Mean Streets

I am familiar with Jim Butcher and Simon Green, I have read most of what they have written, I enjoyed what they contributed. (not their best, but not their worst either) Kat Richardson's ghost story was interesting and had a real twist, It was good for a 2 1/2 hour listen. Thomas Sniegoski' is new to me, but I found this work very enjoyable and will be looking into checking out some of his other books. If you enjoy urban fantasy, these anthologies are a good way to find new authors. No not every story will knock your socks off but, being fair I have to say I really enjoyed 80% and I didn't hate the other 20%. Wish I could give this 4 1/2 stars.BTW If you have been listening to Jim Butcher "Dresden Files" and Simon Green "Nightside" on Audible, there is a different narrators, still I think they were done well. Nice way to find new authors and narrators.

I bought and listened to this book to determien whether or not I wanted to purchase Butcher's Dresden files, as well as to determine if any of the other author's were worth reading.

My conclusions in order:
1) Yes. Bought 2 of Jim Butcher's books immediately (and was a little surprised that neither the writing nor the characters were as developed as the novella here). Still worth reading his other books, though.

2) Maybe. I enjoyed Sniegoski's work, and it was reasonably self consistent. Green, however, was pathetic--perhaps I am expecting too much from the modern school system, but I don't expect zombies to be named "Deadboy", and when I kept hearing "The Car of the Future" referred to, I kept thinking on how "Boy, that will be tough to trademark and make consumer products out of." I would recommend it to any aspiring writer, however, in the vein of "If this dreck can get published, so can I." I keep thinking that maybe I'm missing an attack of the killer tomatoes kind of absurdity, but sometimes bad is just bad, not funny.

Richardson's work was better than Green's, in that she at least came up with some interesting modern magic approaches, but I kept waiting for something to happen, and the only thing that happened was that it moved on to the Sniegoski piece. No tension during the listen, and no "oooh, what a cool idea."

Mediocre, but not "throw my ipod away and burn my ears".

This was the best anthology I have run across. Each novella was a jewel! I had to put it away briefly while I caught up on the Dresden series and then jumped right in. Fortunately I totally lucked out and caught two of the other authors in the perfect sequence I was in with their series! Simon Green was new to me and I am intrigued by his "Nightside" series and will definitely check out some of his other stuff.

I am already a huge Dresden fan so I figured I would like his story the best but Kat Richardson's jaunt to Mexico with Harper Blaine blew me away too. This is the way to do an anthology. Rather than being loaded with many short, mediocre stories it has four great stories by truly talented writers with enough time to develop some great tales.

=Loved all 12 Books re: Harry Dresden - in no small part due to reader. The new voice (Dion Graham) for this short novella, although an artist with some talent, turns Harry into an afro-american who changes pronunciation of key elements relating to the history of adventures that ignore the fact that the main character was apparently shot dead in the previous installment. Dion could have at least listened to James Marsters excellent work in the previous 12.
=Less than half way thru the second story, I'm enjoying Richard Poe's reading skills, as I did with his interpretation of Robert Langdon in Dan Brown's blockbusters. However, the story is bogging me down with every thing & the kitchen sink of supernatural elements thrown in that are more distracting than engaging due to the mere volume of inclusion without being germane or engaging. Sorry.

This was a great collection of short stories! It was a great way for me to sample the writings of the authors that are contain in this book. It turned me on to some great books by authors I had not heard of before through their short stories contained in this collection. I love it when that happens because it sends me through a flurry of interesting books.

Here's the thing, this should have been really good. Four stories about the supernatural world colliding with our own, of ghost dogs and other realities and angels. But every author here wants to drag out the story as much as possible and each seems to resent the very implication that characters should be interesting, plots should be at least somewhat unpredictable and stories of the supernatural should scare or enlighten, but not proslytize or sermonize. The narrators are pretty good, but none of these stories ever captures the imagination. And isn't that the whole point?

Don't bother.

A bunch of short storys by writers I never heard of. I read the description and thought it sounded good but now in hindsight (which is about as useful as my nipples) there may be a reason I never heard of them before. For the answer I had to look or listen no farther then Mean Streets.

I guess I will have to admit I have heard of Butcher just never read or listened to him and hope never to again.

Written like a comic book. Worst book I've ever downloaded.