I'm impressed at the uniqueness of the stories in this collection and that none felt like sloppy 'filler' stories to round things out. The last 6 stories moved much faster for me than the first few, but I'm afraid I admired this book more than I enjoyed it. The problem is mine: I have a hard time with Sayer's flowery prose and there are points (particularly at the beginning of each story) that I felt as though I were reading in a foreign language, having to either re-read sentences or say "oh well, maybe that's just not important" and continue on. That really irks me but, still, I'm glad I picked this one up and I'd call it a solid 3.5.