Full Moon City by Martin H. Greenberg
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
“The children of the night. What music they make.“
“I Was a Middle-Age Werewolf”, Ron Goulart, ★★★★★
Hollywood. My kind of humour. Funny. I am envisioning Michael Douglas in the lead and Alan Arkin as Hersh, aka The Kominsky Method with werewolves.
“Kitty Learns the Ropes”, Carrie Vaughn, ★★★★☆
This story is most likely the reason I got this anthology five years ago. Well, Carrie Vaughn can write, she‘s proven that often enough. This was easy to read , especially because I have read the whole Kitty Norville series and it‘s one of my favourite UF series. Maybe it is time for a re-read.
“The Bitch”, P. D. Cacek, ★★★★☆
Story about a bothersome and creepy ex-lover. Oh, that was unexpected! How fun! I am a big fan of doing something differently and this surprised me. Checked out the author, did not see anything that grabbed me.
“La Lune T’attend”, Peter S. Beagle, ★★★★☆
Good world-building and character development. I liked the setting. It felt like a much longer story through what it conveyed. Sad, but powerful ending.
“The Aarne-Thompson Classification Revue “, Holly Black, ★★★★☆
Third person present tense, urgh. I don‘t like it. Never mind. We are auditioning for a musical!
“Being a werewolf is like being Clark Kent, except that when you go into the phone booth, you can‘t control what comes out.“
Sweet, a little sad, made me smile. What a werewolf girl wants. Good! Checked out the author, all YA—not my genre…
“Kvetchula’s Daughter”, Darrell Schweitzer, ★★★¾☆
Jiddish vampires in New York. Lots of kvetching. Mildly amusing. Where are the werewolves, you ask? Oy vey.
“The Bank Job”, Gregory Frost, ★★★¾☆
Well-written, good story. Good pacing, nice level of suspense. Fairly predictable. Will check out the author.
“A Most Unusual Greyhound”, a Harry the Book Story, Mike Resnick, ★★★½☆
Amusing. What is a werewolf to do to make some money? Slightly odd tense and grammar in general. Possibly on purpose, but it threw me off.
“Sea Warg”, Tanith Lee, ★★★☆☆
“Now the boats put off from the west end of Sandbourne, or at least they did so when the rest of Europe allowed it.“
What did we do? Did Brexit start in 2010 and I missed it?”
I could swear I read some novels written by her, but for the life of me can‘t recall their titles or plot. I only found a short story collection I DNFd.
Hm, interesting. Hadn‘t expected that ending. Well, that was mean. And Johnson is a very creepy character.
“And Bob’s Your Uncle”, Chelsea Quinn Yarbro, ★★★☆☆
Sad boy meets mysterious, but cute black dog. Promising beginning, but didn‘t turn into much.
“The Truth About Werewolves”, Lisa Tuttle, ★★¾☆☆
Unusual take on werewolves. I disliked the female MC for her dishonesty. She felt like a hypocrite to me, especially after disrespecting the Chihuahua woman for „shopping“ and then doing the exact same thing.
“Weredog of Bucharest”, Ian Watson, ★★☆☆☆
A murder investigation and a crime writer observing. Ponderous, overly explanatory, superfluous details. The author seemed very eager to show us little details of Romanian life, perhaps trying to create atmosphere? Unsatisfying, with a lame ending.
“Innocent”, Gene Wolfe, ★☆☆☆☆
Weird. Guy in prison tells a priest about his life. The story only consists of his side of a dialogue.
“No Children, No Pets”, Esther M. Friesner, ★☆☆☆☆
Another odd one, about a werewolf child of six living in Central Park. Humorous writing, I suppose. Not my thing.
“Country Mothers’ Sons”, Holly Phillips, ★☆☆☆☆
When I started, the slow moving, very descriptive prose had me interested. It never went anywhere though and I lost that little spark. Suggestive, but ultimately pointless.
