Winter Across Worlds: A Holiday Collection

by Melissa McShane

"Maybe it's just that this time of year, when it's dark and cold and the world feels like it's trying to kill us, we get the urge to band together and fight back."

This winter season, curl up with a collection of stories from this world and others. Includes a Tremontane holiday novella and the short story "Gift of the Oracle," returning readers to the world of The Last Oracle.

Genres: Fantasy

238 pages, Kindle Edition

First published November 21, 2022

About the author

Melissa grew up a nomad, following her family all over the United States, and ended up living in the shadow of the Wasatch Mountains with her husband, four kids, and three very needy cats. Her love of reading was always a constant during those uncertain years, and her love of writing grew out of that. She wrote reviews and critical essays for many years before turning to fiction, and was surprised at how much she liked it. She loves the fantasy genre and how it stretches the imagination.

Reviews

[Jacob Proffitt · Rating 5 out of 5]

My standard, non-standard disclaimer applies for this holiday collection of short stories. Melissa and I built all of our holiday traditions together so she's all of my favorites wrapped into one. Feel free to discount my review, however much I might claim an honest opinion.

I'm torn on whether to review the individual stories or not and I think I'm going to default to not. Some of the stories are set in the worlds of her other series (like Tremontane and the Last Oracle) and one is from her other short story collection, Warts and All. A handful are from our world, or a close proximation of it.

All of them wrung tears from me, either with the ending or at points in the middle. Or both. I'm a known soft touch. If I were to pick a favorite, it's probably Gift of the Oracle, but at least some of that is anticipation of the upcoming Living Oracle series that it semi-introduces (a follow-on from the completed Last Oracle series).

And yeah, I think it warrants the five stars.

A note about Chaste: These are short stories, some of which include kissing. There's nothing more in any of them, though, so I consider it very chaste.

[Melissa McShane]

Over the past two years, I've written a short story here and there, and a lot of them turned out to be holiday stories. About a month ago, I thought, why not do something with them? So I wrote enough extra stories to fill out a collection, and this is it.

Half the stories--"Uncommon Gifts," "Midwinter Gala," "Charade in Three-Quarter Time," and "Gift of the Oracle"--are set in worlds I created. The others are mostly historical fiction. All of them were interesting and fun to write in different ways. Three of them came about because of an anthology project they ultimately weren't accepted for, and while I was disappointed at the time, I'm now glad that none of them were encumbered by rights questions.

"Charade in Three-Quarter Time" represents the true end of the Tremontane series. I always wanted to write about Julia North's romance, but I knew from the beginning that it wasn't long or substantial enough to support a whole novel. That it could be a novella never occurred to me until I was considering possible holiday stories, and Tremontane's Wintersmeet solstice celebration came to mind--and there it was.

There's also a Last Oracle Christmas story that actually comes between that series and the new series to begin releasing next year, the Living Oracle. That one was really fun to brainstorm, and I thank my husband for his input, as well as my daughter (who is the basis for the character Viv and her musical tastes) for providing the key element for one part of the plot.

It was fun to write. I hope readers enjoy it.

[Martha · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Maybe it's just that this time of year, when it's dark and cold and the world feels like it's trying to kill us, we get the urge to band together and fight back."

This winter season, curl up with a collection of stories from this world and others. Includes a Tremontane holiday novella and the short story "Gift of the Oracle," returning readers to the world of The Last Oracle.

I'm not familiar with this author at all, but after reading these short stories, I need to remedy that. Oddly, there wasn't a single story in this collection I *didn't* enjoy - including the Joe Raven one which I really expected to find too 'noir' for my taste. Surprise! It was a bit gritty, but not overwhelmingly so.

I think my favorite was the Gift of the Oracle which was so lovely it made me cry. Second favorite was Charade in Three-Quarter Time a romantic novella set in her Tremontane world - not to be confused with Ellen Kushner's Tremontaine.

I'm going to have to at least hunt up more books in the Last Oracle series and McShane's Tremontane.

[Shannon · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this cute little collection! There are 8 short stories, a few connected with other series, although they stand on their own just fine. Different styles - from noir detective to historical period/sci fi to fantasy to modern Hallmark-esque. As with all collections, some stories are stronger than others, but the worst I could say of any of them is that it was a little predictable. I can forgive a little of that in a Christmas story! On the other hand, the Tremontane story was a perfect microcosm of the author’s lovely romances. And Gift of the Oracle managed to capture motherhood and the magic of Christmas while also being exactly what I wanted to revisit the setting after the first series and the perfect reminder of what might be coming in the next series. Well done and thanks for the gift of these stories!

[June Calvin · Rating 5 out of 5]

For the fans!

Winter Across Worlds, by Melissa McShane, is a short story collection around Christmas and winter holidays, and will be best enjoyed by fans of her fiction, as almost all of the stories are from or related to worlds that she has created. One enchanting exception is the fairy story that owes something to the traditional tale of the shoemakers mice. If you love McShane, you will love this book. If you are unfamiliar with her, it will make a nice introduction!

[Amber · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderful collection

I especially love McShane's Last Oracle series but having enjoyed each of these stories, I believe I'll take a deeper dive into her work.

I especially enjoyed Joe Raven. It's not easy to change how someone feels about a holiday!