Reseña:Shifting Shadows: Stories from the World of Mercy Thompson
Título: Shifting Shadows: Stories from the World of Mercy Thompson
Autor: Patricia Briggs.
Año 1a edición: sept. 2014.
N° Páginas: 450 pgs.
Géneros:Fantasía urbana. Romance Paranormal . Hombres-lobo- Vampiros. Brujas. Fantasmas. Fae.
Betrayal is a powerful emotion, specially when implies our own flesh and blood. This stories play around over this.
SHORT STORIES:
1)SILVER (4,5 stars) Samuel and Ariana story. I'm the first to admit that I'm not a fan of Samuel (mostly for his pursuit of Mercy without telling her all the facts. Always was 'Team Adam' on that front) But I really enjoyed this story center in century old times in a very magical setting.
“Underhill does not concern itself with sidhe or not,” grumbled Haida, steadying Ariana when she would have fallen. “Only fae and not fae. And the fae are failing it, allowing the humans to bind what was not meant to be bound.”
2)FAIRY GIFTS(2,5 stars)(previously published in the anthology Naked City.) I already read this. A Chinese vampire and the fae in Montana.
“So,” said Thomas. “You want me -a vampire- to go looking in the old mines to find Margaret Flanagan, who has been trapped down there for a century. Because vampires are so good at... what? Dissolving into mist and sinking through the earth? I think you’ve been watching too many bad horror movies.”
3)GRAY (5 stars) (previously published in the anthology Home Improvement: Undead Edition) I didn't read this before. Jack and Elyna story in Chicago. Bitersweet story, and another face to the vampire world. Really good and sad.
Oh, and btw, Jack make one of the best comments about “The Sheik” that concern other books too: “Bastard needed to be put down like a mad dog,” he’d told her. “Instead he gets to keep the girl he kidnapped and raped. Doesn’t sound right to me. Is that the kind of hero you really want?”
4)SEEING EYE (4,5 stars)(previously published in the anthology Strange Brew.) Tom and Moira story. I already read this. We really didn't know too much about the witches in the Mercy world, but after this short story we knew. They are creepy and mostly evil, and then we have Moira.
To heck with flying monkeys, she was going to turn whoever it was into a frog [....]
No matter that most of the good transmutation spells had been lost with the Coranda family in the seventeenth century - rude people needed to be turned into frogs. Or pigs.
5)ALPHA AND OMEGA (published in the anthology On the Prowl.) Well, Anna and Charles story. Skipped in this occasion, because.
6)THE STAR OF DAVID(2,5 stars)(previously published in the anthology Wolfsbane and Mistletoe.) Already read by me. David Christensen and daughter. Not my favorite, but shows a tragic story of after the Bite and the aftermath.
There was a long silence. "Papa?"
He closed his eyes and sank back in his chair feeling his heart expand with almost painful intentness as his wolf fought with the man who knew his daughter hated him: didn't want to see him, ever. She had been there when her mother died.
"Stella?" He couldn't imagine what it took to make her break almost forty years of silence.
7)ROSES IN WINTER. (5 stars) Asil y Kara story. Kara was bitten when she was 10, but her parents didn't know how to cope (luckily they didn't hurt her), but she now have to control her wolf to follow the laws. Asil is great as always, we have a glimpse of him.
And maybe hope?[Spoiler (click to open)]“Well,” Sage’s voice was dry. “That’s not news, sugar. But he won’t do anything about it until it dawns on him that though he’s been waiting more than fifteen years for this famous ‘madness’ that is going to break him and turn him into a ravening monster - it just might not happen.”
“Fifteen years,” said Kara.
“Asil,” said Sage clearly, “needs to get over himself.”
Or not:
“Probably,” agreed Asil. “But I would be a much better monster than you were. There would be no stories about my reign of terror because no one would live to tell the tale.”
8)IN RED, WITH PEARLS (2 stars) (previously published in the anthology Down These Strange Streets) New for me. Warren and Kyle story. Warren and Kyle are my favorite gay canon couple but this disappoint me. It's was more about a detective Warren, and I crave for more inside the couple background. And there are nothing worst than a bad neighbor
9)REDEMPTION (4 stars)- between Frost Burned and Night Broken-. Ben Shaw at work. Wow that was a surprise job (the kind of Dexter pov surprise).
“Ms. Winkler,” he said, “you pay me a lot of money to be a good nerd, which I am. There is not enough money in the world to make me be in charge of a company morale-improvement exercise.”
Some people change other don't. Luckily werewolves live long lives to regret or to think. To evolve. I like Ben, bad things happens to him, some could think he did wrong, and I think he was hurt and … human.
10)HOLLOW (4 stars)The events in “Hollow” take place after the events in Night Broken. Mercy have to face the aftermath of the destruction ,and have to take hard decisions. A women ask her help for a hunted man. Now we know ghosts and Mercy don't have the best of history... yep. But is a nice story of love and overcontroling mums Zack, the new wolf, is the new bodyguard here ;P
OUTTAKE FROM Silver Borne (Sort of 'deleted scene) Ariana y Samuel during Mercy disappearance. We never understand how this two come to be together in that book, but now Silver bring some answers, and then we have this. Well, as I said before, not my favorite couple.
OUTTAKE FROM Night Broken - Adam POV at the end of the book at the hospital. Nothing new. But is Adam and he cares.