Selected Stories: Fantasy

By: Kevin J. Anderson

Narrated by: Starla Huchton

Length: 12 hrs and 8 mins

Publisher's summary

Award-winning, number-one international best-selling author Kevin J. Anderson has published nearly 150 books, which have appeared in 30 languages worldwide, in genres ranging from science fiction, epic fantasy, humorous horror, gritty suspense, steampunk, and mystery. He has published over half a million words of short fiction, the best of which are gathered in this multi-volume series.

This volume features Anderson’s wide-ranging imagination in the fantasy genre. You will listen to obsessed sea captains, shape shifters, enchanted loincloths, bumbling knights in shining armor, ghosts haunting Shakespeare’s Globe Theater, a homeless mother and a troll under a bridge, Captain Nemo and his Nautilus, H.G. Wells’ Martians, and a very strange Wisconsin small town.

These tales showcase the breadth of Anderson’s talent with a variety of works, written solo or with collaborators including Sherrilyn Kenyon, Kristine Kathryn Rusch, Sarah A. Hoyt, Neil Peart from legendary rock band Rush, and his wife Rebecca Moesta.

©2018 WordFire, Inc. (P)2019 WordFire, Inc.

I really enjoyed this anthology

There is something to be said about an anthology of short stories to help you appreciate the style and abilities of an author.
I requested this book from the author/narrator and agreed to review it.
The stories in this collection are varied in length and subject. It also includes author commentary between stories. A thoroughly enjoyable read

Loved it

I try to keep my reviews honest and to the point. I thoroughly enjoyed every story in this book.

Selected Stories: Fantasy

I really liked this group of short stories. The narration was really well done, great actually, and the stories were right up my alley for the most part. The Jules Verne tales were my favorite, especially 20,000 Years Under the Sea. So good! I will be recommending this to some of my friends who really get into unique fantasy stories. Glad I had a chance to listen to it, for sure!

This story was given to me for free at my request for my voluntary and unbiased review.

Selected Stories: Fantasy

This is an engaging and intriguing collection of stories. Each new story brings wondrous worlds and characters. I enjoyed meeting the characters and visiting their worlds. There were some tales that grabbed my attention more than others but as a whole this collection is an enjoyable listen. The stories move at a good pace and kept my attention all the way to their ends. As short as these stories are, they still have a lot to say and leave their mark. They have a nice mix of emotions and action that take you into many other worlds to get lost in.

I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

Entertaining Listen

I enjoyed this collection of stories, although I would classify several as more science fiction than fantasy. Each of the stories has different characters and theme, some more interesting than others. My favorites include Trip Trap, Loco-motive, Heroes Never Die, Dark Angel/Arcangel, and the Old Man and the Cherry Tree. The stories differ in length, with monsters, magic, sadness, bravery, adventure, mystery, etc. Many have a bittersweet flavor, and some felt a bit flat at the end, without a true ending. Overall, this is a varied and interesting collection. I enjoyed the intros and background by the author that gave flavor to the source and content of the stories.

The narrator was pretty good, although her voice dropped off from time to time sounding like she had moved away from the microphone.

I received a complimentary copy of this audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this honest review.

A very good collection of short stories...

I generally prefer novels to short stories but from time to time I grab a collection of shorts if it sounds interesting enough. This one did, so I asked for the book and I'm glad I did.

It's a nice set of a wide range of fantasy stories, from ghost to horror to sword & sorcery to any other sub-genre you can think of, really... Each of the tales is different; some are more engaging than others, but that's normal in a collection of stories. Some of them focus on the plot, some are character driven, some are rather psychological, others strictly entertainning. But as a whole the set will keep you glued to the pages/listening device.

Narration by Ms Huchton is very good, though in a few of the stories a bit monotonous, which makes them sound sad:) But overall I liked her interpretation of most stories a lot. The pace of her reading is good, voices well done and her reading pleasant to the ear.

DISCLAIMER: I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

Master storyteller and great narrator, but . . .

As the title states, every story shows off Anderson's talent and Huchton is a fantastic narrator (will have to look up what else she narrates). I did think she was an odd choice for this book, simply because she's a she and every main character was a male. Don't get me wrong, she can handle a main voice, it just seemed odd to me.

Some of the stories I really enjoyed and some were blah, thus the 4 stars for "Story" but 3 stars for "Overall"./ I think most will find it this way, even if they disagree with me on which stories fall into which category. The issue is just that they are so varied that some are likely to be your cup of tea and others not. I doubt you'll be sad you listened though.

I received this in exchange for an honest review.

Good collection of bedtime stories for adults

This is a nice collection of bedtime stories for adult. Off cause you can read them at any time of the day, but it’s nice to read a nice story before going to sleep. These stories inspire good dreams. At least they did for me.
The narrators did a good job making the stories come to life.

Note: I was given this book in exchange for an honest review.

Somber grab bag of the fantastic

These stories are fantasy, but not of the well-trod, popular elf and dwarf and magic ring sort. They're more "fantastic," either grounded in the real world, with a twist, or are set in worlds where magic exists but is not common or expected.

Anderson wanders into the twisted small-town domain of Stephen King for several tales, including a time-traveling farmer, side-show misfits, and an evil train.

Not too familiar with Anderson's full-length works, I was surprised that so many of the stories here relied on knowledge of other authors or their works. Two are related to Jules Verne stories. Two are related to H.G. Wells. Your enjoyment of these may vary depending on your familiarity and fondness for those authors. These were my least-favorite in the collection.

There's a somber thread running through Anderson's works. The two best stories, I thought, included a tale of ocean princes and an outcast from a society of shapeshifters. The former was the most hopeful tale, which may be why I liked it the most. Otherwise, I felt a little like I was sinking down, down, down into sadness from some of the dark and pessimistic elements.

Narration was competent and seemed to improve throughout the collection. By the end my feelings for her talents had turned around a lot, and I appreciated what she brought to the stories.

The content in one or two parts of the book I felt could have been toned down, and I wouldn't recommend for children or teenagers.

Disclosure: I received this book for free with the requirement to review.

Well-structured but no happy endings

These stories are well-written, and come with their own introductions by the author so that we find out what prompted them, with whom the author collaborated, etc.
To me personally they are not my taste because every one of them ends on what feels like either a cliffhanger, an open ending or a sad ending. And although I don’t mind those on occasion, to have about 30 stories in your ear without a single happy ending was a bit unsatifactory for me.

The narrator has a comfortable voice and her range is large enough that I listened to her without losing interest. She does sound a bit staccato, as if she used audiosoftware to speed up her original recording.

~ This book was given to me for free at my request and I provided this voluntary review.