This is an anthology of short stories featuring everyone's favorite albino sorcerer king, the Dragon Emperor, the Eternal Champion, Elric of Melnibonë. Most of the contributors are successful fantasy authors in their own right, no doubt inspired by Michael Moorcock's creation to build their own worlds and characters. It's interesting when you read these stories how you can see Moorcock's influence on some of their own stories. It even features a short story by Gary "Advanced Dungeons and Dragons" Gygax! Unlike most of the stories, which tend to feature Elric as the main protagonist, Gygax instead tells a story from Moonglum's perspective. Moonglum is just one of many doomed companions of the White Wolf, eventually consumed by Elric's demonblade, Stormbringer.

This is part of an urban fantasy series of novels set in Russia by Sergei Lukyanenko. For thousands of years, the Others have divided themselves into two main groups: the Night Watch, who serve the Light, and the Day Watch, who serve the forces of Darkness. It's actually a bit more complicated than that, as members of the Day Watch are really more libertarian/anarchist in their philosophy than explicitly worshipping demonic forces. Each book is a collection of three loosely-connected novellas that lead up to a climactic ending in the third part of the book.

It's not bad. I like the general worldbuilding that underlies the setting. The Others are beings with some form of access to the Twilight, additional layers of reality beyond our normal senses. Wizards and witches are the most powerful able to access deep levels of Twilight, while shapeshifters and vampires tend to be weaker overall, but still dangerous to mortals.

The Inquisition maintains the balance between the Day Watch and the Night Watch, ensuring that neither one gets too out of hand, as that tends to have rather unfortunate consequences for the world, like wars, famines, plagues, and the usual disasters that cause untold misery and destruction across the globe, which we mere mortals attribute to the folly of man or the capriciousness of Mother Nature.

This story puts the "opera" in "space opera" by featuring a subplot with an actual opera performance. The main plot features a family of interstellar scavengers that use the monopoly of a portal network to loot worlds for lost technology. The Hard Rapture several centuries ago was the moment that the bulk of humanity transcended itself and became a hyperintelligent entity capable of godlike feats. For the survivors, they made do by leveraging some of the remnants of this technological feat to establish standard empires within the galaxy.

There are some interesting post-human effects explored within this story. For instance, because it's possible to backup and restore entire minds, death is no longer permanent with proper preparation and sufficient wealth. It means that people can almost treat life like a video game. This is exploited at one point when characters go to a world that's bombarded by neutron-star radiation, which is ultimately deadly, but the characters are able to survive long enough to fulfill their mission and "restore from backup."

The Prime Directive in the Star Trek universe has always been idealistic twaddle. This story hammers that philosophy home hard as we see what happens when a young Starfleet Commander has to stand by and watch atrocities occur so that the Federation can gain yet one more world under its sway. Neither the Klingons nor the Romulans abide by any such Prime Directive, ruthlessly exploiting any technologically primitive world for their own gain.

Commander Stone is assigned to the Enterprise-D so that Picard and his crew can instill some proper Starfleet discipline in Stone. His behavior has become erratic and unpredictable, though he's also brilliant in taking a third option whenever he can. Meanwhile, Commander Riker has been reassigned to assist Federation terraformers on a world where a mad scientist experiment has run amok.

I was surprised by the quality of this story, as it really does show the perils of command and how events can shape our lives. Stone seems like a sociopath, and to some extent he probably is, but then you find out his backstory and it all makes sense. It's very dark for a Star Trek story.

Unlike most Star Trek novels, this story is told in first person from the perspective of Lieutenant Commander Piper. She is recruited by Captain Kirk and Commander Spock to undertake a secret mission to uncover the truth about what happened to a group of scientists involved in the development of "transwarp" technology. Apparently there are a few different forms of this within the Star Trek Expanded Universe. In this story, it's a dimensional-warping device that will revolutionize space travel, but it's also highly unstable and dangerous. The scientist who developed the theory behind it wants to sell the technology to the highest bidder, which makes the Federation very unhappy.

It's a sequel to a previous Star Trek novel, Dreadnaught, but it's not necessary to read the previous story to understand what's going on in this story. LTC Piper is young and very unsure of herself, but find herself growing into her role as a capable leader and commander, which is why Captain Kirk assigned her to this mission, even though she didn't know about it until halfway through the story.

I'm somewhat lukewarm on Charles Stross stories. He has a tendency towards over-exposition of his technology, as if he's trying to show off his knowledge. Still, he does have intriguing stories and this is one of them. The Festival, an alien "infovore" has arrived around a New Republic world, one based on a neo-feudalistic society modeled after late nineteenth-century Russia. The Festival provides unlimited goods for the local peasant population, in exchange for "entertainment" in the form of stories or just general knowledge. Meanwhile, the ruling aristocratic authorities are annoyed because they feel that control over their populace is threatened. Revolutionaries are spouting Marxist rhetoric that also threatens their rule.

Agents from the Echaton--the super-intelligence that actually rules humanity--have been dispatched to steer the New Republic from a disasterous course towards war against the Festival. The Festival is mostly harmless, but not defenseless and does respond to aggression with deadly retaliation. The Eschaton also wants to ensure that causality is absolutely preserved. Humans can travel at faster-than-light speeds only because of certain loopholes in causality. Attempting to circumvent those loopholes for strategic military gain is strictly forbidden as that would threaten the existence of the Echaton. It will ensure its own survival by making a sun go nova, so it's best to keep on their good side.

After the passing of my cat Jasmine, I needed some "comfort" reading, so I opted to read a series of books that I've enjoyed for several decades. I remember picking up the first book, Firedrake, because it featured cover art by Larry Elmore and it was written by Richard A. Knaak, who had penned one of the best Dragonlance novels, The Legend of Huma.

On the surface, the Dragonrealm series seems like a generic fantasy series, but once you've read the first couple of books, you'll soon realize there's much more depth to it. The worldbuilding is amazing, with complex layers of reality the characters have to navigate along with intricate plots where you're not always sure who is in the right. The main characters such as Cabe Bedlam and Lady Gwen are decent, if a bit boring. The side characters, however, tend to be much more interesting. The Dragon Kings are not just generic villains. They operate in a complicated world and when we find out their origins, it explains a lot of their behaviors and ideology. The shadow steed Darkhorse is a unique entity in the multiverse, a sentient Void who just happens to enjoy taking the shape of a powerful horse. The Gryphon is a mysterious being originating from across the seas, ruler of the City of Knowledge. And Shade is a sorcerer supreme cursed with being immortal, but vacillating between good and evil in his incarnations.

I find it to be a very enjoyable series for the most part and I'm looking forward to reading through it again.

In the sequel to Firedrake, the Gold Dragon Emperor has been defeated, but his brother the Ice Dragon now threatens the Dragonrealm. Cabe Bedlam and his wife, the beautiful Lady of the Amber Gwendolyn, must travel to the heart of the Ice Dragon's frozen domain before he can unleash a deadly spell that will cover the entire world in a new ice age, destroying not only all humans, but all life everywhere.

Meanwhile, Cabe's inhuman friend and ally the Gryphon is tracking down the source of the mysterious "wolf raiders" who furnished the Black Dragon with an inexhaustible supply of soldiers during the Black Dragon's siege of Penacles, the city the Gryphon is sworn to defend. He discovers that the answers to his questions lie in a continent across the seas...

Wolfhelm is the third book in the Dragonrealm series and focuses on the adventures of the humanoid lionbird known as the Gryphon. His origins are shrouded in mystery, but he knows he came from a distant land across the Eastern Seas. That continent is ruled by the Aramite Empire, who worships the Ravager, a god that takes the image of a wolf. The Aramites are at war with the Dream Lands, a coterminus reality that overlays the Aramite Empire and threatens their existence. The Gryphon finds himself caught up in a struggle between ancient powers he barely understands, as he also struggles to comprehend his own origins. Where did he come from? Why is he unique? Why does the godlike Ravager fear him?