A collection of four short(er) stories featuring the characters from Bishop's BLACK JEWELS TRILOGY. "Weaver of Dreams" is the only truly short one among them; it clocks in at eight pages, and deals with the formation of the Blood and their magic. "The Prince of Ebon Rih," which is long enough to be considered a shortish novel in its own right, describes how Marian came into things. "Zuulaman" relates an episode from Saetan's past. "Kaeleer's Heart" takes up soon after the end of QUEEN OF THE DARKNESS.

I love these books to death. I'm sure people think I'm kidding when I describe them as literary crack, but this is yet another chunkster that I knocked back in a single day. Do you know how rarely I do that? They're crack, I tell you. Crack with fancy matte covers.

I'll admit, I was a little leery going in. I'd heard some conflicting things about the stories, but I'm pleased to report that I loved them all. I mean, "Weaver of Dreams" was rather brief, but it was still interesting. "Zuulaman" broke my heart. And I really, really, really liked both "The Prince of Ebon Rih" and "Kaeleer's Heart."

I must admit, I love a good romance. I don't read many books marketed as romance, but I'm a total sucker for romantic subplots in other sorts of books. The two longest stories are romances, rife with misunderstandings and dancing aroundness and all that good stuff. (Also, communication, which is nice to see. I know books wouldn't be as tense and interesting if everyone would just communicate, but still. I like it when it happens... provided there's been a misunderstanding or two beforehand, of course). I mean, they've got a few corny romance tropes, too, (a few? Ha!), and I'd normally have rolled my eyes at some of the stuff that goes down, but I love these characters so much that I did not care. I was just happy to spend some more time with them. I teared up, I giggled, I grinned with delight, and I enjoyed myself very, very much.

There's also a fair amount of Surreal in the last story. I love the hell out of Surreal. I was also pleased to see Bishop address a couple of gender issues that I felt were missing from the trilogy. And I really got the feeling that she had fun writing this; that she genuinely enjoys working with these characters. That makes all the difference sometimes.

So yes. I loved this, and I highly recommend it to those of you who've read the trilogy. I'm sorry I borrowed it from the library instead of buying it, and I hope to remedy that error pretty durned soon.

(A slightly longer version of this review originally appeared on my blog, Stella Matutina). ( )

Loved it! This really fills in some holes in the Black Jewels Trilogy and gives you more background on the characters. I'm normally not a fan of short stories, but these were unbelievable. I love all of her work, she's one of the best in the genre. She deserves kudos for really building a whole new concept full of originality rather than falling back on the types of chracters and plots you find in alot of fantasy writing. Such a fresh perspective. ( )

This is a book of 4 short stories. Two set before the first three and one story set after the second book and the final story set after the third book. I hate reading stories out of order so I did not enjoy this book as much as the others. But I did really enjoy the final story ( )

This books is comprised by four short stories. Two of which happen before the trilogy, one in the middle of it, and the last one after it.I agree with some of the previous reviewers- it wasn't "as good" as the original trilogy, but it was just as good in another sense. It's a slightly less dark and more romantic book, more fill-in between the blanks on things the main trilogy left hanging in the air, and I loved the more lighthearted tone of a couple of the stories, even if they all had dark moments. It's still understandable having skipped reading Book 4, but I'm not so sure you would care much for it if you haven't read the trilogy first.I must say I've fallen in love with most characters on the trilogy, so I've been looking forward to all reads related to that. I will be definitely doing my best to find books 4 and 7. :) ( )

This is a collection of stories linked to the main Trilogy. It's a beautifully woven tale that explain many many thing that are said but not too much described in the trilogy. I particularly loved the story about how Lucivar met and than fell in love with his wife, Marian. ( )