{"id":1243,"date":"2009-07-12T19:47:40","date_gmt":"2009-07-12T23:47:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/?p=1243"},"modified":"2026-03-22T10:18:32","modified_gmt":"2026-03-22T14:18:32","slug":"strange-brew","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/1243","title":{"rendered":"Strange Brew"},"content":{"rendered":"

Strange Brew<\/em> (2009) edited by P.N. Elrod<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>I love short story collections. They’re a way to discover new authors, visit with favorite characters, and to be honest I just enjoy short stories. Now if you like short stories, you eventually learn that a lot of collections are not worth buying, but there are certain authors that will cause me to buy an anthology on sight. This collection has several of those authors: Patricia Briggs<\/a>, Jim Butcher<\/a>, and Charlaine Harris<\/a>.<\/p>\n

As with most collections, there are some good stories, and some stories I didn’t like quite as well. For some reason, the stories I like the best seem to end up in the front of the book–which is unusual, because with Marion Zimmer Bradley<\/a>‘s Sword & Sorceress anthologies, that tended to end on very strong stories. This collection, not so much, which is always a little disappointing.<\/p>\n

Patricia Brigg<\/a>‘s story “Seeing Eye” was one of my favorites. It’s set in the same world as her Mercy THompson series, but other than a mention of the Marrock, none of the characters from that series appear. Which is a good thing, since as I noticed with some of the other stories, if you’re not familiar with the characters in the series, short stories can fail miserably at times. This one does not. Moira is a witch–a good witch–who has made sacrifices for her power. She is very unhappy when her doorbell rings in the middle of the night, with a werewolf demanding she help him recover her brother. This story does feel like it may want to be larger, with these characters continuing.<\/p>\n

Charlaine Harris<\/a>‘ story “Bacon” was somewhat vicious for her (though not so much for other authors in the horror genre). It was actually rather amusing–in a slightly different way than her normal stories. In fact, I kept forgetting that I was reading a Charlaine Harris story–but in a good way. It also wasn’t about Sookie, which was a nice change of pace.<\/p>\n

P.N. Elrod<\/a>‘s story, “Hectate’s Golden Eye” stars her vampire detective Jack Flemming. It doesn’t have quite as much atmosphere as her books, but the mystery is good–and does contains elements of magic that are somewhat unusual to her Jack Flemming stories.<\/p>\n

Of the authors with which I was unfamiliar, I especially liked Faith Hunter<\/a>‘s story “Signatures of the Dead.” It had a very feel of horror, with a good deal of death and pain wrought by the vampires in this story, but the characters were interesting and intriguing. Apparently the author is writing a book about one of the secondary characters from this story, which is a very good way to do things I think.<\/p>\n

The other story I especially liked was Jim Butcher<\/a>‘s “Strange Brew.” It’s a short story with Harry and Murphy, and it went in some interesting directions.<\/p>\n

What I thought was interesting was several of the stories reached back into mythology for parts of their stories, which I really enjoyed (although I didn’t need all the explanation that was given). If you think you might be interested in reading supernatural fantasy, this anthology would be a good place to sample some stories.
\nRating: 8\/10<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Strange Brew (2009) edited by P.N. Elrod I love short story collections. They’re a way to discover new authors, visit with favorite characters, and to be honest I just enjoy short stories. Now if you like short stories, you eventually learn that a lot of collections are not worth buying, but there are certain authors […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[12,18,2,8,291,16],"tags":[297,81,93,246,312,528,313,525,217],"class_list":["post-1243","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-8-10","category-anthology","category-fantasy","category-mystery","category-paper","category-supernatural","tag-charlaine-harris","tag-faith-hunter","tag-jane-yellowrock","tag-jim-butcher","tag-p-n-elrod","tag-shifter","tag-vampires","tag-werewolves","tag-witches"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/piQkW-k3","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":4699,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/4699","url_meta":{"origin":1243,"position":0},"title":"Strange Brew","author":"Michelle","date":"July 12, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Strange Brew (2009) edited by P.N. Elrod This is a re-read, and as such, I skipped the stories I didn't like or wasn't in the mood for. Seeing Eye by Patricia Briggs Last Call by Jim Butcher Death Warmed Over by Rachel Caine Vegas Odds by Karen Chance Hecate's Golden\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Anthology"","block_context":{"text":"Anthology","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/anthology"},"img":{"alt_text":"Strange-Brew","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/Strange-Brew.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":446,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/446","url_meta":{"origin":1243,"position":1},"title":"Many Bloody Returns","author":"Michelle","date":"September 23, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Many Bloody Returns (2007) edited by Charlaine Harris and Toni L.P. Kelner I pre-ordered this, not realizing it was in hardback. As much as I love anthologies, I'm not that excited about hardback books--especially anthologies where I don't know all the authors or the quality of the stories. Many Bloody\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Anthology"","block_context":{"text":"Anthology","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/anthology"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/09\/many-bloody-returns.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3105,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/3105","url_meta":{"origin":1243,"position":2},"title":"Hex Appeal","author":"Michelle","date":"August 21, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Hex Appeal (2012) edited by P.N. Elrod; Stories by P.N. Elrod, Carrie Vaughn, Ilona Andrews, Jim Butcher, Simon R Green, Rachel Caine (and others) As I was expecting, this collection was a mixed bag. Luckily, the good stories were very good, and worth the price of the anthology. I bought\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "8\/10"","block_context":{"text":"8\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/8-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/08\/hex-appeal-1.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3521,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/3521","url_meta":{"origin":1243,"position":3},"title":"My Big Fat Supernatural Honeymoon","author":"Michelle","date":"January 31, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"My Big Fat Supernatural Honeymoon (2007) P.N. Elrod The follow up to My Big Fat Supernatural Wedding, at least in theme. This was a very mixed bag. Some of the stories were good, some I could barely stand to finish, and in fact, put this anthology down several times, for\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Anthology"","block_context":{"text":"Anthology","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/anthology"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/Big-Fat-Supernatural-Honeymoon.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1949,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/1949","url_meta":{"origin":1243,"position":4},"title":"Dark and Stormy Knights","author":"Michelle","date":"September 16, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Dark and Stormy Knights (2010) edited by P.N. Elrod I can't help myself--I love anthologies. And fantasy anthologies with writers who write their fantasy with a healthy does of mystery? Sign me up! All anthologies have high and low points, but overall this was a fairly strong group of stories.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "8\/10"","block_context":{"text":"8\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/8-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/Dark-and-Stormy-Knights.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3961,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/3961","url_meta":{"origin":1243,"position":5},"title":"Weird Detectives: Recent Investigations","author":"Michelle","date":"August 6, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Weird Detectives: Recent Investigations (2013) edited by Paula Guran This is a collection of short stories previously published elsewhere, so I'd already read several of these stories. But there were several I had not, and several of the ones I'd read before were well worth reading again. This book has\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "8\/10"","block_context":{"text":"8\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/8-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"weird-detectives-recent-investigations","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/weird-detectives-recent-investigations-200x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1243","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1243"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1243\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1243"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1243"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1243"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}