Knaves: A Blackguards Anthology

Tales of the Otori #4.9 - Wine, Knife, Sword

by Melanie R. Meadors (Editor), Alana Joli Abbott (Editor), Maurice Broaddus

A medieval swindler gets caught with his proverbial pants down; a foolproof plan to pick up some cash via AI, until things take an unexpected and deadly turn; a legendary bodyguard is hired to protect precious cargo, but who will protect the cargo from him? The protagonists of this short story collection are not all anti-heroes telling their side of the story. They are also heroic people faced with hard decisions, forced to reckon with darker sides of themselves. They are villains surprised to find they have a noble side to themselves, and they are those trying to atone for past evils they have done. The 14 brand new stories deal with the complex idea of morality and will make readers wonder what side is the right side. Featuring original stories from Mercedes Lackey, Cullen Bunn, Lian Hearn, Anton Strout, and many more!

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

287 pages, Paperback

First published December 1, 2018

About the author

Melanie R. Meadors is a children's library assistant and book historian by day and a queer gothic romance author and bookbinder by night, under the name Huxley Ravenwood. She has edited several anthologies, including HATH NO FURY, KNAVES, and MECH: AGE OF STEEL, and her own fiction has appeared in anthologies and literary magazines. When she isn't reading, writing, or sewing vintage-style clothing, she's coming up with fun programming ideas for kids. Melanie received her master's in public history from the University of Massachusetts in Amherst and her bachelor's in geography from Worcester State University. She lives with her family in central Massachusetts.

Reviews

[Di Maitland · Rating 3 out of 5]

To quote Howard Taylor’s introduction: “this is a good book about bad people.” Some of the stories I loved, some of the stories I didn’t. What’s most interesting, though, is how they all ended: not with sugar and spice and all things nice, neither with doom and gloom and despair; instead the characters had a little success and a little failure and another day dawned. It felt realistic and I enjoyed that.

I was initially drawn to Knaves by three things. Firstly, it contained a story by Mercedes Lackey whose books I love. Secondly, it links nicely with a list I wrote not long ago on clever and mischievous characters and I wanted to see how these compared. And lastly, I’ve never read a collection of short stories by different authors and I wanted to give it a go.

Surprisingly, it was the authors I didn’t know whose stories I enjoyed best, which, I suppose, is one very good reason for anthologies like this to exist. These stories tended to have a clear plot, outlined upfront, and small worlds requiring little world-building. What made them memorable, however, was either a clever but plausible twist, as in Hunger in the Bones, or a powerful underlying social commentary, as in the Hand of Virtue and The Life and Times of Johnny the Fox. I’ll be sure to read more by the authors in the future.

On to a story-by-story review:

1) The Ferret in the Queen’s Purse by Kenny Soward

Queen Gruna has returned to the realm, chased by barbarian hoards and carrying with her a valuable jewel. Rumours abound that the Ferret is going to steal it and so its protectors decide to turn to a knight of the realm for help.

Unfortunately, this was not a strong story to start with. I enjoyed the world in which the story was set but found the plot simplistic and predictable.

Rating: 2.5/5*s, Genre: Fantasy

For fans of: The Thief by Megan Whalen Turner

2) All Mine by Mercedes Lackey and Dennis Lee

Marcus is an assistant scientist in a secret laboratory testing young child who present with supernatural abilities. When Subject 67 appears to be failing to live up to her potential, Marcus needs to take drastic action or he’ll find himself victim to the experiments next.

Sadly, another story that didn’t live up to expectations. Told from multiple perspectives, the story felt diluted and the plot unclear.

Rating: 2.5/5*s, Genre: Superhero

For fans of: The Vanishing Girl by Laura Thalassa

3) Hunger in the Bones by Anton Strout

A grouchy travelling story-teller arrives in a small Polish village and takes up the Mayor’s challenge to rid the village of a monster who’s stealing its residents.This story really did it for me. It’s clever, beautifully set and the travelling hut on chicken’s legs reminded me fondly of Howl’s Moving Castle.

Rating: 4.5/5*s, Genre: Historical Fantasy

For fans of: Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones; Spirited Away (movie)

4) All the Bridges Burned by Clay Sanger

Josiah Starling has messed with the wrong men. As he watches his partner get tortured for the money his sweetheart has run off with, he’s given one last chance to get out of Peregos alive.

A high-speed chase across rooftops and down alleys, this book was great fun, despite its rather gruesome start. I thought the end was fitting, though some may not like it.

Rating: 4/5*s, Genre: Fantasy

For fans of: Luck in the Shadows by Lynn Flewelling

5) Cat Secret Weapon #1 by Walidah Imarisha

Unfortunately, this was a DNF for me. It’s a children’s story about super villains and intelligent cats and just didn’t fit with the rest of the collection.

Rating: 1/5*s, Genre: Children’s Superhero

For fans of: Despicable Me (movie)

6) The Bloodletter’s Prayer by Cullen Bunn

Wandering a now barren land, listening to his tainted sword, the Bloodletter saves a young boy and must decide whether to include him in his plans.

This story could have done without slightly less world-building but was an interesting concept and had a clever ending.

Rating: 3.5/5*s, Genre: Fantasy

For fans of: Small Gods by Terry Pratchett

7) The Second Siege of Telea by Anna Smith Spark

Tobias, a squad commander in the Free Company of the Sword, is telling fellow pub-goers about the time he snuck into Telea and helped bring the city down.

This is the only story in the collection that connects to a large universe, that of Empires of Dust, and having not read that, I found this rather confusing and overwhelming. It had potential but was trying to do too much.

Rating: 3/5*s, Genre: Fantasy

For fans of: Sixteen Ways to Defend a Walled City by K.J. Parker

8) Assassin or Thief by Cat Rambo

The Dark and her sorcerer husband, Tericatus, are making a bet with Chig the Rat God that they can determine whether a particular woman is an assassin or a thief by the way in which she acts in a certain situation.

More than an other, this story probably had the most unfulfilled potential. I loved the world in which it was set but was ultimately frustrated that they never seemed to answer the question set.

Rating: 3.5/5*s, Genre: Fantasy

For fans of: Caraval by Stephanie Garber

9) The Weight of Shades and Shadows by Shanna Germain

Kansa, the Devil’s Eldest/Only Daughter, is finally returning home to ruin her father. The question is, will he see her coming?

More wasted potential. I found this story intriguing but the writing was so convoluted I struggled to grasp what was going on.

Rating: 2.5/5*s, Genre: Fantasy

For fans of: Steel Crow Saga by Paul Krueger

10) Daughter of Sorrow by Maurice Broaddus

On top of starting, mid-year, at Spect Preparatory Academy, a school for the wealthy elite in Indiana, the time has come for Rihanna Butcher to decide if she will continue in the family business.

As this story seemed to be lacking either sci-fi or fantastical elements, I’m not quite sure where it fits in this volume. However, it was reasonably interesting, if a little young.

Rating: 3/5*s, Genre: ?

For fans of: Stormbreaker by Anthony Horowitz

11) The Hand of Virtue by Linda Robertson

Maganhild the Strong arrives in Tremain to ask the wizard on the hill to grant her wholly virtuous request.

This was one of my favourites in the collection. It was well told and beautifully set, but also held an important underlying message about the importance of diversity and the place of those who aren’t ‘normal’.

Rating: 4.5/5*s, Genre: Fantasy

For fans of: The Sheepfarmer’s Daughter by Elizabeth Moon

12) The Life and Times of Johnny the Fox by Sabrina Vourvoulias

Johnny the Fox is the son of a human woman and the northeasterly trade wind. High on his ability to charm everyone in sight, he decides to try his luck wooing the storm that approaches Puerto Rico’s shores.

Another of my favourites, this story was interestingly told and all the more intriguing for its real world inspiration - namely the destruction of Puerto Rico by Hurricane Maria.

Rating: 4.5/5*s, Genre: Magical Realism

For fans of: Gods of Jade and Shadow by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

13) Old Sol Rises Up by Toiya Kristen Finley

My second and my last DNF. I tried, I really did, but by half way through I wasn’t really interested in the characters and didn’t fully understand the plot.

Rating: 1/5*s, Genre: Dystopia

For fans of: Ready Player One by Ernest Cline

14) Wine, Knife, Sword by Lian Hearn

When her husband is killed and the Emperor’s General demands she remarry, Lady Ren must decide whether she capitulates, kills herself, or seeks revenge.

Set in a wider world than most of the other stories, it just about manages to pull it off. The story was interesting and I enjoyed the ending.

Rating: 4/5*s, Genre: Fantasy

For fans of: Flame in the Mist be Renée Ahdieh

This book was provided free of charge by Outland Entertainment and NetGalley in return for an honest review.

[Lukasz · Rating 2 out of 5]

Meh. One of the weakest anthologies I've ever read.

[Rowena Andrews · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the third in this series of anthologies that I have read, and I found this one a little weaker than the others. On the whole the stories, were enjoyable and well written, but I don't think there were any that stood out like shining stars for me this time. That said, I love the variety and the exploration of characters that aren't necessarily villains by choice as much as by circumstance, and it was an entertaining collection that has also introduced me to new authors who I will be exploring further.

[Elena Linville-Abdo · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a good collection of short stories. They all kept my attention and some gave me glimpses into very interesting worlds I wouldn't have minded exploring a little longer.

I also discovered new authors and put some of their novels into my TBR pile, so this anthology accomplished its purpose.

[Annie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Originally published on my blog: Nonstop Reader.

Knaves is (by my count) the third anthology in a series of anti-heros, blackguards, and scoundrels. Released 1st Oct 2018 by Outland Entertainment, it's 287 pages and available in trade paperback, audio, and ebook formats. It's worth noting that the ebook format has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links. I've really become enamored of ebooks with interactive formats lately.

One reason I prefer collections and anthologies is that short fiction is really challenging. It's spare and the author doesn't have a wealth of wordage to develop characters or the plotting. Well written short fiction is a delight. I also love collections because if one story doesn't really grab me, there's another story just a few pages away. These 14 stories were a mixed bag; there were some standouts, a few middle-of-the-road, and only one I wasn't engaged enough to finish. I read it more or less cover to cover, which is unusual with me for anthologies; I generally hop around.

I picked up this title because of my familiarity with some of the contributors (Mercedes Lackey, Cat Rambo, Anton Strout and others - at least 75% of them will be familiar to most readers of SF/F). I was surprised to find that the stories which really engaged me and kept me enthralled were from the authors with whom I hadn't developed a previous reading relationship. It's always wonderful to find authors to follow, and for this reason alone, this was a useful reading pick.

A short search online leads me to believe that these are all previously unpublished stories. The publisher and other reviewers have provided better précis than I could. I will say that a couple of the high points of this collection for me, personally, were ones which I saw panned by other reviewers (Old Sol Rises Up, as one example).

It's an entertaining and worthwhile collection. I'm fascinated (and happy) to find that it was a kickstarter project. I have been admittedly worried about the future of indie publishing given the current world situation and knowing that really top shelf fiction can successfully be crowdsourced is reassuring.

Four strong stars, several 4.5 - 5 star stories here.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.

[Eule Luftschloss · Rating 5 out of 5]

trigger warning
being experimented upon, grief, lethal illness, torture, being orphaned, gore, racism

This is the best short story anthology I have read in a long while. Every story falls somewhere on the speculative fiction spectrum, either sci fi or fantasy, and I liked especially that there is such a diverse range of settings, characters and plots. While I love high fantasy in a medieval-esque world with all my heart, I don't want an anthology where it feels like each and every plot could have been set at the same place, with always the same set of characters, and only the names change.
It was fun to discover where it would take me next.

My favourite story was from the perspective of the Bond villian cat, and he was not amused as the next person to adopt him was a teenager of all persons, with no budget to speak of, and gross cleaning habits. Which means no cleaning habits. But he came around as he met the teenager's little sister and was shown the super evil weapon that's build in the gross basement, which might end police brutality or all brutality. Black Lives Matter was directly referred to.

My second favourite story also had roots in real world events, namely hurricanes that hit Puerto Rico, and an entity that might have been involved.

The third story that was interesting to read was by Lian Hearn and the Clan of Otori world, but that was mostly interesting to me because I read the first three or four novels of that series ages ago, but in German translation, and now I got to experience the writing without middle person.

I will check out some of these writers for sure, and other words by the editor, because this was all I wanted. And I wasn't even in the mood for short stories, because I rarely am and have to push myself or I will ignore that type of format.

The arc was provided by the publisher.

[Ron]

Howard Taylor introduces this collection of blackguards, fools, thieves, traitors, mercenaries and their ilk quite appropriately. Then begins the tales! You have thieves working on pulling off a heist or a mad scientist needing a cat to complete his image. There is a swindler running for his life and a mother wanting the best for her child. Then there is the mercenaries on a secret mission and a son of the North wind getting in over his head. And the book ends with the unwitting sister giving up what she seeks to protect most. As Howard Taylor stated in his intro "It's really, really good." Read the book, enjoy the engravings and keep in mind the cover!

Thanks Netgalley for the opportunity to read this collection of tales!

[Shilo Quetchenbach · Rating 2 out of 5]

I've read a couple of really great short story anthologies on NetGalley lately, but this one was something of a dud, which is a shame because the idea is really cool.

There were a few stories that I really enjoyed, but mostly I was indifferent to them, actively disliked them, or got to the end and said 'what was the point even?' -- not my usual response to fantasy stories.

Even with the few stories I really enjoyed, my overall feeling about this collection wavers between 'meh' and 'avoid' so I can't really recommend it.

*Thanks to NetGalley and Outland Entertainment for providing an e-arc for review.

[Heidi · Rating 4 out of 5]

I generally don’t care for short stories. I prefer a novel or novella length story at the shortest, but I really enjoyed this collection! This collection caught my eye based on the cover picture and title. Like any short story collection some are better than others but on the collective whole this was a really fun set of stories to read. If the theme of the collection sounds fun to you I think you’ll enjoy it.

[Chris · Rating 4 out of 5]

A bit of a mixed bag of short stories about rogues and scoundrels. Most were really pretty good though a couple fell a bit flat and some were just strange but I thought was an enjoyable read and worth the price of entry.

[luke · Rating 3 out of 5]

thanks netgalley for providing this ebook !

We are, after all, the stories we tell

In this anthology we find a set of different characters and situations where nothing is as it seems.
I personally liked the fantasy concepts more than the scifi, but that's a too personal preference.
Some were very dark and interesting.

[Anjana · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wrote and rewrote this review before sitting down to do this post. I wanted to list all the authors and a word about all twenty of the stories but realised that it was not feasible. Each story in this collection is relatively short, and if I mentioned something about each, this review might actually turn out to be bigger than required for the volume.
As the title suggests, each story focuses on a villain or a kind of villain. The writers and the locations, and the characters are all pretty diverse. Even the plot lines varied from historical fiction mode to actual fantasy. There were a few I liked better than others, but I enjoyed almost all of them. There were hard choices made by people who do not walk the paths created by the majority of the population.
The writing was consistently good throughout the anthology, something that very rarely happens. They were also consistently heavy and dark (except for the story of the cat of the supervillain). The introductions to the collection, as well as the variety, made it an entertaining read. Some of the tales are part of a bigger series by the authors, I had no prior knowledge of any of them. I had it on my virtual shelf for quite a while before I sat down with it. Once I did- it took me a short while to work my way through it.
I received an ARC thanks to NetGalley, the review is entirely based on my own reading experience of this book.

[Anna K. Scott · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another excellent anthology in the vein of Blackguards (a favourite of mine). There are a wide variety of stories included with different themes - something for everyone to enjoy. I don't think there was a single story in this collection that I didn't enjoy.