An interesting collection of stories, some better than others, but all worth reading. Some good authors.

no review no review no review no review no review no review no review no review no review no review no review no review no review no review sorry

I was provided an early release galley by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

I have a long history with short story anthology collections. Growing up, I often picked up paperbacks that had an array of tales or fantasy/sci-fi magazines that specialized in short fiction. It excited me to read about new and different worlds. The variety meant some would resonate with me and some might fall flat. That's the nature of the best with this kind of publication.

No surprise, the same happened for me with this latest volume of Writers of the Future. I'll briefly focus on the ones I enjoyed:

The God Whisperer by Daniel J. Davis: loved the concept and really would have liked to see it explored in a longer format

A Revolutionary's Guide to Practical Conjuration by Auston Habershaw: this was a fun fantasy piece with a number of cool elements to it

Rough Draft by Kevin J Anderson: the writer in me absolutely loved this one. So many elements that clicked with me here.

I also want to give some props to the artwork included in the collection. A number of pieces were absolutely perfect for the stories they were paired. They reminded me of covers of classic books and gaming magazines that filled my world in the 80's.

For those looking for some fresh new fantasy and science fiction tales, this is one to check out.

As with any collection, there were some delightful stories, and some that I just didn't connect with. However, if this is a taste of how the genre is doing, then it's humming along just fine. I wasn't overly impressed with the artwork, but I did read it on a kindle, and artwork rarely translates well into that medium. A great sampler to maybe find your next new favorite writer.

Book received from NetGalley.

I have read some of the older books in this series, but this is the first one in many years that I have picked up. I liked all of the stories but two of the stories I absolutely loved. Those were "Switch" by Steve Pantazis and "Stars that Make the Dark Heaven Light" by Sharon Joss. Each of those stories had me hooked from the first sentence. "Switch" had a cop drama mystery feel and I've been slightly hooked on those lately. "Stars that Make the Dark Heaven Light" made me think of parts of the Pern novels by Anne McCaffrey and the Darkangel series by Meredith Ann Pierce. I know a certain famous author that's mentioned in this book in the series is not the best person, and many people have issues with him and his work, but I did my best to ignore his issues and give the new authors the chance they deserved. There are a few authors in this book that I'm hoping get more of their work published because I really enjoyed reading their stories.