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The Very Best of Charles de Lint

Wednesday, July 1, 2015

The Very Best of Charles de Lint (2010) Charles de Lint

In Which We Meet Jilly Coppercorn
Coyote Stories
Laughter in the Leaves
The Badger in the Bag
And the Rafters Were Ringing
Merlin Dreams in the Mondream Wood
The Stone Drum
Timeskip
Freewheeling
A Wish Named Arnold
Into the Green
The Graceless Child
Winter Was Hard
The Conjure Man
We Are Dead Together
Mr. Truepenny’s Book Emporium and Gallery
In the House of My Enemy
The Moon is Drowning While I Sleep
Crow Girls
Birds
Held Safe by Moonlight and Vines
In the Pines
Pixel Pixies
Many Worlds Are Born Tonight
Sisters
Pal O’ Mine
That Was Radio Clash
Old Man Crow
The Fields Beyond the Fields

I love Charles de Lint.

My editor here at Tachyon was set on using the title The Very Best of Charles de Lint and I had no idea how to choose what would be included. Selecting my favourite stories would have been hard (because they’re all like my kids and how do you choose which of your kids is your favourite?), but with a lot of back-and-forthing, it would probably be doable. But my best stories?

I really didn’t know where to begin. I have my own ideas as to which are the best, but my judgement is coloured by circumstances and events that have less to do with the actual stories themselves and more to do with what was going on in my life while I was writing them, or what I was trying to accomplish. The actual best stories? How could I ever be objective enough to put such a collection together?

So he asked his readers to give him their favorite stories, and the ones they thought the best, and go from there.

“In Which We Meet Jilly Coppercorn” – The heart of the Newford stories is, of course, Jilly Coppercorn. The first story introduces those who are unfamiliar with Newford to Jilly, but also to what they are going to be reading.

“The world as we have it,” he went on to Jilly, “is here mostly because of habit.”

“Coyote Stories” is full of Native American mythos, and living between but never entirely in two different cultures.

We have the stories and they’ll give us the one thing nobody else can, the thing we can only take for ourselves, because there’s nobody can give you back your pride. You’ve got to take it back yourself.

It’s also, like so many other stories, sad and uplifting at the same time, which is another major theme running through his work.

“Laughter in the Leaves” is the first Meran and Cerin story in the anthology, “The Badger in the Bag” is the second Meran and Cerin story, and “And the Rafters Were Ringing” is the third in a row, and the last of thier stories set outside Newford.

“Merlin Dreams in the Mondream Wood” is a stand-alone story in that it’s not a Newford story or related to any other recurring characters.

“The Stone Drum” returns us to Jilly and Goon.

“…(Y)ou’re talking in riddles just like a wizard out of some fairy tale. I never understood why they couldn’t talk plainly.”
“That’s because some things can only be approached from the side. Secretively. Peripherally.”

“Timeskip” is one of the stories I find particularly said, although there are others that are far sadder in result. Like “Freewheeling”, which is just plain sad.

“A Wish Named Arnold”

Marguerite kept a wish in a brass egg and its name was Arnold.

“Into the Green” is another story set outside of our world, perhaps in Faerie, perhaps in a past that never quite was, just like “The Graceless Child”. It is possible it is also the first Charles de Lint story I read, since it appeared originally in Sword and Sorceress V.

“Winter Was Hard” returns us to Jilly and Newford, and Jilly’s ability to see and share magic everywhere.

“The Conjure Man” is another Newford story in which Jilly is only a secondary character, but it’s one of my favorites. Possibly in the top five.

“We Are Dead Together” is set outside of our world and is a vampire story of a sort.

“Mr. Truepenny’s Book Emporium and Gallery” is one of my favorites. It’s about Sophie and her dream world.

“In the House of My Enemy” is possible the most depressing story in the lot, but it’s also an amazing story, and one I always re-read, even knowing how sad it is.

“The Moon is Drowning While I Sleep” this is another Sophie Etoile story, and the story in which she meets Jeck.

“Crow Girls” is a story about the two crow girls who make appearances here and there in Newford and elsewhere.

Sometimes they forget they’re crows, left their feathers behind in the long ago, and sometimes they forget they’re girls. But they never forget that they’re friends.

“Birds” is another depressing story, yet it’s also redemptive, and lets you see you can move past your past.

“Held Safe by Moonlight and Vines” is a love story of sorts–or at least of a Charles de Lint sort.

“In the Pines” is another of my favorites, of a woman who lives her dream, regardless of whether it brings her success of fame.

I don’t lead an exciting life, but I’m partial to a lack of excitement. Gets to a point where excitement’s more trouble than it’s worth.

“Pixel Pixies” is tangentially about the Wordwood, but it’s mostly about hobs and the internet and Meran.

“Many Worlds Are Born Tonight” is probably my lest favorite story in the collection. It’s not bad, I just don’t care for it.

“Sisters” is another of my favorites–it’s a vampire story, except of course that Charles de Lint does vampires quite differently.

“Behind the wheel. You can drive, right?” To some remote location, Apples supposed. Where he’d have his nasty way with her. Or kill her. Probably, he planned to do both, hopefully in that order. Though technically, any physical relationship with her had to be classified as necrophilia. Ehew.

“Pal O’ Mine” is another story that makes me cry. I re-read it, but it still makes me cry.

Gina always believed there was magic in the world. “But it doesn’t work the way it does in fairy tales,” she told me. “It doesn’t save us. We have to save ourselves.”

“That Was Radio Clash” is another favorite story–one of second chances.

“Old Man Crow” is another story, perhaps similar to Coyote Stories, but perhaps not.

“You need to remember,” he told her, “that you don’t have another life in the bank. You got to make the most of the one you’re living right now.”

“The Fields Beyond the Fields” is the closing story, and although it’s not a bad story, it’s not ma favorite story. But even then there are still pearls of wisdom.

…worrying about “what if” only makes you miss out on “what is”…

That’s something to remember.
Rating: 9.5/10

Published by Triskell Press

Written by Michelle
Categories: 9.5/10, Anthology, Fantasy, Urban
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The Very Best of Charles de Lint

Thursday, November 15, 2012

The Very Best of Charles de Lint (2010) Charles de Lint

I love Charles de Lint. I believe I have all of his mass published story anthologies, and several of the smaller press novellas, so I’d read most of the stories in this collection.

Doesn’t matter.

I can read his stories time and again, and there is just as much magic as there was the first time.

This collection was created when he asked his readers to help him create this collection–to help him pick out the very best of his short stories.

There are, unsurprisingly, a lot of Newford stories here, since many of his collection are Newford centered stories. So we get to spend time with Jilly and Sophie and Georgie. But there are non-Newford stories here as well, and a handful I had not read previously.

If you have not read any Charles de Lint before (this strikes me as a nonsensical thing, yet I know there are lots of people out there who have not read Charles de Lint) then this is the collection for you.

I will note, however, that like his other collection, many of these stories have a dark theme. There are many abused children, and many of Jilly’s stories talk of her the dark of her past. Yet, even in the darkest stories, there is still light and hope, of life going on.

And underlying everything is magic–the other world, be it the Crow Girls or the dream world or fairies. It’s all wonderful to me.
Rating: 9/10

Published by Tachyon

Written by Michelle
Categories: 9/10, Anthology, Fantasy, Paper, Urban
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Dreams Underfoot

Sunday, June 3, 2018

Dreams Underfoot (1993) Charles de Lint


“Uncle Dobbin’s Parrot Fair,” Isaac Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine, Nov ‘87
“Stone Drum,” Triskell Press chapbook, 1989
“Timeskip,” Post Mortem: New Tales of Ghastly Horror, ed. Paul F. Olson & David B. Silva, St. Martin’s, 1989
“Freewheeling,” Pulphouse: The Hardback Magazine Issue 6, ed. Kristine Kathryn Rusch, Pulphouse, 1990
“That Explains Poland,” Pulphouse: The Hardback Magazine Issue 2, ed. Kristine Kathryn Rusch, Pulphouse, 1988
“Romano Drom,” Pulphouse: The Hardback Magazine Issue 5, ed. Kristine Kathryn Rusch, Pulphouse, 1989
“The Sacred Fire,” Stalkers, ed. Ed Gorman & Martin H. Greenberg, Arlington Heights, IL: Dark Harvest, 1989
“Winter Was Hard,” Pulphouse: The Hardback Magazine Issue 10, ed. Kristine Kathryn Rusch, Pulphouse, 1991
“Pity the Monsters,” The Ultimate Frankenstein, ed. Byron Preiss, David Kellor, Megan Miller & John Gregory Betancourt, Dell, 1991
“Ghosts of Wind and Shadow,” Triskell Press chapbook, 1990
“The Conjure Man,” After the King, ed. Martin H. Greenberg, Tor, 1992
“Small Deaths,” original to the collection
“The Moon Is Drowning While I Sleep,” Snow White, Blood Red, ed. Ellen Datlow & Terri Windling, AvoNova, 1993
“In the House of My Enemy,” original to the collection
“But for the Grace Go I,” Chilled to the Bone, ed. Robert T. Garcia, Mayfair Games, 1991
“Bridges,” The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, Oct/ Nov ‘92
“Our Lady of the Harbour,” Axolotl Press: Eugene, OR, 1991
“Paperjack,” Cheap Street: New Castle, VA, 1991
“Tallulah,” Dead End: City Limits, ed. Paul F. Olson & David B. Silva, St. Martin’s, 1991

This was the first Charles de Lint collection I came across, and I immediately fell in love. I like his novels, but I really love his Newford story anthologies. I’ve been waiting for awhile for this book to come out on kindle–when it did I snatched it up.

“Uncle Dobbin’s Parrot Fair” isn’t set in Newford, but it doesn’t not fit in this anthology.

Ellen carried a piece of string in her pocket, with four complicated knots tied into it, but no matter how often she undid one, she still had to wait for her winds like anyone else. She knew that strings to catch and call up the wind were only real in stories, but she liked thinking that maybe, just once, a bit of magic could tiptoe out of a tale and step into the real world.

Ellen has been searching for years for the magic she saw in her childhood. But there is darkness as well as beauty in magic.

“The Stone Drum” is the first Jilly story. I appreciate how our view of Jilly changes over the collection. Initially she’s a pretty artist who wants to believe in magic.

“Religious artifacts and trappings require faith— a belief in their potency that the skookin undoubtedly don’t have. The only thing I know for certain that they can’t abide is the truth.”

“Timeskip” is the first story in which Jilly and Geordie appear together. It’s a love story and a ghost story and a story of heartbreak.

“Freewheeling” is another story of heatbreak, only it is the heartbreak commonly seen on the streets. It’s another Jilly story, even if she isn’t necessarily the primary character.

“That Explains Poland” is a story about a Latina character, but it’s not a Latina story. It’s a Bigfoot story.

Verdad, I still don’t know who I am or where I fit in. I stand in front of the mirror and the muchacha I see studying me just as carefully as I’m studying her looks older. But I don’t feel any different from when I was fifteen.

So when does it happen?

Maybe it never does.

Charles de Lint’s stories are full of amazing women, and those women are not all white. Because that’s the way the world is.

“Romano Drom” is a story of the secret roads that run through the world.

The road. The Chinese called it a dragon track. Alfred Watkins, in England, had discovered the old straight tracks there and called them leys. Secret ways, hidden roads. The Native Americans had them. African tribesmen and the aborigines of Australia. Even her own people had secret roads unknown to the non-Gypsy.

“The Sacred Fire” is an especially dark story, mostly because unlike many of his other stories, it doesn’t end with any note of hope, only the possibility of more horror.

“Winter Was Hard” is another Jilly story, where we being to see her complexities, as she plans to spend Christmas with an elderly man in a nursing home, without family to go home to or visit, but it’s also about magic and memory.

There were people who just made other people feel good. Just being around them, made you feel better, creative, uplifted, happy. Geordie said that she was like that herself, though Jilly wasn’t so sure of that. She tried to be, but she was subject to the same bad moods as anybody else, the same impatience with stupidity and ignorance.

“Pity the Monsters” is another very dark story, that lacks the hope usually found in these stories. It’s about the loneliness of monsters.

“Ghosts of Wind and Shadow” is a Meran and Cerin story, and also the story of a teenage girl whose mother doesn’t understand the magic she sees in the world. It’s also an explanation of sorts as to why people don’t see or talk about magic in the world.

“The Conjure Man” is a story I particularly like, and the events here are referenced in later stories (although not in this book). It’s about a tree of tales and memory.

(T)hat’s our hope for the future, isn’t it? That the imagination reaches beyond the present to glimpse not so much a sense of meaning in what lies all around us, but to let us simply see it in the first place?”

“Small Deaths” is the story of an overnight DJ, and the people who are drawn to her. The main character is a tiny bit like Kitty the werewolf, but only, really, because I think midnight DJs are a sort of their own.

“The Moon Is Drowning While I Sleep” is a Sophie Etoile story (Jilly makes an appearance). Sophie is another character who recurs throughout the series.

(D)reams want to be real. When you start to wake up, he said, they hang on and try to slip out into the waking world when you don’t notice. Very strong dreams, he added, can almost do it; they can last for almost half a day, but not much longer.

“In the House of My Enemy” is probably the most heart-breaking story in the book. It’s where we discover that Jilly is far more than we could have imagined, and that her love of her friends and the world in general is a miracle.

“But for the Grace Go I” is another story that I especially like and that has always stuck in my mind. A young woman has made her life on the streets, caring for those who can’t care for themselves, wanting nothing more except to be left alone.

Except that life asks more of us.

“Bridges”

You build the bridge and it either takes you where you want it to, or it doesn’t.”

“And if it doesn’t?” His teeth flashed in the moonlight. “

Then you build another one and maybe another one until one of them does.”

“Our Lady of the Harbour” is The Little Mermaid, except it’s more.

“Paperjack” is another story I particularly like. It picks up where “Timeskip” leaves off, with Geordie trying to come to terms with Sue’s disappearance.

If I had to describe myself as belonging to any church or mystical order, it’d be one devoted to secular humanism. My concerns are for real people and the here and now; the possible existence of God, faeries, or some metaphysical Otherworld just doesn’t fit into my worldview.

But the story also has Paperjack, who is a fascinating enigma.

Around him, an overcast day didn’t seem half so gloomy, and when the sun shone, it always seemed brighter. He just exuded a glad feeling that you couldn’t help but pick up on. So in that sense, he was magic.

“Talullah” is a Christy Riddell story. For some reason, he is the character I find least compelling in Newford.

(S)he taught me that getting close can hurt, but not getting close is an even lonelier hurt.

In some ways it’s the flip-side to “Our Lady of the Harbour” but it’s also the story of the city and of change.

No matter how much I know that so many of these stories are dark, it still surprises me every time how dark the stories can be. Mostly because with a few exceptions, the darkness is tempered with hope.

Publisher: Triskell Press
Rating: 8.5/10

Written by Michelle
Categories: 8.5/10, Anthology, Fantasy, Female, Reread, Short Story, Urban
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Vampires: The Recent Undead

Monday, June 22, 2015

Vampires: The Recent Undead (2011) edited by Paula Guran

Vampires-The-Recent-Undead

“The Coldest Girl in Coldtown” by Holly Black
“This Is Now” by Michael Marshall Smith
“Sisters” by Charles de Lint
“The Screaming” by J.A. Konrath
“Zen and the Art of Vampirism” by Kelley Armstrong
“La Vampiresse” by Tanith Lee
“Dead Man Stalking” by Rachel Caine
“The Ghost of Leadville” by Jeanne C. Stein
“Waste Land” by Stephen Dedman
“Gentleman of the Old School” by Chelsea Quinn Yarbro
“No Matter Where You Go” by Tanya Huff
“Outfangthief” by Conrad Williams
“Dancing with the Star” by Susan Sizemore
“A Trick of the Dark” by Tina Rath
“When Gretchen was Human” by Mary Turzillo
“Conquistador de la Noche” by Carrie Vaughn
“Endless Night” by Barbara Roden
“Dahlia Underground” by Charlaine Harris
“The Belated Burial” by Caitlin R. Kiernan
“Twilight States” by Albert Cowdrey
“To the Moment” by Nisi Shawl
“Castle in the Desert: Anno Dracula 1977? by Kim Newman
“Vampires in the Lemon Grove” by Karen Russell
“Vampires Anonymous” by Nancy Kilpatrick
“The Wide, Carnivorous Sky” by John Langan

It has taken me an almost embarrassingly long time to finish this. How long you ask? I purchased it a couple months after it was published–that long ago.

The problem is I hit a point where I wasn’t interested in a story, and instead of just skipping to the next story, I put the whole thing down. I know, rookie mistake. (But you’ll see I made it several times, so I decided to just finish off these anthologies, and if I didn’t like a story? SKIP.)

Let’s see how many of these I remember, shall we?

“The Coldest Girl in Coldtown” by Holly Black

I read this one before, and purchased the book because of it. Except that I’ve not actually read the book.

Both of the guys laughed. She tried to laugh with them even though she knew she wasn’t included in the joke. She was the joke. The trashy little slut. The girl who can be bought for a big fat wine cooler and three cranberry-and-vodkas.

And I don’t know why, because to grab that quote I ended up starting to re-read the story. Which is not helpful when writing a review.

“Sisters” by Charles de Lint

This one I have read multiple times, and very much like.

I figure if the people writing the books and making the movies actually do have any firsthand experience with vampires, they’re sugar-coating the information so that people don’t freak out. If you’re going to accept that they exist in the first place, it’s much more comforting to believe that you’re safe in the daylight, or that a cross or a fistful of garlic will keep them at bay.

About the only thing they do get right is that it takes a vamp to make a vamp. You do have to die from the bite and then rise again three days later. It’s as easy as that. It’s also the best time to kill a vamp—they’re kind of like ragdolls, all loose and muddy-brained, for the first few hours.

Oh, and you do have to invite us into your house. If it’s a public place, we can go in the same as anyone else.

What’s that? No, that wasn’t a slip of the tongue. I’m one, too. So while I like the TV show as much as the next person, and I know it’s fiction, blond cheerleader types still make me twitch a little.

You want to read that, don’t you?

“Zen and the Art of Vampirism” by Kelley Armstrong

Cultural assimilation is a lofty goal, but every minority needs a place to kick back with her own kind, a place to trade news and gossip that wouldn’t interest anyone outside the group. For supernaturals in Toronto, that place is Miller’s.

I remember that I liked this one.

“La Vampiresse” by Tanith Lee

“Madame Chaikassia.”

“Ah,” she said. “At last. One who knows how to say my name.”

Naturally he knew. He had known from the day he saw her in the interview on TV. Rather as he had seen the actress Bette Davis in an interview years before and she had been asked how her first name was pronounced. So that he therefore knew it was not pronounced, as most persons now did, in the French way, Bett, but—for he had heard the actress herself reply—as Betty. And in the same way he knew the female being before him now did not pronounce her name as so many did: not Che´-kasee-ah, but Ch´-high-kazya.

This story was both lovely and terribly sad.

“The Ghost of Leadville” by Jeanne C. Stein

I have survived as a vampire for two hundred years. Living in big cities, mostly. Able to last as long as forty years in one guise—the latest a museum curator in New York. My specialty was early Americana. Convenient since I was born to missionary parents in the American west in 1809.

“Waste Land” by Stephen Dedman

I wish I knew what sort of vampires they all are. You can’t trust the movies to get these things right. Russian vampires have purple faces. Mexican vampires have fleshless skulls. Albanian vampires are supposed to wear high-heeled shoes. Bulgarian vampires have one nostril, and they’ve been eaten inside by some sort of fungus, so they’re solid but squishy the whole way through, and they don’t cast shadows. German vampires, nosferatu, control rats and so bring the Black Death, as though I don’t have enough to worry about already.

I particularly liked this bit, as the different vampire traditions are very different.

“Gentleman of the Old School” by Chelsea Quinn Yarbro

“Everyone’s looking for a new angle on the case, and the Center was a good place to start. That led me to the Count, and I only found out about the Count through the Donations Administrator’s secretary, and that was over a very expensive lunch.” She frowned. “I was told that the Count only visited the facilities twice: shortly after construction began and just before it was opened: The Vancouver Center for the Diagnosis and Treatment of Blood Disorders. Ms. Saunders said the Count’s donation covered more than seventy percent of the cost of building and equipping the facility, and that he provides an annual grant for on-going research. That’s got to be a lot of money. I was wondering if the Count would care to confirm the amount? Or discuss the body found on the roof of the Center two days ago?”

“No Matter Where You Go” by Tanya Huff

I really liked the Vicki Nelson stories when I first read them. Then I tried to jump into a later book, after not having read the books for years, and felt lost.

I might go back and start again and see how I feel about things.

“A Trick of the Dark” by Tina Rath

“What job finishes just at sunset?” Margaret jumped slightly.

“What a weird question, darling. Park keeper, I suppose.” Something made her turn to look at her daughter. She was propped up against her pillows, looking, Margaret thought guiltily, about ten years old. She must keep remembering, she told herself fiercely, that Maddie was nineteen. This silly heart-thing, as she called it, was keeping her in bed for much longer than they ever thought it would, but it couldn’t stop her growing up . . . she must listen to her, and talk to her like a grown-up.

“Conquistador de la Noche” by Carrie Vaughn

This is perhaps my favorite Carrie Vaughn short story. It is the story of how Rick-Ricardo de Avila–became a vampire.

Ricardo smiled. “I am a loyal subject of Spain and a child of God who has been saddled with a particularly troublesome burden.”

Rick has always been a particularly enigmatic character in the Kitty books, and I loved this glimpse into how he was turned.

“Endless Night” by Barbara Roden

“Thank you so much for speaking with me. And for these journals, which have never seen the light of day. I’m honoured that you’d entrust them to me.”

“That’s quite all right.” Emily Edwards smiled; a delighted smile, like a child surveying an unexpected and particularly wonderful present. “I don’t receive very many visitors; and old people do like speaking about the past. No”—she held up a hand to stop him—“I am old; not elderly, not ’getting on,’ nor any of the other euphemisms people use these days. When one has passed one’s centenary, ’old’ is the only word which applies.”

“Dahlia Underground” by Charlaine Harris

I’d read this previously, and found Dahlia an interesting character, especially as I was getting tired of Sookie.

“The Belated Burial” by Caitlin R. Kiernan

Brylee did object to the casket, and also to the hole in the frozen earth. She did object, in a hesitant, deferential sort of way. But, as they say, her protestations fell upon deaf ears, even though Miss Josephine fully acknowledged that none of it was necessary.

“It will do you good,” the vampire said, and, too, she said, “One day you’ll understand, when you are older.” And, she added, “There is far too little respect for tradition these days.”

“Twilight States” by Albert Cowdrey

By then Pearl Harbor had happened and Daddy was signing papers so that Ned could volunteer for the Navy. “One less mouth to feed,” remarked Mr. Warmth.

Ned vanished into the alternate dimension that people called The Service, and Mama locked up his room, saying it must be kept just as he left it or he’d never return alive.

“Crazy bitch,” said Daddy, whose comments were usually terse and always predictable.

Night after night for weeks afterward, Milton opened his window, slipped out onto the cold balcony that connected the three bedrooms, lifted the latch on Ned’s shutters with a kitchen knife, and silently raised the sash.

One at a time he took Ned’s trophies, wrapped them in old newspapers, and put them out with the trash. He threw away Ned’s magazines, books, and posters.

“To the Moment” by Nisi Shawl

This is a really, really, really disturbing story.

“Castle in the Desert: Anno Dracula 1977? by Kim Newman

Whatever relation you are to a person who was once married to one of your parents, Racquel Loring Ohlrig was to me. In Southern California, it’s such a common family tie you’d think there’d be a neat little name for it, pre-father or potential-parent.

This was an amusing story.

“Vampires in the Lemon Grove” by Karen Russell

This story stuck with me, and has come back to mind every once in awhile, Which is, I believe, a sign of a good story.

“Vampires Anonymous” by Nancy Kilpatrick

This one was also amusing.

So, it was an uneven anthology for me, but there were some very good stories that are well-worth the price of the anthology.
Rating: 7/10

Published by Prime Books

Under My Hat: Tales from the Cauldron

Monday, November 5, 2012

Under My Hat: Tales from the Cauldron (2012) edited by Jonathan Strahan

This is a lovely YA anthology, with some amazing stories by some of my favorite authors. I didn’t love all the stories, but none of them were bad. The theme is young witches coming of age, but the stories are far greater than that.

Stray Magic by Diana Peterfreund tells of Malou, who volunteers at a no-kill shelter. When her friend Jeremy sends over a sad-looking, white-furred dog from the regular shelter, she can’t believe he thought it was a golden retriever pup, nor can she believe when it seems like the pup is talking to her.

Payment Due by Frances Hardinge. Caroline lives with her Gran, but ends up looking out for her grandmother, when men come to impound her possessions. Caroline isn’t so much coming into her own as she is looking out for her gran.

Garth Nix‘s story, A Handful of Ashes was, like every other story of his I’ve read, very good. Mari is working her way through school as a sizar. Unfortunately, like all poor children everywhere, the rich kids don’t like the poor scholarship kids, and so try to make their lives a living hell. In Mari’s case, however, this group of girls may succeed in more than making the lives of the sizars hell. I really liked this story.

Holly Black‘s story “Little Gods” was different from many of the other stories, in that there didn’t seem to be any true witchcraft, but instead a teen wanting wicca to be something more. I have to say that at a couple points I was a little worried, but Ellery seemed more than capable of holding her own.

I love everything Charles de Lint writes. “Barrio Girls” is no exception. Ruby and Vida want magic, but when they find it, things turn out badly (as they often do) but I adore how things worked out.

“Felidis” by Tanith Lee had several interesting twists, but the best part was the cat woman. I didn’t have tons of sympathy for the main character, but very much enjoyed Felidis.

I’m sorry. As much as I love Neil Gaiman, that doesn’t help me enjoy poetry. “Witch Work” was wasted on me.

Ellen Klages’ story “The Education of a Witch” is of a little girl who sees Snow White and falls in love with Maleficent. It’s actually rather disturbing.

Elle Kushner is another who seems incapable of writing a story I don’t love. “The Threefold World” is the story of Elias Lönnrot becoming a great Finnish scholar. It is very similar in some ways to Jane Yolen’s story, “Anderson’s Witch” in that both take historical figures and imagine how they came to study and write about the other realms. Both stories are very very good.

“The Witch in the Wood” by Delia Sherman tells of a young woman meeting her true love, and how she breaks his enchantment.

Patricia A. McKillip’s story “Which Witch” was cute, but in my opinion one of the weaker stories in this collection. That said, this is an amazingly strong collection, so the story is good, just not great.

“The Carved Forest” by Tim Pratt did not head where I was expecting, but that’s okay, because I like where it went. Carlos needs to rescue his sister Maria from the town witch–only Maria doesn’t want to leave, and the witch doesn’t want her to go, so does she really need rescued?

M. Rickert’s story, “Burning Castles” was not a bad story, but it was one I did not enjoy. Again, the magic seems to be something a young teen wants more than something that actually exists. I feel terrible for Marissa, and don’t think everything is okay for her by the end of the story.

Isobelle Carmody’s story, “The Stone Witch” starts off as one story, then becomes another story entirely, when a woman is seated next to a child on a flight.

Jim Butcher‘s story, “B Is for Bigfoot” is actually the prequel of a story I read earlier this fall. Bigfoot hires Harry Dresden to look out for his son. I like this story a lot better than the story that comes after it.

I kinda wish the anthology had ended with Peter S. Beagle‘s story, “Great-Grandmother in the Cellar.” It’s a very strong story, that is a lovely twist on Sleeping Beauty.

The final story is Margo Lanagan’s story, “Crow and Caper, Caper and Crow.” A grandmother goes halfway around the world for the birth of her first grandchild. But when she arrives, things are not what she was expecting. This was not a bad story, but it wasn’t anywhere close to my favorite.
Rating: 9/10

Published by Random House

Permeable Borders

Sunday, October 7, 2012

Permeable Borders (2012) Nina Kiriki Hoffman

I love reading Nina Kiriki Hoffman. I love both her long and short stories, though the fact she writes so many short stories makes me love her a teeny bit more.

Thus, I was delighted to find this collection of her short stories.

I’d read several of these stories in other anthologies, but even those I enjoyed re-reading.

Several stories revisit the same characters, others stand by themselves, following the theme of the anthology in which they were originally published, yet fitting well into this anthology.

In the later category is the story, “How I Came to Marry a Herpetologist” which, like several other stories, turns the usual fairy tale on upside down. It takes the story “The Fairies” by Charles Perrault and looks at what happened to other girl, after the story ended.

The story “Switched” was another twist on an old fairy tale–initially I stopped reading the story, fearing the turn it was taking, but it ended up being one I quite enjoyed.

The stories in the section “Finding Each Other” focus on two characters: Matt and Edmund. Each tale can be read by itself, but together, the follow the progression of the characters.

The section “Finding Home” may have been my favorite. I very much liked both “Key Signatures” and “The Weight of Wishes.”

One odd thing happened while I was reading these stories–several times I had to stop and remember who I was reading, because some of these stories felt very much like they could be Charles de Lint stories–which as far as I am concerned is a huge compliment, since he is one of my favorite writers.

If you have not read Nina Kiriki Hoffman, this would be a good place to be introduced to her writing.
Rating: 8.5/10

Published by Fairwood Press

Written by Michelle
Categories: 8.5/10, Anthology, Fantasy, Urban
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Vampires: The Recent Undead

Tuesday, September 13, 2011

Vampires: The Recent Undead (2001) edited by Paula Guran

As with many anthologies, this one has some stories I especially liked, and others I didn’t care for at all. I believe I’ll focus on the ones I liked.

The anthology opens with Holly Black‘s story, “The Coldest Girl in Coldtown.” This was an unusual take on vampires, with touches of the lore from “The Lost Boys” what with someone not becoming a vampire if they didn’t feed. It’s also a YA story, and focuses on doing stupid things for what you think is love. Very nice, very strong story. Well, OK, nice isn’t the correct word. It’s a very good story.

I’ve previously read “Sisters” by Charles de Lint (of course I have. I love Charles de Lint). As with everything else he does, he has his own take on vampirism, but of course the focus of the story is not on vampirism, but upon the relationship between the two sisters.

Kelly Armstrong‘s story “Zen and the Art of Vampirism” left me wondering who I don’t read more Kelly Armstrong. It’s nice to see a vampire that doesn’t resort to brute strength when the going gets tough.

I could have sworn I’ve previously read books by Tanith Lee, but if I have, it hasn’t been in the past decade or so. Her story, “La Vampiresse” was actually quite sad, and yet sadly lovely. No one dies, and there is no violence, yet it ends with a tremendous sense of loss.

Every since Val Kilmer’s turn as Doc Holliday in “Tombstone” I’ve had a fondness for Doc Holliday stories, and this one is no exception, despite the fact that Doc Holliday makes only a brief appearance. It also reminded me of Emma Bull’s story “Territory.” Apparently, there are many of us with a fascination with Doc Holliday.

“A Gentleman of the Old School” by Chelsa Quinn Yarbro was another story where the vampire relied upon guile rather than force. I also liked the resolution of the story. (Though could a vampire really convince people he didn’t eat in public and not raise some kind of suspicion?”

I’d actually read Carrie Vaughn‘s story “Conquistador de la Noche” a couple weeks ago, and I still highly recommend it. Way more force than guile in this story but the vampire is a complex character (as he is in her Kitty series).

Karen Russell’s story “Vampires in the Lemon Grove” was one that typically I shouldn’t have liked, except she did such a good job with it, I couldn’t help myself. And I couldn’t help feeling bad for Clyde.

Expectedly, the stories I liked the least were the ones with the strongest horror bent. Doesn’t mean they were bad, but they were not my cup of tea.
Rating: 8/10

Published by Prime Books

Written by Michelle
Categories: 8/10, Anthology, Fantasy, Paper
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Borderland: Where Magic Meets Rock and Roll

Wednesday, October 29, 2008

Borderland: Where Magic Meets Rock and Roll (1986) edited by Terri Windling and Mark Alan Arnold

The Borderland anthologies contain stories by some of my favorite authors, in this volume Charles de Lint and Ellen Kushner contributed stories, along with Steven R Boyett and Bellamy Bach.

I’ve been a fan of shared world anthologies since Thieves’ World, and although Borderlands is nowhere near close to Thieves’ World (and some would say that’s a good thing) in that there were not the shared characters and story lines that made TW so compelling, there were still four solid stories in this collection. One story was set in the past, soon after the world had been changed by the reappearance of Faerie, the other three stories were set in the present, long after the world had adjusted to the presence of Faerie and Bordertown became whatever it is that it became.

The first story, “Prodigy,” was my least favorite. I had a hard time caring about Scooter. I saw why he did the things he did, but that was about it. And the last line of the story annoyed me to no end. I’d have punched him, had that been me.

The second story, “Gray” by Bellamy Bach, I liked better, although the shifting viewpoint confused me initially. And starting with Gray, the remainder of the stories were written from a female point of view. I have no idea if that affected my opinion of the stories, but I did like the remainder better.

I had high expectations for the last two stories, “Stick” by Charles de Lint, and “Charis” by Ellen Kushner, because I am particularly fond of their writing.

“Stick” seemed very familiar to me, so it’s possible I read it in another anthology.

“Charis” was a story I know I had not read anywhere previously, and although I enjoyed it very much, it was painfully sad. Ellen Kushner had the teen female mindset down pat, but managed to keep her from being an annoying twit (that’s a very hard line to walk, and many writers fail it.). So although it was good, it wasn’t the most chipper ending for an anthology.

All in all, I’m glad someone was able to find a copy of this book for me, as it is long out of print, because I love reading new stories by Charles de Lint and Ellen Kushner, but it was somewhat dark, and I can see that it might not be for everyone.
Rating: 7/10

Written by Michelle
Categories: Anthology, Fantasy, Paper
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The Essential Bordertown

Monday, September 3, 2007

The Essential Bordertown: A Traveller’s Guide to the Edge of Faerie (1998) Terri Windling & Delia Sherman

The Essential Bordertown is a collection of short stories set in Bordertown, the land between our world and Faerie. The stories are written with a teenage audiences in mind, with primarily teenage characters, and parts of a “traveler’s guide” appearing before each chapter.

Bordertown strikes me as a cross between Sanctuary of Thieves’ World and the world created by Charles de Lint. It’s the area where faerie and the world of humans meets, and it’s a strange place where neither magic or technology works properly, and although there are some places where elves and humans meet and get along, there are roving gangs of elves and humans who rule different parts of town, and woe to the opposite race who wanders into their territory.

Some of my favorite authors contributed to this anthology: Charles de Lint, Steven Brust, Ellen Kushner. I particularly liked Charles de Lint’s story “May This Be Your Last Sorrow”, but then I think that he has his own magic in that he is able to write the most wonderful short stories.

Although all the stories in this anthology were good, I did like some more than others. As I mentioned, I particularly enjoyed Charles de Lint’s “May this Be Your Last Sorrow”. I also very much liked Carloline Stevermer’s story “Rag”, whose characters were adults, but they were adults deal with the friendships of childhood and adolescence. The story “Half Life” by Donnard Sturgis was particularly good–I had no idea where the story was going, and was pleased with how it ended.And Delia Sherman’s story “Socks” was also particularly good, although there was much that was unresolved.

As a whole, the anthology was pretty good. Unlike Thieves World the authors didn’t write each others characters, but they did have a shared world, which did tie the stories together, making it something more than a simple anthology.
I would love to read the original Borderland anthologies, however, they’re out of print and I’ll have to find them used if I want them. But I do recommend The Essential Bordertown to anyone who likes antholgies or any fan of the Charles de Lint.
Rating: 8/10

Written by Michelle
Categories: 8/10, Anthology, Fantasy, Paper, Supernatural
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Widdershins

Tuesday, July 18, 2006

Widdershins (2006) Charles de Lint

Widdershins is the latest book by Charles de Lint, and I debated for about a month as to whether I wanted to buy it in hardback or wait for it to come out in paperback. First there was the fact that I own Spirits in the Wires and Tapping the Dream Tree in hardback. But the biggest deciding factor was knowing that this book was about Jilly and Geordie.

Although Jilly’s story was resolved at the end of The Onion Girl, things weren’t really that great, and I was really hoping that things would get better for her.

Although this book is ostensibly about Jilly and Geordie, the greater part of the story–and the most difficult part of the story–was about Jilly. Jilly is still not fully recovered from her accident, and is told that she may not fully recover until she finally deals with her past, and the abuse she suffered.

Geordie already has, to a great degree, dealt with his past. He and Christie have attempted to deal with their past, and to maintain a relationship and friendship that neither thought they could ever have. However, he must also deal with the fact that all of his past relationships have failed.

Meanwhile, tensions are brewing between the spirits who are native to the land, and the faerie who came over from Europe. Certain groups are bidding for power, while others are seeking revenge, and the fiddler Lizzie and her band are accidentally caught up in the hostilities.

As usual, this was a story that sucked me in almost immediately, and I hard a hard time putting it down. Of course I feel that way about all of Charles de Lint’s writing, but this book was no exception.

I was trying to decide whether you could read this book without having read and previous Newford stories, and decided that although you probably could, it most likely wouldn’t mean as much–especially the bits about Jilly. She’s been through so much, that you can’t help but cheer her on, and I’m not sure how much of that you’d feel if this was your first introduction to her. So although most Charles de Lint books can stand on their own, I’m not sure that I would recommend this without reading at least The Onion Girl.

Very strangely, the end of this book felt almost like a conclusion to the Newford stories. Several loose ends were tied up by the end of the book, which was surprising. I’m not saying that all Charles de Lint stories are depressing, but they typically have a dark (sometimes very dark) thread running through them, and there is typically not the happy ending you would expect. This story is dark–after all, we’re dealing with Jilly’s past, but the overall feel of the book was not as dark as many earlier books.

All in all, what I liked best about Widdershins was the resolution of some story arcs, and the fact that we get to see Jilly deal with some of her issues that were unresolved.

Plus, the Crow Girls.

If you have not read any other books by Charles de Lint, I recommend starting with one of his anthologies, and then coming back and reading this after you’ve gotten to know Newford and it’s characters better. I think you’ll enjoy the story better that way.
Rating:8/10

Written by Michelle
Categories: Anthology, Fantasy, Paper, Urban
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