Fetch Your Copy Irregulars Written And Illustrated By Nicole Kimberling Conveyed In Pamphlet
is the first anthology I have read, and boy was it a good one! All I can say is that if you are a fan of science fiction, fantasy and paranormal, then you should give Irregulars a shot.
I am familiar with two of the authors involved Josh Lanyon and Ginn Hale and was thoroughly impressed with Nicole Kimberling and Astrid Amara,
In my opinion, each story gets better and better, The world building is rich, with the paranormal and fantasy elements having become part of scientific protocol and regulations of the NIAD, The characters are varied with each story consisting of a pairing of NIAD employee/agent with a nonNIAD or paranormal character, There is some conflict or mystery with each story that comes to a satisfying end, I would recommend reading the story in order or at least leaving Ginn Hale's story for the end the reason being that by Things Unseen and Deadly TUAD, you have the return of an agent as a secondary character, mention of the other agents, and mention of an ancient artifact from another story.
In a way, TUAD is a nice way to tie up the stories that precede it, Anthologies can be a mixed bag and I mostly don't go for them, especially since it can be hard to keep momentum up through the whole book.
Project concepts like the Irregulars though is a great way to do it, As other reviewers have discussed, the anthology is based in the same settingour world, but skewed, with the existence of other realms and supernatural beings, and an international police organization that helps maintain order and minimize "incidents" between the humans and other beings.
By having the authors "play" in the same world, using the same rules, and even bringing in characters from other stories in the anthology, they're building individual pieces that contribute to an overall rich reading experience.
It's a lot of fun, and I definitely recommend reading the stories in order, You'll get more of the side jokes and references,
The Irregulars didn't suffer from the other big issue that anthologies can suffer frominconsistency, All four stories were great reads, The author styles are not identical, but they flow well together, I enjoyed all four immensely, but I would say that my favorites were Lanyon's Green Glass Beads and Hale's Things Unseen and Deadly, since I've already gone back and reread them.
This book also got me interested in checking out Hell Cop, which several of this Irregulars's authors contributed tosame anthology style of one world, different stories.
I just started, but so far, that's also good,
This is a neat model to do these shared author projects, I would definitely be up for reading more from the Irregulars universe, and I recommend this book for anyone looking for a m/m read that features fantastical elements, excellent writing, and really wonderful characters and of course, romance.
:D I loved all the stories in this anthology, All rated betweenstars. My favourites were Astrid Amara's for spinning such a unique and imaginative tale, and Ginn Hale's for the brilliantly complicated hero, HalfDead Henry.
Most of the endings were HFN and I'm really hoping that the authors will return to this world for a second go around, like they did with sitelinkHell Cop and sitelinkHell Cop.
I read this slowly, deliberately savouring it in little selfcontrolled bites when I really just wanted to devour the whole thing in one go, I'm glad I did. What an astonishing world! What a thrilling ride!
Would it be presumptuous to ask for more, please P
As Feliz puts it sitelinkin her much more eloquent review,
.
. . Books like this one are the reason I read,
Highly, highly recommended! These connected stories happen in an intersection of mystery and fantasy/paranormal with the central theme being the NIAD NATO's Irregulars Affairs Division a law enforcement and immigration agency that deals with all the visitors from other nonearthly realms.
There is a small overlap of characters, and a good level of continuity in worldbuilding, and all the stories are worth a read,
Cherries Worth Getting by Nicole Kimberling :
It's hard going first in a collection like this, because you have to do the biggest part of the world building.
Kimberling does it well, with imagination, an interesting plot, and a coherent paranormal world, The romance here feels muted, and there is less emotion and more fantasy, which will please the lessromantic readers,
Green Glass Beads by Josh Lanyon :
A fast, smooth story about obsession, and love, Rake is a fun character, and the ethical dilemmas faced by the MCs made their story tenser and more interesting, More romantic than the first one, with a somewhat familiar Lanyon dynamic, but one that I enjoy,
No Life but This by Astrid Amara :
I liked the backstory here, the MCs and the setup, I enjoyed Deven's struggle to reconcile the things that kept him alive in a dark and brutal realm, and the human world in which he now found himself.
I was drawn into the fastmoving suspenseful plot while at the same time had a couple of plot issues with it, But this still was my favorite out of the first three, because I am a romantic, This pairing and their emotions felt more intense and I was more invested in their love story than in the first two stories,
Things Unseen and Deadly by Ginn Hale :
This was thestar story of the collection for me, and a great way to end.
I hesitated a little at first, because there is a big age and experience gap between Harry, long halfdead magician, and Jason, young and innocent musician.
But as the story went along, revelations of both plot and backstory made me see that Harry, for all his age, really needed the simple goodness of Jason in his life.
And Jason was much more than he seemed, There are a couple of fun cameos that hark back to the previous stories, and in all this was a wonderful smooth paranormal tale with a sweet ending.
I only read Josh Lanyon's Green Glass Beads, I don't care how awesome the others are, I only wanted to read Lanyon's story, So technically this is a dnf, But it's a selective dnf, Interesting world
Cherries Worth Getting by Nicole Kimberling
I really liked this story and thought the premise was interesting.
. . but i wanted more. Biggest complaint is that the writing was a bit stilted and choppy,
Green Glass Beads by Josh Lanyon
I thought this story was kinda boring, I didn't care about the characters at all, but I thought it had a sweet ending, Still, I was glad when it was over,
No Life But This by Astrid Amara
Loved! Loved! Loved this story, It's my favorite in the anthology for
sure, Really liked the mystery and the imagery and the characters,
Things Unseen and Deadly by Ginn Hale
I started this one and it was too confusing for me to follow.
May revisit laterStars
Brilliant and engaging I did NOT expect to like it as much as I did, And I have to say I absolutely loved the last one, The way Ginn Hale wove together strings from the other three, incorporated small details mentioned in the other stories, was flawless, And honestly, I think I loved her characters best, Especially Henry. .stars
Nicole Kimberling Cherries Worth Getting,stars
This one almost turned me vegetarian, Im not kidding, I couldnt stand the thought of eating meat fordays straight after reading it, But thats not the reason for the low rating, I loved the worldbuilding, the beginning was very promising and it delivered, to a point, but the execution lacked that something more that wouldve made this short story really great.
I havent read anything else by this author, aside from trying another one of her books and not finding it to my taste, so it might just be that her writing style isnt for me.
Despite everything, this story had probably the best quote in the entire book:
“When I was a little kid my favorite food was Christmas lights.
I used to eat them right off the string like candy, ”
“Youre shitting me. ”
“Not at all. My godfather used to bribe me with them so Id stop sucking all the butane out of his lighter, ”
Josh Lanyon Green Glass Bead,stars
I really, really wanted to like this more than I did,
I loved the worldbuilding, the plot, the pairing of , and the writing was as good as always.
I dont think short stories are JLs strongest point, though, and this one was no exception, The relationship had a great basis and I feel that it could have been great if given more pages, As it was, it started strong but the development felt rushed, and that was especially disappointing after one of the best sex scenes Ive ever read by this author.
Favorite quote:
Astrid Amara No Life But This,stars
I really liked the story and Devens character arc, but August never came to life for me, Every element necessary was there, so Im not sure what didnt work, I just didnt feel his character, Or to put it better, I never stopped being aware that he was just a character in a book,
Favorite quote:
“You sure youre okay You look like shit, ”
“I just got fisted in all the wrong ways, ”
Ginn Hale Things Unseen and Deadlystars
It took me a while to get into this one, especially because at first I wasnt at all clear about what Henry was supposed to be and how he functioned.
Once I passed that first moments of confusion, it worked really well, The worldbuilding was as good as in all the previous stories, but, unlike those ones, here the plot and the relationship between the MCs were equally well executed.
Favorite quote:
“Who in this day and age pays with gold dust, really Hasnt he heard of American Express”This was quite a long anthology but each story was interesting and different while keeping the theme of being about crime solving by members of the NATO Irregular Affairs Division NIAD, aka The Irregulars.
This law enforcement agency deals with those "other world" creatures who reside here on earth alongside humankind, though most humans aren't even aware of their existence.
Cherries Worth Getting by Nicole Kimberling was one of the darker stories as the two investigators, Harry and Gunther, investigated a human cannibalism crime.
I liked it but it unfolded at a slower pace than some of the others and I found myself looking forward to the end,
Green Glass Beads by Josh Lanyon was a gripping adventure about Asher, a museum curator, halfhuman, halffairie, and Rake, the new commander of the local chapter of the Irregulars, who is apparently also a demon.
This is a great story of the adventure Asher takes to reclaim his heritage and the demon who helps him do it, This was one that I couldn't put down until I finished,
No Life but This by Astrid Amara is about Deven, an expert in Aztaw magic, and August an Irregulars Agent who is assigned to work with him to solve the murder of August's partner.
Deven lived among the Aztaw for ten years and has only been back to this world for the past year, This one is a very long story with lots of “other world” detail, I found it interesting and exciting,
The last story is Things Unseen and Deadly by Ginn Hale, This one is about Jason, a young man who is apparently the missing prince of a sidhe clan and Henry, aka HalfDead Henry, an Irregulars Agent resurrected from the halfdead world he's inhabited for the pastyears.
The initial crime leads to the discovery that Jason is the missing prince and Henry takes it upon himself to be Jason's principal protector, I really enjoyed this one as well, The world building was terrific and I liked the fact that the author was able to weave in the characters from the other stories at the end of this one.
It made a nice wrapup to the anthology, This is four longish novellas in a shared world where our earth overlaps with other universes, some mythological but others even more foreign, The Irregulars are a division of NATO charged with regulating travel and trade and making sure normal humans don't find out think MiB but with magic instead is aliens.
There is some character overlap, but each story stands alone, I thought they were all solid, but my favorite was "No Life But This" by Astrid Amara, I wouldn't say it was better than Hale and Kimberling's stories, which I also really liked, but it had a more unusual protagonist and the sortaAztec world with the complex calendar magic was something one doesn't see as often in anglophone fantasy.
.