I liked all of the stories in this collection pretty well, but I definitely liked the last story, the genius prize, the best of all of them. ( )

As ever, I like pretty well all Marie Brennan has written.  I enjoyed this collection even though I've no longer got dedicated reading time on the train.  A bit more varied than earlier collections; it included a wider variety of fantasy types. Recommended.

Really excellent collection of seven urban fantasy short stories from the acclaimed author Marie Brennan. She write sin many genres, most famously in traditional (ish) fantasy, but these are her more modern/urban fantasy tales. The transition from novel to short story is not easy or straightforward, but Marie manages it with ease, these are all great stories with written to the appropriate length of the story with an appropriately punchy finish.

A couple feature that weird pseudo-science report style, that I find particularly amusing having to deal with the real thing far too often. They are great parodies in this respect, but stand well as stories as their own to. The Selection is one of the best short stories I've ever read. Only a few pages long, it is an insiders description of an interview process similar to applying to elite universities, but subtly different. I won't spoil the punchline but I totally didn't see it coming.

All the stories have their own authors notes to add a few more pages to what is a short collection, these are less interesting but reveal some fascinating tit-bits of the authorial process - Marie read over 400 pages of ethano-scholarship on south american tribes as part of her research into what turned out to be a 4 page story. Much like the rest of science and life good preparation is key. As afr as I'm aware none of these stories are the sparks or set for longer novels, but I will look up the rest of her urban fantasy. ( )

It rarely happens. 5 stars on a short story collection is a rarity for me. I'm always at least slightly dissatisfied with (if not downright hostile to) some of the stories.
This collection was different.

I enjoyed every single story. Even the ones that I didn't particularly like were still entertaining and/or interesting. I guess it helps there are only a handful of stories. Without giving anything away, they are:

Coyataje - an illegal border crossing and a magical transformation
Selection - it's a rigorous competition to be eligible for this normally-you'd-think-undesirable position
Such as Dreams Are Made Of - if buildings had spirits and didn't want to be torn down
La Molejera - an anthropologist spends time in a village that still maintains its old religions, centered around an old woman who spends her days grinding...
Comparison of Efficacy Rates for Seven Antipathetics as Employed Against Lycanthropes - from an unsympathetic observer
The Last Wendy - Peter Pen comes back to the modern day and doesn't find the same warm reception
The Genius Prize - winners of two major competitions in kaiju and mecha meet at a grand competition, which this year goes terribly wrong

Each story had something about it that made me stop and think. A couple may have come off as preachy in other situations but in Marie's hands they weren't.
Where Selection is rather dry deliverance, it's a fun concept. Comparison was the most rawly entertaining, although it's not exactly a 'story' (it would be entertaining to see more from the researcher). The girl in Last Wendy irritated me but it was a different take which I found interesting. The Genius Prize was a fun robots-vs-monsters type story that was fully conclusive.

I've also enjoyed Marie's Nine Lands short story collection, her New Worlds non-fiction (writing advice but just cool facts!), and of course the Natural History of Dragons series. I am currently reading her collaborative novel Mask of Mirrors. I love her imagination. Recently I saw her 'live' (we wish) at World Fantasy Con and enjoyed listening to her. I'll keep reading her stories, that's for sure! ( )

Down a Street That Wasn't There is a very nice short story collection, even if I didn't quite love it as much as Brennan's other collection The Nine Lands. But given that I work at university myself and am a perpetual student, it is nice that a lot of her stories reference academia in one way or another. It was a very good read overall.

Read more on my blog: https://kalafudra.com/2020/11/04/down-a-street-that-wasnt-there-marie-brennan/ ( )