I finished this book in about 24 hours. It is a collection of stories about faeries, and not in the cute, innocent sense. These faeries may be warriors, murderous, punk rock, Old West gunslingers, Noir detectives, bikers, you name it.
Some of the stories send a shiver down your spine, like Sally Smiles and some make you laugh so hard you can't breathe.
My favorites are the noir detective stories because I love detective stories with a twist. That's why occult and supernatural detective stories always catch my interest. As most noir stories are told first person, it is quite interesting to see the world from the viewpoint of an 8 inch faery.
The story with the faery gunslinger was probably the most unusual. He carried a seven shooter wand, and rode a cardinal. How cool is that?
Probably the weirdest story was Sally Smiles, in which the faeries were the residual energies of a demon killed and hacked into bits on the land where the heroine grew up. The faeries took on the likeness of Sally Smiles, a Barbiesque doll that the heroine collected as a child. They viewed the heroine as a diety and were violently jealous of her. Of course, this created problems when she brought home her new beau.
I won't even tell you about the story of a half-ogre/half-faery who is on the hunt for a woman how has a carnivorous rear end. You have to read that for yourself!
There is even a story about a Native American kind of faery that goes on the rampage when some kids accidently steal a treasured relic belonging to them.
Some of the stories left behind a tinge of melancholy, such as Elaine Corvidae's offering about Pook. He is half-Fae and not very happy about it. As I adore tortured heroes, I definitely had to find his stories to read.
I have been sucked into Faerylore anew as a grown up, and this book only made it worst. In fact, I had to go to Amazon.com and try to find books by some of the authors.
In short, if you love Faeries, you have to check out this volume. It is well worth any money or time spent on it.
