Wish List Wednesday #119: Justin Gustainis' "Those Who Fight Monsters"

WLW is a recurring blog segment in which I highlight a book I have on my wish list. Sometimes it's a new release, sometimes a beloved classic, and sometimes it's a hidden gem.

Here comes one more monster book for my wish list, and another anthology to boot. I have been turned into a fan of urban fantasy over the last few years, but I tend to stick to novel-length fiction when it comes to that genre. There are plenty of anthologies, however, and this one really caught my eye.

Those Who Fight Monsters, which was published last year by EDGE, is a melange of established monster hunters all brought together by Justin Gustainis, author of a couple UF series in his own right. Fourteen authors, including Justin, offer up short stories containing characters from their respective UF novel series. In Justin's case, the story's based in his Quincey Morris series, while Rachel Caine has a story included from her Outcast Season series.

For a reader like me, who has yet to read the novels of nearly all the authors who contributed, this book feels like it would be a great sampler from which to decide whose novels I'd like to read. If nothing else, I'm sure I'd be entertained by the brief adventures their characters go on.

How about you? Have you found anthologies like this to be a helpful way of deciding whether to give a particular author's novels a go?