Canning has put together a powerful collection here--there's a good range of both styles and focus (with the theme in mind), and although one or two of the stories left me less than interested, the vast majority of the works here are beautifully written and tightly woven. Even within the theme, in fact, there's so much range of story subject and character that the collection never seems repetitive, which can too often be the case with collections like this. All told, this presented me with a few authors whose works I'm going to look up in the future, and was a striking and enjoyable read.

Certainly, I'd recommend it for interested short story readers. ( )