As with any anthology, this is a mixed bag.

The high points were Carrie Vaughn's "Rooftops" (a nicely-paced story about a playwright whose life changes after she's saved by a superhero) and Neil Gaiman's "The Thing About Cassandra" (an imaginative story about a man coming across a lie from his past). I also enjoyed Robin Hobb's return to the Six Duchies in "Blue Boots" and the gritty-but-satisfying "Hurt Me" by M.L.N. Hanover.

Some of the other stories were well-written or had interesting moments, but a couple seemed too sprawling for the short story format. In most cases, I prefer stories that are more compact. Unfortunately, there were a few entries that hit on my biggest pet peeve about anthology selections - I always get a little annoyed at stories that aren't self-contained.

It's one thing to use a familiar setting, or even characters that appear in the author's other works. I read Jim Butcher's Dresden Files books, but I still think his story ("Love Hurts") would have worked even for people who weren't familiar with Harry and Murphy. There were other stories, however, that seemed more deeply hooked in to larger worlds. Several of those left me with the frustrating feeling of not fully getting their plot, significance, or even their ending.

There's a full list of the stories, and a line or two about each one, in my status updates about the book. I'd recommend my now-standard anthology practice of trying this one from the library before buying it.