Review: Shards and Ashes

Posted March 12, 2013 by Lola in Dystopia, Fantasy, Review / 4 Comments

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Shards and Ashes
by Melissa Marr, Kelley Armstrong, Veronica Roth, Kami Garcia, Margaret Stohl, Rachel Caine, Nancy Holder, Beth Revis and Carrie Ryan 

Blurb from Goodreads: Gripping original stories of dystopian worlds from nine New York Times bestselling authors, edited by Melissa Marr and Kelley Armstrong.

The world is gone, destroyed by human, ecological, or supernatural causes. Survivors dodge chemical warfare and cruel gods; they travel the reaches of space and inhabit underground caverns. Their enemies are disease, corrupt corporations, and one another; their resources are few, and their courage is tested.

Powerful original dystopian tales from nine bestselling authors offer bleak insight, prophetic visions, and precious glimmers of light among the shards and ashes of a ruined world

My Review:
At first I didn’t read anthologies, I couldn’t understand what the fun was in reading short stories, because I want longer stories, but after actually reading an anthology I also saw the beaty in it. In a collection of short stories that have some common theme. And you can just read a story and put it down or read another one. Yeah I think I am actually starting to like anthologies.

– Hearkener by Veronica Roth
This book starts with this short story, it is so much more than just a short story. There is emotion and a story. And Roth has managed to create a world in a short story, really it was briliant. And I just want to read more, because it was awesome, it is the kind of story that you don’t want to put down. I liked the originality of the world and I liked Darya. we don’t get to know much of the other characters, but really I think this would make an awesome book. I want to know more, but on the other hand it was awesome like this too. All the important details are there, but not too much. And still I want more. Really this short story was awesome!

– Branded by Kelley Armstrong
I love Kelley Armstrongs writing style and I loved this short story. I was disapointed there wasn’t more, because it was so good. It displays barren world which might be the future if things happened differently in her other series, there a few references to things that happened there. I again was amazed at the capability to create a world in a short story. I really liked it and wanted to know more.

– Necklace of Raindrops by Magareth Stohl
I though this story was a bit depressing most of the tims. The writing style was beautiful, but also a bit complicated and confusing most times. I didn’t really see the sense of this story, nor did I get a good sense of the world. Mostly I was confused trying to udnerstand it all, there were pieces which were obvious, but also parts that I didn’t really graps like what excatlty the necklace of raindrops is. I actually am happy I can start with the next story.

– Dogsbody by Rachel Caine
I didn’t really care for this story, I couldn’t connect with the main characters, there was almost no world building and I generally just couldn’t care what happened. I did manage to finish it though.

– Pale Rider by Nancy Holder
This short story was a bit too fast paced and I was confused most of the time, everything happened to quikcly and I didn’t get a good idea of what the world was. At the end lots of things get explained and I actually thought the explanation was interesting, but the way the story was told was too rushed and confusing.

– Corpse Eaters by Melissa Marr
This short story started out a bit confusing, but got kinda interesting after that. I still think the story is too short, but there was enough world building to get a sense of the world. The story just was over too quickly and I felt some parts where a bit rushed. I liked the idea behind the story and I got a sense of who the characters where, but it was too short to really understand everything.

– Burn 3 by Kami Garcia
This story was really interesting. It gave a depressing view of how our world could become. A bit scary, but it also had some bright points. I wish I could learn more about the world. The story seemed to get resolved a little bit too fast, but it was good and sad.

– Love is a choice by Beth Revis
I really liked this story, the pacing was okay and not rushed. It took some time to understand the world and at the end there where still so many questions, but the end is actually the thing I have most issues with. because even though the story ends, it doens’t end. It just stops in the middle and there is still no solution. But the rest of it was nice.

– Miasma by Carrie Ryan
This story was interesting, but also a bit scary with the strange doctors in the story. There wasn’t enough world building for my taste, but the pace was okay. And again the ending didn’t resolve anything. Also the world building didn’t make much sense to me and lacked explanation. Still I did finish this short story pretty quickly.

To conclude: a nice collection of short stories around the dystopia theme. I especially liked the first two short stories from Veronica Roth and Kelley Armstrong. Most short stories where nice, but there were also a few I didn’t like. All in all still worth reading if only for those first two short stories and the original ideas and variety of dystopia short stories this book contains.

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4 responses to “Review: Shards and Ashes

    • Veronica Roth story is the first story in this book and it was so good, that some of the later stories disapointed me a bit. Carrie Ryan’s short story is the last one and I think it was really good too, although a bit creepy.

  1. I have been drawn to the cover and anthologies can be cool sometimes, because you get to try new authors. I am glad you enjoyed some of them..hmm maybe I will save Roth’s story for last and see if it changes the rest of them..:P

    • Hmm maybe skipping Roth and Armstrong their stories and first read the rest may make seem the rest better. I think it isn’t good to start with the best, because after those two stories the rest just wasn’t so good.

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