A review by marimoose
Unfettered by Shawn Speakman
4.0
I own the audiobook version, so listened to this rather than read.
I think there's a lot to be said about how wonderfully tight-knit the sff community had been, bounding together to create an anthology in order to aid a friend in serious debt. While this isn't the only thing rendering the anthology itself with four stars, it's something to be commended.
All that said, I really enjoyed a great deal of the stories from this collection. Obviously, as short stories go, some didn't resonate as well as I thought, others were okay or confusing or something that needed much more backdrop than the short story form could allow. And then there were the few that made me blink and think: "Erm, this isn't for me." But overall, there were authors here that I had to look up because I so wanted to read what they could accomplish in novel-form. Then, of course, there were the authors I already read previously and loved. So there's that.
Because there were so many stories, I'm just going to throw out the ones that I loved (otherwise this review would turn into its own short story...).
How Old Holly Came To Be - Patrick Rothfuss
I don't actually know how I would have felt reading this instead of listening to it. Looking back on all the stories, Rothfuss' addition was certainly the strangest one tone-wise, insofar as it felt more lyrical and poetic than all the others. I doubt this is how he writes The Name of the Wind (something on my to-read list), and I doubt it was everybody's cup of tea. The narration was what got me, and I loved this short to pieces. It was sad (and that was bad). It was beautiful (and that was good). It certainly made me sit and listen (and that was neither). Damn. It certainly got to my head.
The Old Scale Game - Tad Williams
I go back and forth with this one. Sometimes I love it, sometimes I liked it, sometimes I'm okay with it. What I did love was the little camaraderie the knight and the dragon had with each other, as well as the way things resolved. I felt it was a little bit kitschy at the end, but the story had a sense of humor which I liked, and definitely a different way to handle monster-slaying in any respect.
Game of Chance - Carrie Vaughn
I feel like this was part of a novel, but whatever the case, Vaughn was one of the authors I looked up because I wanted to read more of her stuff. The story certainly had me wondering how Clare and the rest of her crew dealt with manipulating parts of the world without being part of the world. Admittedly, it took me a second listen to try to figure out what was mostly happening, because I might have fallen asleep in the middle of it (though this had nothing to do with the novel and mostly to do with how tired I was).
Mudboy - Peter V. Brett
I've had a signed copy of Brett's The Warded Man sitting on my bookshelf for the longest time and I still haven't read it. I don't know what's wrong with me, because clearly I really, really need to read this book. I loved this little origin story of a character (I think) in his Demon Cycle series. It was sad, it was traumatizing, and it was so, so, so badass.
The Chapel Perilous - Kevin Hearne
Yeah, totally knew I'd love this one. It was a given, considering I absolutely enjoyed Hounded, the first book of Hearne's The Iron Druid Chronicles. The short story was a fun, tangential adventure involving the last remaining druid on Earth (or so I'm told). Here, we're taken back a ways into his past, sometime in the days of King Arthur, where Atticus is apparently mistaken as Sir Gawain. Random nonsense happens throughout the story, but it was certainly written in the same tone as Hounded, so I was going to love it just as much.
Strange Rain - Jennifer Bosworth
At first I didn't think much of this story. I thought it was a weird, non-fantasy much like a few others on the list. But suddenly, lightning bolt and a wayward raincloud. And an obsessive sister that just won't let. It. Go. I'm thinking this is part of an origin story for a character in a novel, 'cause I really wanted to know what happened to him/her/it/them(?) later on.
Unbowed - Eldon Thompson
This was another tale where I thought the character was part of a bigger story, and either this tale was an origin story or a "later on" kind of vignette. Sometimes I kind of wished I'd had the author notes that came with each short story, because that would have shed light on many of these shorts, but unfortunately, the audiobook seemed to skip that entirely (actually, I think the audiobook skipped the foreword as well--I had to actually read that on Patrick Rothfuss' Goodreads comment). That being said, this one intrigued me, insofar as wonder whether some of these characters--other than Kylac--existed in the series or if the origin story was just something that shed light on a character. I admit the story was a little slow in the beginning, but it certainly picked up pace, and I was glad I'd listened to the entire thing.
The Unfettered Knight - Shawn Speakman
This one and Peter Orullian's "The Sound of Broken Absolutes" went on forever and a day as far as short stories went. That said, I actually liked "The Unfettered Knight", surprising as I'm not really into the religious history that was being delved into, nor did I care that a major religious historical figure was in fact the first "vampire." And apparently there were zombies at some point (or was this just a derogative word to mean the "lesser vampires"?). In any case, I thought this was a good story. I thought the addition of fae was odd, but it was neither here nor there (frankly, it might have helped me continue onward). And while it was the length of a novella as opposed to a short story, I didn't think it was in any way slow at all.
Yeesh, that's at least a third of the book that I loved. David Anthony Durham, Naomi Novik, and Mark Lawrence get thumbs up for their stories, too, 'cause I liked those. And some of the other authors I've either already added into my to-reads list (Jordan and Sullivan and Brooks), or have read/am reading/immensely enjoying their books (*cough Brandon Sanderson cough*).
And that's it, I think.
I think there's a lot to be said about how wonderfully tight-knit the sff community had been, bounding together to create an anthology in order to aid a friend in serious debt. While this isn't the only thing rendering the anthology itself with four stars, it's something to be commended.
All that said, I really enjoyed a great deal of the stories from this collection. Obviously, as short stories go, some didn't resonate as well as I thought, others were okay or confusing or something that needed much more backdrop than the short story form could allow. And then there were the few that made me blink and think: "Erm, this isn't for me." But overall, there were authors here that I had to look up because I so wanted to read what they could accomplish in novel-form. Then, of course, there were the authors I already read previously and loved. So there's that.
Because there were so many stories, I'm just going to throw out the ones that I loved (otherwise this review would turn into its own short story...).
How Old Holly Came To Be - Patrick Rothfuss
I don't actually know how I would have felt reading this instead of listening to it. Looking back on all the stories, Rothfuss' addition was certainly the strangest one tone-wise, insofar as it felt more lyrical and poetic than all the others. I doubt this is how he writes The Name of the Wind (something on my to-read list), and I doubt it was everybody's cup of tea. The narration was what got me, and I loved this short to pieces. It was sad (and that was bad). It was beautiful (and that was good). It certainly made me sit and listen (and that was neither). Damn. It certainly got to my head.
The Old Scale Game - Tad Williams
I go back and forth with this one. Sometimes I love it, sometimes I liked it, sometimes I'm okay with it. What I did love was the little camaraderie the knight and the dragon had with each other, as well as the way things resolved. I felt it was a little bit kitschy at the end, but the story had a sense of humor which I liked, and definitely a different way to handle monster-slaying in any respect.
Game of Chance - Carrie Vaughn
I feel like this was part of a novel, but whatever the case, Vaughn was one of the authors I looked up because I wanted to read more of her stuff. The story certainly had me wondering how Clare and the rest of her crew dealt with manipulating parts of the world without being part of the world. Admittedly, it took me a second listen to try to figure out what was mostly happening, because I might have fallen asleep in the middle of it (though this had nothing to do with the novel and mostly to do with how tired I was).
Mudboy - Peter V. Brett
I've had a signed copy of Brett's The Warded Man sitting on my bookshelf for the longest time and I still haven't read it. I don't know what's wrong with me, because clearly I really, really need to read this book. I loved this little origin story of a character (I think) in his Demon Cycle series. It was sad, it was traumatizing, and it was so, so, so badass.
The Chapel Perilous - Kevin Hearne
Yeah, totally knew I'd love this one. It was a given, considering I absolutely enjoyed Hounded, the first book of Hearne's The Iron Druid Chronicles. The short story was a fun, tangential adventure involving the last remaining druid on Earth (or so I'm told). Here, we're taken back a ways into his past, sometime in the days of King Arthur, where Atticus is apparently mistaken as Sir Gawain. Random nonsense happens throughout the story, but it was certainly written in the same tone as Hounded, so I was going to love it just as much.
Strange Rain - Jennifer Bosworth
At first I didn't think much of this story. I thought it was a weird, non-fantasy much like a few others on the list. But suddenly, lightning bolt and a wayward raincloud. And an obsessive sister that just won't let. It. Go. I'm thinking this is part of an origin story for a character in a novel, 'cause I really wanted to know what happened to him/her/it/them(?) later on.
Unbowed - Eldon Thompson
This was another tale where I thought the character was part of a bigger story, and either this tale was an origin story or a "later on" kind of vignette. Sometimes I kind of wished I'd had the author notes that came with each short story, because that would have shed light on many of these shorts, but unfortunately, the audiobook seemed to skip that entirely (actually, I think the audiobook skipped the foreword as well--I had to actually read that on Patrick Rothfuss' Goodreads comment). That being said, this one intrigued me, insofar as wonder whether some of these characters--other than Kylac--existed in the series or if the origin story was just something that shed light on a character. I admit the story was a little slow in the beginning, but it certainly picked up pace, and I was glad I'd listened to the entire thing.
The Unfettered Knight - Shawn Speakman
This one and Peter Orullian's "The Sound of Broken Absolutes" went on forever and a day as far as short stories went. That said, I actually liked "The Unfettered Knight", surprising as I'm not really into the religious history that was being delved into, nor did I care that a major religious historical figure was in fact the first "vampire." And apparently there were zombies at some point (or was this just a derogative word to mean the "lesser vampires"?). In any case, I thought this was a good story. I thought the addition of fae was odd, but it was neither here nor there (frankly, it might have helped me continue onward). And while it was the length of a novella as opposed to a short story, I didn't think it was in any way slow at all.
Yeesh, that's at least a third of the book that I loved. David Anthony Durham, Naomi Novik, and Mark Lawrence get thumbs up for their stories, too, 'cause I liked those. And some of the other authors I've either already added into my to-reads list (Jordan and Sullivan and Brooks), or have read/am reading/immensely enjoying their books (*cough Brandon Sanderson cough*).
And that's it, I think.