Shadowed Souls

By: Jim Butcher - editor, Kerrie L. Hughes - editor

Narrated by: Jim Butcher, Julia Whelan, Emily Rankin, Justine Eyre, David de Vries, Mia Barron, Jon Lindstrom, Sumalee Montano, Mozhan Marnò, Karissa Vacker, MacLeod Andrews

In this dark and gritty collection—featuring short stories from Jim Butcher, Seanan McGuire, Kevin J. Anderson, and Rob Thurman—nothing is as simple as black and white, light and dark, good and evil..

Unfortunately, that’s exactly what makes it so easy to cross the line.

In #1 New York Times bestselling author Jim Butcher’s Cold Case, Molly Carpenter—Harry Dresden’s apprentice-turned-Winter Lady—must collect a tribute from a remote Fae colony and discovers that even if you’re a good girl, sometimes you have to be bad...

New York Times bestselling author Seanan McGuire’s Sleepover finds half-succubus Elsie Harrington kidnapped by a group of desperate teenage boys. Not for anything “weird.” They just need her to rescue a little girl from the boogeyman. No biggie.

In New York Times bestselling Kevin J. Anderson’s Eye of Newt, Zombie P.I. Dan Shamble’s latest client is a panicky lizard missing an eye who thinks someone wants him dead. But the truth is that someone only wants him for a very special dinner...

And New York Times bestselling author Rob Thurman’s infernally heroic Caliban Leandros takes a trip down memory lane as he deals wih some overdue—and nightmarish—vengeance involving some quite nasty Impossible Monsters.

ALSO INCLUDES STORIES BY

Tanya Huff * Kat Richardson * Jim C. Hines * Anton Strout * Lucy A. Snyder * Kristine Kathryn Rusch * Erik Scott de Bie *


Table of Contents and Cast List:
Introduction by Kerri Hughes, read by Julia Whelan
Foreword by Jim Butcher, read by Jim Butcher
COLD CASE by Jim Butcher, read by Julia Whelan
SLEEPOVER by Seanan McGuire, read by Emily Rankin
IF WISHES WERE by Tanya Huff, read by Justine Eyre
SOLUS by Anton Strout, read by David de Vries
PEACOCK IN HELL by Kat Richardson, read by Mia Barron
EYE OF NEWT by Kevin J. Anderson, read by Jon Lindstrom
WHAT DWELLS WITHIN by Lucy A. Snyder, read by Julia Whelan
HUNTER, HEALER by Jim C. Hines, read by Sumalee Montano
BAGGAGE by Erik Scott de Bie, read by Mozhan Marno
SALES. FORCE. By Kristine Kathryn Rusch, read by Karissa Vacker
IMPOSSIBLE MONSTERS by Rob Thurman, read by Macleod Andrews

Critic reviews

Praise for Jim Butcher and the Dresden Files

“Butcher is the dean of contemporary urban fantasy.”—Booklist

“Think Buffy the Vampire Slayer starring Philip Marlowe.”—Entertainment Weekly

Praise for Seanan McGuire

“The plot is strong, the characterization is terrific, the tragedies hurt...and McGuire's usual beautiful writing and dark humor are present and accounted for. This has become one of my favorite urban fantasy series.”—Fantasy Literature

Praise for Kevin J. Anderson

“Anderson's skill in delivering taut action scenes and creating well-rounded human and alien characters adds depth and variety to a series opener that belongs in most SF collections.”—Library Journal

Praise for Rob Thurman

“Thurman continues to deliver strong tales of dark urban fantasy.”—SFRevu

If you're looking for Dresden, don't bother…

Personally, I thought this was going to be another version of book 11.5. Meaning a bunch of well written short stories that give us a good look at the "between the book " moments of the series that we all love. The first story, written by Butcher, was exactly that. The rest of the stories save one or two were just mediocre. I gave this review a story star for each story I actually liked.

Bottom line, give this one a skip and go look on the Dresden wiki for the story details.

A few gems amongst a mostly bland collection.

Fans of the series some of these short stories were set in will at least find some satisfaction. Overall, though, this was a disappointing collection.

Roller Coaster

Yes, as the name implys, some were outstanding, some not so much, the Jim Butcher story which I had read/heard before was stellar, as was the story set in Columbus Ohio, a female Harry Dresden, while the others were well written and performed, they just did not entertain, or encourage any real empathy for the characters. Just MHO, every body has one.

Uneven

Some of the stories are 6 on a 1-5 scale but some are 1. Read it for the 6's. Skip the 1's. Worth it.

Only a short story is tied to dresden

So book 12.5 was good various stories tied to the Dresden files, I thought this one (14.5) would be along the same lines. James Marsters is not one of the narrators which I should have taken as a red flag. The first story is about Molly, and her story after the last book. It's written by Jim butcher, not narrated by Marsters, but that was ok since it was focused all around Molly with no Dresden. The second story was a good one as well, not even remotely tied to Dresden but still good. The third is were things went off track, the story seems to be disconnected from itself and I felt like I was missing bits of the story. When I got to the fourth story I had my fill, the narrator was not to my liking and I just wanted to get back to Dresden story.