Another perk of e-readers is that I can buy books that are privately published or not published by authors I know, recognize and want to read more of. Diane Duane is one of these writers - she published an anthology called Uptown Local and Other Interventions which compiles a number of her previous short stories, some of which are published elsewhere and others of which are not published at all. For many of these, the unedited or lightly-edited parts are easy enough to see - I definitely appreciate her book-published books more. On the other hand, I love the ability to see the short stories that didn't make the cut, or that I never read before because I'd never picked up that particular anthology. While I love short stories, I tend not to buy anthologies unless I recognize most of the authors writing in them.
As I've mentioned before, I'm a huge fan of her Young Wizards books - in some ways, I'm a bigger fan of this series than I am of Harry Potter, and that's saying a great deal. There are two short stories in the Young Wizards-verse here, of which one was great and the other . . . not so much. I found Theobroma to be an adorable story involving true love, a bit of magic, and a lot of chocolate. This short story didn't have any of the characters we recognized (other than in passing), but still left an impact. The other, Uptown Local, used Kit and Nita from the main Young Wizards series as protagonists. However, both characters were very out-of-character as compared to the Young Wizards books, which I found troubling. It's obvious this short story was written much earlier (likely after the second Young Wizards book), but even so, Kit and Nita of the short story were not the Kit and Nita I love from the main series.
The other short stories are a mixed bag. The best stories lean towards cute - the worst are all right but are also forgettable. A good short story sticks in your brain whether you like it to or not - a bad one disappears less than two hours later. One of the short story concepts (used in The Rizzoli Bag and Out of the Frying Pan) needed more fleshing out - it has promise but I didn't think it did well in either short story.
If you're a Diane Duane fan anyway, I would say the book is worth the $6. The Fix, Bears, The Back Door, In the Company of Heroes and Theobroma are worth reading. The others . . . well, if I hadn't taken notes, I wouldn't remember what happened in them. If you're not a Diane Duane fan to begin with, I wouldn't start with this.
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