Glimpses [Paperback]

Glimpses is a short story collection, which die-hard Nightrunner fans will be thrilled to read, because it's full of interesting details about the characters (I'm one of these die-hard fans, because I've liked Lynn Flewelling's books since reading Luck in the Shadows a few years ago). Glimpses is also a good collection for new fans, because it contains stories, which reveal several interesting things about the characters and their lives.

If somebody hasn't read any Nightrunner books yet, here's some information about them:

The Nightrunner series currently consists of five books:
- Luck in the Shadows (1996)
- Stalking Darkness (1997)
- Traitor's Moon (1999)
- Shadows Return (2008)
- The White Road (2010)

There will be at last two more books. The forthcoming sixth book is currently called The Summer Players (2011), but it's a working title, so the title may change before publication.

The main characters are Seregil and Alec. Seregil is a master thief and spy, who's known as the "Rhíminee Cat". Alec is a young man, who becomes friends with Seregil, when Seregil rescues him. They work secretly for Skala and do nightrunning (they steal certain items etc). Their glorious adventures take them to different places and difficult situations.

Nightrunner books are entertaining, macabre and beautifully written fantasy books for adult readers. These books have become famous for the gradually developing homosexual relationship between Seregil and Alec, but there's much more to these books than that.

There are several different kind of elements in these books: political intrigue, mysteries, war, magic, friendship and love. Although Lynn Flewelling's books contain dark happenings, there's also plenty of good and clever humour. These books are the best kind of fantasy entertainment for adult readers who appreciate fine prose, fantastic adventures, mysteries and macabre happenings - these books are fun to read.

Now I'll write more about Glimpses:

Glimpses contains the following stories (and an excerpt from the forthcoming sixth Nightrunner book):
- Misfit
- The Wild
- By the River
- The Bond

Misfit: Misfit is a story about how Seregil becomes Nysander's apprentice in Rhíminee. It also tells about Seregil's first Skalan sexual liaison (everybody who's read Shadows Return will be thrilled to read this story, because it tells more about Seregil's affair with a certain person). It was interesting to read about Seregil, Korathan and Phoria, when they were young.

The Wild: The Wild is a story about Alec's childhood (Alec is six years old), but it's also a story about how his parents met each other and what happened to their relationship. In this story Alec's father, Amasa, meets Alec's mother, Ireya, who's a Hâzadriëlfaie. The Wild is a beautiful, moving and brutal story.

By the River: By the River tells how Seregil and Micum Cavish meet. Their meeting is interesting, because Micum first thinks that Seregil is a girl, but soon finds out that he's an Aurënfaie. In this story Micum is younger than in the books.

The Bond: The Bond is a story about Seregil and Alec's first night as lovers. This short story takes place at the end of Stalking Darkness, when Seregil is an emotional wreck after the tragic death of the wizard Nysander. The Bond is an interesting and beautiful story about Seregil and Alec's bonding (talímenios bond) and their deepening relationship. It's an emotionally satisfying story.

It may be a surprise to readers that this collection contains erotic scenes. I knew that there would be erotic scenes in this collection, because Lynn Flewelling mentioned about it in her blog, but I never expected that she'd be this bold. The erotic scenes (there are homoerotic scenes in The Bond and Misfit, and there's one erotic scene in The Wild) are quite graphic, but in my opinion they aren't exactly hardcore erotica, because Lynn Flewelling writes about real sex. She uses nice graphic details, but the scenes are erotic, sensual and beautiful (and feelings are involved). She writes fluently and lovingly about sexual situations without preaching.

All these stories are fascinating and well written. It's a pleasure to read this kind of fantasy prose, because Lynn Flewelling never lets her fans down. She writes exquisitely about different and difficult things (I'm sure that all readers will agree with me on this when I say that she's one of the best fantasy writers ever). I'm sure that her addictive writing style and storytelling talents will charm all the readers.

I have to say that I like Lynn Flewelling's characters very much, because they're realistic, three-dimensional and memorable characters with their own feelings and traits. They're almost like real living and breathing people - that's why it's so easy to like them.

Foreword by Laura Anne Gilman was an interesting essay. I also enjoyed reading "A Few Words" by Lynn Flewelling, because she wrote about the stories and illustrations. The excerpt from the forthcoming book was also interesting and it made me want to read the book as soon as it's published.

The cover art by Anne Cain looks gorgeous and the black and white illustrations by professional and amateur artists are beautiful. I like the illustrations very much and I think that other Nightrunner fans will also like them.

Three Crow Press has done a good job with this short story collection. It's great that these excellent short stories have been gathered into one book, because it's nice to read about the moments, which have so far been only hinted at in the books.

If you're a fan of Lynn Flewelling's Nightrunner series, this collection belongs to your bookshelf. You won't regret buying it, because the stories are charming and fascinating. This collection can also be recommended to new Flewelling fans, who haven't read all the Nightrunner books yet. Highly recommended!

(Hint: If you haven't discovered the magic of Lynn Flewelling yet, now would be a good time to start reading her books.)

To begin with, let me say that I'm a big fan of the Nightrunner series, and to a lesser degree of the Tamir Triad as well.

I went into reading this collection of (very) short stories expecting some interesting background for the Nightrunner characters, but what i mostly got was erotic fan fiction, by the author herself. Now, i don't mind some pretty graphic sex (straight or gay) in regular books as long as it's somewhat related to the story, but on it's own like this it's a bit thin.

This "book" simply feels too much like an extremely short Harlequin sex novel than as something that expands on the Nightrunners. I didn't feel it advanced the characters at all, and believe the author can write a lot better than this.

TLDR; Mostly gay sex, not enough adventure.

I bought this ages ago for a the friend who gave me the first two nightrunner books years ago, I was going to take a sneak peek at it before giving it to her, but she was up the day it arrived and I never got a chance to look through it. Thinking it way to thin a volume to pay out a small fortune for myself.
How foolish I was.
And as a fan of Lynn Flewelling's work, I really should have known better.
So...
I would say this is for ALL Nightrunner fans. It rounds out some of the character backgrounds to a fine finish that were never covered in the books.
And `The Bond' is a direct carry on from our favourite bit at the end of Stalking Darkness' when Alec and Seregil finally get it together! (tbh it almost feel like it was edited form the original book, and we finally get to have the bit we most wanted to see ^_~ I'm sure you can guess what that bit is!)
I devoured this book in one sitting like a really good cream cake and tea! And in that, always leaves you gasping for more!
VERY worth the price it is for any Nightrunner fan, and a good stop gape until `Casket of Souls' is released in 2012.
PS: in the book it mentions the 6th Nightrunner book as being called `The Summer Players' and mention it as a `working title', it was, the book is now called `Casket of Souls', go check it out ^_^