Apothecary (Fantasy Anthology #1)

Author: Thomas Fey

5 out of 5 stars

Apothecary is a dark fantasy anthology of flash fiction and short stories. The title story is about an apothecary proprietor and the potions he sales that truly do what he says they do. Some of the other stories are about magical portals to other worlds, humans transforming into beasts, and dragons. The collection’s longest story follows a frost giant on a quest to avenge his people and remove magic from the world.

While there were a couple of stories that I thought were just okay, I really enjoyed most of them. They all drew me in and many had unexpected endings. The longer stories had some good descriptive writing and some action, and some decent world-building. A lot of them left me wanting more. I also noticed that many of them had some kind of element of change, whether that’s a change in the wold or a change of self.

My favorite story was “White Always Moves First”. Based on chess, it’s about the Black Nation and the White Nation getting ready to do battle on the playing field. Following the rules of chess, the white king has to make the first move, but indecision and unwillingness to sacrifice a pawn keeps him from making a move. But the sudden appearance of the Red Nation, who want to destroy both nations, forces them to consider working together. The whole concept was fun, and the story and characters were very well written.

There wasn’t anything I disliked about this anthology. They were all well written and intriguing, so I’m rating it 5 out of 5 stars.

Price through Amazon Kindle: $0

Link to buy: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00EGNYUWQ

(I do not benefit from the use of this link.)