Review: The Five Muses, An Anthology

Bee Gears with the Five Muses

I had a wonderful birthday today, with fantastic presents and great company. One of the highlights of the day was receiving this wonderful book of short stories. It contains seven stories by different authors and is introduced with a foreword by children's author Geri Valentine. The first story, A Fragment of Time, charts man's history with dragons after the flood. Dragons feature again in the second story, Flower, where an old man teaches his grand daughter about the beauty of life and is rewarded for his faith. In A Very Happy Birthday, Rags the dog describes her plan for the perfect day, and in Lily we meet an accountant who leads people back to God. Rubies are Dangerous is a haunting gothic tale twined with romance, set in Paris and concerning curses and the ballet. A Turgid Tale is inappropriately titled as it is an exciting and chilling story about druids and animal sacrifice. Dragons crop up once more in the final story, Falcon, which is a fantasy that will leave you wanting to delve deeper into its world.

I devoured the entire book in one sitting. Each story is engrossing and the threads of fantasy and horror that weave through the book give it a cohesive theme and make it a satisfying collection. I hope that this is the first in many such anthologies and I eagerly await more editions of The Five Muses.