Naomi Novik never disappoints! It was mesmerising. This anthology offer immersive fantasy worlds, complex characters, and amazing word building and exquisite story telling. I absolutely cannot put it down.

I really like it when authors who usually write book (novel) series will release an anthology or contribute to one because it gives readers who want to sample their work a shorter format to try it out or, as in this case for me, someone who has enjoyed the author's work before, another taste of something they appreciate. This anthology is a true sampler as it touches several of the author's well known series/novels, (though you can easily understand the stories without prior reading of the longer works); there are a few stories based on writings of others, taking a different spin on a familiar work; and there is even a glimpse into an upcoming series. All of the stories were interesting, and as a collection gave a good breadth of storytelling. I really appreciated the anthology and recommend it to anyone who has enjoyed Naomi Novik's work in the past, anyone who has heard about one of her series or novels but hasn't quite gotten around to committing to something longer, or anyone looking for a fantasy story (or dozen) to read in between their longer reads.
I received advanced digital access to this book thru NetGalley (for which I want to thank NetGalley and the publisher, Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine, Del Rey) for an honest review. The opinion expressed here is my own.