Tom Sniegoski

A brief, okay, collection of relatively fast paced urban fantasy stories featuring four authors long running magical detective protagonists. I'm a little unsure what the goal of the collection was. While some of these novellas serve as reasonably good introductions to the worlds and characters that are otherwise centered in long running series, others are perhaps not the best pick if that was the goal. And I'm reasonably sure they're all available in other collections elsewhere.
Jim Butcher's Dresden novella isn't a bad one, in fact I quite enjoyed it when I read it in one of the two collections of short fiction specifically for Dresden stories. However, it seems like a weak choice for this collection. Its plopped right in the middle of ongoing events in the Dresden series and requires a lot of pre-existing knowledge of long-running characters and relationships to carry much weight.
Interesting, while I'm not a fan of Simon Green's Nightside series, I think the novella here works really well as a stand alone. I wonder if I'd feel the same way in general, that maybe that world works better for me in short form than long? The short form does solve some of the issues of repetitiveness that the full novels suffer from. Just be aware that mileage may vary between this as an introduction to that series, and the series itself, in terms of quality.
I had not read any of Kat Richardson's Greywalker books, but "Little Clay Dog" was a fun and touching introduction to that world that leaves me curious about. Which I would assume is the point.
I'm a little ambivalent about the final story by Sniegoski, both in quality and how well it serves to introduce and entice the reader into a new world they may want to explore.
Overall, I'd say skip this unless you find it cheap, you're a fan of these series already, and are a bit of a completionist. I think there are probably better collections that can serve as exposure if you're curious about these series, or for that matter you could pick up the first book of each, used, for cheap enough to go that route instead.… (more)

Some other reviewers were kind enough to give a synopsis of the book, so this review is basically for folks with a similar attitude to mine who may benefit by the heads up. I will simply say, that I didn't like *A kiss before Apocalypse*, The first book in the Remy Chandler series and here's why - This is yet another first book in a series, that starts off without a decent character introduction. I rather feel like the reader needs to be part of the character development required for an Angel to leave heaven and form lasting relationships with humans. There needs to be some work done to get the reader to a place where that character makes sense. But as I read a few chapters in to this book, after a few vague allusions to back-story,(that would have been insightful had it been fleshed out) I kept getting the feeling that I'd started the second book first by accident. This appears to be a trend that I've run across it a few times of late, mostly in books that are released as part of an, "A (Character name here) novel", series. To me jumping in to the story without character exposition is a kind of cheap short hand that I find just tolerable in movies and TV shows. In books; I don't much like it. I really wanted to like this book; the story idea is very appealing - what happens when an angel of the Lord settles on earth and starts making a living as a Private investigator? Unfortunately I found the scanty introduction to the main character and his cronies to be off putting in its approach and brevity. I really want to know what happened to make THAT happen before we settle in to the action of the second reel. I read to chapter nine of nineteen where, finally, almost a full chapter of back story was on offer; but no still real character revelation. There may be hope for the subsequent books in this series, but no hope for my reading them. I didn't throw *A kiss before Apocalypse* across the room, (The fate of those most evil of writings) but I didn't finish it either (rather a bit like book purgatory…)… (more)