Guest Review of Glimpses by Lynn Flewelling

Publisher: CreateSpace and Morrigan Press

Release Date: September 19, 2010

Series: A stand alone anthology within the Nightrunner series.

Today we have a guest review. This has been on my TBR pile for a while so when Line expressed interest in the story, I offered her my review copy in exchange for a review. I've known her for several years, we met at Kelley Armstrong's board and then I lured her to Patricia Briggs's board. :)

Line:


Who am I and how did I come to write this at Bea's Book Nook? To answer the last one first: she asked, and she is good at asking.

Who am I? I am a woman approaching my fourth decade, I live in Norway and I have a passion for reading. I read all kinds of fiction but fantasy and speculative fiction takes up most of my reading time. I work in geriatrics and reading is entertainment and escape and sometimes a tool for dealing with the difficult questions in life.

LineJ


Book Blurb:

Lynn Flewelling's Glimpses explores “lost” moments from her popular Nightrunner Series, events alluded to or passed over – Alec's parents and childhood, Seregil's early liaisons in Skala, Seregil and Alec's first night as lovers, how Seregil and Micum Cavish met. Each story offers a new perspective on events readers have speculated about for years.

For new readers, it offers an introduction to the characters Romantic Times calls "two of the
most memorable heroes in fantasy." Professional and amateur art provided by Flewelling's fans accompany Glimpses' stories, as she honors the dedication and devotion her fans have given her over the years.

My Thoughts: 

This is truly a collection for the fans and lovers of this series. I really liked the idea of illustrating
with works of fan art and I was not disappointed. Some of the artwork was absolutely stunning and
the illustrations really enhanced the reading experience, despite the fact that the first time I read this
I had only a review PDF that Bea was kind enough to let me have (NOTE: After I badgered her she agreed to review it for me) after I whined about not being able to get the book here, and the pictures in that was naturally not full size files.(I have since acquired the book)

Although I liked all the stories and enjoyed myself reading them, I am not so sure this would be the
case for someone not familiar with he characters and the world, there is a lot of presupposed
knowledge needed to follow most of the stories I think. I feel that without having read the
Nightrunner Series I would not really be able to follow all of the stories very well, and some of the
episodes would not make any real sense. By The River for instance, without knowing of the later
relationship between Micum and Seregil this would seem like a very strange somewhat unfinished
kind of story to put into an anthology but having read the novels it was a fun bit of background.

Of the four short stories,the one I liked best was The Wild, this tells a complete story and could
stand alone very well without the background from the previous novels, even if knowing what happens later to Alec gives an extra dimension to it.

Over all I enjoyed this very much but I would not recommend it as a starting point for the series.
This is treats and goodies for the fans and readers. If you haven't read the series before I think the
best starting point is absolutely the first book in the series: "Luck In the Shadows".

This PDF was received from the publisher for review