Joy to the Worlds by Maia Chance, Janine A. Southard, Raven Oak, and G. Clemans

Joy to the Worlds: Mysterious Speculative Fiction for the Holidays
by Maia Chance, Janine A. Southard, Raven Oak, and G. Clemans

I received this anthology of mystery-themed science fiction and fantasy set during the Christmas season from LibraryThing's EarlyReviewer program several years ago... just before I got overwhelmed with the number of ER books I had and thus shifted to being much more selective about my requests. But this  book finally surfaced to the top of my reading list over this holiday season, and so I finally read it, and now I am finally writing it up. Only seven years after it was published! How's that for "early"?

Published: 2015
Acquired: October 2015
Read: January 2023

The book has no credited editor, and consists of eight stories by four authors, each contributing two stories; the writers write introductions to each other's work. It's published by a small press and gives off a very small-press vibe in a bad way: none of these stories really read like they're ready for prime time. They almost all needed some tightening, or some rethinking of the basic premise.

The first one, "The Wild Hunt," has a neat idea of a modern wild hunt, but the very set-up makes no sense: we're told  they sniff out murders, but they fob their newest member off on a murder they see as unimportant... only they don't seem to have anything else to do? Or there's "Escape from Yorktown," set in a Victorian-themed reenactment on future Earth that just seems to go on and on before it gets to the point and is filled with clunky dialogue. "Bevel & Turn" had a neat premise, a Christmas whirligig that transports a character into their own family's history, but either I couldn't keep everything straight or (more likely) the story couldn't motivate me to want to. "Ol' St. Nick" was an overlong story where a murder victim was dressed as Santa Claus and otherwise had no meaningful Christmas connection.

The closest story to being good was "The Ringers" by Raven Oak, which was creepy and atmospheric, though if it was meant to be set in our world's real history, it didn't convince; felt more like stereotypes of the past than the actual past.

So overall, very much missable, and a good example of why I became more selective with my LTER requests. Mediocre books you get for free might not cost you money, but they do cost you time you could have spent reading and reviewing a better book.