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Paranormal Payback

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This originally appeared at The Irresponsible Reader. If you like this post, you might like others on that site. Consider checking it out!

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What’s Paranormal Payback?

This is a collection of twelve Urban Fantasy short stories revolving around the idea of revenge.

I’m not sure what else to say, honestly—after a pair of great introductions by the editors (I mean, really—can we get a collection of essays from Butcher?), we dive in with a Goodman Gray story by Jim Butcher. And boy—did I have fun with that. I don’t want to distract Butcher from The Cinder Spires or The Dresden Files, but man, I’d love a handful of novels featuring this character.

From there, we get stories of witches (of several varieties), ghosts, vampires, ghosts and witches, talking donkeys, and more.

So, what did I think about Paranormal Payback?

Without going into each story—which I briefly considered—it’s hard to really talk about this book in any sort of depth.

This is the second collection from these editors that featured a story from R.R. Virdi’s The Grave Report series—and now I know that I need to read more. I’m curious enough to track down Isla Jewell’s romcom series. Tanya Huff, Faith Hunter, Jennifer Blackstream, and Kevin Hearne all brought their A-game.

The only story that didn’t work for me was from Kim Harrison. But that’s just me—most readers will be fine with it. It’s a prologue to a story arc from her Hollows series that I utterly didn’t care of (and frankly was annoyed by more than I was left ambivalent), so it was almost impossible for her to entertain me with. I did understand that motive for the revenge story here—and found it amusing—but that was it.

But Maurice Broaddus’ “Black Bond” was the star of this batch. You’ve got a tale of friendship, social commentary (sadly needed), and ghosts. There’s some fun to it—and plenty that’s not fun. I want to keep talking about it, but I don’t want to ruin it for you.

Not a disappointment in the bunch (unless you go in with a prejudice like I did). Urban Fantasy readers are sure to have a good time—especially if you’re a fan of the authors/series involved. If not? You may find a new author or series or three to follow.

Originally posted at irresponsiblereader.com.

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2 months ago