{"id":5867,"date":"2016-05-22T09:05:38","date_gmt":"2016-05-22T13:05:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/?p=5867"},"modified":"2026-03-22T10:39:29","modified_gmt":"2026-03-22T14:39:29","slug":"shifting-shadows-stories-from-the-world-of-mercy-thompson-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/5867","title":{"rendered":"Shifting Shadows: Stories from the World of Mercy Thompson"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em><a href=\"http:\/\/amzn.to\/1WIMxeQ\">Shifting Shadows: Stories from the World of Mercy Thompson<\/a><\/em> (2014) <a href=\"http:\/\/klishis.com\/Books\/authors\/briggsp.php\">Patricia Briggs<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/amzn.to\/2irQyYf\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/Shifting-Shadows.jpg?resize=200%2C300&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" width=\"200\" height=\"300\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-6303\" \/><\/a>Interspersed with the novels, I read the short stories in Shifting Shadows. Patricia Briggs is quite good at writing short stories, which is why re-reading is such a pleasure.<\/p>\n<p>Silver<br \/>\nFairy Gifts (previously published in Naked City)<br \/>\nGray (previously published in Home Improvement: Undead Edition)<br \/>\nSeeing Eye (previously published in Strange Brew)<br \/>\nAlpha and Omega (previously published in On the Prowl)<br \/>\nThe Star of David (previously published in Wolfsbane and Mistletoe)<br \/>\nRoses in Winter<br \/>\nIn Red, with Pearls (previously published in Down These Strange Streets)<br \/>\nRedemption<br \/>\nHollow<br \/>\nOUTTAKE FROM Silver Borne<br \/>\nOUTTAKE FROM Night Broken<\/p>\n<p><strong>The Mercy Thompson Timeline<\/strong> (from Patricia Briggs website)<\/p>\n<p>Long Ago<br \/>\nSilver (novella)<\/p>\n<p>-10 Years<br \/>\nHomeComing (graphic novel)<\/p>\n<p>Any Time<br \/>\nGray (short story)<\/p>\n<p>-1 Year<br \/>\nSeeing Eye (short story)<\/p>\n<p>Year 1<br \/>\nMoon Called (book)<br \/>\nAlpha and Omega (novella)<br \/>\nCry Wolf (book)<br \/>\nHunting Ground (book)<br \/>\nStar of David (short story)<\/p>\n<p>Year 2<br \/>\nBlood Bound (book)<br \/>\nIron Kissed (book)<br \/>\nBone Crossed (book)<br \/>\nRoses in Winter (short story)<br \/>\nSilver Borne (book)<\/p>\n<p>Year 3<br \/>\nIn Red with Pearls (short story)<br \/>\nRiver Marked (book)<br \/>\nFair Game (book)<br \/>\nFrost Burned (book)<br \/>\nUnappreciated Gifts (short story)<\/p>\n<p>Year 4<br \/>\nRedemption (short story)<br \/>\nDead Heat (book)<br \/>\nHopcross Jilly (graphic novel)<br \/>\nNight Broken (book)<br \/>\nHollow (short story)<br \/>\nFairy Gifts (short story)<br \/>\nFire Touched (book)<\/p>\n<p>Silver tells of Bran and Samuel&#8217;s past, from Samuel&#8217;s point of view, telling how they were Changed and how Samuel met Ariana.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>My father said a name that slid off my ears. He waited a moment, then said, \u201cSamuel?\u201d <\/p>\n<p>I must have looked a little wild-eyed when I turned to him. \u201cShe stole my memories. Stole my name.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>He nodded once. \u201cThere will be a reckoning.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>\u201cDo you remember them? My wife and children?\u201d I asked. When he nodded again, my panic eased. \u201cAs long as someone does, they aren\u2019t lost.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey are not lost as long as I live,\u201d my father agreed. \u201cI\u2019ll remember them for you.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Fairy Gifts is a particular favorite, and you don&#8217;t have to know anything of Mercy for this story, since it is set in Butte Montana, in the past and the present.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u201cIt probably won\u2019t surprise you to learn that all the fae don\u2019t get along together, will it, Mr. Hao?\u201d <\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe vampires are the soul of brotherly love,\u201d Thomas responded dryly. \u201cI assumed that the fae were the same.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>This is one of my favorite stories.<\/p>\n<p>Gray is completely outside the Mercy timeline, about a vampire who just wants to survive as best she can, and come to terms with the ghost of her husband.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u201cYou don\u2019t look like a vampire,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cI know,\u201d she agreed. A stray breeze brushed a strand of hair off her cheek. \u201cWe\u2019re like serial killers; we look just like everyone else.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Seeing Eye is the backstory of two characters who appear in the Alpha &#038; Omega series, and you need no background for this story.<\/p>\n<p>Star of David is about David Christiansen, who appears in Moon Called. It&#8217;s a story of redemption and acceptance, and is one I particularly liked. &#8220;He\u2019d thought you had to be bleeding someplace to hurt this badly.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Roses in Winter is an Asil story, and gives us the story of Kara, whose father appears in Blood Bound, wanting help for his young daughter who was attacked and survived the Change.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>He crooned a child\u2019s lullaby his father had sung to him. It wasn\u2019t Spanish, but African, a Moorish tune his father had learned from his grandmother. Like Asil, it was old and worn, the words in a language that no one, to his knowledge, had spoken for a thousand years.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Asil is one of my favorite characters, and I am always glad when he makes an appearance.<\/p>\n<p>In Red with Pearls is a Warren and Kyle story, and as much as I love both of those characters, this story doesn&#8217;t do much for me.<\/p>\n<p>Aside from the outtakes, you should be able to read these stories without having read any of the novels.<\/p>\n<p>Redemption is a Ben story, and as much as I like Ben, and I like seeing his changes (which we do here) this isn&#8217;t one of my favorite stories.<\/p>\n<p>But I do love various bits of this story.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Ben heard Rajeev\u2019s unspoken dismay. <em>What were they thinking selling this half-written spaghetti code to a customer who has never offended us<\/em>?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<blockquote><p>\u201cWhat I can\u2019t fix is that the program won\u2019t run unless the password is permanently set to PASSWORD and the username is permanently TEST. Since I\u2019m working on databases that hold the US governmental secrets of the last hundred years, you\u2019ll understand that is not acceptable.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>There was a long silence. Then Rajeev said, very carefully \u201cSomeone hard-coded the passwords.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat\u2019s what I\u2019m seeing,\u201d agreed Ben blandly.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<blockquote><p>All the main servers had names. Most of them were references to the usual geek favorites: Lord of the Rings, Star Wars, and Dr. Seuss characters. The only server name that was out of the ordinary was the server someone had named Tree a couple of years ago. Word was that on the eve of transferring to Washington, D.C., a DBA who never read anything but nonfiction had named it in a fit of defiance.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Hollow is a Mercy story, and strangely, not one of my favorites, despite the bits I did like.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u201cIt has always been an ambition of mine to serve as an object lesson for others.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<blockquote><p>\u201cHoly Roman Empire. What happened to my bedroom?\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Published by Ace<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Shifting Shadows: Stories from the World of Mercy Thompson (2014) Patricia Briggs Interspersed with the novels, I read the short stories in Shifting Shadows. Patricia Briggs is quite good at writing short stories, which is why re-reading is such a pleasure. Silver Fairy Gifts (previously published in Naked City) Gray (previously published in Home Improvement: [&hellip;]<\/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":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[18,2,48,148,41,28,16,934],"tags":[70,737,69,68,212,313,655,525],"class_list":["post-5867","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-anthology","category-fantasy","category-female","category-queer","category-reread","category-steam-punk","category-supernatural","category-trigger-warnings","tag-alpha-omega","tag-ghosts","tag-mercy-thompson","tag-patricia-briggs","tag-ptsd","tag-vampires","tag-violence","tag-werewolves"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/piQkW-1wD","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":6302,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/6302","url_meta":{"origin":5867,"position":0},"title":"Shifting Shadows: Stories from the World of Mercy Thompson","author":"Michelle","date":"December 27, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Shifting Shadows: Stories from the World of Mercy Thompson (2014) Patricia Briggs I really do like this short story collection. Pleasingly, Patricia Briggs is good with short stories, which makes this collection all the more enjoyable. Silver Fairy Gifts (previously published in Naked City) Gray (previously published in Home Improvement:\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;9.5\/10&quot;","block_context":{"text":"9.5\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/9-5-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/Shifting-Shadows.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":22201,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/22201","url_meta":{"origin":5867,"position":1},"title":"Shifting Shadows: Stories from the World of Mercy Thompson, Audio Book","author":"Michelle","date":"September 9, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"Shifting Shadows: Stories from the World of Mercy Thompson, Audio Book (2014) Patricia Briggs narrated by Lorelei King and Alexander Cendese Silver Fairy Gifts (previously published in Naked City) Gray (previously published in Home Improvement: Undead Edition) Seeing Eye (previously published in Strange Brew) Alpha and Omega (previously published in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;8\/10&quot;","block_context":{"text":"8\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/8-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"Shifting Shadows","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/Shifting-Shadows-e1511034985417.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":25913,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/25913","url_meta":{"origin":5867,"position":2},"title":"Shifting Shadows","author":"Michelle","date":"March 5, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"Shifting Shadows (2014) Patricia Briggs (Mercy Thompson\/Alpha & Omega) Silver Fairy Gifts (previously published in Naked City) Gray (previously published in Home Improvement: Undead Edition) Seeing Eye (previously published in Strange Brew) Alpha and Omega (previously published in On the Prowl) The Star of David (previously published in Wolfsbane and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;9.5\/10&quot;","block_context":{"text":"9.5\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/9-5-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"Shifting Shadows","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/Shifting-Shadows-200x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4835,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/4835","url_meta":{"origin":5867,"position":3},"title":"Shifting Shadows: Stories from the World of Mercy Thompson","author":"Michelle","date":"September 21, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Shifting Shadows: Stories from the World of Mercy Thompson (2014) Patricia Briggs As I've mentioned previously (and repeatedly) I love short stories. They're a hard thing to love sometimes, because there are so many poorly written ones out there. Luckily for me, Patricia Briggs tends to do them well, so\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;9\/10&quot;","block_context":{"text":"9\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/9-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/Shifting-Shadows.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":10870,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/10870","url_meta":{"origin":5867,"position":4},"title":"Shifting Shadows: Stories from the World of Mercy Thompson, Audio Book","author":"Michelle","date":"May 23, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Shifting Shadows: Stories from the World of Mercy Thompson, Audio Version (2014) Patricia Briggs narrated by Alexander Cendese and Lorelei King Flailing around for something to listen to, I decided that I'd listen to the Patricia Briggs short story collection and then go from there. This collection has very few\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;9\/10&quot;","block_context":{"text":"9\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/9-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/Shifting-Shadows-e1511034985417.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":5819,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/5819","url_meta":{"origin":5867,"position":5},"title":"Alpha &#038; Omega","author":"Michelle","date":"April 30, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Alpha & Omega (2007) Patricia Briggs (found in Shifting Shadows) The novella Alpha & Omega first appeared in On the Prowl, which I picked up only for the Patricia Briggs story. I recommend getting Shifting Shadows rather than that. That is not, by the way, the cover for either Shifting\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;8\/10&quot;","block_context":{"text":"8\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/8-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"Alpha-Omega-Cry-Wolf","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/Alpha-Omega-Cry-Wolf.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\/5867","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=5867"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5867\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5867"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5867"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5867"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}