There was a point where I'd thought this was going to be the best of the three Limbus collections. Most of the stories didn't really break any new ground, and much of them tended to still centre heavily on the Limbus, Inc. method of recruitment which, by the third book, isn't truly necessary anymore, though I feel like only Maberry seems to get that.

Regardless, the first four stories were very good with, as per usual, Maberry's Sam Hunter stealing the damn show for the third time running. He just...gets it.

But I have to talk about Laird Barron's entry. I know he took pride of place to close off the collection, as he's possibly the biggest name in the novel (though I'd argue that point), or maybe because the editor didn't really know what else to do with it. Not sure, but...it was...not good. It was mostly nonsensical. It often felt like a random collection of sentences that really didn't fit together all that well. It was virtually unreadable, though I did get through it, mostly skimming and really not picking anything much up after the first third.

Without that story, this book would be an easy five stars. But it was bad enough to tear two of them away. ( )

I jumped into Volume 3 of the Limbus, Inc. series without having read either of the first two books. The book was well-crafted and well-explained so that I didn’t feel as if I was missing anything. I thoroughly enjoyed the weaving of each of the stories along with the interludes where Detective Malone is following the journey in much the same way the reader is experiencing it while having his own story told.

Seanan McGuire’s story kicks off the shared world anthology in a strong way with a tale of a woman who is a genetically engineered and works for Limbus as an assassin, killing people who deserved to die. Each of the stories added another layer onto this amorphous, all-encompassing and dangerous entity of Limbus. I enjoyed it thoroughly up until the final story of the anthology, which I found to be a major let down. That brought the book down from a five star, fantastic anthology, to a four star, still really good anthology. My favorite story is probably a toss up between Seanan McGuire’s story and Keith DeCandido’s story about a woman with an extraordinary ability to talk people off the ledge so to speak, who travels through time influencing the lives of others and her own on behalf of Limbus, Inc. This anthology both had a great concept and was well executed.

Carl Alves – author of Conjesero ( )

Limbus Inc is an employment agency. They employ people at the end of their rope, with no other options. There is a woman who is like DC's Poison Ivy; she is poisonous to everyone and everything. There is a woman who is like a counselor, directing people to a certain path. There is a werewolf PI. Yes, a werewolf PI. And there is a team looking for Lovecraftian tomes. A great read, this is a shared world collection. I haven't read the first two volumes, but I thoroughly enjoyed this book.

This was a library book. ( )