Before I start I have to ask the question - Why? Why release a Christmas themed book at the beginning of October when there is still Halloween to get through and for Americans there is still Thanksgiving. This premature release, I am sure, would be getting a better review from me if it was at least December already. As it is these `Hair-Raising Holiday Tales` didn't get me in the festive mood at all. Acutally they didn't get me in the mood for anything other than starting another book. Again I did the anthology thing and again I am disappointed. You would think I would know better by now! Sure there were some good stories in here and none really stood out as being that bad but one would think that with such big names contributing to this book that there would be a wow factor to the stories. I have to say I found the majority of the stories to be quite dull and were not at all special. Of course every story was well written but I found the plots to range from strange to ridiculous. The fact that Christmas was the main theme made the stories even more silly because we still have October, November and most of December to go before the festive season.
The story that disappointed me the most has to be the Sookie story from Charlaine Harris. Trueblood maybe keeping the fans happy TV wise but I was looking forward to a nice visit to Bon Temps on paper. What I felt I got was a forced few pages. Nothing spectacular. If I had to pick the best three then they would be the stories that stood out. Carrie Vaughn's Kitty story, Simon R. Green's very short but hardhitting story and Keri Arthur's romantic contribution were by far the best of the bunch and I can't wait to visit all three authors again soon.
All in all not bad but on saying that it wasn't great either. If this was released closer to Christmas I would have been in the mood for this Yule meets Werewolves mix but as it is the timing was off. Yet again the big names get together to make a book full of half good and half bad (who your favourite authors are depends on who you think the bad half are). I have to say that fans of the paranormal genre will enjoy this but should wait for Christmas. On a closing point I will add that the authors did well. I am sure it isn't easy writing a short story and I will be looking up some of the authors from this collection that I haven't met before.
Labels: anthologies, Books Read, New Releases
At 9 October 2008 at 15:07, 
Cherie
Christmas-related anthologies are always published in October? Why? Well, think of it logically. For starters, this is the time of the year when traditionally holiday decorations start appearing in the stores and people start thinking about holiday shopping, so it makes sense to the marketing people to release the books at this time as well.
Granted, you and I may be among the people who don't like to think about the December holidays until after Halloween/Samhain is over, but unfortunately the rest of the US, in particular the people who put these things out on the market, don't feel that way, and just like you'll start seeing holiday decorations now, and people will start asking you if you've started your "Christmas shopping" yet (don't you just want to smack those people?) so it is with these Christmas anthologies. They're released along with all the other way-too-early baubles of the holiday.
On a more practical front, besides buying it now to give to someone as a holiday gift, if I bought it now for myself, I should be able to squeeze it in to my reading queue by Christmas. ;)
by Kelley Armstrong
I know! That bugs me too but I still bought this. I'm so excited about reading it lol!