Lisa Diane Kastner

I had high hopes for this anthology as I loved a different volume from the same publisher. Unfortunately, the novellas within did not have the same pull and I was often forcing myself to finish the stories. My favourite of the collection was the first novella, 'Sweet Willie Gold Has the Blues' by Jeffrey Hantover, which explores traumatic brain injury and how one might adapt to unlocking new/incredible talents.

While this collection was far from my favourite, I love the diversity of novella show more anthologies, and think the Running Wild Press does a wonderful job of supporting unique voices and stories. Would definitely be open to reading other volumes in the future! show less

I find this a difficult anthology to review because the style, content and calibre of the stories was so vast. I found the first two short stories, 'Yesterday Forgotten by Rani Jayakumar' and 'Desirée by Ken Goldman', to be the most engaging and immersive. My heart broke for the female protagonists in both stories for very different reasons.
The latter two stories in the anthology I found to be more confusing and less enjoyable to follow. Unfortunately I really struggled to even get through show more 'Blood Heir by M.A. Amru' which was a combination of writing style and language choice. 'Hector and Achilles: An Aegean Love Story by Benjamin Toche' was more comical and linear in its flow however I did find it to be over-written in some parts.
Long story short (pun intended), it is near impossible to give a fair star rating to this anthology, and probably most anthologies, because each story in the collection was its own unique experience. I did really appreciate that the publisher was looking to give diverse and lesser known authors an opportunity to share their craft and was honoured to experience some unique author voices. show less

The two stories in this volume are very different from each other. I enjoyed reading the first novella, The Plight of E. G.: A Clinical Case Report, written by Andrew MacQuarrie. However, I did not finish the second one, SGT. Katrina Dunn, A. K. A. Angela Parker & the Games They Play, written by Stephen J. Kimber.

The Plight of E. G., was easy for me to read because the writing had a maturity to it. I didn’t have to track back or reread sections; it flowed with insight and humor. I found show more it to be a wonderfully absurd take on American medicine. Told through entries into a patient’s electronic health record, this epistolary novel follows the case of an unidentified man who is admitted to the hospital who has all the signs of not being quite human (or alive). He is treated by a variety of hospital specialists and personnel, each in charge of a specific aspect of his care. No one seems to find his symptoms or behavior to be alarming For example, when his left arm falls off, the main issue is if the hospital was negligent. I read every entry into the chart, something I usually would skim through. As E. G. grunts his way through tests, attacks hospital staff, and survives a nine-story fall, there is only one man who may have the answer. Will he be listened to?

SGT. Katrina Dunn—on the other hand—was hard for me to follow. It wasn’t the subject matter, but the clunky writing. I couldn’t keep track of names, and I gradually lost interest. Angela—Ange--is also known as Ashlee Sweet. I don’t think I made it far enough to know her as SGT. Katrina Dunn. The premise—to paraphrase the back cover—concerns a couple of teens who become involved with a new computer game where a small town (in the US) is plagued by murder, race riots, detention centers, and villainous politicians (art imitating life?). They find out that there is a “game within the game”, and “the fate of the free world hangs in the balance.”

Maybe you can enjoy the second story more than I did, or not like the first one as much as I did. But it is worth looking into the publications of Running Wild Press.

I would like to thank LibraryThing and Running Wild Press for the opportunity to read and review the ARC. show less

I received an ARC of this book.
I'm unfamiliar with the world of Cure. I'm honestly a little uncertain if its generally a shared world under Running Wild's imprint, or this antho is a step outside of the norm in making it a shared world and its usually a single author's playground. Consequently, I'm treating this more as a themed collection rather than trying to think about it in the context of its greater fictional world.
Overall, a collection of what I would call urban fantasy stories, show more though many are set in different countries and more rural settings with less of (to no) emphasis on the romantic or erotic than you would usually find in that genre. Which was a nice change of pace. There is one weird entry, the second story, which seems to be a post-apocalyptic zombie virus story? Which felt very out of place among the other stories here...but again, maybe within the larger context of this world it makes sense?
There's a solid detective-esque story with a nice twists both on the lycanthrope mindset and some interesting cultural stuff that I'm curious if it persists through the larger world right off the bat in Jerry Purdon's 'Bloodlines'. Patrick Scott's 'Grey Wolf' gives us another (ex)-Leo or detective as the protagonist in what I would call a hunter's origin story in a fun setting. I really appreciated Deborah Sullivan Brennan's 'Skin in the Game', Chris Morris' 'Wildcat' and Scott Chaddon's 'In the Way of the Kaftar' (as well as the opening story) for really trying to stretch out into other kinds of lycanthropes and even traditions. In the Way of the Kaftar also had a lot action, for those here for that. Neepa Sarkar's 'The Summer of Slight' to some degree didn't feel like it fit with the overall collection, which was much more in your fact about the urban fantasy setting, but I did like it dipping its toe into Indian culture, as well as the ambiguity of whether there is even a lycanthrope involved or maybe its just mental illness or a culture bound disorder of some kind.
Overall, I'd be interested in seeing more of this world to see how this all fits together show less