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Urban Enemies by Joseph Nassies, Jim Butcher, Kevin Hearne, Seanan McGuire, Kelley Armstrong, Jonathan Maberry, Jeff Somers, Steven Savile, Caitlin Kittredge, Sam Witt, Craig Schaefer, Jon F. Merz, Faith Hunter, Diana Pharaoh Francis, Lilith Saintcrow, Carrie Vaughn, Domino Finn Series: The Dresden Files, Cainsville, October Daye, The Iron Druid Chronicles, Joe Ledger, Jill Kismet, Kitty Norville, Templar Chronicles, Black Magic Outlaw, Glasstown, Hellhound Chronicles, The Ustari Cycle, Pitchfork County, Daniel Faust, Lawson Vampire, Jane Yellowrock, Horngate Witches
on August 1, 2017
Genres: Anthologies, Urban Fantasy
Pages: 449
Format: eBook
Source: Library
Purchase Links: Amazon*Libro*Kobo*Chirp
Goodreads
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 seventeen urban fantasy series get their own stories—including the baddies of New York Times bestselling 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' point of view, imparting a fresh and unique take on the evil masterminds, wicked witches, and infernal personalities that skulk in the pages of today’s most popular series.
The full anthology features stories by Jim Butcher (the Dresden Files), Kelley Armstrong (Cainsville), 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), Domino Finn (Black Magic Outlaw), Steven Savile (Glasstown), Caitlin Kittredge (Hellhound Chronicles), Jeffrey Somers (The Ustari Cycle), Sam Witt (Pitchfork County), Craig Schaefer (Daniel Faust), Jon F. Merz (Lawson Vampire), Faith Hunter (Jane Yellowrock), and Diana Pharaoh Francis (Horngate Witches).
Also in this series: Strange Brew, Storm Front, Fool Moon, Grave Peril, Summer Knight, Death Masks, Grimoire of the Lamb, Hounded, Kitty and the Midnight Hour, Kitty Goes to Washington, Skinwalker, Cat Tales, Blood Cross, Mercy Blade, Raven Cursed
Urban Enemies is a collection of seventeen short stories from Joseph Nassies, Jim Butcher, Kevin Hearne, Seanan McGuire, Kelley Armstrong, Jonathan Maberry, Jeff Somers, Steven Savile, Caitlin Kittredge, Sam Witt, Craig Schaefer, Jon F. Merz, Faith Hunter, Diana Pharaoh Francis, Lilith Saintcrow, Carrie Vaughn, & Domino Finn.
This collection of short stories was an ok read. They are all a little dark and deal with the villains of many different series. I think this collection is great for libraries. It’s got a lot of author’s so, it might get you interested in trying them.
I picked up this collection; because I wanted to read Jim Butcher’s short story, but I did end up reading all seventeen stories featured. I enjoyed some and others didn’t work out.
Urban Enemies Collection Rated: 3.5 Stars
Even Hand by Jim Butcher
Even Hand features John Marcone the human criminal lord in Chicago in the Dresden Files. We get to see what he’s been working on in regards to negating magic. The author treats us to a little battle that tests out his defenses. We see that even as a criminal he has rules and one is no children ever.
I’m fan of the Dresden Files. It’s a great Urban Fantasy series to explore. I liked seeing Marcone.
Rated: 4 Stars
Hounded by Kelly Armstrong
Hounded is a dark tale. We learn about the Huntsman and that they hunt those that have killed the fae only. But, here we have one who has been cast out, an outcast; because he hunts humans who have killed. The way he traps these humans isn’t right and it’s what lead him to be outcasted.
It’s interesting, but a little dark for my taste.
Rated: 3 Stars
Nigsu Ga Tesgu by Jeff Somers
Here we learn that Magicians aren’t nice people. It’s told in Mika’s POV and is very dark.
It was enjoyable, but a little dark for my taste.
Rated: 3 Stars
Sixty-Six Seconds by Craig Schaefer
We are treated to two series that cross in the same world, Harmony Black and Daniel Faust. Faust is nobody’s hero. He’s a card-carrying villain by trade, a thief and sorcerer. We learn that Demons take over dead bodies and wreak havoc in the modern world. The Chainmen are the first and last line of defense against the enemies of Hell.
I enjoyed Sixty-Six Seconds. Our lead is trying to help someone he cares about out and is on a time crunch.
Rated: 4 Stars
Kiss by Lilith Saintcro
We get a character from the Jill Kismet series.
I have not read the series, so this one was not easy to follow. We get made up languages and words; which don’t make sense. I was lost.
Rated: DNF
The Naughties T Cherub By Kevin Hearne
Here we get Loki’s POV a character in the Iron Druid series. It takes place after Staked. Loki is working his way towards Ragnoroke. He visits Hades in Hell to gag if he will participate.
I enjoyed this insight into Loki, the trip to Hell, and this little pop into the series. I’ve got plans to try out the Iron Druid series.
Rated: 3.5 Stars
The Resurrectionist by Caitlin Kittredge
This short is set in the Hellhound Chronicles during the 1930’s. It is the begging of Lee’s story. We get a missing girl, zombies, hellhounds, and warlocks. Lee once was a hunter, but has left that life, yet that life never left him. He’ll have to be that man again.
I really liked this insight into Lee and little taste of the series.
Rated: 4 Stars
Down where the Darkness Dwells by Joseph Nassise
Here we visit the Templar Chronicles series and Necromancer Simon Logan a villain in the series. This is the start of when he gains his powers. He’s on a search for hidden treasures that will give power, but what he finds turned him into the most powerful leader and no longer an acolyte.
I very much enjoyed this short story. I’m curious about the series now.
Rated: 4 Stars
Bellum Romanum by Carrie Vaughn
Here we meet Roman aka Gaius Albinus who is Kitty’s nemesis in the Kitty Norville series.
I actually tried this series and stoped after book two. It wasn’t working for me. As for this short, Bellum Romanum, I liked Roman and seeing him at the start of his life and what he has in the works.
Rated: 4 Stars
Altar Boy by Jonathan Maberry
Here we visit the Joe Ledger world and it features Toy a villain and a recovering bad guy fighting for his soul and redemption. He’s trying to turn a new leaf, given a new chance to do good, but his past has caught up with him…. What will he do?
This was an interesting short and I enjoyed it. Toy is a complex character. He knows he’s done bad and will probably do it again, but he’s also trying to help the good guys and atone for his sins.
Rated: 4 Stars
Make It Snappy by Faith Hunter
This one takes us into the Jane Yellowrock series featuring Leo and his vampire gang; before Jane comes into the picture. He takes on an old enemy that he thought was dead and learns that the Europe Vampires have set their sights on his land and will be come.
I liked this short. It was fun to see Leo before Jane. I like the Yellowrock series. It’s a great Urban Fantasy to read. I actually was taking a break from the series, but after reading this I wanted to get back to the books.
Rated: 4 Stars
Chase The Fire by Jon F. Merz
Here we visit the Lawson Vampire series. Shiraz and Ava both have plans, but only one will live to complete them. It’s interesting that these vampires aren’t dead, but have evolved along side humans. We get deception, politics, and hidden plots inside the Vampire world.
It was an enjoyable read.
Rated 3.5 Stars
Unexpected Choices by Diana Pharaoh Francis
Here we visit the Horngate Witches series. Giselle, a Witch and Shoftiel, an Angel are not good and not evil. They both do what they feel is right to save people they care about, but those choices have a cost. Shoftiel was punished and sent to the Mistlands. He has a chance at freedom by making a deal with Giselle who needs his help in a snatch and grab.
Unexpected was investing. We get a run down of the world and what happened to it and why theirs magic now.
Rated: 4 Stars
Reel Life by Steven Savile
This is an odd read. We have Seth who is a criminal. He’s jealous and envious of his brother. He makes a deal with a magician who makes this alternate world called Glass Tower. In this world time moves differently, he doesn’t age, yet can step outside the world into a new time and will age unless he returns to the Glass Tower.
It’s weird, violent, got abuse, rape, death, and destruction. I didn’t care for it. It’s got several trig points that I don’t like to read about and the weirdness of the story didn’t help.
Rated: 1 stars
The Difference Between Deceit and Delusion by Domino Finn
This short story takes place before the Black Magic Outlaw series kicks off. We get a look at the backstory of the villain, Tunji Malu, who started all the trouble in that world. It stars off with torture then onto the kill. Once we move on we get a short battle, and making a deal with a Jinn who also has big plans.
It was an ok read.
Rated: 3 Stars
Balance by Seanan McGuire
This one is in the InCryptid universe. It’s got manipulating minds and causing chaos.
I couldn’t get into this short story.
Rated: DNF
Everywhere by Sam Witt
Here we visit Pitchfork Country series. Joe Hark fights dark forces that plague the world when he discovers his mentor has; become one of these monsters it puts them against each other.
I didn’t like it and couldn’t get into the short story.
Rated: DNF
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Challenges (2019):
About Caitlin Kittredge
Caitlin Kittredge is the author of the Nocturne City and Black London series, as well as several short stories. She started writing novels at age 13, and after a few years writing screenplays, comic books and fan-fiction, she wrote Night Life, her debut novel. She is the proud owner of an English degree, two cats, a morbid imagination, a taste for black clothing, punk rock, and comic books. She’s lucky enough to write full time and watches far too many trashy horror movies. She lives in Olympia, Washington.
About Carrie Vaughn
Carrie Vaughn is the author more than twenty novels and over a hundred short stories. She’s best known for her New York Times bestselling series of novels about a werewolf named Kitty who hosts a talk radio advice show for the supernaturally disadvantaged. In 2018, she won the Philip K. Dick Award for Bannerless, a post-apocalyptic murder mystery. She’s published over 20 novels and 100 short stories, two of which have been finalists for the Hugo Award. She’s a contributor to the Wild Cards series of shared world superhero books edited by George R. R. Martin and a graduate of the Odyssey Fantasy Writing Workshop.
An Air Force brat, she survived her nomadic childhood and managed to put down roots in Boulder, Colorado, where she collects hobbies.
About Craig Schaefer
Craig Schaefer’s books have taken readers to the seamy edge of a criminal underworld drenched in shadow (the Daniel Faust series), to a world torn by war, poison and witchcraft (the Revanche Cycle), and — beginning this winter — across a modern America mired in occult mysteries and a conspiracy of lies (the Harmony Black series).
Despite this, people say he’s strangely normal. Suspiciously normal, in fact.
Schaefer lives in Illinois with a small retinue of cats, all of whom try to interrupt his writing schedule and/or kill him on a regular basis. He practices sleight of hand in his spare time, though he’s not very good at it.
About Diana Pharaoh Francis
USA Today bestelling writer Diana Pharaoh Francis has written several popular fantasy series. The Path trilogy, which includes Path of Fate (nominated for the Mary Roberts Rinehart Award), Path of Honor and Path of Blood, is epic fantasy. She has also written the Crosspointe Chronicles, including The Cipher, The Black Ship, The Turning Tide, and The Hollow Crown. She also writes The Horngate Witches series, Bitter Night (nominated for the RT Best Urban Fantasy 2010), Crimson Wind (Nominated for the RT best Urban Fantasy Heroine, 2011), and Shadow City (a Top Pick at RT), and Blood Winter. Her latest series is the Diamond City Magic books, beginning with Trace of Magic, which also earned an RT top pick and a nomination for Best Independent Urban Fantasy novel. The second book is Edge of Dreams, also a RT Top Pick, also nominated for Best Independent Fantasy Novel. Whisper of Shadows is the third book in the series. Diana has also launched the Mission: Magic series with the short romantic paranormal novel The Incubus Job.
Diana is a fan of the Victorians, sparkly things, yarn, crochet and knitting, and corgis. Especially corgis. She dresses almost entirely in Woot tee-shirts.
About Domino Finn
Domino Finn is an entertainment industry veteran, a contributor to award-winning video games, and the grizzled Urban Fantasy author of the best-selling Black Magic Outlaw series. His stories are equal parts spit, beer, and blood, and are notable for treating weighty issues with a supernatural veneer. If Domino has one rallying cry for the world, it’s that fantasy is serious business.
About Faith Hunter
Faith Hunter is a New York Times and USAToday bestselling author. She writes dark urban fantasy, paranormal urban thrillers, paranormal police procedurals, and science fiction.
Her long-running, bestselling, Skinwalker series features Jane Yellowrock, a hunter of rogue-vampires. The Soulwood series features Nell Nicholson Ingram in paranormal crime solving novels. Her Rogue Mage novels, a dark, post-apocalyptic fantasy series, features Thorn St. Croix, a stone mage in an alternate reality. She has won numerous awards and Curse on The Land won an Audie Award for 2017. She also writes a Scifi novella series Junkyard Cats.
Under the pen name Gwen Hunter, she has written action adventure, mysteries, thrillers, women’s fiction, a medical thriller series, and even historical religious fiction. As Gwen, she was part of the WH Smith Literary Award for Fresh Talent in 1995 in the UK, and won a Romantic Times Reviewers Choice Award in 2008. Under all her pen names, she has over 40 books in print in 30 countries.
All of that Faith finds terribly boring. In real life, Faith once broke a stove by refusing to turn it on for so long that its parts froze and the unused stove had to be replaced. She collects orchids and animal skulls, rocks and fossils, loves to sit on the screened back porch in lightning storms, and is a workaholic with a passion for white-water kayaking, and RV travel. She prefers Class III whitewater rivers with no gorge to climb out of, and drinks a lot of tea. Some days she’s a lady. Some days she ain’t.
About Jim Butcher
Jim Butcher is the author of the Dresden Files, the Codex Alera, and a new steampunk series, the Cinder Spires. His resume includes a laundry list of skills which were useful a couple of centuries ago, and he plays guitar quite badly. An avid gamer, he plays tabletop games in varying systems, a variety of video games on PC and console, and LARPs whenever he can make time for it. Jim currently resides mostly inside his own head, but his head can generally be found in his home town of Independence, Missouri.
Jim goes by the moniker Longshot in a number of online locales. He came by this name in the early 1990′s when he decided he would become a published author. Usually only 3 in 1000 who make such an attempt actually manage to become published; of those, only 1 in 10 make enough money to call it a living. The sale of a second series was the breakthrough that let him beat the long odds against attaining a career as a novelist.
All the same, he refuses to change his nickname.
About Kevin Hearne
Kevin is the NYT bestselling author of the Iron Druid Chronicles, as well as The Seven Kennings, an epic fantasy trilogy, and the Tales of Pell, a humorous fantasy series co-authored with Delilah S. Dawson. INK & SIGIL, a new urban fantasy series set in the Iron Druid universe, will be out in 2020.
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Ya, sometimes you can find something new other times its like am I missing something. I liked Butcher’s short in this one. I can see how my set up on my post made it look like I didn’t.
I read this and it is hard to review stories when you don’t read the series. And also to review when the stories are only about 20 pages without spoiling. I enjoyed the Jim butcher one more than you. It’s a good collection though.
So many good authors in this collection and a few new ones for me too. I’d like to try this!
There were a lot of new to me authors in this collection. I liked some and others not so much. I hope you enjoy!
I also picked this one up back when it came out for Dresden and Iron Druid stories. I liked both of those, and did read the others, but now I forget my thoughts on most. Haha! I hope you do get the ID series – try it in audiobook; Luke Daniels is amazing!
Thank’s for your thoughts on the Iron Druid series and how I should try it out. I hear the audio is great for the ID series.
You are welcome! It’s helpful to have individual reviews even if it takes a little more time.
Thank you!
i love that you reviewed each individually. i know that takes some time. glad you enjoyed them
Excellent breakdown and review Angela!!! Shared on my socials!!?????