Another month with only one review published (there'll be more in May):

Tales from the Secret City by Cryptopolis.

Tales from the Secret City by Cryptopolis (2007)

General science fiction/fantasy anthology from a writers' group based in Austin, Texas. One of those frustrating books which has nothing bad, but plenty that's not quite good enough. I'll expand on that to clarify exactly what I mean: I got along with all the stories in the book; there was nothing I could I say I disliked; yet many of the tales lacked that extra spark that made them stand out. Perhaps I'm just very picky, but it was often the case that the authors had come up with good ideas, but didn't quite take them far enough for me.

Out of ten stories, I would say three were particularly good. In 'Dance of Life and Death', Sharon Casteel weaves a poignant tale about a society of sentient bugs (yes, really!). In Patrice Sarath's 'Ice', a hockey player wanders between reality and the world of the ballet Giselle (which are, at times, one and the same); finishing this story was like waking from a dream (that's the sort of feeling I'd have welcomed more often). Then there's 'Race to the Noonie' by Matthew Bey, which is plain weird (I don't mean that dismissively): representatives of the Patchwork Kingdom race against the Greys to reach the 'noonie', the cleft that will allow access to the underside of the flat world, and... oh, you'll just have to read the story -- but it works.