Urban Enemies

A Collection of Urban Fantasy Stories

By: Jim Butcher, Joseph Nassise - editor

Narrated by: Paul Boehmer, Tanya Eby

Length: 13 hrs and 12 mins

Publisher's summary

Villains have all the fun - everyone knows that - and this anthology takes you on a wild ride through the dark side! The top villains from 16 urban fantasy series get their own stories - including the baddies of New York Times best-selling authors Jim Butcher, Kevin Hearne, Kelley Armstrong, Seanan McGuire, and Jonathan Maberry.

For every hero trying to save the world, there's a villain trying to tear it all down. In this can't-miss anthology edited by Joseph Nassise (The Templar Chronicles), you get to plot world domination with the best of the evildoers we love to hate! This outstanding collection brings you stories told from the villains' points of view, imparting fresh and unique takes on the evil masterminds, wicked witches, and infernal personalities that skulk in today's most popular series.

The full anthology features stories by Jim Butcher (the Dresden Files), Kelley Armstrong (the Cainsville and Otherworld series), Seanan McGuire (October Daye), Kevin Hearne (The Iron Druid Chronicles), Jonathan Maberry (Joe Ledger), Lilith Saintcrow (Jill Kismet), Carrie Vaughn (Kitty Norville), Joseph Nassise (Templar Chronicles), C. E. Murphy (Walker Papers), Steven Savile (Glass Town), Caitlin Kittredge (the Hellhound Chronicles and the Black London series), Jeffrey Somers (The Ustari Cycle), Sam Witt (Pitchfork County), Craig Schaefer (Daniel Faust), Jon F. Merz (Lawson Vampire), and Diana Pharaoh Francis (Horngate Witches).

Download the accompanying reference guide.

©2017 Jim Butcher, Kevin Hearne, Seanan McGuire, Kelley Armstrong, Jonathan Maberry, Jeff Somers, Joseph Nassise (P)2017 Recorded Books

3 or 4 stars if not for formatting issue

if you don't already read/listen to at least a few of the series I wouldn't recommend this. I enjoyed 5 of the 17 stories.

The not listing the chapters is infuriating. each chapter is a different story/series and in no way shape or form are they described in any way other than "chapter x". I have a feeling this would make a WAY better book than audio book. I would have given it 3 or 4 stars if they had any foresight regarding this problem.

Short stories

The majority of the stories are interesting and provide info on characters in the author's series. Some of the short stories have a beginning and end while others seem to give you just the middle. There is a different narrator for each story. As with other anthologies you get great and not so great stories and your opinion just depends on which author drew you to the story. For me, I picked it up for Faith Hunter's story.

Good Short Stories, if you know the worlds

What did you love best about Urban Enemies?

I loved the stories from worlds with which I was already familiar. And I did find a few new authors whose series I want to try. However, the stories as generally too short to get oriented to the world if you aren't familiar with it. So I'd recommend to fans, not newbies.

No stand-alones & a retread from other collections

There are better collections of fantasy shorts, such as Noir Fatale or Blackguards. Those contain some shorts tied to series but also several standalone stories that can be enjoyed without having read the authors’ other works. This collection is entirely pulled from existing series and many don’t bother to catch you up on the world or the characters. Given this collection stars the bad guys, the failure to develop their backstories makes it hard to relate to their evil deeds. Many of these aren’t so much stories as they are series chapters that should have been left on the drawing room floor.

Which brings me to my frustration with Audible failing to list the shorts in the summary, so listeners can see how many they already own. Thus, this review will list the 17 short stories (all an hour or less), their authors, and the series I think they attach to (I’m admittedly not familiar with all of the series).

1. Even Hand by Jim Butcher. A Dresden series short starring nemesis John Marcone. This short is available in at least two other collections that I know of: Brief Cases and Dark & Stormy Knights.⭐️⭐️⭐️
2. Hounded by Kelly Armstrong. Series: Cainsville? MC is a sort of Celtic or Fae devil who enables human in damning themselves.⭐️⭐️
3. Nigsu Ga Tesgu by Jeff Somers. Series: The Utsari Cycle? Sounded like a battle from one of the books, told from the evil POV. Confused. ⭐️
4. Sixty-Six Seconds by Craig Schaefer. Series: Harmony Black and Daniel Faust crossover.
Demon bounty hunter gets his sidekick. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
5. Kiss by Lilith Saintcrow. Series: Jill Kismet. I liked the arrogant smarm from the devilish POV. ⭐️⭐️⭐️
6. The Naughtiest Cherub by Kevin Hearne. Series: Iron Druid Loki runs Hell’s gauntlet for a weapon against the Iron Druid. ⭐️⭐️⭐️
7. The Resurrectionist by Caitlin Kittridge. Series: Black London?
Mob enforcer tracks warlock’s little sister. ⭐️⭐️
8. Down Where The Darkness Dwells by Joseph Nassise. Series: Templar Chronicles? Not sure where the Templars come in. This was military monster tale goes Tomb Raider. Lots of guns and gore. ⭐️⭐️
9. Bellum Romanum by Carrie Vaughn. Series: Kitty Norville. Backstory for Gaius. ⭐️⭐️
10. Altar Boy by Jonathan Mayberry. Series: Joe Ledger. A Toys love story…sort of. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
11. Make it Snappy by Faith Hunter. Series: Jane Yellowrock. Vampire Leo in a prequel escapade. ⭐️⭐️
12. Chase The Fire by John F Merz. Series: Lawson vampire. Yawn. Like Blade, but boring.⭐️
13. Unexpected Choices by Diana Pharaoh Francis. Series: Horngate Witches.
Endless talking between witches and angels with funky names. ⭐️
14. Reel Life by Steven Savile. Glass Tower book? Something about time travel. This guy is an A hole. ⭐️
15. The Difference Between Deceit and Delusion by Domino Finn. Series: Black Magic Outlaw?
Voodoo, ripping throats with metal teeth, drops right into a John Wick style fight scene.
Books 1-3 are offered for 1 credit. May be worth a sale purchase. ⭐️⭐️⭐️
16. Balance by Seanan McGuire. Series: October Daye? Excellent twilight zone-ish tale
starring an evil cuckoo creature (the bird, not the crazy, although she is pathological). ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
17. Everywhere by Sam Witt. Series: Pitchfork County?
Old McDonald had a farm… meets invasion of the body snatcher. ⭐️⭐️

I bought it for the Butcher story.

I enjoyed the John Marcone story line in the Dresden books. The problem I encountered was I wasn't familiar with the characters in the other stories and couldn't connect with them. If you know the other series I'm certain you would enjoy them more than I did.

Very Disappointed

Would you try another book from Jim Butcher and Joseph Nassise - editor and/or Paul Boehmer and Tanya Eby ?

Jim Butcher has been a favorite author of mine for years. I bought the book for his short story, but turns out I had heard it in other short story collections. The rest of the stories all sounded so much the same, I can not pick out individual story lines.

What could Jim Butcher and Joseph Nassise - editor have done to make this a more enjoyable book for you?

The stories were poorly written and lack for variety. The editors had little to work with.

What didn’t you like about Paul Boehmer and Tanya Eby ’s performance?

They became very repetitious and boring half way through the book. Many characters, same old voice and inflection.

What character would you cut from Urban Enemies?

Most.

ehhh

Ok, so I was really only interested in the stores by Butch and Hearne. The Dresden Files story is in the book Side Jobs, which is nothing but shorts for the Dresden Files Series and the Hearne story is Loki's story about meeting Lucifer. Not great, and I hate Loki in the Iron Druid Chronical anyway, so this book is really unnecessary, in my view. The readers were not great either. I didn't enjoy this.

Difficult stories to get into

Any additional comments?

I had a hard time getting into any of the stories. None of the authors, many I have enjoyed reading, managed to capture my attention. Rather disappointed in this compellation. Perhaps it was the narrators, or the stories themselves... I struggled to listen to all the chapters, but ended up listening to about 20-30 minutes (sometimes only 10 minutes) and then skipped to the next chapter.

I do love Jim Butcher's Dresden Files, but the story was a repeat from one of his other books - I was expecting something new and was very disappointed.

liked it a lot

The first few minutes have a text to speech feel but it gets better. Glad i kept going.

Good stories but one is missing

I enjoyed most of the stories. I have read most of the series these stories are set in and I'm sure that helped.

One thing stands out though - WHERE IS THE C E. MURPHY STORY? I read the Walker Papers series not long ago and went back to this anthology to read the Walker story here. I skipped the first time but am familiar with the universe now and I wanted to check it out. The problem is that when I looked for it in the chapter list, it was not listed. I then listened, skipping from one chapter to the next but it just wasn't there. It says in the synopsis of the book that the story is there. I looked up the print version in my local library and it is there so why was it dropped from the audio book? It's labeled as unabridged but obviously it's not. I guess I hadn't skipped the story the first time after all.

Aside from this curious problem, my only problem was with the narrators. They were only fair at best. Many other anthologies like this get the regular narrators from each series to read the story from their world. I wish this one had been done that way. I really missed Luke Daniels for Hearne's story, James Marsters for Butcher's, and Mary Robinette-Kowal for Mcguire's.

Pretty bad. Sorry to say

Not very good at all. Forced narration doesn't sound real. The stories are all pretty poor.

No, Thank-you

They have tried to save money by not using the correct narrators and it does not work. The Faith Hunter story should have been read by Khristine Hvam and as a person who has read and listen to all the Jane Yellowrock novels and short stories it felt unreal. I might have felt differently if I have purchased the paper book or kindle when I could have put mental voices to the stories.
The same is true of the Jim Butcher story Paul Boehmer is not James Marsters.
Only buy this if you are not bothered by who reads the stories

Really hard to listen to

The performance of the readers really makes it impossible to rate the novels. I love several of the authors but I have to struggle not to stop listening.