Unnatural Worlds

Poker Boy #27 (That Lost Riddle)

by Dean Wesley Smith (Editor), Kristine Kathryn Rusch (Editor), Jerimy Colbert (Narrator)

From a funeral procession in Asia to an ancestral estate deep in the heart of a vaguely Victorian forest to a carriage accident in the vast universe of The Runelords, Unnatural Worlds takes readers on a journey to the far side of the imagination. Funny, heartbreaking, frightening, but most importantly, memorable, the original stories in this anthology go places few writers dare reach. Unnatural Worlds marks the perfect start to this brand-new anthology series.

“Foreword: The Return To Publishing” by Dean Wesley Smith
“Introduction: So I Lied” by Kristine Kathryn Rusch
“Life Between Dreams” by Devon Monk
“Finally Family” by Ray Vukcevich
“The Grasshopper and My Aunts” by Esther M. Friesner
“True Calling” by Irette Y. Patterson
“A Taste of Joie De Vivre” by Kellen Knolan
“Here, Kitty Kitty” by Annie Reed
“That Lost Riddle” by Dean Wesley Smith
“Shadow Side” by Kristine Kathryn Rusch
“Sisters” by Leah Cutter
“The Witch’s House” by Richard Bowes
“Dog Boy Remembers” by Jane Yolen
“Barbarians” by David Farland

Genres: Fantasy, Anthologies, Short Stories, Fiction, Science Fiction, Urban Fantasy

258 pages, Paperback

First published April 8, 2013

About the author

Pen Names
Edward Taft
Dee W. Schofield
Sandy Schofield
Kathryn Wesley

Dean Wesley Smith is the bestselling author of over ninety novels under many names and well over 100 published short stories. He has over eight million copies of his books in print and has books published in nine different countries. He has written many original novels in science fiction, fantasy, mystery, thriller, and romance as well as books for television, movies, games, and comics. He is also known for writing quality work very quickly and has written a large number of novels as a ghost writer or under house names.

With Kristine Kathryn Rusch, he is the coauthor of The Tenth Planet trilogy and The 10th Kingdom. The following is a list of novels under the Dean Wesley Smith name, plus a number of pen names that are open knowledge. Many ghost and pen name books are not on this list because he is under contractual obligations not to disclose that he wrote them. Many of Dean’s original novels are also under hidden pen names for marketing reasons.

Dean has also written books and comics for all three major comic book companies, Marvel, DC, and Dark Horse, and has done scripts for Hollywood. One movie was actually made.

Over his career he has also been an editor and publisher, first at Pulphouse Publishing, then for VB Tech Journal, then for Pocket Books.

Currently, he is writing thrillers and mystery novels under another name.

Reviews

[Jacob Proffitt · Rating 5 out of 5]

Giving a single rating to a short story anthology is difficult. I feel bad averaging the ratings for the stories because that shafts those that are outstanding. So here's my quick take: the bulk of the stories are 3 stars (around half). One or two merit five stars, though, with the rest being comfortable fours (I hesitate to break it down to specifics mainly due to the fact it has been weeks and short stories tend to blend in my memory).

So the dilemma. Averaging out would put this in a high three point something. Solid, but not outstanding. But it is outstanding so I could simply round to a four, right? But... how often do you find a short story collection with no duds and some outright stand-outs? I don't read a lot of short story collections, but to me, this is outstanding. So 5 stars.

[Andrea]

First of a series of short story collections funded through Kickstarter (each is themed, and this one's theme is fantasy). Most stories good, none total duds. Almost all 'contemporary' fantasy - magic happening to and around people in a world similar to ours (and almost all in the US).

"Life Between Dreams" - Devon Monk - Interdimensional 'guardian duo'. Readable.
"Finally Family" - Ray Vukcevich - Had a vignette feel (though it's not). I liked the feel of this one.
"The Grasshopper and My Aunts" - Esther M Friesner - Ccomedic mythic creatures in semi-modern day story. Amusing, but the POV character came across as an unpleasant person.
"True Calling" - Irette Y Patterson - Baking magic and romance. Not particularly surprising, but readable.
"A Taste of Joie De Vivre" - Kellen Knolan - High School bullying combined with a town which is "troubled" in the same way as the TV show "Haven". Watching bullies 'get theirs' is almost always a satisfactory emotional payoff, though I felt sorry for the dog.
"Here, Kitty Kitty" - Annie Reed - Urban fantasy ex-cop duo of hot elf and human - tracking down a statue for a fairy. No surprises, but nice enough dynamic.
"That Lost Riddle" - Dean Wesley Smith - One is this author's "Poker Boy" series, where Lady Luck, etc, etc, are anthropomorphised, and the main character is "Poker Boy", a professional gambler turned luck-oriented superhero. Made me wonder, as these kind of stories often do, why so many ancient gods are American.
"Shadow Side" - Kristine Kathryn Rusch - One of the strongest (but also the longest, and thus with more time to build) stories in the collection. Cop/Police Chief who has been mixed up in the supernatural in the past and is really not keen in getting mixed up in it again. But a job opportunity in a mountain tourist town obliges him to face up to that choice. Enjoyed this one the most.
"Sisters" - Leah Cutter - Poignant and quite powerful story about death, belief and ritual.
"The Witch's House" - Richard Bowes - Post-apocalyptic plus fey. Interesting.
"Dog Boy Remembers" - Jane Yolen - the back story of one of the characters from "Except the Queen". Powerfully written, as expected of Yolen, but I sighed for the fridging of the unnamed mother. Deliberately nameless, I would presume, but I am just weary of nameless women, their deaths the background of Real Character's lives.
"Barbarians" - David Farland - Standard story of showing kindless to the enemy, made a little less standard by its conclusion. Only female character is typical "better than the rest because Good".

[Steven Carter · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sometimes a little bizarre, sometimes very familiar. Sometimes rooted in the realm of faerie, sometimes in dream. Sometimes in the town next door that always seemed a little odd. Sometimes in your own city, on your own street but still a world hidden from your perceptions. This is an unchallenging anthology of mostly modern age (mostly) fantasy stories. Thoroughly enjoyable even if a few seem to be in media res or like filler episodes for an author’s serial. Doesn’t matter though as the stories all quickly educate the reader in the few rules of the universe necessary to comprehend the point of the story. You’ll get sweet, poignant, a chuckle even. Nothing … speculative. Nothing that really stretches the imagination. But good, well written fantasy nevertheless.

[Colleen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Unnatural Worlds is a great introduction to some authors who I am now going to have to hunt down and eat. Not a single story was just-plain-bad, even if some were not to my taste. I admire that Smith and Rusch are coming back to publishing, and appreciate that Kickstarter gets a nod for their re-entry. What I really like is that I enjoyed everything they had to offer, either somewhat or quite a lot. And I'm glad that the story I like the most is from a new author.

"Life Between Dreams" - Devon Monk
This story is about a pair of dream wardens who battle the terrors brought into reality by strong dreams. The problem is that strong dreamers don't stop dreaming. // I started into Monk's Allie Beckstrom series, but couldn't hang onto the main character. That does not mean she is anything less than a tight writer. I was pleased with how this story hung together without any backstory, extra understanding of the universe, etc. Two thumbs up.

"Finally Family" - Ray Vukcevich
The story about a bug boy and an English teacher in Japan who only meet during an earthquake jumped continents and timelines, which is fine for a novel but painful in a short story. I've never read this author before (that I recall) and this story does not promise me anything one way or the other. But I love his garden. One thumb up.

"The Grasshopper and My Aunts" - Esther Freisner
In the past days of my youth, I admit to reading Freisner. She has a seriously funny grasp on mythology and isn't afraid to throw a gorgon and a lover of Eos into the same story with Merlin in the English contryside and still get everyone through to the other side. This story starts out so typical of the "Little Women" type of story, and ends up more confused than funny. But we all muddle through. One thumb up and a wave of the other hand.

"True Calling" - Irette Patterson
This is another author who I don't know/remember. She is obviously good at paranormal romance stories. While simple almost to simplistic, this story of a kitchen witch coming into her powers at a surprise birthday party is sweet and lovely even in its predictability. Two thumbs up and a note to look for her novels.

"A Taste of Joie de Vivre" - Kellen Knolan
The magic in Ashley's town of Nexus disappeared when her grandmother was young... Until the day the lost son of the town returned in a bizarre accident. Ashley's days of being the picked-on girl at school ended abruptly as she woke up one morning to her own gift. This story is the one that stuck with me after I closed the book, in a happy way. It's a great story about a fat girl who wins without regard to her weight. Sure, she was picked on by the cheerleaders for being fat, but the end of the story has nothing to do with it, one way or the other. Two thumbs up and a note to look for his other works as soon as he gets published again.

"Here Kitty Kitty" - Annie Reed
I've never read the Diz and Dee urban mystery novels, so this story stood alone for me. And it did a fine job. I didn't need any more backstory than she managed to toss in, and the plot completed without any weird add-ins from off screen. The story was well crafted, but didn't hook me. One thumb up.

"That Lost Riddle" - Dean Westley Smith
Despite his prolific publications, I don't know that I've read any Smith that I can recall. The character Poker Boy is supposedly well known, but he was new to me. This story about thinking through a problem was too shallow and focused too much on the characters rather than the problem. Again, I found I wasn't invested in anyone or anything, but the ending was clever. One thumb up.

"Shadow Side" - Kristine Kathryn Rusch
Again, I feel I should know her work. And this story was fun for me because it climbed through the western mountains and into haunts that I felt I have visited already. I think the story finished stronger by only giving us the solution to the mystery of the ghost in the mountain lodge kitchen, rather than also explaining everything else going wrong. Two thumbs up.

"Sisters" - Leah Cutter
After reading Daughter of the Sword, this story was a visit back to the far East. I enjoyed it for the cultural drive of the one sister to satisfy the ghost of the other in an Asian style that is quite foreign to me. What I wonder, though, is how much supernatural was actually in that story. One thumb up.

"The Witch's House" - Richard Bowers
A strong telepath with psychotic anger issues and hallucinations due to PTSD is not usually where I would put my short story efforts. It was an interesting attempt, but still a bit disjointed. I appreciated where he went with the ending, but I don't think it was a very smooth tale. One thumb up.

"Dog Boy Remembers" - Jane Yolen
Yolen will forever be enthroned in my young memory for Heart's Blood. This story was a straight line story about how a boy became a tracker for the Red Cap ogres. It was from the boy's perspective, which gave everything scent and feeling rather than sight and sound. It was rich and complete in just a few pages. Two thumbs up.

"Barbarians" - David Farland
I've never read the Runelords saga, so nothing in this story was familiar to me. It didn't matter. Farland did a fine job describing how both characters got where they were, before, during, and after the carriage crash. The fight with the dire wolves took too long, in my opinion, but it was action of a sort. The ending was sadly predictable even inside of a short story. One thumb up.

I picked it up because McGuire said so.
I recommend it to anyone who enjoys urban fantasy anthologies and is looking for something where not a single story ends with the protagonist losing.

[Jonathan Dunsky · Rating 4 out of 5]

This anthology contains a number of fantasy stories which run the gamut from urban fantasy to superheroes to medieval settings to slipstream stories. All the writers features here know their craft and the stories are well-told, though some of them were mediocre in terms of the actual plot.

The best stories in this collection are Shadow Side by Kristine Rusch, a story about a haunted Oregon hotel and the policeman who is hired to deal with one particular ghost, Dog Boy Remembers by Jane Yolen, about the relationship between a boy and his murderous father, Barbarians by Dave Farland (the last and best story), a prequel to his bestselling Runelords series, and Finally Family by Ray Vuckevic, which is such a bizarre story that it would be better to read it than to be told about it.

Overall, I had a good time with most of these stories.

[John Devenny · Rating 4 out of 5]

A pity I can't give half stars as this excellent anthology is a definite 4 1/2 star read. The first in a new anthology series edited by Dean Wesley Smith and Kristine Kathryn Rusch collects some excellent examples of fantasy stories with only a couple that disappointed me. Highlights include the stories by both editors as well as Jane Yolen's Dog Boy Remembers. The next issue in this series is already available and I will be reading it soon. Can't wait.

[Adam Ross · Rating 4 out of 5]

A delightful anthology of mostly contemporary fantasy, though there are one or two stories that verge on high fantasy. If you love quality short fiction, Fiction River is an anthology series to watch (and, of course, read).

[Kirsten · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a superb collection of excellent short stories. It's such a pleasure to read new short spec fic.

[David Macpherson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Decent fantasy anthology with few duds. I liked most of what I read to one degree or another with one stand out Shadow Side by Kristine Katherine Rusch.