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A review by barbarahowe
Beyond The City Limits by R.L. Stedman, Kura Carpenter, Daniel Stride, Lara M. Hewn, L. Wilma McKay, Justin Elliot, Deb E. Howell
4.0
Beyond the City Limits is a collection of a dozen stories by writers based in Dunedin, New Zealand. Several of the stories I particularly enjoyed were set in Dunedin, and had a strong local flavour: university students run amok in the Botanic Gardens in Dickie Birds and a tattoo has a will of its own in Invisible Ink, both by Lara M Hewn, and teenage hormones cause trouble among the Elementals in Paper Butterflies by Kura Carpenter. (Paper Butterflies is a preview of Carpenter's terrific novel, The Kingfisher's Debt.)
The Shark Bell is a supernatural romance, also set in Dunedin. It's not bad, just not among my favourites. YMMV.
The Source and The Guardian by Deb E Howell concern renewal and power politics in a fantasy world.
In Pink Unicorns Solvable in O(2), a mathematician learns that even good deeds have repercussions.
Absurdist humour drives Famine to Feast by Justin Elliott.
Be Careful Where You Sleep by R L Stedman is a modern update on Thomas the Rhymer.
In Breathe, by Kura Carpenter, a Water Elemental is determined to save a drowning witch.
The final story, Heart's Desire by Justin Elliott, has a very satisfactory ending for a gentlemanly thief.
The Shark Bell is a supernatural romance, also set in Dunedin. It's not bad, just not among my favourites. YMMV.
The Source and The Guardian by Deb E Howell concern renewal and power politics in a fantasy world.
In Pink Unicorns Solvable in O(2), a mathematician learns that even good deeds have repercussions.
Absurdist humour drives Famine to Feast by Justin Elliott.
Be Careful Where You Sleep by R L Stedman is a modern update on Thomas the Rhymer.
In Breathe, by Kura Carpenter, a Water Elemental is determined to save a drowning witch.
The final story, Heart's Desire by Justin Elliott, has a very satisfactory ending for a gentlemanly thief.