Ink of Blood

(I received a free copy of this book, through NetGalley, in exchange for a review).

(This review may contain spoilers).

I did think this collection of stories was an interesting idea, even though I didn’t think all of the stories followed the theme the title seemed to suggest.

I recognised quite a few of the authors whose work featured in this collection. I thought that the first story was particularly engaging. The idea of the runaway bicycles was quite an amusing one, but the ending of it was actually really quite sad, even though I’m not sure there were many other ways it could have ended.

The world described in the second story was especially intriguing, even though I wasn’t sure what genre the story was supposed to be. Still, the idea of someone having to steal an entire street was a really interesting one and I enjoyed seeing how the main character tried to figure out ways of trying to fulfill the deal she’d made. I thought that the idea of criminals being made into streetlamps was a really unique one, even though I wasn’t exactly sure what was going on with the souls of the dead.

I thought Neil Gaiman’s story was particularly interesting to read, especially considering the major evolution the main character’s book went through… which seemed to take the minor changes (and perhaps larger ones) and make them completely over-the-top, unrecognisable from the original source material and only concerned with the commercial cliches… something I see in virtually every horror movie now.

I really liked being able to meet Harry Dresden again and it was good to see Murphy, too… but I felt she didn’t have the same strength from the book series. I would have liked to see more of her alongside Dresden.

I thought that the story about the technology out of control was intriguing, but I didn’t really understand how the events led up to the remarkably strange ending. I would have liked to see a bit more of the characters’ history and their relationships with each other.

I did enjoy reading this collection of short stories and it made me want to read other books by many of the authors.