Swift the Chase: Scenes From 9 Fantastic Stories

by Raf Morgan (Editor), Intisar Khanani, Casey Blair

Magic—danger—and the thrill of the chase!

Experience the rush of racing across rooftops with thieves—or the desperation of fleeing an assassin who knows you a little too well. From the fish market of a tropical island sultanate, to the monster-filled alleys of a steampunk London, to a land where souls take different forms as they rise or fall through the layers of the world, this collection of chase scenes and vignettes set in nine distinctive worlds will leave you spellbound.

Find unexpected allies, unshakeable enemies, sudden twists and turns, and always the swiftness of the chase—whether you’re on the hunt, or racing for your life.

This sampler includes an exclusive bonus scene set during the events of Tea Set and Match by Casey Blair, available for free online, and a scene from an unpublished novel by Rachel Neumeier not available anywhere else. The excerpts by Intisar Khanani, Raf Morgan, P. Djèlí Clark, Sherwood Smith, Joyce Chng, Melissa McShane, and Andrea K. Höst are from longer works that are available for sale at all major retailers.

Genres: Fantasy, Anthologies, Short Stories, Science Fiction

ebook

First published September 1, 2019

About the author

Also publishes as R. Morgan

I’ve been preparing all my life to be a writer, though I didn’t know it. Like that time I volunteered to protect sea turtles on a beach in Costa Rica and wound up with half my body in her nest at 3 am with a blue plastic bag under her butt to catch her eggs to relocate them so poachers couldn’t find them. Those nests are deep! Those sea turtles are big! Or living in Bangkok, Thailand, which is where I am now for my day job. (I’m a USAian.) You never know what’s going to happen here and every day is an adventure. Once we hired a driver to take us to the beach and he removed the steering wheel from the dashboard. While we were driving!

Mostly I’ve worked as a technical editor and a translator, but I’ve also worked as a dog walker (sometimes taking 11 dogs to the park at once, but usually only two or three) and in a district court. One time, I was asked by a judge to interpret for a woman who only spoke Portuguese even though I don’t speak Portuguese. He had decided that Spanish (which I speak as a second language) was close enough because it was an emergency. I had to go change my shirt after that, I was so nervous about messing it up.

None of these stories have made it into my books yet, but the settings of the different places I’ve lived often do. The desert in my first book, The Desert Wall, is a mashup of the Sonoran and the Chihuahuan Deserts (I’ve lived in Tucson, Arizona, and Monterrey, Mexico, too).

I don’t have a picture of me on my website or social media because of my day job situation. I hope you enjoy the picture of the saguaro cactus. They’re protected by federal law, live to be 200 years old and their flowers are pollinated by bats. I think that’s pretty cool.

Reviews

[Intisar Khanani]

I am so thrilled to be part of this collection! I love the concept of a sampler of chase scenes as an action-packed way to meet new authors, and this collection definitely delivers a fantastic breadth of stories to your fingertips. I hope you'll take a chance on it and discover some amazing talents to follow!

[Sherwood Smith]

Nine glimpses of chase scenes from different fantasies, offered for free!

[Melissa McShane]

I enjoyed being part of this scene sampler. Some of the authors I'd never heard of before being invited to participate, some of them I have long admired, but all of them are so talented. I've added a lot of books to my teetering TBR pile!

[Casey Blair · Rating 5 out of 5]

Full disclosure, I am one of the authors in this anthology and may be biased accordingly =). But if I do say so myself, this is a great introduction to work by some truly fantastic authors!

[Riski Oktavian · Rating 2 out of 5]

Aku butuh waktu 5 hari untuk menyelesaikan buku yang mana nggak nyampai 100 halaman ini. Bisa dibilang ini adalah kumpulan cerita pendek dari berbagai macam penulis dengan genre yang berbeda-beda.

Aku nggak tahu sih ya, apakah memang ceritanya yang menurut aku tidak berkesan, atau memang something wrong with me. Cuman dari sekian banyaknya cerita yang disajikan di sini nggak ada satu pun yang bikin aku "connect". Bahkan beberapa kali aku tuh agak selip membayangkan adegan-adegan yang ada di sini sampai akhirnya aku aktifin mode audiobook demi bisa menyelesaikan buku ini dengan segera.

Im so sorry but I couldn't enjoy this book...

2,5 stars.

[Avery · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting snippets of stories. I absolutely loved the first few.

[Raf Morgan · Rating 5 out of 5]

A book! That I'm in! That I made happen! I'm biased for myself but especially 5 stars for all the terrific authors who went in on this project of love that I dreamed up. It's a great introduction to these authors' work, especially if you like chase scenes (which I do, obviously).

[H.S. Skinner · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love the snippets! I'm quite sure I just found a bunch of new authors to follow, and read a few glimpses from some favorite authors' works!

[Jackie · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a wonderful selection of stories to make you carefree Chasing over rooftops and more. This is what the magic in books is all about. Don’t miss out.

[Linda Lassman · Rating 3 out of 5]

As with any collection, some stories I liked, some I didn't like, and some were ok. The reason I only gave this 3 stars--and it's totally my fault for just buying the book because of one of the included authors and not actually reading the subtitle--was that it was a collection of chase scenes. Except for one short story, each one was a few pages from a larger work. There were a couple that caught my attention enough to make me want to check out the author's other writing, but mostly I was vaguely dissatisfied because the scene didn't give enough information to "get" the world or to see deeply enough into any of the characters to care what happened to them. It was an interesting concept, but not one that worked for me.

[jacqui · Rating 3 out of 5]

I mean, what’s not to love about a chase scene? The problem with this anthology, though, is that it’s just that—chase scenes from longer works. So they were fun to read, and I’m delighted to report that I’ve found several new authors that I’m excited to go get full books by, but it’s just the nature of the form that it’s hard to get invested or feel much payoff from disconnected scenes, as fun or well-written as they may be.

[William · Rating 4 out of 5]

Entertaining listening 🎶🔰

Nine interesting will written action adventure thriller short stories by nine different authors. Each story line is stand alone with it's own characters and action. I would recommend this novella to readers looking for something different in the next read. Enjoy the adventure of reading 👓 or listening 🎶 to Alexa as I do because of health issues. 2022 👒😉🐶🏡

[Manisha · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great overview of different books which have chase scenes. A rough plot outline was included at the start of each excerpt, and at the end there were options to keep reading. Wonderful way to be introduced to new authors, and get used to their different worlds and writing styles!!

[Ellen Deckinga · Rating 4 out of 5]

I like the concept of sampling various books and authors. I definitely learned about some authors I would like to check out more. Worth the quick reads to meet new story makers.

[Surri · Rating 4 out of 5]

These were good teasers. It felt a lot like a sampler platter of stories, which was fun. I'll be picking up a few of the actual books the excerpts were from soon.

[salsa · Rating 2 out of 5]

i guess i'm not the target market for some random snippets of various stories bound into a book, couldnt been more careless for most of the stories.