Reviews

Full Moon City by Darrell Schweitzer, Martin H. Greenberg

trysarahtop's review against another edition

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2.0

"The Truth About Werewolves" by Lisa Tuttle 3 stars.
"Innocent" by Gene Wolfe 4 stars for being creepy.
"Kitty Learns the Ropes" by Carrie Vaughn 4 stars, enjoyable.
"No Children, No Pets" by Esther M. Friesner 2 stars.
"Sea Warg" by Tanith Lee, 3 stars.
"Country Mother's Son" by Holly Phillips 1 star, couldn't finish.
"A Most Unusual Greyhound" by Mike Resnick 2 stars, meh.

I didn't even bother reading the rest, I wasn't that impressed. I might go back to read Holly Black's story.

harrietj's review against another edition

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4.0

I had such fun with this collection! Fifteen short stories featuring werewolves in city settings - a pretty specific brief, but the contributors still managed to come up with very different tales, in plot and in tone. I particularly enjoyed the very nasty Innocent by Gene Wolfe, and No Children, No Pets by Esther M. Friesner, but there really wasn't a dud in the collection. I really didn't anticipate enjoying this as much as as I did.

bookstuff's review against another edition

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3.0

Uneven collection. The Freisner story is clever. Still have to read the Beagle one.

lpcoolgirl's review against another edition

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5.0

This was a really interesting short story, about how supernaturals performing in professional athletics should be handled! Loved it!

cathepsut's review against another edition

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3.0

“The children of the night. What music they make.“

"I Was a Middle-Age Werewolf", Ron Goulart, ★★★★★
Hollywood. My kind of humour. Funny. I am envisioning Michael Douglas in the lead and Alan Arkin as Hersh, aka The Kominsky Method with werewolves.

"Kitty Learns the Ropes", Carrie Vaughn, ★★★★☆
This story is most likely the reason I got this anthology five years ago. Well, Carrie Vaughn can write, she‘s proven that often enough. This was easy to read , especially because I have read the whole Kitty Norville series and it‘s one of my favourite UF series. Maybe it is time for a re-read.

"The Bitch", P. D. Cacek, ★★★★☆
Story about a bothersome and creepy ex-lover. Oh, that was unexpected! How fun! I am a big fan of doing something differently and this surprised me. Checked out the author, did not see anything that grabbed me.

"La Lune T'attend", Peter S. Beagle, ★★★★☆
Good world-building and character development. I liked the setting. It felt like a much longer story through what it conveyed. Sad, but powerful ending.

"The Aarne-Thompson Classification Revue ", Holly Black, ★★★★☆
Third person present tense, urgh. I don‘t like it. Never mind. We are auditioning for a musical!

“Being a werewolf is like being Clark Kent, except that when you go into the phone booth, you can‘t control what comes out.“

Sweet, a little sad, made me smile. What a werewolf girl wants. Good! Checked out the author, all YA—not my genre...

"Kvetchula's Daughter", Darrell Schweitzer, ★★★¾☆
Jiddish vampires in New York. Lots of kvetching. Mildly amusing. Where are the werewolves, you ask? Oy vey.

"The Bank Job", Gregory Frost, ★★★¾☆
Well-written, good story. Good pacing, nice level of suspense. Fairly predictable. Will check out the author.

"A Most Unusual Greyhound", a Harry the Book Story, Mike Resnick, ★★★½☆
Amusing. What is a werewolf to do to make some money? Slightly odd tense and grammar in general. Possibly on purpose, but it threw me off.

"Sea Warg", Tanith Lee, ★★★☆☆
“Now the boats put off from the west end of Sandbourne, or at least they did so when the rest of Europe allowed it.“
What did we do? Did Brexit start in 2010 and I missed it?"

I could swear I read some novels written by her, but for the life of me can‘t recall their titles or plot. I only found a short story collection I DNFd.

Hm, interesting. Hadn‘t expected that ending. Well, that was mean. And Johnson is a very creepy character.

"And Bob's Your Uncle", Chelsea Quinn Yarbro, ★★★☆☆
Sad boy meets mysterious, but cute black dog. Promising beginning, but didn‘t turn into much.

"The Truth About Werewolves", Lisa Tuttle, ★★¾☆☆
Unusual take on werewolves. I disliked the female MC for her dishonesty. She felt like a hypocrite to me, especially after disrespecting the Chihuahua woman for „shopping“ and then doing the exact same thing.

"Weredog of Bucharest", Ian Watson, ★★☆☆☆
A murder investigation and a crime writer observing. Ponderous, overly explanatory, superfluous details. The author seemed very eager to show us little details of Romanian life, perhaps trying to create atmosphere? Unsatisfying, with a lame ending.

"Innocent", Gene Wolfe, ★☆☆☆☆
Weird. Guy in prison tells a priest about his life. The story only consists of his side of a dialogue.

"No Children, No Pets", Esther M. Friesner, ★☆☆☆☆
Another odd one, about a werewolf child of six living in Central Park. Humorous writing, I suppose. Not my thing.

"Country Mothers' Sons", Holly Phillips, ★☆☆☆☆
When I started, the slow moving, very descriptive prose had me interested. It never went anywhere though and I lost that little spark. Suggestive, but ultimately pointless.

gerd_d's review

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3.0

A mixed bag of stories this is not the best antho that Greenberg edited.

While I did enjoy some of the stories a lot, the overall compilation feels lackluster compared to his former efforts and includes quite a few stories that can be described as being "filler" at best.

Story Title - Author (Not in Order of Appearance)

La Lune T'Attend - Beagle, Peter S.
The Aarne-Thompson Classification Revue - Black, Holly
The Bitch - Cacek, P. D.
No Children, No Pets - Friesner, Esther M.
The Bank Job - Frost, Gregory
I Was a Middle-Age Werewolf - Goulart, Ron
Sea Warg - Lee, Tanith
Country Mothers’ Sons - Phillips, Holly
A Most Unusual Greyhound - Resnick, Mike
Kvetchula's Daughter - Schweitzer, Darrell
The Truth About Werewolves - Tuttle, Lisa
Kitty Learns the Ropes - Vaughn, Carrie
Weredog of Bucharest - Watson, Ian
Innocent - Wolfe, Gene
And Bob's Your Uncle - Yarbro, Chelsea Quinn
More...