Shards of crimson Book

First read in June 2012
The four stories in Shards of Crimson, from current female fantasy writers, are interesting and themed together in a way that strongly reminded me of Thieves' World, especially when they started straying from the storyline into a highly explicit recount.

The first story, "A Time to Howl", was a classic theme of sheltered princess / erring peasant. It had echoes of Aladdin, as in the cartoon of the same name, but with a great twist. The two primary people in the story were both werewolves, one a sheltered princess, the other a rogue street walker, both with something missing in their lives. It was very well told, and the explicit scenes were very tastefully handled in a way that added to the storyline rather than, as so many do, abruptly jarring you out.

The second story, DX, dealt with human and demon interaction. Sadly to say, it was so uninteresting that I had to go back to the book to see what it was about. Helen, aka Hell, was the chief protagonist, and she was the love interest of vampires and demons, and the dinner date (as in the entrée) of werewolves. Other than that, too humdrum to remember.

School Bites, the third read, was an excellent story dealing with prejudice, and how unwarranted stereotyping of a race, people, or species, can often do more harm than good. In this story, the teachers struggle, literally, with the forces of evil, in this case the prejudice of the "normal" people against any they perceive as different. The teacher, Toni, is a Special Education teacher who deals daily with the children that are different, not cluing in to the fact that many of them are werewolves or vampires. She is bitten, and the prejudice of her fellows turns against her. The story turned out differently than I expected, and the outcome, and Toni's reactions, were different than I expected, but except for thinking this could have been better as a full length novel, I felt this was an excellent story.

The fourth and final story, Dark Awakening, was also dealing with demon and human interaction. It opens with a witch, Kimi, who, barely out of her teens, is now struggling to face her power while also coming to grips with the fact that the young man (Nic) she is interested in does not want her. She struggles with a slew of demons, and is forced to call on Nic for help, and together they struggle to contain the evil forces out to get her. A well written story.

Overall, 3 out of four were excellent, with only the second being forgettable. A good choice for an evening.