Review: revised review to 3.5 stars
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 08 23, 2013
Update 04/27/2014: Man, I must have been in a crappy mood when I quit reading this book last year. After returning to it and finishing the final two stories, I'm raising the rating to 3.5 stars. This sort of dark fantasy still isn't my favorite, but it certainly deserves better than it received from me.I read these stories in the order 1-3-2, because I had a difficult time getting into the second one. The first, title story is truly dark and it left me with the feeling I'd missed something in the reading; the third story has a lighter touch, with a thread of hope in the ending. Interestingly, despite the original difficulty, the second story, "The Hoblets of Wiccam Fensboro," is easily my favorite, and the author's note at the story's conclusion helped pull it together.My apologies to the author and his fans for the original two-star review.Original review 08/23/2013: Finished the first story, started the second. But this dark and dreary sort of fantasy just isn't for me. In the book's favor, it's well written, decently plotted, with mostly believable characterization. But the story I read was rather ugly, and I saw nothing in the first few pages of the second to hold me. Certainly there are readers who will enjoy it (feel free to consider me squeamish or prudish) and I wish the author well.