This book contains short stories by Jody Lynn Nye, Katie Cross, Robyn Bennis, Raven Oak, Frog and Esther Jones, Dawn Vogel, Matt Youngmark, Lee French, Connie J. Jasperson, Jeffrey Cook, Katherine Perkins, Jeremy Zimmerman, Edward J. Knight, Elmdea Adams (no amazon profile available), Fulvio Gatti (no amazon profile available), Robert J. McCarter, Lou J. Berger, Ian Berger (no amazon profile available) and Sarah Bartsch.
This collection of short stories appealed to me because it has everything in it that I like in a story. Swords, magic (sorcery) and bad ass women who get shit done. As someone who normally doesn’t read a lot of short stories (I’m more of a series kind of reader) I wasn’t sure what to expect for the story lines, but most of the time I wasn’t disappointed.
I really liked reading a lot of the stories, they featured smart, kick ass lasses with a good head on their shoulders saving themselves and others around them.
Name That Character
Unfortunately I wasn’t convinced by all of the stories. There were a few that had me confused as to who was who and what they were doing again. Mainly because the names where so alike/so difficult to remember. Maybe that’s just me but I prefer tales that have characters with ordinary names I can remember (even though they live in a magical world) and I can tell apart from the other characters in the book without having to think too much about it.
So when it comes to naming characters, I personally prefer it the simpler the better, just because it allows me to be sucked into a story without having to think about who they are again. I feel it makes for a better reading experience.
It wasn’t just the character names of some stories that made it a little harder to get through for me, but sometimes a story, like The Princess and the Dragon by Robyn Bennis seemed to be more of an adaption of a fairy tale to one with a female lead. It just didn’t get me too excited even though I generally love dragons.
More Please!
And then there were some stories, like Falcon’s Apprentice by Jody Lynn Nye, Warmaster by Lou J. Berger & Ian Berger and Water and Light by Katie Cross who left me with a taste for more. I really hope the kick ass ladies in these stories will get to be the leading women in a book series of their own some day.
So considering all of the above, if you’re looking for a nice collection of short stories with awesome damsels without the distress, this book might be for you.
Rating 4/5
Swords, Sorcery & Self-Rescuing Damsels is available from April 16, 2019 and you can find it on Amazon to preorder.
Disclaimer: I received this book as an ARC in exchange for an honest and unbiased review. All opinions are my own.
No Comments