Review copy was received from NetGalley. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
Fantastic Hope by Laurell K. Hamilton, Larry Correia, Patricia Briggs Published by Berkley on April 7, 2020
Genres: Fantasy
Pages: 432
Format: eARC
Source: NetGalley
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A child’s wish for her father comes true. The end of the world has never been so much fun. Conquering personal demons becomes all too real. It’s not always about winning; sometimes it’s about showing up for the fight. It’s about loving your life’s work, and jobs that make you question everything.
In this anthology, seventeen authors have woven together brand-new stories that speak to the darkness and despair that life brings while reminding us that good deeds, humor, love, sacrifice, dedication, and following our joy can ignite a light that burns so bright the darkness cannot last.
Fantastic Hope is a scifi fantasy anthology with stories which offer hope. In today’s odd world, these are welcome. There are only a few authors I have read previously, and only two stories with characters I already knew.
I am not going to do an in depth review of all the stories but I would say they were all enjoyable. None of them were bad or such that I wished I hadn’t read it or anything. I would place them into three groups: Ones I really loved, Ones I really enjoyed, and Ones I liked.
- Twilight Falls by Jonathan Mabarry – a Joe Ledger story
- Not in This Lifetime by Sharon Shinn
- Mr. Positive, The Eternal Optimist by Larry Correia – I really enjoyed Stanley and Chris. It was terrifying and then funny.
- No Greater Love by Kacey Ezell- There are some aspects about this which I usually wouldn’t like (religious) but Jennilee was awesome.
- Broken Son by Griffin Barber
- Heart of Clay by Kevin J. Anderson – a Dan Shamble, Zombie PI adventure
- Reprise by John G. Hartness – a Quincy Harker, demon hunter story
- Asil and the Not-Date by Patricia Briggs – I know and love this world so this was very fun for me.
- In the Dust by Robert E. Hampson – Scientists in the future on different planets.
- Fallen by LE Modesitt, JR – This one felt too political or religious for my taste
- Working Conditions by Patrick M. Tracy
- Last Contact by MC Sumner – a fun alien encounter.
- Ronin by William McCaskey – Dreams and nightmares of a human watched over with love.
- Skjoldmodir by Michale Z. Williamson and Jessica Schlenker – I liked this story but it was so sad.
- Bonds of Love and Duty by Monalisa Foster – Genetic engineering and the cultural racial biases vs. compassion and humanity.
- Zombie Dearest by Laurell K. Hamilton – My favorite characters from the series, Anita Blake and Jean-Claude. I haven’t read the most recent books but I was very happy to see these two tracking down a raised zombie gone wrong.
I sometimes have trouble with the start of a new book or series in this genre and so that was bound to happen with some of them. I would rather have read this anthology over a longer period of time, leaving myself more time between stories to absorb and appreciate them. I do recommend this anthology. Some of the ones I really enjoyed come from series I would like to read now, because I realize I would have loved them with the background of a series I knew.
About Patricia Briggs
Patricia Briggs was born in Butte, Montana to a children’s librarian who passed on to her kids a love of reading and books. Patricia grew up reading fairy tales and books about horses, and later developed an interest in folklore and history. When she decided to write a book of her own, a fantasy book seemed a natural choice. Patricia graduated from Montana State University with degrees in history and German and she worked for a while as a substitute teacher. Currently, she lives in Montana with her children and six horses and writes full-time, much to the delight of her fans.
I read all types of books but my favorites are urban fantasy and romantic suspense.I like some romance and some action / adventure / mystery in everything.I like sex in my books but please, only between TWO people.Intimate conversation is equally important to the sex in a book.It lets me see the characters.The other thing I enjoy is humor.
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Reading this book contributed to these challenges:
- COYER-20
Oh some great authors here
It’s really got some great stories. I enjoyed it a lot.
Asil and the Not-date is getting lots of rave reviews. Also, I like the way you sorted these, using font to group the titles by rating. Nice review!
Thank you! Of course there are some personal preferences which made me enjoy some more than others. But overall, they were very good. I didn’t get the concept of the title until I started reading them – they really are inspirational and providing hope.
I didn’t even hear about this one. However, I wouldn’t get it, but I do want to know more about Asil and the Not-Date by Patricia Briggs! Someday!
Well there is always the library! It’s at mine in both ebook and audio version. They are all good stories and I liked the intro to several other authors / series. But if you are short on time you could just read that one or the ones you want.
I am so glad you enjoyed this one, Anne. I read this book one story at a time with a lot of breaks and I really loved it. I think that there was only one story that I didn’t like all that much. I thought that the Laurell K. Hamilton and Patricia Briggs books were top notch. Gret review!
Thanks Carole! I wish I could have spread it out a bit but it was a really great read overall.
ooh sounds like a good one for ya, and new starts to books are the worst feels. Get me to the point where I am captivated by the story lol
Great review
That’s the reason I would have preferred to spread out reading them. But I wanted to review it on a timely basis and it was a worthwhile and enjoyable read. It mostly wasn’t too hard.
I put in a request for this one at the library for Asil’s story alone. Can’t wait! I’d like to try the Anita Blake series sometime.
I hope you love it too. I have mixed feelings about Anita Blake. There were some books I enjoyed a lot and some I didn’t and then I gave up on the series. I wanted less sex and more mystery/action/plot.
I’ve got my eye on this one. What a great list of authors.
It’s great. I would recommend spacing the stories out in your reading a bit to enjoy it even more.