Book Review – Wolfsbane & Mistletoe
Books, Review | amberdrake | October 2, 2008 at 7:15 pm
Editors: Charlaine Harris, Toni L. P. Kelner
Publisher: Ace
Binding: Hardcover
Publish Date: October 2008
Normally when I read a collection of short stories, I either wince through a great deal of them to get to the good stuff or pass over many of them completely. However, I was pleasantly surprised upon picking up Wolfsbane and Mistletoe to find that out of the many short stories in the book, there were none that I disliked outright. There were some that were a bit out there but that fits in with the overall theme of this anthology. There were seven that I found to be very good. Only three of those seven were by authors that I’ve already encountered and enjoyed. The rest were authors I had never heard of before and who, because of this book, I will now be looking into. This of course is always a good thing. A good thing for the authors to find new fans and a really good thing for someone like me who reads at least five books a week – I need to keep my supply up!
The editors, Charlaine Harris and Toni L. P. Kelner, flush with their success with Many Bloody Returns, another anthology dealing with vampires and birthdays, decided to attempt a repeat of that feat. The new subject they chose was another paranormal staple – werewolves; they asked the contributing authors to wrap their werewolf stories in a theme of Christmas. In doing so they have created a plethora of new Santa Clause myths. Poor Santa. According to these authors he is not necessarily the jolly children’s advocate we previously believed. In some cases he is downright murderous.
I’m going to outline four of my favorites, these by authors previously unknown to me. I have since added books by these authors to my ‘to read’ list. For mystery fans, there seem to be quite a few of those authors in this collection, so you might want to pay attention.
In The Night Things Changed by Dana Cameron two of the Fangborn are in pursuit of evil. They are well suited to the task, she being vampire and he a werewolf. It is their reason for being; fighting evil. But what happens when something changes that?
Alan Gordon serves up a refreshingly standard werewolf tale in Fresh Meat. He spices it up with a bit of love, a touch of revenge, dash of murder and a heartwarming belief in the intelligence of domestic dogs.
SA by J. A. Konrath is very much a reprisal of the Santa Clause mythos with an amusing take on shapeshifting, a tongue-in-cheek sendup of 12 step programs and also has a bit of fun with the bell-ringing charity Santas we see each season. I was just a tad disappointed with the unfulfilled Christmas Wish however.
The most surprising story for me was Keeping Watch on his Flock by Toni L. P. Kelner. It was surprising because in a short story the author was able to show the arrogance of the teenage years and then show it worn away by experience. I did not like the main character at first but ended up with a tear in my eye at the end.
While the previous four authors aren’t unknowns, I wanted to highlight them because they would be less recognized in fantasy circles, and because they did such an outstanding job with their assignments. With that in mind I also want to note that the stories by the following three well-established fantasy authors were also very good: Rogue Elements by Karen Chance, Milk & Cookies by Rob Thurman and The Star of David by Patricia Briggs. Amazingly, there were no stories in this collection that I just plain did not like. In a collection of this size with stories by so many authors, I find that very surprising. I can easily recommend this to fans of the paranormal, werewolves, Santa Clause and for people who just like stories.
Tags: ACE, Charlaine Harris, Fantasy, Short Fiction, Toni L. P. Kelner, Wolfsbane and Mistletoe
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