These Dreaming Spires is a second well curated anthology drawn from the fantasy worlds of dark academia curated and edited by Marie O'Regan & Paul Kane. Released 2nd Sept 2025 by Titan Books, it's 368 pages and is available in hardcover, audio, and ebook formats. Paperback due out in 3rd quarter 2026 from the same publisher. It's worth noting that the ebook format has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links.
This is a nice collection of varied short fantasy from 12 top shelf well known contemporary authors including Olivie Blake, Genevieve Cogman, Elspeth Wilson, and MK Lobb. All the stories are new for this collection.
The stories are varied, there were (as always) some which didn't grab me personally, but all were well written and competently plotted. They were mostly in the 4 star range(ish) with a smattering of really standout stories. This is a well curated solid anthology of stories in the 3-5 star range.
One reason collections
and anthologies are so enjoyable is that short fiction is really challenging. It's spare, and the author doesn't have a wealth of wordage to develop characters
or the plotting. Well written short fiction is a delight. They're perennially enjoyed because if one story doesn't really engage the reader, there's another
story just a few pages away.
Four stars on average. It's a diverting read.
Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.
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