stirling is about Eric Salvador a Santa Fe cop. He describes Santa Fe as "The town where 10,000 people can buy the state and 50,000 can't afford lunch." (107) "It's Still the Same Old Story" by Carrie Vaughn is about Rick the vampire remembering a woman he met bartending in Denver in 1947. "The Lady is a Screamer" by Conn Iggulden is about a ghost buster, who is helped in his work by three ghosts.

"Hellbender" by Laurie R. King posits a world where there are SalaMen or human/ non-human crossbreeding experiments, who are now adults. "No Mystery, No Miracle" by Melinda R. Snodgrass didn't work for me. It's main character is an alien masquerading as a Sam Spade/ Philip Marlowe PI in the early 30's in Oklahoma was too far a reach for too little payoff. "The Difference Between a Puzzle and a Mystery" by MLN Hanover, I enjoyed, but I didn't get. Who or what was Scarrey? A deodand, says one of the characters in Lisa Tuttle's "The Curious Affair of the Deodand," is a "possession which was the immediate cause of a person's accidental death." (293) This character believes she is a deodand, as well as living in a home full of them. Diana Gabaldon's "Lord John and the Plague of the Zombies," has Lord John in Jamaica investigating a slave revolt by way of zombies and loas. Fortunately, he has a way with snakes. "In Red, with Pearls" by Patricia Briggs is a first- person Warren story where he tries to find out who and why a zombie was sent to kill Kyle. The final story is Bradley Denton's "The Adakian Eagle" set in The Aleutian Islands during WWII was worth the price of admission for me. Though it's only tenuously urban and fantasy; it's a great mystery, with a terrific detective.

I tend to seek out and read anthologies if they include stories by Jim Butcher, Charlaine Harris, or if I'm really desperate for a mindless read, about paranormal romance as a theme. With this type of criteria, I usually end up reading some very disappointing anthologies with only 1 or 2 standout stories. "Down These Strange Streets" was a pleasant exception.

I agree with another reviewer about the confusing "Shadow Thieves" which introduced way too much fantasy at once with not enough world building, and the "No Mystery, No Miracle" was also a miss for me, but all the rest were very interesting, very well written. Not your standard urban fantasy (in fact many weren't and the cover shouldn't have these words) but because they do take place in different times (ancient Rome, plantation era Jamaica, etc.) many were a refreshing take on the fantasy genre.

Now usually in these sorts of collections you get a few headliners , then some lesser lights and often even a few stories that don't belong in the genre.

The headliners always put in a well written story, just as one would expect from such experienced wordsmiths. Now sure, since the tale is often set in their world, sometimes only fans can really get into it. However, this sometimes leads to readers finding a new favorite series. Here we have some great stories from Charlaine Harris, Patricia Briggs, Diana Gabaldon, Simon R. Green, & S. M. Stirling. Like am a big fan of Green and here's a nice little tale from the Darkside. Long-time fans of Harris and Gabaldon (Lord John) will not be disappointed. Brigg's short is set in her world, but it's her were-wolf PI for this installment.

The same with the lesser lights, generally very talented authors who just haven't sold enough books to be headliners yet. We have several here, all worth reading. "The Adakian Eagle" by Bradley Denton is one such, although it's neither "urban" or "fantasy". Still- a very interesting mystery with a touch of the supernatural.

We do have two other tales here which don't technically belong in a collection of Urban Fantasy- Saylor's Gordianus and a SPQR short from John Maddox Roberts. Both are great little stories but are not technically fantasy, being more Historical Mysteries. However, I enjoyed them both.

So, yes we did have a few shorts here which didn't technically belong in a collection of "Urban Fantasy" and we did have some stories by lesser known authors which in a lesser collection would be filler. But the out-of-genre stories are great, and the lesser known authors here are by no means "filler".

This book is well worth the price, get it if you like collections or are a big fan of any of these authors. Who knows, you also may find a new fave?

Urban fantasy fans are sure to enjoy this latest compilation of sixteen short stories by several leading authors of the genre. Most, like Charlaine Harris's "Death by Dahlia" pick up threads from ongoing series so it is helpful to have some familiarity with their previous work. "The Bleeding Shadow" by Joe Lansdale is a satisfying, stand alone little horror story about a struggling blues musician who signed away more then he realized in order to become a better player. Simon Green's "Hungry Heart" set in the Nightside of London is short tale about a witch who, in a bid for more power, gets everything she deserves. "The Adakian Eagle" is an outstanding telling of a young solder stationed in Alaska during WW II struggling to seek a balance between duty and morality while deciding whom to trust.

Although it is helpful to have some knowledge of the many series tie-ins involved with the stories, newcomers can still enjoy this collection, then go back and read more from those authors they particularly liked. As with any collection, there are a couple less-then-stellar offerings but overall, this is a strong anthology.

With most anthologies I read along with a note of pessimism; eventually I will hit a story I don't even want to finish. Imagine my surprise to finish this collection without ever hitting "that" story. Sure, I bought it with Charlaine Harris's work in mind, though I don't care much for Dahlia and solved the mystery in the first five pages of that tale... but I read Harris for her fun characters and was not disappointed. Better mysteries were offered in the other stories. I was thrilled to see work by Lisa Tuttle and Melinda Snodgrass, two SF&F authors I've liked in the past. While Laurie R. King's "Deodand" story wasn't much of a mystery, the otherworldly concept was excellent. A great read all round.

I bought the book mainly for the stories from C. Harris, Simon Green, Carrie Vaughn, M.L.N. Hanover, and Patricia Briggs, which were all very good and well done, what I'd expect from those authors. Most of the other authors I'd never heard of or had head of but never read anything of theirs. I did read some of the stories by the other authors but some of them I just couldn't get through but there were not very many of these. All in all I enjoyed the book and the stories and felt it was worth buying the book. I'm not going into detail of the stories because other reviewers have done that.

I was very happy with this book.The stories were all written well and I really felt I got my value out of a hardcover.