Feisty Felines and Other Fantastical Familiars

Quincy Harker #Nameless

by Kevin J. Anderson (Editor), Allyson Longueira (Editor), Alexander Hay

When the witches and wizards are away, the familiars will play!

Gifted adventurers across time and space often travel with an animal familiar—usually a cat, but possibly other fuzzy, scaly, or prickly creatures. These magical companions lead their humans into mischief, help them out of sticky situations, or offer opinionated commentary along the way.

We're familiar with familiars ... or are we?

Compiled by New York Times bestselling author Kevin J. Anderson and award-winning editor Allyson Longueira - and their Publishing graduate students at Western Colorado University - Feisty Felines and Other Fantastical Familiars features 26 never-before-published short stories and poems crafted by Mercedes Lackey, Heather Graham, Jody Lynn Nye, John G. Hartness, Steve Rasnic Tem, and many others.

You’ll love this collection kitty-littered with surprises at every turn. Some stories are whimsical, some are sad, some will tug at your heartstrings - and some will stay with you long after you close this book.

From mischievous cats to cunning ravens, skittering spiders to - a cow? - these feisty familiars will take you on a magical trip to places even wizards don’t tread.

Contents:
The Dragon’s Cat by Jody Lynn Nye
So Burn Us Both by Lisse Kirk
Trial by Cow by Andrew Rucker Jones
Blackwood’s Tomb by Joseph Floyd
The Ritualist and the Hedge-Wizard by Kit Calvert
Beneath the Wings of Night by Ngo Binh Anh Khoa
Kitten for Sale by Aster Marsh
The Dreamer by M. Lalli Lassegard
A Rat, a Root, and a Big Orange Fruit by Zach Shephard
Second Life by Christina Sng
The Witching Hour Letters by Amanda Cecelia Lang & Brittany Noelle
The Familiar’s Familiar by Maegan Langer
The Cat by Sandy White
Some Spider by Pines Callahan
Scary, Scary, Skunk by Heather Graham
Orphans by Matt Beswick
The Last Life of Hilde the Small by Jessica Feather
And Have Never Forgotten by Mercedes Lackey
Fluffy by T. Chandler
Earth, Bonding by Kerri J. Roe
Not Common: A Fibonacci Poem by Lois T. Bartholomew
The Secret of the Sorceress by Alexander Hay
Sink or Swim by Rebecca M. Senese
Old Crow by Steve Rasnic Tem
Tail-End by Lia Wu
Nameless Quincy Harker Short Story by John G. Hartness

Genres: Fantasy, Short Stories, Anthologies

336 pages, Paperback

First published July 15, 2024

About the author

Yes, I have a lot of books, and if this is your first visit to my amazon author page, it can be a little overwhelming. If you are new to my work, let me recommend a few titles as good places to start. I love my Dan Shamble, Zombie P.I. series, humorous horror/mysteries, which begin with DEATH WARMED OVER. My steampunk fantasy adventures, CLOCKWORK ANGELS and CLOCKWORK LIVES, written with Neil Peart, legendary drummer from Rush, are two of my very favorite novels ever. And my magnum opus, the science fiction epic The Saga of Seven Suns, begins with HIDDEN EMPIRE. After you've tried those, I hope you'll check out some of my other series.

I have written spin-off novels for Star Wars, StarCraft, Titan A.E., and The X-Files, and I'm the co-author of the Dune prequels. My original works include the Saga of Seven Suns series and the Nebula Award-nominated Assemblers of Infinity. I have also written several comic books including the Dark Horse Star Wars collection Tales of the Jedi written in collaboration with Tom Veitch, Predator titles (also for Dark Horse), and X-Files titles for Topps.

I serve as a judge in the Writers of the Future contest.

My wife is author Rebecca Moesta. We currently reside near Monument, Colorado.

Reviews

[Lorraine · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a delightful bunch of stories. Lots of cats with a sprinkling of cows, foxes, crows and fish thrown in. I really enjoyed the kitties though.

[Marie Cordalis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic Familiars One And All!

I'm not usually a big fan of short story anthologies and frequently only like a few in the mix. Having said that, I loved this anthology. Instead of passing on reading all of the stories I read every one of them and didn't dislike any of them. They were a fantastic mix of different species as familiars. Not only cats. There were some very surprising ones🙂 Some of the stories were bright and happy, a few made me weep. I highly recommend this anthology 🙂

[Sharon · Rating 5 out of 5]

A superb collection of short stories. I didn't skip a single one. Kudos to the Western Colorado University publishing graduate students and their mentors Kevin J. Anderson and Allyson Longueira for another excellent collection. I enjoyed this one as much as Merciless Mermaids and am looking forward to the other titles in the series.

[Heidi · Rating 4 out of 5]

I generally prefer novels to short stories but this is a solid collection.

[Debrac2014 · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed reading about feisty familiars though I didn't recognize most of the authors! That cow story was odd!

[Nicole · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good Familiar stories

Cute and cuddly and creepy for some. The bond between a witch and their familiar is special as seen here in these stories.

[Jerrilynn Lilyblade · Rating 3 out of 5]

cute collection of short fantasy stories

[Anna Marie · Rating 4 out of 5]

A series of short stories and poems with cats and some other completely unexpected critters as familars. Many well known authors create stories that are startling and dreadful.