Featuring stories from some of today's top urban fantasy authors including Jim Butcher, Kelley Armstrong, Seanan McGuire and quite a few others I hadn't sampled before picking this up, Urban Enemies is an anthology with a difference. All of the stories are told from the point of view of characters who are normally considered the villains of the story.
Tom Hiddleston said about playing the character Loki "Every villain is the hero in his own narrative" and that's very true in these stories. The characters know they aren't the good guys, but they're playing by their own rules.
I'd read Jim Butcher's story in a previous anthology and was disappointed, since he is headlining this work, that it wasn't a new piece. Of the others, Seanan McGuire never disappoints and I always enjoy Caitlin Kittredge's work. I discovered a new author I need to check out in Joseph Nassise, whose story was probably my favourite in the book.
Many of the stories would be difficult to get into if you didn't already follow the main series they were from. Some I just had no idea what was going on, and the writing didn't grab me enough to make me want to read more. At $11.00 for the Kindle version and $9.78 for the paperback, I definitely wouldn't be buying this one unless I was a serious collector of one of the authors and couldn't get the story elsewhere.
Three stars.
Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book for review through NetGalley.