Familiars by Denise Little

Familiars Reviews

• 
  Lindsey Duncan

  This anthology offers stories about the mage's faithful companion, the familiar, and promises to depart from the usual cliches with new and different interpretations. Unfortunately, it fails on this account. Most of the stories do involve cats or dogs - which seems to be to be the obvious anti-cliche of the familiar world - and the familiars generally play an expected role in the story. (There is one tale where the familiar is particularly clever, which I won't identify because it spoils the ending ... but it's the only story where I felt the familiar was an intriguing, different sort of beast.)
  
  I initially was going to give this anthology three stars, because most of the stories are passable and entertaining enough, and a couple shine: the riotous (if somewhat loosely plotted) "First Familiars," by Laura Resnick, which manages to take on the Clinton's pets and still marvelously avoids partisan commentary; and "This Dog Watched," by Von Jocks, where magic, love and the power of words blend together into a poetry of their own. However, many of the stories seemed uneven, bland or incomplete, and the final story is a bewildering eighty-nine page epic where I still couldn't tell you exactly what happened and why.
  
  I also found the description of this anthology somewhat misleading, because a large majority of the stories are contemporary, with only a few set in secondary worlds. With so many options for familiars in different societies, I was a bit disappointed by this. Not that I mind modern stories, but I feel the description of an anthology should be more upfront about the contents.
  
  In the end, most of the stories were a decent read, but predictable or forgettable.
• 
  Kristy McRae

  I was disappointed by this one. What promised to be a "new" take on the idea of familiars (something other than the standard black cat), really didn't venture that far afield. There were some dogs, a rat, and a few other interesting characters as familiars, but it really didn't stretch the theme all that much. The story featuring Bill Clinton's cat Socks was entertaining and humorous. But mostly, the stories were just....meh. I finished the book only a couple days ago, and none of the other stories really stuck with me. And the final story (more novella-length, actually) just made my head spin! I thought it was just me, but I've read some other reviews that expressed the same thing--I felt like I'd been dropped into the middle of a novel, and I had no idea what was going on. There were so many things mentioned but never explained, so much technical computer jargon being used that I really couldn't follow, and I found I really didn't sympathize with anyone in the story enough to care what happened to them. It was an extended, mad muddle of a story, that had me saying "Wha.....?" most of the time! Kind of a bummer way to start the year, overall.
• 
  Lori Schiele

  Short stories covering the subject of "familiars": companions that often have a spiritual connection to wizards and witches and may assist them with magick -- some of the stories use the term quite literally while others use it quite loosely, and/or humorously.
  As always, some of the stories were better than others, but for the most part, an enjoyable read, whether you are a magick-user yourself, or just enjoy the concept.
• 
  Amélie

  Michelle Sagar's short story is a SF story about a young girl and her friend who are on a quest in a VR game.
• 
  Melanti

  Not a single story in this anthology really captured my attention. They were all rather lackluster.
• 
  Sarah

  Includes a Winston and Ruby story. Several really great stories and a few that are just okay. Really great story for someone who has just lost a dog like Delilah. It could practically be about her.
• 
  Ann

  As with most short story collections, there were good ones and a few not so good ones.