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“The Monarch of the Glen” is a novella set after American Gods, featuring the main character from that story.  It was only 62 pages, so it wasn’t nearly as meaty of a story as the book it was based off of, but I did enjoy it.  We find out what Shadow has been up to in the months following American Gods, and he once again manages to get himself into trouble.  Aside from Shadow, the other characters are pretty much new characters.  It was entertaining, but quick, and I’m not sure the story will really stick with me aside from maybe blurring together with the original book.

I don’t think you can get this novella by itself anymore.  It’s contained in two anthologies: Fragile Things, which contains several stories by Neil Gaiman and was recently reviewed by Obsidian Blue, and Legends II which is an anthology of stories by various authors.  I really didn’t want to read an entire anthology at this point; I just wanted to read the novella and then move on to the other full-length book in this series, Anansi Boys.  So I borrowed Legends II from the library, read just the novella, then turned it back in.  If the Neil Gaiman anthology had been available at my library, I might have been more tempted to read the whole thing while I had access to it.  I was far less tempted with Legends II, because I think most of those stories are set in established worlds that I haven’t read yet.  I’d rather wait and read them as part of the larger series they each belong to.