Friday, August 14, 2009

Faery! Edited by Terri Windling

Faery! (Ace Science Fiction) Faery! by Terri Windling


My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Overall, I was a bit disappointed with this collection. Some of the stories didn't work for me. Yet, there are some gems in here that make this book a keeper, just for those stories. The standout tales in this collection were:

A Troll and Two Roses by Patricia A. McKillip
The Thirteenth Fey by Jane Yolen
Lullaby for a Changeling by Nicholas Stuart Gray
Brat by Theodore Sturgeon (Simply hilarious look at changelings! Must read more Sturgeon!)
Wild Garlic by William F. Wu (Chinese-American protagonist, chilling ghost story with foxwomen)
The Stranger by Shulamith Oppenheim
The Box of All Possibility by Z. Greenstaff
Rhian and Garanhir by Grail Undwin
The Woodcutter's Daughter by Alison Uttley (my favorite. Very like some of my all-time beloved fairy tale reads).
Touk's House by Robin McKinley (another fairy tale-great read)
The Boy Who Dreamed of Tir Na N-Og by Michael M. McNamara

I did not like these at all:
Spirit Places by Keith Taylor (it was really boring)
The Five Black Swans by Sylvia Townsend Warner (it seemed pointless)

Sad And Confounding But Well-Written
The Erlking by Angela Carter

Bizarre Yet Interesting
Prince Shadowbow by Sheri S. Tepper

Good But Too Slow-Moving
The Snow Fairy by M. Lucie Chin (I loved the Chinese Folklore aspects)

Indifferent About
The Seekers of Dreams by Felix Marti-Ibanez
Bride by Steven R. Boyett
Crowley and the Leprechaun by Gregory Frost
The Antrim Hills by Mildred Downey Broxon (Rather bleak. It captured the cold nature of the Fae very well)

It also had poetry, but for some reason, the poetry didn't really mesh well with the prose to me.

I'm glad I read this collection but I hope that I find the next faery anthologies in my tbr pile to be more interesting and moving than this one.


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2 comments:

Michelle Lauren said...

Great review Danielle! I haven't read anything by Terri Windling in a while, but I used to love her work, especially the retelling of fairy tales and the World best Fantasy and Horror anthologies.

This looks interesting, and it has some authors I enjoy, like Robin McKinley (I got hooked on her with "Beauty" and "The Hero & the Crown."

Danielle said...

Thanks, Michelle. It's got some good stories in it. The Robin McKinley was one of the winners.