Thanks so much to the publisher and to NetGalley for giving me access to this book. I love this collection of fantasy short stories.. I like getting an idea of what different authors offer.. Thanks again for this selection of short stories. I have found a few that will be appealing to our patrons.

The idea of this collection really appealed to me: a series of short stories set in ‘famous’ worlds, but giving the author a chance to explore the baddie’s point of view. I thought it’d be a good chance to explore some series that I haven’t yet tried, as well as a few that were familiar but from a very different angle.

Alas, it didn’t quite work out for me – as the very long gap in my reading probably shows! There’s nothing at all wrong with these stories, the writing is all very well done. However, not being familiar with most of the worlds being (re)visited here, I struggled to get in to many of the stories. They probably work very well if you’ve a familiarity with the series already, but the new-to-me and unusual viewpoints weren’t a great place to start.

The one series I am very au fait with would be the Dresden Files, but alas (again) this story didn’t do much for me. I know the characters, but the tale just didn’t grab me. I’d expected more, I think, as quite often the villains are if not the most then certainly often highly intriguing characters, but I just didn’t find myself hooked.

On the other hand, there were a few that worked despite my lack of prior knowledge. Seanan McGuire is an author I’ve been hearing great things about for a while, and her contribution here – paranormal creatures that look human but can make people do anything they want – did exactly what I expected this collection to do: made me want to reach for the main series.

Overall, there’s nothing bad about this anthology, and I’m a bit disappointed it didn’t click more with me. On the other hand, there are definitely some intriguing ideas here, including a pocket dimension that looks like a film back-lot, and a (I assume) fallen angel turned monster with a pretty good explanation even in such a short tale. If you’re familiar with any of the ‘worlds’ already then the alternate viewpoint could well be even more interesting.

As with any anthology, some stories will be more enjoyable than others. The fun twist in this collection is that all stories are based on the point of view from the villians of various urban fantasy series. As I'm unfamiliar with all of these worlds, I found this an interesting introduction and I have several new stories on my to be read list. Overall an enjoyable read which will probably make more sense when I am more familiar with these villians!

If you are a fan of urban fantasy - a rather specific sub-genre of 'fantasy' - then you will definitely want to check out this book, <em>Urban Enemies</em>, edited by Joseph Nassise.

The premise of this collection of short stories is to have a story that focuses on the villains that have appeared either regularly or at least in some memorable fashion in an ongoing urban fantasy series. And what I learned is ... I haven't read enough urban fantasy series'.

I have read some, though not all, of Jim Butcher's Dresden Files series, and while I think Seanan McGuire is one of the best authors of fantasy currently writing, I can't honestly say that I've read all the books in her October Daye series. Jonathan Maberry is the only other author in the collection whom I've read (and remembered) and liked his work, but I haven't read ANY of his Joe Ledger books. The rest of these authors...? I recognize most of their names but I've never read any of these books. Perhaps that will change now.

Not being familiar with these urban fantasy series means that reading a story featuring one of the villains means next to nothing for me, other than as a fantasy read. And as a series of fantasy short stories, every story in the book was entertaining and well-written. It is easy to see why each of these stories are a part of a larger, fictional universe. I enjoyed my time here and I wouldn't mind reading any one of these series. However, I wasn't so entranced with any one story that I made a conscious note to look for more books in the featured worlds. These were fun reads, but none of them sold me on wanting to read more.

The stories in this collection are:

"Even Hand" - Jim Butcher
"Hounded" - Kelley Armstrong
"Nigsu Ga Tesgu: <em>An Ustari Cycle Story</em>" - Jeff Somers
"Sixty-Six Seconds" - Craig Schaefer
"Kiss" - Lilith Saintcrow
"The Naughtiest Cherub" - Kevin Hearne
"The Resurrectionist" - Caitlin Kittredge
"Down Where the Darkness Dwells" - Joseph Nassise
"Bellum Romanum' - Carrie Vaughn
"Altar Boy" - Jonathan Maberry
"Make It Snappy" - Faith Hinter
"Chase the Fire" - Jon F. Merz
"Unexpected Choices" - Diana Pharaoh Francis
"Reel Life: <em>A Glass Town Story</em>" - Steven Savile
"The Difference Between Deceit and Delusion" - Domino Finn
"Balance" - Seanan McGuire
"Everywhere: <em>A Pitchfork Country Story</em>" - Sam Witt

Looking for a good book? Urban Enemies is a collection of short stories featuring the villain in seventeen different urban fantasy series'. The stories are fun but would likely mean more to those already familiar with each series.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Negtalley, in exchange for an honest review.

This is a series of short stories about the villains in fantasy stories published by various authors. I enjoyed it with two qualifications. It helps if you have read the relevant novels where these characters feature. You also need to enjoy the short story format.

An amazing collection of stories that both mesmerise and thrill. Urban Enemies is a must read for all fans of genre fiction both young and old.

I was so excited to read this anthology. While, it has been a while since I have read some of these authors' series, I was happy to see so many of the authors I am familiar with in this anthology. I agree with other readers that the first story Even Hand by Jim Butcher was a let down as it has been produced before. So not a new story. That is kind of the point of an anthology is that readers are exposed to new short stories.

The read the next four stories. They were ok but not one of them except for maybe Sixty-Six Seconds by Craig Schaefer kind of sparked my interest and sort of kept it. In fact, I was disappointed that I did not find the first five stories that great that my interest to read further into this anthology was lost. I might come back to it later and read some of the other stories but for now, I am done. Yet, I will say that I did like the very dark vibes I was getting from the stories. Some stories might just give you nightmares. The view point from the villians' side into of the heroes side was refreshing.

Solid anthology with great well known authors. You might find a new series from this!

Pretty standard anthology. Worthwhile to fans or someone interested in checking out the worlds of these authors. Nothing groundbreaking or must read. The hook that it centers on villains is a nice one. However, I would have much preferred origin stories. What makes someone into a villain is the most interesting and complex story arc, plus we are all the heroes of our own tales. Something of that ilk would have been fascinating and a must read for me, especially for some of these authors. Otherwise it just an interesting little side journey from your favorite tales. Bit of a miss for me just due to disappointment. Very little new information offered and even that is more of an amuse bouche rather than even an appetizer or a real meal.

Great collection of short stories from a sublime collection of writers!

Only read a few stories, by the authors I've already read stuff by before.

Kelley Armstrong: Hounded: 4 stars
Caitlin Kittredge: The Resurrectionist: 2 stars
Seanan McGuire: Balance: 4 stars

In general, I tend to steer clear of Urban Fantasy. Always have. Every once in a while I’ll make a foray into the realm, but by and large I’ve been disappointed with what I’ve found. The obvious exceptions, for me, being Butcher, Correia, and Hanover. The really difficult part is that there is quite literally a metric ton of Urban Fantasy books out there, and there are more and more showing up on the shelves all the time. With all those possible choices available, how does one go about finding the next great Urban Fantasy series/author to start reading? Well, short stories can sometimes help give you an idea as to whether you’re going to like an author or not. Trouble is, even some of the really popular novel authors don’t know how to write a good short story. So how can you tell? I’ll always fall back on recommendations. Anyone got one for me? I’ll trade you a few. Check it out.

URBAN ENEMIES is a short story anthology, edited by Joseph Nassise, and had quite a few author names that I recognized at first glance. More than enough to catch my attention when it came through the grinder, anyhow. And this one was about bad guys to boot. Such a deal. How often do we get to understand the bad guy? How many bad guys have legitimate reasons to be the way they are? I figured that I was about to find out.
As per my usual, here’s a breakdown of where the stories sat if I would have rated them individually:
Loved: 3
Liked: 2
Liked and Hated: 2
Mediocre: 7
Didn’t Like: 3
Hated: 0
A lot of entries landed slap-bang in the middle, but here are the details on my favorites of the bunch.
“Even Hand” by Jim Butcher: Gentleman John Marcone is the major Chicago crime boss in the Dresen series. Who else would Butcher choose to write about, really? A woman named Justine shows up at Marcone’s place and asks for asylum by the Seelie Accords. He’s not excited about helping her, but he knows she has connections to the White Court of vampires and she has a child with her. A creepy water-demon Fomor is chasing her. She’s taken something from them, and he wants to take the woman and the child back into the water with him. Not all is as it appears on the surface of this one, but Marcone takes the bait because having one of the Fomor attack his stronghold is a good first field test for his defenses…
“Altar Boy” by Jonathan Maberry: A guy that “works” for Joe Ledger (another great series I could have mentioned) meets a girl and starts to fall for her. He finds out that she’s more than she seemed to be and has actually played a very large part in his pained and twisted past. Some great character moments here, and I loved the ending.
“The Difference Between Deceit and Delusion” by Domino Finn: A west-african vampire in plate armor with a couple massive loop swords take his two voodoo-wielding bad-A buddies to go find the guy that tried to setup a money laundering scheme from drug-dealers through their boss’s perfectly legit (mob) business channels. This one was brilliant. Intense, unexpected, and loads of fun. I’m going to be looking this guy up for some future Urban Fantasy reading in the future.
“Balance” by Seanan McGuire: A “cuckoo” watches for a victim to psychically link to, and then they make the victim take care of it. The victim makes up a majority of the story surrounding their relationship inside their own head, so everything makes sense to them. Allows the cuckoo to live a life of safety and luxury without running into any trouble. This cuckoo runs into someone they didn’t expect to find though. McGuire consistently writes good stories. I don’t know that I’ve ever thought one was amazing, but they’re all really solid, including this one.
Outside of those that I loved or liked, the stories generally felt really rushed. Like the authors were trying to put too much information into a short story. Granted, lots of these stories come from series with loads of world-building associated with them, and how does one go about writing a short story in a setting like these that wouldn’t alienate or disorient new readers?
Answer: make the story more simple.
Unfortunately, most of these stories don’t do that, and they suffer for it. Issues ranged from there not being enough information to understand either what was going on or the significance of what was going on, to getting all of that information in a massive info-dump, to there being way too many characters to keep track of, to not even having any kind of ending to wrap up the story and having it feel like a deleted chapter from one of the books instead.
Based on this reading, I’m realizing that there are likely a whole lot more completely mediocre vampire novels floating around out there than I realized. Also, it might be that I’ve just been reading too much dark fantasy lately, but a lot of these stories didn’t really read like stories about villains. Baddies not bad enough? Maybe. Might be me on this score. I’m not quite sure.
Although there were a handful of stories or so that I enjoyed, the overwhelmingly large majority of them were disappointments for me. Nothing special. At least I got one new author to read out of the bunch though. As my college professor used to say, “Better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick.”

A collection of delightfully dark stories that includes some of my favourite bad guys, as well as some that are new to me. These stories give clues to their motivations, and while some of these villains may have redeeming features, not all of them do. Although they are not exactly the things happy endings are made of, many of these stories left me wanting to read - or re-read - the original series, to consider them in light of these revelations.
I was provided a copy of this book from the publisher via Netgalley in return for an honest review.

Like with any anthology you get a mixed back of stories: some are awesome and some are less so. Stories by Jim Butcher and Kevin Hearne will not leave you disappointed.

More please! I love reading about the flip side characters. These are terribly awful villains that I crave more about.

It's not often that I give 4 out of 5 stars on a short stories book, but this one is really good! It's good the idea because come on! You have to love a book written all by villains' POV. And they are all urban fantasy's villain, so if you love this genre (and I love it a lot! It's my guilty pleasure and my comfort reading) you simply have to read this book.
There are a lot of great writes in this collection (Jim Butcher, Seanan McGuire, Faith Hunter, Kevin Hearne, Kelly Armstrong, and many, many others!) and you meet a lot of interesting series. I discovered a lot of new series to start (and no, I really don't have the need for them, I have tons of series to start/continue/finish but it was impossible to resist. Yes, my wish list is not thanking me, my wallet is cursing me all way from hell and the other series are becoming grumpy and grumpier because I make them wait for their turn since forever, but I am a happy little girl because I know that I have yet a ton of good series to start!) and I remembered about series that I wished to continue but that I never continued because, sadly, I want to read too many books and I have too little time!

Not all the stories are good in the same way, I really loved some of them (Butcher's one, for example, was awesome!) while others I just liked, but I really enjoyed the reading and I hope to dive in this series really soon because now I am missing all of them!

URBAN ENEMIES is a pretty fun romp into the twisted minds of the bad guys from various urban fantasy series. There were of course some characters who I had no clue about as I didn't read the series they are from. Luckily each story starts off with a general summary of the series the character(s) appear in so there was some idea of what was going on. Most of the stories were of antagonists and anti-heroes and were entertaining stories in their own right. I didn't like all of them but that's not really a big deal when you are dealing with so many stories of vengeance, evil, gore, and sadism!

One of my favorites was Jim Butcher's EVEN HAND, which gets us into the mind of Gentleman Johnny Marcone. It was fun to see someone so utterly human dealing with the magical hi jinks of the Dresden Files. Marcone has a calculating mind and is ruthless even when confronting a being that can destroy him so easily. I'd love to learn more about what makes him tick. While I haven't read Kelley Armstrong's Cainesvile series, I loved getting a taste of the series through the Huntsman, on his search for a hellhound. They way he gets one is super creepy. Kevin Hearne's story sees Loki making a deal with the devil who is so old that he only does things that amuse him. It's sort of a funny story in a dark way and seeing Loki have to jump through some hoops was pretty amusing. In BALANCE by Seanan McGuire, we get to take a journey through the life and mind of a cuckoo incryptid. These monsters are seriously creepy and their philosophy of life and view of humans is down right scary. I loved learning more about how they function as a species and also love that they are fictional characters.

URBAN ENEMIES has so many wonderful stories filled with very evil people. Each story gives you a taste of the mindset of some of the bad guys in your favorite series and some peeks at series you may have not tried or even heard of.

Featuring stories from some of today's top urban fantasy authors including Jim Butcher, Kelley Armstrong, Seanan McGuire and quite a few others I hadn't sampled before picking this up, Urban Enemies is an anthology with a difference. All of the stories are told from the point of view of characters who are normally considered the villains of the story.

Tom Hiddleston said about playing the character Loki "Every villain is the hero in his own narrative" and that's very true in these stories. The characters know they aren't the good guys, but they're playing by their own rules.

I'd read Jim Butcher's story in a previous anthology and was disappointed, since he is headlining this work, that it wasn't a new piece. Of the others, Seanan McGuire never disappoints and I always enjoy Caitlin Kittredge's work. I discovered a new author I need to check out in Joseph Nassise, whose story was probably my favourite in the book.

Many of the stories would be difficult to get into if you didn't already follow the main series they were from. Some I just had no idea what was going on, and the writing didn't grab me enough to make me want to read more. At $11.00 for the Kindle version and $9.78 for the paperback, I definitely wouldn't be buying this one unless I was a serious collector of one of the authors and couldn't get the story elsewhere.

Three stars.

The premise of this short story collection is a winner. Take some of the bestselling urban fantasy writers and have them write stories focusing on their villains. Who doesn’t love a villain? Most of the time, I find villains more interesting than heroes. As such, I couldn’t wait to sink my teeth into Urban Enemies.
So imagine my disappointment when most of the stories were hell-bent on giving the villains of the tales traditional hero narratives. Where were the badasses causing mayhem and murder? Ok, so there was plenty of murder, but there was far too much time spent on ‘why’ they were bad, making excuses for these characters. They try to humanise the villains, explaining away their bad behaviour as though their life experiences meant they had no choice but to become villains. Many of the stories in these collections are ‘back stories’ for well-known villains in their urban fantasy worlds that are sob stories created to make us feel sorry for these nasty pieces of work. I don’t want to feel sorry for the villains, I want to revel in their evil! (Surely I can’t be the only one who feels this way?)
‘There was no amount of good he could accomplish that would wash his soul clean.’
Urban Enemies editec by Joseph Nassise coverNo beating around the bush: I am a snob. When it comes to the books I like, the quality of the prose is my top priority. I don’t mean flowery, long-winded prose, but simply good quality sentences, descriptions, structure, so on. I am constantly disappointed by the quality of writing in bestselling novels and Urban Enemies was no exception. Too often I found myself cringing or rolling my eyes at the clunky exposition dumps.
Not only was the prose, in general, lackluster, I found that most of the stories didn’t work as short stories. I’m all for setting a standalone short story within an existing universe, but it needs to work as its own entity as well as a bonus for fans of the original series/setting. These stories, for the most part, don’t. Not only that, it is obvious these writers are not known for their short stories. Writing a short story is very different to writing a novel – you need to grip the reader immediately and show them why this particular nugget is worthy of their time. Almost all of these stories felt like an additional chapter of a novel, or at best, a bonus story that belongs on a Patreon feed, not in a short story anthology.
Other general complaints include:
Lack of characterisation
Pages and pages of exposition
All tell, no show
Utterly predictable plots
All action, no character growth
…
‘Blood always finds blood.’
That’s not to say that there was nothing worthy of note in the collection. But the gems were certainly hidden among thick and sticky muck. One of my favourite things about short story collections is discovering new writers I’d never heard of. In Urban Enemies, I fell in love with Kelley Armstrong and her story ‘Hounded’. This story was very different from the others, with a distinct voice and interesting lore. Armstrong’s villain was given the space to truly be villainous while also having a character arc that both intrigued me as a reader and made sense in the context of his personality.
It was no surprise that I enjoyed Seanan McGuire’s entry, ‘Balance’. I’m a huge fan of her Wayward Children series of novellas. This was a very different piece, but I thoroughly enjoyed it. Occasionally it drifted into expositing information about the world, but it was kept to a minimum. Again, the villain was allowed to be villainous and she had a distinct voice.
Caitlin Kittredge is another name I had not come across before. Her entry is a 1930s noir PI style story, ‘The Resurrectionist’. Kittredge plays with common tropes around zombies and necromancers and completely turns it on its head. It’s great fun and took me entirely by surprise.
‘I will always remember the first time I tasted a sacrifice.’
Urban Enemies feels like a miscalculation. A nice idea on paper, but in practice, it falls flat. Too many of these short stories relied too heavily on readers being familiar with the worlds in which they are set and the timeline/characters involved. Those kinds of stories do have their place, but they don’t work as an anthology.

Verdict: I suggest giving this one a miss unless you’re happy to purchase the whole thing for that one bonus story from your favourite urban fantasy novel.