Melanie
Written on Sep 11, 2017
3.5 stars
So this book was very tricky for me. I loved the concept of getting stories from the POV of the villains. The majority of books are written from the POV of heroes, people who are out for the greater good in some way shape or form. I’ve read a few books that were told from the POV of villains, Forging Hephaestus by Drew Hayes and Villains Rule by M.K. Gibson. I really enjoyed those stories, so why not see the POV of villains I already know.
Now, I’ve read a few of these series. I’m completely up to date with Jim Butcher’s Dresden Files and Kevin Hearne’s Iron Druid Chronicles. I read the entire Jill Kismet series by Lilith Saintcrow, but that was back in 2012. I’ve read the first few books in the Cainville by Kelley Armstrong, but I’m not up to date. I’ve only read the first book in the Kitty Norville books by Carrie Vaughn. The rest were new-to-me authors or series.
The stories in this anthology are pretty short. I’m not sure of the word count guidelines that the authors were given, but I think the longest story was just over an hour in length. Some were as short as about a half hour. Most of them ranged in the 45 minute range. I think I would’ve enjoyed these stories a lot better if they had been longer stories. The series that I was familiar with, the shortness of the story didn’t bother me as much, because I already knew so much about the characters and world. The new-to-me worlds were harder to enjoy with such short stories.
The other thing that I noticed is the difference between the villains. Some of the villains had lines that they wouldn’t cross. For example, Marcone, the villain from Dresden Files, goes after someone who is hurting children. He may be a monster, but don’t mess with kids in his town. I felt there were some other stories (admittedly, a story I wasn’t familiar with), where I felt like the villain was so extremely evil, it felt like an over exaggerated Bond villain to a cartoonish level.
I did appreciate the fact the authors provided a blurb at the beginning of each story explaining the series and the villains in question. I think that helped make the stories much more enjoyable, knowing about the world.
So, overall, I enjoyed this anthology. I do wish the stories were a little longer. As with most anthologies, the level of enjoyment was different for each story. Some stories I DNF because I was either lost in the story or just didn’t care enough about the characters to continue. Again, I really like the idea of writing from the villain’s POV. I hope to see more stories like this (especially when authors do collections of short stories for their own series). I don’t know that this is the best introduction to new authors. I have found some new authors because of anthologies in the past, but I’m not sure that is the case here.
Narration
I haven’t listened to Paul Boehmer or Tanya Eby, much if at all. I think they did a really great job with narration. Now, my two favorite series in this collection, Dresden Files and Iron Druid Chronicles which both have amazing narrators. It wasn’t that Paul Boehmer did a bad job, it was just it wasn’t the same voice as the voices I’m used to. I think the fact that it was told from the villain’s POV helped a lot in this aspect. Outside of the two series that I’m extremely familiar with, I thought both narrators did a really good job. I liked the male and female voices of both narrators. I thought they both did a good job bringing out the evil side of the main characters. I would gladly listen either of these narrators again.
**I like to thank the publisher for providing me with a copy of this audiobook in exchange for an honest review.