The Dacia Horde thought the Descendants of the Madiis Tenebris had  been wiped  out. For centuries vampires had  kept their feud hidden, keeping humans safe from the fierce and brutal war. But things had changed. Sanguine had discovered a means of breaching the boundaries and opening a path to the vampire afterlife. Within, he discovered a blood so powerful, so evil, those consuming, it could weird powerful arcane magic (or majik) stemmed from darkness itself. Valid is forced to enlist  the aid of a human, Geneviève, when it appears the  conflict will jeopardise humanity itself. She is investigating an unusual murder, the murder of Valdo's own fiancee, Melaina Lilith, and the mystery surrounding her death is both baffling and astounding. The Descendants of the Madiis Tenebris have already taken  his love from him and he will not allow them to destroy his clan as well. Interested? Well, this is just the first of many unique tales.

A Confabulated Compendium of Anecdotes by Melissa H North is a wonderful collection of short stories which read as a cross between old fables, fantasy and steampunk. This is certainly a diverse collection of unique tales and each one will take you on a new and interesting adventure. The author's style is eloquent and easily conjures depths to imagery and sets wonderful scenes. My favourite of all the tales was Cirque Monter En Flèche, but if you want to find out why, or even discover your own favorite in this wonderful compendium, you'll have to pick up a copy for yourself.

When I read a collection of short stories, I invest myself one story at a time. If the first story is great, that’s good, but a common trick in many story collections is to start off with their best, thus luring you in for the more mundane tales. I loved the first story in A Confabulated Compendium of Anecdotes. It was amazing. But I held my enthusiasm in check until after I finished the second one. By then, I was confident that Melissa H North is the real thing. These tales are labeled as steampunk speculative fiction. That is a nice label to let you know they are quirky and unusual. They have weird but satisfying characters and the endings often feel like that too. This book probably isn’t for everyone, but it certainly worked for me.

The writing is sharp and incisive. The dialogue is quick and snappy. I like Melissa H. North’s style. I love the strong, gritty, female characters. I found my favorite story in the whole collection in Shadow Walker and it featured some highly unusual aliens as well as some weird humans too. But the Captain of the Gladiatron is a woman I could fall in love with. Better yet, I bet she’d make a great friend. I just liked her style. I liked how she dealt with a sorry situation on a sorry world. The plots are tight and sweet. The characters are zany but realistic. The writing carries you through. A Confabulated Compendium of Anecdotes indeed.