{"id":68,"date":"2005-04-14T19:36:12","date_gmt":"2005-04-15T02:36:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/?p=68"},"modified":"2021-06-02T18:59:07","modified_gmt":"2021-06-02T22:59:07","slug":"a-wolf-at-the-door","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/68","title":{"rendered":"A Wolf at the Door"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Wolf at the Door<\/a><\/em> (2000) edited by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>I love folk tales and fairy tales, and I love the idea of stories that have been told and retold, and then finally captured on paper. The problem of course, is finding an author who is good at translating stories from an oral tradition into something that works well written. <\/p>\n

There’s something wonderful about a well-told short story, and I think that the best short stories in the world are folk and fairy tales. <\/p>\n

Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling are very good at finding authors who can take these stories and retell them, and they always put together wonderful anthologies. They brought together thirteen writers for this collection of retold fairy tales. <\/p>\n

Although one or two of the stories I found to be just okay, others were nothing short of excellent. It also seems as if the stories were I liked the best were towards the end of the book. For me the collection started out okay, and then got better and better the more I read.<\/p>\n

Delia Sherman’s story, The Months of Manhattan<\/em> is a retelling of one of my favorite folk tales, and although the moral remains the same–always try to have something nice to say–I was somewhat disappointed by the change in the ending. I thought that Janeen Webb’s Ali Baba and the Forty Aliens<\/em> did a better job modifying a familiar story without making it a bit too neat. And considering some of the other stories in this collection, I’m not quite certain why the The Months of Manhattan<\/em> ended the way it did.<\/p>\n

I was quite pleased by Katherine Vaz’s The Kingdom of the Melting Glances<\/em>, as it was based upon stories that had not heard before. The stories are, I believe, of Hispanic tradition, and most of my folktale collections are European or Asian, so I will definitely need to search for some new collections to read. <\/p>\n

Although I don’t have much of a ear for poetry, I enjoyed Neil Gaiman’s poem Instructions<\/em>, which was a compilation of the secrets from different stories. A Wolf at the Door<\/em>, the story from which the title of the anthology was taken, was very good–especially the twist.<\/p>\n

I really<\/em> liked Garth Nix’s Hansel’s Eyes<\/em>. It was one of the tales that kept far more closely to what I like best about folk and fairy tales–the fact that things aren’t always neat and nice.<\/p>\n

Not that I think the purpose of these stories is necessarily to scare us, as much as it is to make us pay attention to what is happening around us.
\nRating: 7\/10<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Wolf at the Door (2000) edited by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling I love folk tales and fairy tales, and I love the idea of stories that have been told and retold, and then finally captured on paper. The problem of course, is finding an author who is good at translating stories from an […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[18,2,6,3,291],"tags":[248,345,76,249],"class_list":["post-68","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-anthology","category-fantasy","category-folk-fairy-tales","category-kids","category-paper","tag-ellen-datlow","tag-garth-nix","tag-neil-gaiman","tag-terri-windling"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/piQkW-16","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":293,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/293","url_meta":{"origin":68,"position":0},"title":"Swan Sister","author":"Michelle","date":"August 5, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Swan Sister (2003) Ellen Datlow & Terri Windling I don't think I've come across a short story collection put together by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling that I didn't like, and Swan Sister is no exception to the rule. 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These are fairy tales retold--some with a change in the point of view, some\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Anthology"","block_context":{"text":"Anthology","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/anthology"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/11\/Black-Thorn-White-Rose.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":229,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/229","url_meta":{"origin":68,"position":2},"title":"Snow White Blood Red","author":"Michelle","date":"April 19, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Snow White Blood Red (1993) Ellen Datlow & Terri Windling I often have a hard time putting down interesting books. Which means that if I'm reading a book I real like before bed, I end up staying up past my bed time instead of falling asleep. One solution is to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Anthology"","block_context":{"text":"Anthology","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/anthology"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/04\/Snow-White-Blood-Red.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":41,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/41","url_meta":{"origin":68,"position":3},"title":"The Faery Reel","author":"Michelle","date":"November 7, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"The Faery Reel edited by Ellen Datlow & Terri Windling Any time I see a fantasy anthology edited by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling, I'll often as not pick it up, because I know that it's going to be good. Usually very good. This volume however, has the added bonus\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Anthology"","block_context":{"text":"Anthology","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/anthology"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2004\/11\/Faery-Reel.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":580,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/580","url_meta":{"origin":68,"position":4},"title":"The Coyote Road: Trickster Tales","author":"Michelle","date":"May 30, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"The Coyote Road: Trickster Tales (2007) Ellen Datlow & Terri Windling I love short stories. Aside from collections by Charles de Lint, I best love anthologies by Ellen Datlow & Terri Windling best. Their books are like comfort food, and I save them up for when I'm sick or feeling\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "9\/10"","block_context":{"text":"9\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/9-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/05\/Coyote-Road.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3584,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/3584","url_meta":{"origin":68,"position":5},"title":"Teeth: Vampire Tales","author":"Michelle","date":"February 24, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Teeth: Vampire Tales (2011) edited by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling This is an Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling anthology, so as always, there are fascinating bits of folklore. Rice, not garlic, was the most effective means of keeping Chinese vampires at bay, for they had a strange compulsion to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "8\/10"","block_context":{"text":"8\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/8-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"Teeth-Vampire-Tales","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/02\/Teeth-Vampire-Tales-199x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=68"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=68"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=68"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=68"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}