Strange Candy is a short story collection by Laurell K Hamilton. This collection reminds me why I liked Hamilton in this first place. Her excellent ability to tell a story, with wit and humor are found once again in this collection as well as her great characterization ability. These are the things that have been absent lately in her novels. Only two of these stories feature her characters from her current novels and one of them is a republish (as it was also featured in Bite). Overall this short story collection was a very enjoyable read if you like short stories. The subjects range widely from the vampire supernatural to science fiction and fantasy. They only thing I didn’t like was some of her introductions to the stories where she blasts some magazine editor because they didn’t buy her stories before she was a famous writer. I found that a little distasteful. This anthology features 14 stories and is 257 pages in hardback.

Plot: I will break down the book story by story here.

1. “Those Who Seek Forgiveness”—The advertised new Anita Blake short story. It was the first Anita story that Hamilton ever wrote. Highlights what can go wrong with raising the dead.

2. “A Lust of Cupids”—A cute a light story—at least for Hamilton-it features a world where parents can bribe Cupids to make their children fall in love and get married. I really enjoyed this one.

3. “The Edge of the Sea”—This is a melancholy and sensual story about the sea and the fear and longing the sea can inspire in people. This one was very interesting and unusual.

4. “A Scarcity of Lake Monsters”—In this one, you can really see Hamilton’s biology training (she does have a biology degree), and it thinks about the question what if lake monsters like Nessy were real?

5. “Selling Houses”—This short story is set in Anita’s world, but Anita is not in it. It thinks about how would a real estate agent deal with selling houses to vampires now that they are legal citizens? As I used to work for a real estate agent, I liked this one a lot.

6. “A Token For Celandine”—This story is set in the same “world” as Hamilton’s Nightseer book (her one foray into fantasy). This one features elves, demons and the end of a quest.

7. "A Clean Sweep"—Story about a superhero whose special power is cleaning. A busy mother’s dream.

8. "The Curse-Maker"—This story features Sidra and her mercenary gang. Also set in the Nightseer world. This story is one that is closer to what I would call traditional fantasy. Very good story—Sidra tries desperately to save her friend/fellow mercenary from a death curse.

9. "Geese"—I really like this one as well. About a young girl who hides from her fate in the form of a goose. Features magic, revenge, hope, and love.

10. "House of Wizards"—About a man who is a wizard, who comes from a long line of wizards. He marries a woman, Rudelle who has no magic. But that of organization and making people mind. She brings order to the House of Wizards.

11. "Here Be Dragons"—This one is cool. It is what Hamilton calls her only hard-core science fiction story. It is about a dream therapist and empathic, who rehabilitates murders and the like by tormenting them in their dreams. Creepy indeed.

12. "Winterkill"—This story is about an assassin who specializes in killing wizards and it is about the reason why this assassin only kills wizards.

13. "Stealing Souls"—Another Sidra story. It is actually the first Sidra story, and is about stealing back the souls of her sisters.

14. "The Girl Who Was Infatuated with Death"—This is the Anita Blake short story that was featured in Bite. It is about a missing teenage girl and a vampire who is responsible for her disappearance. This story also features Jean-Claude. It occurs before the novel Narcissus in Chains in the Anita Blake timeline.

I enjoyed all these short stories and it made a great read on the plane ride home for Christmas. If you like Laurell K Hamilton or just enjoy good fantasy short stories then you should enjoy this short story collection. They are all written well and feature unique and well-done characters. I actually liked the ones not dealing with The Anita Blake series better than the short stories dealing with that series. Enjoy!


Recommended: Yes