After some rather disappointing novels by this writer, this short story collection was a pleasant change. It consists of a mixture of different stories: some straight fantasy, some science fiction, some horror and some off the wall and not so categorisable such as The One We Were. Some have a dry sense of humour, like that story. My favourite was The Northern Chess Game which concludes the collection and stars a believable fantasy heroine in a medieval style world (fantasy because sorcery is real) who has to deal with constant misogyny and worse from men. I would have enjoyed a novel about that character. So 3 stars overall.

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Delicious short stories about women who don't always do as men think they should. ( )