Five stars for effort, three stars for author’s actual execution, and five stars again for the fanartist’s execution.

Effectively, this is a fanwork collection, but curated and partially written by the original creator. So while the “fan”fiction itself is somewhat awkward, the spirit of the thing is wonderful.

I don’t want to knock the quality of either fanfiction or Lynn Flewelling’s writing in general. However, a quality of fanfiction is that it is amateur—done for the love less than for the sake of money or art. Amateurs are passionate and experimental. Sometimes experiments do not go as well as we’d prefer. While many fanfiction writers have become skillful writers through practice, there are others whose love for the work has driven them to try something new, and although the spirit is willing, there are some first-timer nerves and unfamiliarity with the material that get in the way.

Which is a long buildup to say: Flewelling is writing erotic scenes featuring her characters for the first time (the first time in publication, for certain, and I think I recall from comments made by her at the time that it was near the first time for her writing it, too). It shows. While not awful by any means, and actually quite sweet if you’re familiar with the characters, her writing is rather bland and sometimes stilted. None of the scenes are groundbreaking, and a lot remind me of the somewhat mechanical “fills” you can find on fandom kinkmemes, of the Tab-A-Slot-B variety. Although I should note, from a connoisseur’s perspective, it clears the common pitfall of only caring about tabs going into slots. For that matter, this isn’t smut where only the sex matters; the 4 short stories in this book are also about emotional journeys taken by the characters.

However, the major emotional journeys have already been taken in the Nightrunners novels proper. The scenes Flewelling shares with us here aren’t ones I had any particularly burning curiosity about. For one thing, I preferred having Seregil’s past be more of a shadowy mystery. Putting a spotlight on his angst cheapens it for me, though I know others who might disagree. Still, if I had wanted to read one “deleted” scene, it would have been when Alec and Seregil become intimate in a snowbank (referenced in Traitor’s Moon). That’s something I’m—resisting a pun on “frost” here—burningly curious about. Love on ice also suggests a searing, desperate passion that never quite came across in these stories, where sometimes the character’s and sometimes the author’s “first time” awkwardness is clear.

All the same, it is amazing that Flewelling is even making the effort, and for the sake of her fans at that! Considering how vehemently territorial of their canon other authors can be, even at the expense of their fandoms, the obvious love of author for fans and fanworks here is brilliant. I would love to see more authors follow Flewelling’s lead and perhaps create experimental collections of their own.

There is not actual fan-written fiction in Glimpses, which makes sense—authors can run into copyright risks if they read a fan’s work and later utilize the same ideas (even if they had them first), not to mention the risk of continuity snarls. Instead, the fan contribution comes in the form of some amazing fanart, some of which is even used to illustrated Flewelling’s stories.

You don’t get much more amateur—in its original meaning, a work of love—than this! ( )

Glimpses is a more than apt title as that is exactly what the author delivers, no more and no less. These are glimpses of scenes that could have been, but weren't. This book is decidedly for diehard fans of the series, and is appropriately illustrated by fans themselves. I enjoyed it immensely.

The first story, Misfit, takes readers back to when Seregil first came to Skala, the origin of Phoria's hate of him, and how he became Nysander's apprentice. The tale made me want a prequel of some of Seregil and Micum's early adventures as Watchers. I do miss Nysander! The second story, The Wild, is my favorite - the tale of how Alec's father, Amasa, met Ireya. It is vividly told, and bittersweet. If only Alec could know it as well.

The third story, By the River, is a very brief tale of how Seregil and Micum first met. Though it has little substance, I did appreciate that it showed Seregil once had the same prejudices against Tirfaie as most of his people. The last story, The Bond, may be the most anticipated. It is the tale of Alec and Seregil's first night together. Some readers were disappointed in it because it didn't have a lot of depth. I was more forgiving because Flewelling is neither a romance author, nor a short story author. I thought the story was quite good given these constraints.

There are some homoerotic scenes in the stories, but they are tame compared to actual gay romance (i.e. not explicit). I would have given the book five stars, but for one thing. It is very short and somewhat expensive as a result. I read this in about an hour. I wish it had included a couple more stories, but overall I was very satisfied. Highly recommended to fans. ( )

Under most circumstances I probably would have given this very short book a lower rating except that the fact that the author basically wrote fan fiction based on her own characters was unique and it did give me a little bit of a Nightrunner fix to last me until the next true book of the series.

I really liked the fact that the author worked in artwork drawn by her fans and I liked the concept of learning more in depth backrounds on her characters. Unfortunately, (or fortunately if you want to look at it like that) I don't feel that Lynn has the makings of an erotic writer. The intimate moments felt forced and almost like she had an "erotica guidebook" she was trying to follow along with. However, I do appreciate the effort and still love these characters enough that this awkwardness was pretty easy to overlook.

I do feel that this is certainly a book for the more die-hard Nightrunner fan as you don't get very much for the cost of the book (I had the entire book read in just about an hour) and the vignette stories probably wouldn't really mean much to anyone who isn't already familiar and very fond of Alec and Seregil.

That said, this is the first new book I've purchased in the last six months due to personal circumstances and despite my slight disappointment I don't regret the purchase at all. ( )

Plot: Glimpses is a series of short stories taking place in Lynn Flewelling’s Nightrunner universe. Each story covers a scene that was hinted at but not actually written in the novels themselves. We see how Seregil became Nysander’s apprentice, how he met Micum, how Alec’s parents met and finally Alec and Seregil’s first time.

Ok, so this wasn’t on my list of 40 books and I was already in the middle of The Prophesy of the Sisters when I bought it but I couldn’t resist the image of Seregil and Alec getting intimate. I admit it.

I wasn’t disappointed. The stories read a bit like fan fiction but well written fan fiction with characters that we recognize. The sex is tasteful, believable and actually moves the story forward. It’s not as heavy on the on the adventure as the novels (though there is some); these are much more intimate, sentimental stories. But that’s okay, because I love these characters and I love seeing them in love.

The stories do presume some knowledge of the stories and a newcomer would not get as much out of them. It is however a must read for Nightrunner fans. My one complaint is that it was too short. I’ll pay for more stories in a heartbeat.

The stories are nicely illustrated by fans but, as I read the black and white ebook version (available from Smashwords, my favorite provider of ebooks), I probably didn’t get the full effect of them. ( )