Dark and Stormy Knights

I bought this just for Jim Butcher's story (which was actually about John Marcone, not Harry Dresden) but I enjoyed every story. It's very rare that I find a compilation like this where every story is gripping, action-packed, and well written but this one has it all. I enjoyed that there was very little romance and a lot of battling monsters. I will definitely listen to this collection again!

All of the entries are excellent reads, but as we all know the story narrated can ruin it for you. All of the entries are well read, however, the man who ready Jim Butcher's entry about the infamous character John Marcone needed to be told that he didn't have to sound like a "wise guy" from some old 50's film. Johnny is not a smoker or drinker and this buy sounded like he had been on binge all of his life. The upside is that David Pittu is excellent as 30's vampire and super sleuth Jack Fleming is right on the mark.

If you know any of these authors, give this anthology a chance, and don't expect the same old same old. I was very pleasantly surprised how much I enjoyed this bunch of stories. I don't know what the other people who only gave two stars were expecting, but you can't please everyone. I found myself really enjoying the entire anthology. Great authors, some doing different things, others sticking to what they know. On a recent road trip everyone enjoyed this one.

I will be honest up front, I really only got this book because I saw it had a Dresden Files short story in it by Jim Butcher. I won't spoil things, but fans will find it a very interesting story, and one they might not (I certainly didn't) expect. I found his wife's story to also be very good, and P. N. Elrod always writes excellent stories. I didn't listen too carefully to most of the other stories, and I will likely go back and do so, but as I picked this up in anticipation of Jim Butcher's fourteenth Dresden Files novel, Cold Days, his was really the only story I was interested in listening to at the time of purchase. Sharron K Butcher's story was a very different type of story, but a pleasant surprise. I hope we will see more of this from her. Thus the above ratings is only for the stories I listened to, and not an overall rating. Id rate the Jim Butcher story five stars, with a solid four and a half stars for the narrator. He does an excellent job, but James Marsters has ruined other narrators telling of Jim Butcher Dresden Files books/stories as he is so damn good at it.

I enjoyed many of these stories. The narration was quite good. The only complaint I have is that the writers put crude language in that really didn't need to be there. That was a distraction. It also meant that my children who listen with me could not.
I wish we could delete these words prior to listening.

The Jim Butcher story was worth the price alone, but this is a delightful- and delightfully performed for the most part, collection of stories. The Harry Dresden story was masterful in writing as well as performance.

One of the early stories is a bit too fantasy for my tastes, and relied upon a confusing list of fanciful beings and items which was very chaotic. Added to the annoying "read", was an annoying voice that made it intolerable (I will let you figure out which one I refer to: Hint: It will be obvious). If it's not on the page it's not on the stage however, as the same voice actress rendered a stunning performance on a later story.

Overall I recommend this collection highly- look at the klinker as an extra that doesn't matter, but don't let it stop you from picking this up- heck, most collections like this have only a couple good stories, this has only one mediocre one!

Harry Dresden. The writing and performace were both 5 star.

Depth of field in his ability to range from believeable woman to Harry himself.

Laughter was common.

A must have in the Short Story Genre collection of Audio Books.

I really liked this collection of stories and the characters. Some of them were just a bit short but enjoyable. I got a chance to listen to other authors and see if I would enjoy other stories by the authors.

The variety of the settings and the various authors made for a good read.

I get the anthologies to read different authors and hear different narrators. I liked this anthology better than Down these Strange Streets although the subject matter was the same and many of the same authors. I feel these stories were shorter and if you weren't already familiar with the character they provided enough to enjoy the story. Also there was a variety of stories, some romance ,some stories funny, some were scary some were sad, some were twist on history so something for everyone provided your into monsters or "the unknown". I wish audible provided a more detailed table of contents though so I can go back and maybe look up other things from the authors and/or narrators that were particularly entertaining. as an example, I particularly liked the story by Rachel Caine and Carrie Vaughn. I magine the Kindle version has all that. whisper sync is perfect for books like this, you can read some or listen or read and listen.

I enjoyed all of the stories. I have started listening to Jim Butcher's Furies series as a result. These collections are a great way to meet new authors!

I'm giving this book four stars only because I'm not a huge fan of short stories. I picked up this book because it had offerings from some of my favorite authors. They were all very good, not a clunker in the batch.

One of the best things about the short story format is that is offers an author of a long-running series the opportunity to write something from one of their supporting character's point of view. Sometimes this can be disappointing, but not here. I don't want to give any spoilers.... but Jim Butcher does a great job here.