Raven Oak showcases a remarkable skill in crafting a diverse collection of tales that traverse genres. The compilation seamlessly weaves together various narratives, creating a cohesive and engaging reading experience. With a broad spectrum of stories, Oak caters to the tastes of both sci-fi and fantasy enthusiasts, ensuring there's something for everyone within the pages. Most of the stories were 5-stars in and of themselves, with a few 3- and 4-star ones thrown into the mix, but all of them were enjoyable on some level. A great collection!

A wide range of stories, with something that is sure to appeal to all sci-fi and fantasy lovers. Just as they range across a variety of sub-genres, the lengths also vary by story. You can easily read each story in a single sitting, however. Even though the stories are short, Oak does an amazing job of capturing your imagination with each one. I can't wait to see what the second collection has in store!

In a Nutshell: An eclectic collection of tales rooted in the SFF genre. Unusual protagonists and interesting storylines.

This indie anthology of eleven stories (or possibly, ten stories and what looked like a novellette) is a compilation of stories written by the author over a period of ten years. The stories have been divided across two collections; this is the first volume.

Of the eleven stories, five stories have been a part of other multi-author anthologies. The remaining six make their first public appearance through this book. Of these six, two are stories featuring a character named Ida from the author’s Boahim Trilogy, which I haven’t read. So when I read the first story having Ida and some other characters from the Boahim universe, I felt like I was missing out on some information and couldn’t connect with the story at all, because of which I skipped the second Ida story. My review and rating is thus based on ten stories and not eleven.

As always, I first looked for the introductory note by the author and was disappointed at not finding any. But the author had a surprise up her sleeve. Instead of having a foreword for her stories, she provided a brief insight about each story, talking about where it first appeared and what provided her the inspiration for the plot or the character. This little personal note appears at the end of each tale. I liked this idea much better, because right after we are done with a story, we get to see how it came into being. (This is going to be my new expectation from all future anthologies I read. Writers, take note! 😉)

The anthology covers a delightful range of SFF genres such as dark gothic fantasy, paranormal, steampunk, post-apocalyptic and urban. The diversity in the stories is the highlight of this book, as each tale feels fresh in approach. The author’s writing is beautiful. Her method of writing descriptions is apt for short fiction, providing just enough lyrical details to help us visualise the scene but without going so overboard on the details as to drag the story.

The endings in most cases are satisfactory. Nothing cut off abruptly or leaving us hanging. At the same time, nothing that blew me away with a stunning climax. I’m not saying the endings were bad, but they felt quite tame compared to the creativity of the plots. A couple of the stories (especially the Snark one) would have benefited with more development.

The tales vary in length as well, with one of the stories – ‘The Ringers’ – feeling almost like a novelette. I usually prefer a more consistent length across a collection, especially if it is by a single author who has greater control over the inclusions in a collection. But in this case, the length didn’t matter much as no story felt dragged. In fact, ‘The Ringers’ ended up as one of my favourites in this book.

As always, I rated the stories individually. Of the ten stories I read, only one (the first Ida story, where I understood hardly anything of what was going on) was stuck with a 2-star rating. The rest were all 3.5 stars and above, which is a great hit rate if you know me and my ratings. Here are my top favourites:
🐉 Water the Fire – The title will make perfect sense once you read the story. More than the plot, I loved how imaginative this was. - 🌟🌟🌟🌟
🐉 Learning to Fly – Didn’t expect the direction this story about a girl looking for the perfect wedding gown would take. Sweet! – 🌟🌟🌟🌟
🐉 The Drive to Work – I could guess the twist but that doesn’t take away from the beauty of this story. - 🌟🌟🌟🌟💫
🐉 The Ringers – The kind of story that had the potential to give me nightmares. Not scary in the paranormal sense, but in terms of atmosphere and off-page events. Loved it! - 🌟🌟🌟🌟💫
🐉 Dragon Springs and Other Things – When I had picked up this book, I simply couldn’t figure out the relevance of the strange title. But after the title story, it made so much sense. Enjoyed this unusual dragon story, though I wanted more of the dragon. - 🌟🌟🌟🌟

All in all, if you like SFF and enjoy short stories, this is a nice collection to check out. I will definitely be reading the second volume as well.

3.6 stars, based on the average of my ratings for the ten stories read.

My thanks to Grey Sun Press and NetGalley for the DRC of “Dragon Springs & Other Things”. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book.

Actual rating of 3.5

It's always hard to write reviews for short story collections as there's so much to cover, yet not enough at the same time. These stories really do cover a range of different genres, from Fantasy, to gothic, to urban fantasy, post-apocalyptic and even just a slice of life one thrown in there for good measure. So this review is most likely going to be short and sweet.

The stand out story for me in this collection was The Ringers. It really grabbed my attention and I absolutely loved everything about it. It had a dash of suspense and mystery to it, and a little dab of horror elements as well. This was my favourite by far, and I feel like the length was perfect for what it was. It really drew me into the story but it wasn't unnecessarily long, there was enough detail to really paint the scene and I felt like I was walking right alongside the protagonist. And the storyline itself was just cool. I also really enjoyed the title story - Dragon Springs & Other Things. This one was super cute with a dash of bittersweetness, it was fairly short, but I feel like it's a story that I would love to see expanded upon. There were so many different things that could be explored and touched on if it were to be given more page time in the future. I also enjoyed The Drive to Work for a different reason. This one really touched on something that I'm sure everyone has contemplated at some point in their lives, and it's a story that really makes you stop and think. It also really brought the feels for me, for such a short story, it had so much depth to it.

The stories in this collection are not all of equal length, some were much longer than others, and some sat at a handful of pages. I did enjoy the character and the world in...I think it was Alive? I believe that this story and one later on (Possibly The Snark) were following a side character of something else that Oak has written. I did find them interesting enough, but I also feel that they lost me a little bit. They were very involved for a short story collection, and while we did get a very well-rounded picture of the story itself as well as the characters, these ones were a little lacklustre for me.

I feel that this collection of short stories really shows how diverse Oak is in their craft. There are so many different genres included here, and while some were much more enjoyable than others, they were all very well written and very unique. Being able to see what an author can do across a wide range is fantastic and I feel it opens the door for the reader to be able to have a better understanding of which works from said author they will enjoy more. I'd love to see some full-length books written and I'll be keeping a look out for them.

A solid and varied collection of stories. I was a bit impressed. This author has imagination and knows how to create good stories. Nicely done.

Thanks very much for the free copy for review!!

I'd just finished reading a short story from Raven Oak in an anthology when I noticed the ARCs of her own short story collections available on NetGalley and since I really liked that short story, I was drawn in instantly. Thank you for NetGalley and the publisher for providing the ARC.

For me it was the mid-length stories that worked best, those that are about 10-20 pages long. I think the pacing of those matches the author's storytelling style best. But what I liked in all of her stories is how close the plot is to the characters. Whether it's set in an epic fantasy world with lots of worldbuilding or in our world with hidden magic discovered in the most emotional moments, the plot was always driven by and revolved around the characters' emotions. I really like this introvert way of storytelling and I usually prefer that compared to epic, world-shattering plots.

Raven Oak's stories usually have a mix of beauty and melancholy, even in stories set in the Amaskan universe, spinoffs to the author's series where we see assassins in training. This melancholy is what really touches me in her writing, I even cried while reading 'Learning to Fly', being one of my favourite along with 'The Drive to Work' and 'Water the Fire'.

I'm really looking forward to reading the author's other collection of short stories.

I was provided an ARC of this book via Netgalley, all opinions are my own.

This is my first time reading from the author, but it certainly will not be my last! I love a good short story collection and this was a great introduction to the author's work. There are 11 stories if I counted correctly, ranging from a only a few pages and a few that are much longer. I don't think there was one that I didn't enjoy. I love a short story that makes me wish I had a full novel and most of these did just that, but all of them are complete and stand on their own.

I really enjoyed the variety of different types of stories included in this collection. I also appreciated the little blurb at the end explaining what inspired the story, if it was published elsewhere previously, or if it is connected to another work so you can check that out as well. While I really liked all of the stories some of the standouts were were Amaskan and Alive which follow the same woman, Peace Be With You Friend which is cool story about the end of the world and friendship, Ringers which is a dark and magical story set at Christmas time, and of course the title story Dragon Springs and Other Things about a tinkerer who builds a dragon.

This will be out in a few days on June 1, 2023 and there is another installment of short stories due out in July. This installment is more fantastical and magical while the next one is a little more sci-fi flavored. Sci-fi and Fantasy are my favorite genre and I loved the variety of the stories in this collection and I expect the next installment will be just as varied and interesting. I have an ARC of that collection as well and I'm every excited to get to it.

Dragon Spring and Other Things is a short story collection of fantasy, steampunk and speculative fiction stories by author Raven Oak.  Like all short story collections, there were stories that I liked better than others and stories that I wish I could see fleshed out as full books.  I really appreciated the stories that dove into some of the side characters from the author's Boahim series.  I loved being able to dive back into that world and reconnect with the characters. 

Some of my favorite stories from the collection are:Mirror Me: A very immersive and strong start to the collection.  A young detective has been passed a strange skill to see his face mirrored in other people and pick up on their feelings and emotions.  In his job, the mirror promotes empathy, but when the victim is the detective's own father, the Mirror must extend his empathy more than usual.

Water the Fire: What if what you believed was a curse was actually protecting you?  A cute and unexpected story of fire and water demons and how the things that frustrate us the most in life also have a purpose.

Alive: The tragic backstory of Ida from Amaskan's Blood.  A nice trip back into the Amaskan's world and see Ida in a new light.

The Ringers: A magical story of a village that is plagued by the Ringers, the undead who come to take away those who do not follow the rules of the magistrate.  Luckily, young Elise has studied her magic and is prepared to help the people of Dekwood come out from under the magistrate's spell. 

Peace Be With You: A sweet and touching story of the end of the world and it's last two living inhabitants, a starving dragon and a young girl.  I loved their conversations and interactions down to the very end. 

 This book was received for free in return for an honest review.

The included short story Cookie Man will be on my mind for a long time. Having been a student that worked at a big green coffee shop to get through school- there are still regular customers I sometimes wonder about. How are they getting on with life, if their life is okay. Maybe they thought of me as "coffee girl".
What a great collection.