Heroic Hearts, edited by Jim Butcher and Kerrie L Hughes

This collection of short stories features some favourite dark fantasy authors, including Anne Bishop, Charlaine Harris and Patricia Briggs. It’s all wizards, witches and warlocks, vampires and werewolves, elves and fae. Many of the stories are very dark indeed, which tends to overshadow the purported theme of heroic hearts. Some are overlong and some are clearly part of established worlds and don’t necessarily stand alone for those readers unfamiliar with the author’s oevre. But the beauty of a short story anthology is that there is something for everyone and, at best, it can provide a taste of one or more authors worth seeking out for more.