***Review*** 'Til The World Ends by Julie Kagawa et al

'Til The World Ends by Julie Kagawa, Ann Aguirre & Karen Duvall

Released: 29th January 2013

Publisher: Luna/ Harlequin

Series: Short stories

Source: From Netgalley - for review purposes

Format: Digital ARC

Find at: Goodreads | Amazon UK | Amazon US | The Book Depository | Barnes & Noble

Author Sites:  Julie Kagawa | Ann Aguirre | Karen Duvall

Goodreads Synopsis: Dawn of Eden by Julie Kagawa

Before The Immortal Rules, there was the Red Lung, a relentless virus determined to take out all in its path. For Kylie, the miracle of her survival is also her burden-as a doctor at one of the clinics for the infected, she is forced to witness endless suffering. What's worse, strange things are happening to the remains of the dead, and by the time she befriends Ben Archer, she's beginning to wonder if a global pandemic is the least of her problems....

Thistle & Thorne by Ann Aguirre

After a catastrophic spill turns the country into a vast chemical wasteland, those who could afford it retreated to fortresses, self-contained communities run by powerful corporations. But for Mari Thistle, life on the outside-in the Red Zone-is a constant struggle. To protect her family, Mari teams up with the mysterious Thorne Goodman. Together, they'll face an evil plot in both the underworld of the Red Zone and the society inside the fortresses that could destroy those on the outside...for good.

Sun Storm by Karen Duvall

Sarah Daggot has been chasing storms since she was a child. But after the biggest solar flares in history nearly destroy the planet, she becomes a Kinetic, endowed by her exposure to extreme radiation with the power to sense coming storms-in the cosmos and beyond. And she's not the only one. Sarah believes the Kinetics are destined to join forces and halt the final onslaught of the sun. She'll vow to keep trying to convince the one missing link in their chain of defence, the enigmatic Ian Matthews, up until the world ends.

My Review:

Have to say this one really appealed to me as it had a blood of Eden short story by Julie Kagawa in it.  I'd never heard of the other authors before but I think sometimes short stories are a good way to get a taster of the style of writing.  I'm going to rate each book on their own merit and then at the end you will see the overall rating of this anthology.  Post apocalyptic worlds have to be ones of my favourite genres, I just love seeing strong characters having to brave harsh and unknown worlds.

Dawn of Eden by Julie Kagawa - 4/5

This one was by far the best story in the book, I really enjoyed book one which I read recently.  So the story and the world created by Kagawa was still freshly in my mind.  What a great edition to the series this short story was.  It was mostly about new characters, but the odd known character did pop up.  I'm not going to give too much away, I hate spoiling it for people.  But I have to say that if you enjoyed Immortal Rules this short story books is definitely worth getting just for this story alone.

Thistle and Thorn by Ann Aguirre 4/5

This is a new author to me so I have never experienced their worlds or they characters before.  I have to say I was a bit sceptical and worried I would not completely get or enjoy this book as sometimes short stories need to be read after reading part of a series.  This was not the case with this book or the last one in the anthology.  I can say that the author did a great job of introducing the world and the characters.  There was a really likeable strong female character lead and boy did she kick ass.  My kind of girl :)I would certainly like to read more books by this author.

Sun Storm by Karen Duvall 3/5

This was my least favourite story.  It was not the easiest to get into and I didn't totally gel with the main character.  The premise of the story did sound interesting and had I been reading a longer version of this, I may have liked it even more.  I think a lot more character development and world building was needed.  This was a short story and therefore there was a lot to cram into it in such a short space of time.

Overall:

As I've found with some short story books, there are some stories that outshine the others.  I really thoroughly enjoyed the one by Julie Kagawa.

My Thoughts on the Cover:

 It's different and I do like the bit branching off from the letter E.  I can't quite make out whether it looks like blood vessels or tree roots.  But I can't say that it's the type of cover that screams out to me.

Many thanks to Netgalley and the Publisher for supplying me with a copy for review.