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In keeping with the recent trend (one I very much like) of releasing short stories and novellas to keep up readers' interest between novels in a series, Julie Kagawa has written several short works in the Iron Fey series. The first one, "Winter's Passage," takes place between The Iron King (read my review) and The Iron Daughter (read my review), covering the events of Meghan and Ash's journey from the mortal world to Tir Na Nog (the Winter Realm of the Unseelie Fey).

Publication Information

• Full Title: "Winter's Passage"
• Series:The Iron Fey (#1.5)
• Author: Julie Kagawa
• Publisher: Harlequin Teen
• Publication Date: June 2010
• ISBN: 9781426858321 (US ebook), B003N2QUZG (US Kindle ASIN), 9781408935064 (UK ebook), B004UGKJT2 (UK Kindle ASIN)

Winter Interlude

While the story isn't at all necessary for enjoying the novels, fans of the series will probably want to read "Winter's Passage" anyway. It adds a little to the growing relationship between Meghan and Ash, has appearances by some of the other denizens of Faery, and features an appearance by everyone's favorite (or mine, anyway) aloof cait sidhe, Grimalkin.

At the end of The Iron King, Ash showed up at Meghan's house to collect her, so she could fulfill her end of their deal by returning with him to face his mother, the Unseelie Faery Queen, Mab. The book ended with their departure. "Winter's Passage" picks up shortly thereafter, as Meghan and Ash discover something is tracking them -- something very very old and very very dangerous.

As a compete short story, I think "Winter's Passage" could have done without the side trip to visit Puck, and probably didn't need Grimalkin to appear at all, though as a series fan, I liked the inclusion of both of those things. I also thought the story would actually have worked better if it had ended a few pages earlier, with the final scene with the Hunter. But again, the fan in me liked that the rest of the journey to Tir Na Nog was included.

In Between

And I think that illustrates one of the fundamental -- and possibly insurmountable -- issues with between-novel stories. On the one hand, they need to please the fans, and offer them some extra scenes with favorite characters, additional backstory, and other goodies. On the other hand, they should also work as standalone short stories, both for readers who might never read anything else in the series, and for readers who might be tempted to read the novels because they liked the shorter piece. "Winter's Passage" almost succeeds at both, but ends up not quite working as either. The best way to read it, I think, is as a bonus but unnecessary bridge between novels.

"Winter's Passage" is available as an ebook on its own, and as one of the stories in the collection The Iron Legends.