Carniepunk

By: Rachel Caine, Rob Thurman, Kevin Hearne, Seanan McGuire, Jennifer Estep, Allison Pang, Kelly Gay, Delilah S. Dawson, Kelly Meding

Narrated by: Candace Thaxton, Kirby Heyborne

Come one, come all! The Carniepunk Midway promises you every thrill and chill a traveling carnival can provide. But fear not! Urban fantasy's biggest stars are here to guide you through this strange and dangerous world....

Rachel Caine's vampires aren't child's play, as a naive teen discovers when her heart leads her far, far astray in "The Cold Girl." With "Parlor Tricks" Jennifer Estep pits Gin Blanco, the Elemental Assassin, against the Wheel of Death and some dangerously creepy clowns. Seanan McGuire narrates a poignant, ethereal tale of a mysterious carnival that returns to a dangerous town after 20 years in "Daughter of the Midway, the Mermaid, and the Open, Lonely Sea." Kevin Hearne's Iron Druid and his wisecracking Irish wolfhound discover in "The Demon Barker of Wheat Street" that the impossibly wholesome sounding Kansas Wheat Festival is actually not a healthy place to hang out. With an eerie, unpredictable twist, Rob Thurman reveals the fate of a psychopath stalking two young carnies in "Painted Love."

©2013 Rachel Caine, Rob Thurman, Kevin Hearne, Seanan McGuire, Jennifer Estep, Allison Pang, Kelly Gay, Delilah S. Dawson, and Kelly Meding (P)2013 Simon & Schuster

Love anthologies

I always love anthologies my favorites writers are a part of. It always leads me to other amazing authors. This collection contains some great stories, and I've gone through goodreads and audible to pick up one of each of the authors I've never read before.

Its A Separate 14 Short Stories

When i got this book, I have assumed that all these characters from all these authors will be mixing together, but nope, you have 14 short stories each one is based in a carnival, I will give you a quick review for these stories

1- Painted Love:
It was a weird story about a guy with a monkey tattoo who comes alive.. honestly, i was lost during this story. 2 stars.

2- The 3 lives of lydia by delilah s dawson
I liked this story, interesting and had a sad but unexpected ending.

3- The demon barker of wheat street by kevin Hearne
This was one of the reasons for buying this book, i am a big fan of the Iron Druid series. Here you have your favourite 3 characters, and your usual interesting story. The story itself was fine, they went to a carnival and many things happened there (its a short story, quick and short can't review that much) but narration was the worst, we are used to Luke Daniels's narration, Kirby Heyborne was good, but when he narrated Oberon, it came out a a serious voice, and that was just wrong.. story 5 stars, narration 2 stars (only for this book)

4- The sweeter the juice by mark henry
weird post zombie apocalypse short story, which is focused on trans-genders life with no doctors to help, as most died from the zombie apocalypse. Putting that aside, i was really bored from this book, half of it didn't make any sense, and the other half was boring.. and its ending was a bit weird as well.. i thought there would be 10 or 15 minutes left to finish, and all the sudden it ended... 2 stars

5- The WereWife by Jaye Wells
I liked this book, the plot was good, and the ending was unexpected. The story here is about a man and his wife who turned into a werewolf and he is trying to deal and live with it, then the carnival comes and he tries to fix what started there. And the narration here was good. 4 stars.

6- The Cold Girl by Rachel Caine
Another good story here, it talks about a girl who has a boyfriend for a killer, Before she finds that out they go to the carnival and the carnival help her in their own interesting way. 4 stars.

7- A Duet with Darkness by Allison Pang.
This wasn't a bad book, i liked it, but i think this is more appropriate for those who know the series already. 3 stars for me.

8- recession of the divine by Hillary Jacques
I didn't like this book much, it was about a girl who was a greek goddess or something and became human and works as an insurance investigator.. thats just weird.. i didn't understand much of this story, and didn't like it at all. 1 star

9- Parlor Tricks by Jennifer Estep.
This was the other reason for buying this book. I am a fan of the elemental assassin series. Its a quick story about Gin and her sister go to the carnival to find someone, and they end up finding that someone but not in a good situation 5 stars.

10- Freak House by Kelly Meding
Its about a girl who her father was captured by a carnival and she tries to free him with the help of some people she met. i liked this book 3 stars.

11- The Inside Man by Nicole Peeler
I haven't read Nicole Peeler's books before, but i did like this one, this book is a part of the Jane True series. When I started this story, i have assumed that i will not understand anything, but nope, it was easy and felt familiar somehow although i didn't hear about this series before. Its a good one. 4 stars.

12- A Chance in Hell by Jackie kessler
Another series which i didn't hear about, and this short story was a part of it, and it felt familiar as well. its a bout an ex-demon who became a human. in this short story she goes to the carnival with her friend who gets into trouble. I really liked this one, hope that it will come to audible some time soon. 4 stars.

13- Hell's Menagerie by Kelly Gay
This is another short story from a series, but didn't like it much, it took a while to get to know these characters a bit, and the story plot was ok but nothing amazing or great.
its about 2 kids who go to hell to rescue hell hound pups, which were stolen by a carnival. 3 stars.

14- Daughter of The Midway by Seanan McGuire
This is about a mermaid who joined a carnival and had a daughter who is one as well. This carnival goes to Alabama for a show but some people try to take the little mermaid. Not a bad story. 3 stars.

So this is my longest review i have ever written. I hope you find these reviews quick and useful. If you want a set of magical short stories, then this books is a good choice.

Very Cool Stories!

Any additional comments?

I really enjoyed all the stories. Listening to some of my favorite characters, such as the Iron Druid series, in a different voice was strange but the stories made up for it. The Cold Girl and Painted Love were my personal favorites.

Good stories, good voice actors, but...

Got this for the Iron Druid story. I know that different voice actors will have different voices for the characters, but I would think that one would give a quick listen to sound bites of the previous stories to get something close to what the lostener is used to hearing. Atticus, in the previous stories, sounds like a 20-something charming kid. in this story, he sounds like a gravelly old war horse. It was enough to pull me out of the story.

Disappointment

Where to start... Some good short stories that could have been portrayed better. IMO
Candace Thaxton is a strange one. I usually enjoy her narration but during this book I found at times a clunky, off rhythm, to parts of her work today. Difficult to explain but it was as if she were reading a poem or something by Christopher Walken, I'd imagine.
And the there is a Kevin Hearne, Iron Druid book not read by Luke Daniels. A tough act to live up to. And not that Mr Hayborne does anything wrong but his Oberon just isn't Oberon.
Shame, I was looking forward to this book.

Come one, come all, the carnival is in town!

Overall I jumped into Carniepunk looking for a smattering of short stories to cleanse the palette of novels requiring a longer time commitment (ie: Wheel of Time, Dresden Files). The swirling cavalcade of attractions, seedy individuals, and colorful tents festooned with bright lights provides an excellent atmosphere for the unexpected to happen.

-The Good-
1. There are many great short stories that paint the living life of the carnival in many unique ways.
2. Each story requires a short commitment of time letting you come back to Carniepunk without feeling story fatigue/burnout.
3. Candace Thaxton provides a stellar performance and a dynamic vocal range that will keep you engaged.
4. Demonic soul-sucking clowns (no further explanation required).

-The Bad-
1. Some of the stories feel uninspired and create a polarizing difference from the stronger ones in book.
2. Several authors only give the carnival a brief mention before moving on into their own universe.
3. If you listen to other works by these authors (ie: Iron Druid Chronicles) the change in voice actor might throw a monkey wrench into a particular stories enjoyment.

-Conclusion-
Carniepunk as a whole I would give a 3.75/5. The voice acting will keep you engaged and many of the authors clearly had fun writing these stories. Regardless of where you live there is most likely a sense of fun and folly that you associate with the carnival/fair. This creates vivid moments of chilling comprehension which is fun. The only downside that holds Carniepunk back is that several uninspired and bland stories.

great stories & narrators

I came across Carniepunk via the Iron Druid series by Kevin Hearne. Enjoyed most of the offerings here immensely, but the reason I was moved to write a review is due to the fantastic narration by Kirby Heyborne, whose work I was already happily familiar with, and the excellent work by Candace Thaxton, who is new to me. Ms Thaxton was brilliant, imbuing all of her characters with their own distinct voice; I'll be listening for her in future titles. So as not to short shrift Mr Heyborne, I grew to respect and appreciate his work through those Iron Druid books...while not normal fare for me, both the books and narration captured my attention through an entire series, including novellas and short story collections, and I was thrilled that Audible didn't switch narrators in the middle of the series...hate it when that happens! Finally, to all the authors who provided the stories within, a heartfelt thanks for creating unique, devilishly entertaining worlds for us to romp in for a bit. Well done!

I really liked this!

The stories all played to the theme really well. There was really only one story that I just didn't like.

There where stories from Kevin Hearne and Jennifer Estep both authors that I really love. My one grip was that for my fav authors stories I wish that the narrators for their series had been used cause they have a better sense for the characters they are reading about and listeners already relate to them.

I also found a couple of stories that made me want to see what some of the authors have out. This was a pretty good listen.

Stories were just Meh

First of all, the narration was good throughout, not fantastic, not bad, and as we all know a narrator can make or break your audiobook experience so it’s a relief all narration was good.
As for the stories; I buy these books loaded with short stories from popular authors in hopes of finding a new author to listen to or a new book series to buy so that is how I rate these types of books. With the last book full of short stories I listened to (Dark and Stormy Nights) I found 4 new series I want to try and 3 new authors! That is the exception with these types of books, not the rule. I’m usually happy to find just 1 new author and 1-2 new books to try.
With this book, I found no new series/books I want to try and no new authors. It’s as if all the stories in here were experiments to see how the customers viewed/rated them, like all the authors said “well it’s not what I usually write but I want to give it a go” or “I did write this one story I feel wasn’t good enough to turn into a full length novel but let’s throw it in this book of short stories and see how it does”.
Obviously I have no way of knowing what the authors were thinking, they are given certain parameters (like in this instance all stories have a carnival involved & demon(s).
It’s just that all the stories were just okay, not good, not bad, just okay, which of course is disappointing.

Not what I expected

I basically bought this book because of Kevin Hearne. His story and a few others were great! However, the other stories either did not make sense or were extremely boring. I had to force myself to keep listening to this book. I'm not sure if this was a worthwhile purchase.