2011 fantasy anthology: five stories of the Raksura.
Again I find myself looking more fondly on these short stories
than on the novels. Wells' strongest suit is the exploration of
ancient ruins, and in this world her second-strongest is the huge
diversity of sapient creatures that inhabit it; both of those get
plenty of play here.
"The Dead City", one of the two novellas here, shows us an early
(pre-novel) Moon, fleeing from a city taken over by Fell but only
starting his journey of embitterment. He arrives at a way-station
where the locals are being incommoded by something, and of course
can't help getting involved. These "miners" may be the strangest
groundlings we've met so far, but we also see a proud warrior group
and how people react when they meet a shapeshifter (and the only
shapeshifters they've met are Fell).
The other stories are set after the trilogy.
"Mimesis" has Jade acting alone when one of her hunting party
vanishes. Another strange creature with a new way of hunting.
"Trading Lesson" is a short story essentially resting on Moon's
experience outside the court.
"The Almost Last Voyage of the Wind-ship Escarpment" has no
characters in common with any of the other books; the crew of a flying
ship is hired to take a ransom payment to a group of pirates.
"The Dark Earth Below", the other novella, has a request for help from
the Kek who live on the forest floor beneath the Raksura's giant tree.
More strange creatures, many of them people, but also stress as Jade
is pregnant with her first clutch.
None of it is vital to the overall story, but if you enjoyed the
novels here are more things done by the same people, and if you
haven't read them this might not be a bad starting point.