An imaginative collection that puts a modern spin on beloved fairy tales and myths.
This eclectic volume of short stories explores familiar and futuristic landscapes through characters that love, yearn, ache, and make sacrifices.
In “Book of Shadows,” a young woman casts a spell to bring her father back from the dead, promising years of her life in exchange. Although her wish is granted, she immediately realizes she’s made a fatal mistake. “I’d known the price was part of my life,” Sandy remarks after her final conversation with her father. “I’d just thought I had more life to trade.” Ariane, an insectlike priestess in “Minotaur,” must set aside her religious beliefs and the interests of her race, the fictional Mirosians, when she falls in love with a human prisoner destined to be fed to the Goddess. True to speculative fiction, the tales explore time travel, government conspiracies, and the inner lives of androids, but the characters always feel relatable because of the dangers they face. Mythical monsters appear in these pages along with the real—and therefore even more horrific—terrors of everyday life: unemployment, rent bills, fear of abandonment, and loneliness. While Dallas is ravaged by a hurricane and the subsequent power outages in “Saving Alan Idle,” a disabled programmer named Eileen Yu struggles to rescue her laptop, which contains her greatest creation, an artificial intelligence named Alan. Alan in turn looks back at Eileen’s life, wondering how using a wheelchair has deprived her of intimacy and friendship. “In Sickness and in Health,” one of the best stories in Villyard’s collection, follows an android named Robbie who goes to extreme lengths pretending to be human to provide for his dying owner, Lydia Anderson. Love appears as little moments of empathy and connection across species, as when Robbie asks Lydia what it was like to be a child and she responds: “Days were longer then….There was joy in play that lasted for hours and hours. And it was safe.” The less successful tales in this volume rush through the events without concern for character development or, like “Toads and Roses,” appear to be simple retellings of familiar plots from children’s books.
An imaginative collection that puts a modern spin on beloved fairy tales and myths.Pub Date: Oct. 27, 2022
ISBN: 9798986833019
Page Count: 211
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: Jan. 18, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Warm and wonderful.
A prequel to the popular cozy fantasy Legends & Lattes (2022).
Viv is a fighter. It’s not just what she does, it’s who she is. So when she gets wounded during a battle with a necromancer’s skeletal wights, and her crew dumps her in a small seaside town to recover while they continue on after the necromancer, she is not happy about it. But soon enough, against her will, she’s drawn into the life of the town. There’s Fern, the unsuccessful bookseller, who has a knack for recommending exactly the right book. And there’s Maylee, the baker, who not only makes the world’s best baked goods, she actually winks at Viv. Before Viv knows what’s happening, she’s helping Fern out here and there, she’s reading—she’s involved. Meanwhile, there’s a pesky young gnome asking for an introduction to her mercenary crew, and a mysterious man in gray who looks like trouble. But Viv is leaving when her crew comes back through town. No matter what. This prequel gives readers a glimpse of Viv as a young orc, still committed to the fighter’s life, just taking an enforced break in a charming town populated by compelling, richly drawn characters, and the slightest hint of danger in the wind. Despite the lurking necromancer, the vibes are decidedly warm and cozy, and the plot is just as much about saving the bookstore and building relationships as it is about protecting the town from the man in gray. As a prequel, it can stand alone, but will certainly satisfy fans as well.
Warm and wonderful.Pub Date: Nov. 7, 2023
ISBN: 9781250886101
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Tor
Review Posted Online: Sept. 22, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2023
Engrossing worldbuilding, appealing characters, and a sense of humor make this a winning entry in the Sanderson canon.
A fantasy adventure with a sometimes-biting wit.
Tress is an ordinary girl with no thirst to see the world. Charlie is the son of the local duke, but he likes stories more than fencing. When the duke realizes the two teenagers are falling in love, he takes Charlie away to find a suitable wife—and returns with a different young man as his heir. Charlie, meanwhile, has been captured by the mysterious Sorceress who rules the Midnight Sea, which leaves Tress with no choice but to go rescue him. To do that, she’ll have to get off the barren island she’s forbidden to leave, cross the dangerous Verdant Sea, the even more dangerous Crimson Sea, and the totally deadly Midnight Sea, and somehow defeat the unbeatable Sorceress. The seas on Tress’ world are dangerous because they’re not made of water—they’re made of colorful spores that pour down from the world’s 12 stationary moons. Verdant spores explode into fast-growing vines if they get wet, which means inhaling them can be deadly. Crimson and midnight spores are worse. Ships protected by spore-killing silver sail these seas, and it’s Tress’ quest to find a ship and somehow persuade its crew to carry her to a place no ships want to go, to rescue a person nobody cares about but her. Luckily, Tress is kindhearted, resourceful, and curious—which also makes her an appealing heroine. Along her journey, Tress encounters a talking rat, a crew of reluctant pirates, and plenty of danger. Her story is narrated by an unusual cabin boy with a sharp wit. (About one duke, he says, “He’d apparently been quite heroic during those wars; you could tell because a great number of his troops had died, while he lived.”) The overall effect is not unlike The Princess Bride, which Sanderson cites as an inspiration.
Engrossing worldbuilding, appealing characters, and a sense of humor make this a winning entry in the Sanderson canon.Pub Date: April 4, 2023
ISBN: 9781250899651
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Tor
Review Posted Online: April 11, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2023
SEEN & HEARD
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