Some of the stories were really good, some of them delighted me less and I still could not care less about Aliane so, you know, that didn't exactly help.

Kitten's story was delightful, the second God of the Flame story was brilliant and brought me to terms with the first and I loved Mimic because it was the only non-Tortall story that felt as though it took place in a fully realized world that we were only seeing a slice of.

Having said that, the stories themselves felt...a bit repetitive. What distinguishes Pierce''s novels from being "one strong girl after another" is the time she takes in individuating their personalities and making them people, not just archetypes for fantasy with strong women (not strong™ women). And, don't get me wrong, her archetypes are awesome and we need more of them, but I felt like so many of these stories were either the prologue to novels she didn't have the time or inclination to write or skeleton stories that needed fleshing out. The plot was there, but the sense of people-ness that I associate with Pierce was not always there. But when they were there, these stories were Good!