Review: Elder Race in Name Only but Enjoyable
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 03 20, 2012
I finished Natural Evil and it was a great story but it was much to short for the story IMHO, I would have to give this 4 Stars at most. It starts good, proceeds good and ends rather abruptly and the "transfer" kinda sucked IMHO also (you will understand when you read it). It cost about $2.80 and it was worth $2.80 but in defense of Ms Harrison there are very few short stories/novellas that catch my attention well enough to have any impact ("Alphas: Origins by Ilona Andrews." being a rare exception to that)Just to expand on my opinion of short stories,Angels of Darknesshas the above mentioned story and it also had "Angel's Wolf by Nalini Singh." which made me go and buy every Guild Hunter book that had been published so far, but I can honestly say I cannot remember another short story that caught my attention, the term "novella" is so misused for average length short stories and short novels it is hard to apply it correctly, but even though this had been presented as a novella, it felt like a short story to me.Christmas Moon (A Vampire for Hire Novella)even though smaller than this book was a better application of the term due to a clear plot, some clear resolution and moving a story forward.  This story while entertaining fell far short of those identifiers.  Those of us who enjoy the Elder Races books will enjoy it but to be honest it has very little to do with any overall plot we have been involved in so far.  It rates 4 Stars only in comparison to other short stories and then if you have never read any of the Elder Races or have any attachment to Ms Harrison you might rate it slightly less but overall still an entertaining few hours.