Customer Reviews

Strange Candy

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I found this book to be absolutely perfect. What many readers seem to forget is that these stories are not brand new, but rather have been written throughout Laurell K. Hamilton's career. Many of them come before her Anita Blake series, in fact. However, that does not make them any less.

The first story, 'Those Who Seek Forgiveness', is a very dark tale featuring Anita, and while it is the earliest Anita tale, it is still very well written. I very much enjoyed the story 'Selling Houses' as it is a look at Anita Blake's world as others experience it- in this case, a real-estate agent. One of my personal favourites was 'A Scarcity of Lake Monsters' which I found very touching.

Fans of 'Nightseer' will be pleased to see many stories in this anthology that are set in the same world, though the characters are different. Personally, I very much enjoyed the stories featuring Sidra- a master thief- and her sword, Leech- which speaks for itself.

All in all, I loved these stories. Hamilton is a gifted writer who brings detail and emotion to all of her stories and characters. Anyone who is a fan of Laurell K. Hamilton, or a fan of excellent writing in general, should certainly read this anthology.

Although I am a big fan of Laurell Hamilton, this book was bitter stuff. It was a compilation of several older rejected/unfinished stories from earlier years that were probably re-edited, along with author chapter intros. The stories were fine; if not quite up to present day writing standards of Hamilton they were still fun to read (though maybe not at Hard Cover prices). But the Anita Blake-like voice of the author intros explaining how she would like to hunt down the original editor who refused her and how wrong they were was a bit of a turn off. It is usually interesting to hear the back-story of how a young writer climbs the ladder of success, but these intros form a mean, somewhat spiteful/look at me now diatribe that becomes a bit tired. I could have easily done without the bitter candy.