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Where There Are Dragons: An Anthology of Mixed Emotions
Robber's Dog Pub A genreless anthology for charity. Inside this book there are dragons. Twenty stories and poems from nineteen writers. Stories from award winning veterans to print debuts, each entry is a different genre than the one before it, from literary fiction, to urban fantasy, to bizarro and everything in between. The only thread that ties them all together is the dragons. There is something for every kind of reader in this book. Proceeds from all sales will be going to support Suicide Prevention and Awareness. Featuring Stories and Poems Dr. Benjamin Anthony, Donald Armfield, Maxwell Bauman, Melanie Bowling, Dani Brown, Justin A. Burnett, Garrett Cook, Dav Crabes, Ashley Dioses, Fiona Maeve Geist, Bo Hernö, Seth Hunsaker, James Jakins, Austin James, Christopher Lesko, J.L. Mayne, Christine Morgan, Jessica Amanda Salmonson, Eric James Stone
- GenresShort Stories
200 pages, Kindle Edition
First published February 1, 2019
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
July 23, 2023
This anthology if purchased donates proceeds to a charitable cause: suicide prevention. The idea for the anthology was to commemorate the life of a person who committed suicide, a person who loved stories with dragons in them. Therefore, every story in the anthology has to feature a dragon in some respect. I became interested in the anthology because it contains a story by an author I follow: Christopher Lesko.
Although Lesko's story, "Young Rita," is found about a third of the way through the anthology, I started with it. It's a good story. In fact, I think it the best of the anthology, although I have problems with its ending. The last paragraph didn't work for me. The central problem of the story was solved by someone coming in and taking forceful action upon the protagonist. I think readers expect to see protagonists triumph as a result of their own epiphanies and efforts. It's a really odd failed ending; I've never read one quite like it, only warnings to avoid that type in creative writing books.
The entire anthology, Where There Are Dragons: An Anthology of Mixed Emotions, is a mixed bag in terms of quality. Most of the stories, especially in the last two thirds of the book, are very experimental, most of which don't work in my opinion. Experimental stories seldom do. They are not a complete waste of time or incomprehensible, just not that much fun to read.
The first third of the book contains the better stories. In fact, the first, "Accounting for Dragons" by Eric James Stone is very clever and funny. Even dragons have to pay taxes apparently - four stars. The other story I really liked was a longer one set in New Orleans, "A Dragon in Onyx" by Seth Hunsaker. It's a supernatural police procedural sort of story. A girl our protagonist arrests dies in her cell of poisoning. He has to figure out why. I'm a sucker for these kind of mysteries - four stars. If you ignore the final paragraph in Lesko's story and instead consider it incomplete I think it deserves four stars. It's a wonderful, realistic character study of this girl who gets born into an environment that gives her no breaks trying to turn her life around despite the odds being very much against her.
The others stories are all three stars, mostly failures but usually with one interesting feature or another. There are two exceptionally poor stories: 1) Fiona Maeve Geist's "In the Night We Turn Consumed by Dragons" is complete trash, 122 f-bombs in 20 pages for an average of slightly more than six per page. It is all gratuitous in the most childish sense. Geist's mentality as revealed by the story matches her language choices. The story is horribly written, almost plotless, completely worthless. What was the editor thinking including this? And 2) another story that was really just base pornography: "The Last Human" by Dani Brown. More than half the story described in disgusting detail sexual relations with a robot told in a sensationalistic manner. The setting, to the small extent it matters, is apocalyptic. The story is there to titillate and serves no artistic purpose, hence my pornography charge. This is another author whose work I will be actively avoiding.
The anthology was well edited in that it had no typos or grammar errors. I would have liked to see individual editorial introductions to the authors. That's not included. Every story, and there were many because most were so short, started with an artist's drawing of a scene from the story. That was really cool.
Like I said earlier, proceeds go towards suicide prevention. Many of the stories were truly interesting. If you like indie writing and are looking for something different this anthology might appeal to you. Best authors whose other work needs consideration (in order): Eric James Stone, Seth Hunsaker, and Christopher Lesko.
Although Lesko's story, "Young Rita," is found about a third of the way through the anthology, I started with it. It's a good story. In fact, I think it the best of the anthology, although I have problems with its ending. The last paragraph didn't work for me. The central problem of the story was solved by someone coming in and taking forceful action upon the protagonist. I think readers expect to see protagonists triumph as a result of their own epiphanies and efforts. It's a really odd failed ending; I've never read one quite like it, only warnings to avoid that type in creative writing books.
The entire anthology, Where There Are Dragons: An Anthology of Mixed Emotions, is a mixed bag in terms of quality. Most of the stories, especially in the last two thirds of the book, are very experimental, most of which don't work in my opinion. Experimental stories seldom do. They are not a complete waste of time or incomprehensible, just not that much fun to read.
The first third of the book contains the better stories. In fact, the first, "Accounting for Dragons" by Eric James Stone is very clever and funny. Even dragons have to pay taxes apparently - four stars. The other story I really liked was a longer one set in New Orleans, "A Dragon in Onyx" by Seth Hunsaker. It's a supernatural police procedural sort of story. A girl our protagonist arrests dies in her cell of poisoning. He has to figure out why. I'm a sucker for these kind of mysteries - four stars. If you ignore the final paragraph in Lesko's story and instead consider it incomplete I think it deserves four stars. It's a wonderful, realistic character study of this girl who gets born into an environment that gives her no breaks trying to turn her life around despite the odds being very much against her.
The others stories are all three stars, mostly failures but usually with one interesting feature or another. There are two exceptionally poor stories: 1) Fiona Maeve Geist's "In the Night We Turn Consumed by Dragons" is complete trash, 122 f-bombs in 20 pages for an average of slightly more than six per page. It is all gratuitous in the most childish sense. Geist's mentality as revealed by the story matches her language choices. The story is horribly written, almost plotless, completely worthless. What was the editor thinking including this? And 2) another story that was really just base pornography: "The Last Human" by Dani Brown. More than half the story described in disgusting detail sexual relations with a robot told in a sensationalistic manner. The setting, to the small extent it matters, is apocalyptic. The story is there to titillate and serves no artistic purpose, hence my pornography charge. This is another author whose work I will be actively avoiding.
The anthology was well edited in that it had no typos or grammar errors. I would have liked to see individual editorial introductions to the authors. That's not included. Every story, and there were many because most were so short, started with an artist's drawing of a scene from the story. That was really cool.
Like I said earlier, proceeds go towards suicide prevention. Many of the stories were truly interesting. If you like indie writing and are looking for something different this anthology might appeal to you. Best authors whose other work needs consideration (in order): Eric James Stone, Seth Hunsaker, and Christopher Lesko.
August 2, 2023
Each story has a cool version of a dragon. I had fun reading this book, and it’s probably because the authors had fun writing their stories. Great flow too. Much like how songs on an album or a band’s set list are strategically placed in order so were these stories. Betty … wow! She did an awesome job with her illustrations. Matched what I was visualizing while reading. I love Luke’s cover art too. That dragon is badass. I truly am proud to have a story of my own in here among a diverse group of writers. Most importantly though, I find the friends who put it all together special—for helping to keep the spirit of Daniel raised up, soaring on dragon wings.
March 15, 2024
I feel a little guilty giving this such a low score, as it was written with a lot of heart and the proceeds from sales go to a great cause: suicide prevention. If I were to rate the intent and purpose, 5/5 stars, no notes.
Regarding the stories themselves, with any anthology you will have a mixed bag of styles and quality. In this case, the explicitly 'dragon' content, and the best stories, seem to be front-loaded, with more tangential and experimental/less polished prose in the back. I'd have a hard time reccomending the entire book, but the first few stories really are fun and clever.
Regarding the stories themselves, with any anthology you will have a mixed bag of styles and quality. In this case, the explicitly 'dragon' content, and the best stories, seem to be front-loaded, with more tangential and experimental/less polished prose in the back. I'd have a hard time reccomending the entire book, but the first few stories really are fun and clever.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews