Good mix of great authors

Patricia Briggs, Jim Butcher, Rachel Caine, Caren Chance, PN Elrod, Charlaine Harris....et al. did a fine job of mixing up stories. (No Sookie from Charlaine, but I liked it). Anthologies offer a person a chance to hear new authors, and old authors writing different styles. I enjoyed 90% of this and I do with most para normal anthologies. Don't expect the same old thing and allow yourself to enjoy.

14 people found this helpful

Stories = 4, Narrators = 2

I own this book in paper, mostly because of my hero Jim Butcher, but I enjoy several of the other authors as well, and this collection has some good stories. I bought the audio book because I like to 're-read' things and have a long commute everyday. Most of the people selected to narrate these stories were just not pleasant to listen to, especially for the Jim Butcher selection, which really was a disappointment.

22 people found this helpful

good stories, narrators to chipper

Is there anything you would change about this book?

I wish the regular narrators of the series' would be the ones doing the short stories

Was Strange Brew worth the listening time?

I got this to listen to since I loved reading it. The narrators on a whole are much to chipper sounding for the theme of this book, for me. I quit 1/2 way through, but may go back later. The narration was too distracting for me having been familiar with the book, so I was a little more biased than I might have been otherwise.

7 people found this helpful

Fun anthology!

Seeing Eye by Patricia Briggs 4.5
It’s the Tom and Moira origin story! I’ve read it before and I enjoyed it again. Tom, the werewolf seeks out the powerful blind witch to save his brother from an evil coven.

Death Warmed Over by Rachel Caine 4.5
Excellent PNR of a resurrection witch and a long fallen hero. If there had been sexy time it would have been five stars. The best short stories, like this one, are full stories.

Bacon by Charlaine Harris 4.5
I love Dahlia stories! This clever old vampire deserves her own series.

Vegas Odds by Karen Chance 4
Delicious action packed PNR with a war mage and a were.

Ginger: A Nocturne City Story by Caitlin Kittredge 3.5
A cautious witch stumbles into helping her badass werewolf cousin in police work.

Hecate’s Golden Eye by P.N. Elrod 3.5
A diamond caper and long con face two private detectives, one of whom is a vampire.

Signatures of the Dead by Faith Hunter 3
A witches and Jane Yellowrock hunt down a crazed group of vampires. The story was problematic in that halfway through it was mentioned vampires sleep in the day but by the end of the story that is not true. It’s important to stay plausible and consistent.

Last Call by Jim Butcher 2.5
Similar to the Maryann Forrester plot line in True Blood. That meaningless crazy is when I stopped watching that show.

Dark Sins by Jenna MacLaine 1.5
A vampiric witch comes into her power and everyone of her friends is ashamed of her. They believe themselves to be avenging forces of good but they hamper themselves. It was stupid.

Average 3.5 that I rounded up to four stars. This was a lovely audiobook to listen to while knitting.

4 people found this helpful

Inconsistent

I bought this compilation because I am a fan of several of the writers. However, I have to say I was somewhat disappointed in the quality of several of the stories. If your not a regular reader of some of these already established characters it may be confusing. I've always felt a short story should stand on its own rather than a continuation of an existing "universe" or storyline.

Charlaine Harris' story Bacon is in the same universe of the Sookie Stackhouse series but the story itself is a stand-alone with new characters. The reader is excellent.

However, Jim Butcher's story is the same character I've read in other compilations and I still feel I am missing something. I've not read any of the Dresden books.

Patricia Brigss and Rachel Caine deliver good stories with emotion. And the readers are interesting.

PN Elrod's contribution was ridiculous and I feel completely incongruous with the overall theme of the rest of the stories. The reader is awful. I had to skip two thirds of the story.

41 people found this helpful

I wanted to like it...

Given that this is a collection of short stories I anticipated that I may not connect with every story but that there would be a few to stand out. Unfortunately, many of the stories had slow pacing or were narrated poorly.

3 people found this helpful

Good 'read' for supernatural fantasy lovers

I already liked Patricia Briggs, and now I have some other authors to check out. I wasn't disappointed in any of the stories, which is great for an anthology. The stories and charaterization were engaging and intelligent, well delivered and not unnecessarily pessimistic or arty (in the depressing pointless fiction sense). Well done.

3 people found this helpful

Pronunciation, pronunciation, pronunciation!

I am a great fan of the urban fantasy genre and also of things Celtic. I realize that current stories of the supernatural often include Irish and Scottish references. I was appalled at the pronunciation of fairly common celtic words and idioms. Samhain is never, as far as I know, pronounced SAM-hain, it is SOW-in; Seamus is not SEE-mus, but SHAY-mus; likewise Riordan is pronounced REAR-don, not ree-OR-din, etc.. This was extremely distracting and spoiled the experience of a good anthology. Whoever chooses the readers should at the very least check to see if they know how to pronounce the words contained in the stories. This would have been a simple process, especially with the resources of the internet. I cannot recommend this recording. Read the book!

29 people found this helpful

Talentd group of authors and narrators.

What did you love best about Strange Brew?

Faith Hunter's story of course!

What other book might you compare Strange Brew to and why?

Pretty much all anthologies.

Any additional comments?

I love when an author in an anthology separates out their story and does its an ebook novella and then offers the audio of the single authors story. I also enjoy when an author does a book of all of the novellas together from different anthologies and does a special book and audio of only their stories.

1 person found this helpful

Disappointing

Would you try another book from the authors and/or the narrators?

I like some of them individually but this was tough going

What could the authors have done to make this a more enjoyable book for you?

Written better stories

What do you think the narrator could have done better?

There were several, some were ok but I found some very shrill and couldn't listen

What reaction did this book spark in you? Anger, sadness, disappointment?

Disappointment

3 people found this helpful