‘Micah and Strange Candy’ – Laurell K. Hamilton (Orbit Books)

By now, you will all know my feelings on the ‘Anita Blake’ books so instead of venting my spleen in the normal way I thought I’d have a go at setting my feelings to verse! In a wicked stroke of irony, I actually ended up enjoying this collection of short stories (much more than her last two books)…

What more is there to say
About Ms. Laurell K?
Her characters just have sex all day!
Her new book has turned up for me to read,
(the last one made my poor eyes bleed).
Can this new one even up the score?
Or will it be the same stuff as before…

The first story starts, Anita’s on a plane
And off to raise the dead again.
Micah’s with her, which is handy
Cos’ you can bet that she’ll get randy!
True to form, this happens a lot
But doesn’t take precedence over the plot.

‘Micah’ is quite a gripping tale,
Hamilton never lets things get stale.
If I’d read this first when starting out
I’d have given Ms. H the benefit of the doubt.
With more short stories in the book
I’d see if Laurell had what it took…

The rest of the collection isn’t half bad
With more ‘Anita’ stories to make fans glad.
The other stories range from light hearted to deep,
My favourites were ‘A Lust of Cupids’ and ‘A Clean Sweep’.
‘Here Be Dragons’ was also quite hot.
The fantasy stories, however, were not.

To bring an end to this little rhyme,
I’d conclude ‘Micah’ is no waste of time.
Not all of the stories will be to your taste,
But enough will be good so it won’t be a waste.
Fans of Ms Hamilton won’t give this a miss
(If only she could write more books like this!)

Six and a Half out of Ten