edited by Madeline Smoot ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 1, 2017
An entertaining change of pace.
This science fiction/fantasy anthology delivers on its promise to reimagine the baddest fairy-tale baddies of them all: dragons and witches.
These 10 distinct stories explore themes of humanity, honor, loyalty, and identity while staying true to the book’s purpose: an exploration of the question “are bad guys always bad?” Susan Bianculli and Ariane Felix give witches the sci-fi treatment in “Technological Magic” and “The Witch and the Hunter,” respectively. Joy Preble’s “A Very Baba Yaga Halloween” reveals the eponymous character’s origins in flashbacks as the Bone Mother prepares for All Hallow’s Eve. Sarah Lyn Eaton’s Jamaican witches use earth magic to help an ancestor’s trapped soul pass on in “The Fragrant Feast.” In “Some Like It Hot,” by Mari Mancusi, a young were-dragon just wants her first kiss, but the fact that she shifts out of human form when she’s turned on is a bit of an obstacle. Maybe the sexy son of Satan’s sous chef can help her out. Kath Boyd Marsh’s “The Pendragon Crystal” puts a fiery spin on the Arthurian legend, with the king and his family imagined as dragons forced into exile, disguised as humans. Readers who prefer short stories over longer works will find entertainment within the pages, and the collection may also be useful for discussions about the differences between fantasy and science fiction and the places in which the two genres meet.
An entertaining change of pace. (Science fiction/fantasy anthology. 12-16)Pub Date: June 1, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-933767-61-1
Page Count: 160
Publisher: CBAY
Review Posted Online: March 28, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2017
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edited by Madeline Smoot & Hope Erica Schultz
by Rae Carson ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 1, 2011
Despite the stale fat-to-curvy pattern, compelling world building with a Southern European, pseudo-Christian feel,...
Adventure drags our heroine all over the map of fantasyland while giving her the opportunity to use her smarts.
Elisa—Princess Lucero-Elisa de Riqueza of Orovalle—has been chosen for Service since the day she was born, when a beam of holy light put a Godstone in her navel. She's a devout reader of holy books and is well-versed in the military strategy text Belleza Guerra, but she has been kept in ignorance of world affairs. With no warning, this fat, self-loathing princess is married off to a distant king and is embroiled in political and spiritual intrigue. War is coming, and perhaps only Elisa's Godstone—and knowledge from the Belleza Guerra—can save them. Elisa uses her untried strategic knowledge to always-good effect. With a character so smart that she doesn't have much to learn, body size is stereotypically substituted for character development. Elisa’s "mountainous" body shrivels away when she spends a month on forced march eating rat, and thus she is a better person. Still, it's wonderfully refreshing to see a heroine using her brain to win a war rather than strapping on a sword and charging into battle.
Despite the stale fat-to-curvy pattern, compelling world building with a Southern European, pseudo-Christian feel, reminiscent of Naomi Kritzer's Fires of the Faithful (2002), keeps this entry fresh. (Fantasy. 12-14)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-06-202648-4
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Greenwillow Books
Review Posted Online: July 19, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2011
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by Ransom Riggs ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 7, 2011
A trilogy opener both rich and strange, if heavy at the front end.
Riggs spins a gothic tale of strangely gifted children and the monsters that pursue them from a set of eerie, old trick photographs.
The brutal murder of his grandfather and a glimpse of a man with a mouth full of tentacles prompts months of nightmares and psychotherapy for 15-year-old Jacob, followed by a visit to a remote Welsh island where, his grandfather had always claimed, there lived children who could fly, lift boulders and display like weird abilities. The stories turn out to be true—but Jacob discovers that he has unwittingly exposed the sheltered “peculiar spirits” (of which he turns out to be one) and their werefalcon protector to a murderous hollowgast and its shape-changing servant wight. The interspersed photographs—gathered at flea markets and from collectors—nearly all seem to have been created in the late 19th or early 20th centuries and generally feature stone-faced figures, mostly children, in inscrutable costumes and situations. They are seen floating in the air, posing with a disreputable-looking Santa, covered in bees, dressed in rags and kneeling on a bomb, among other surreal images. Though Jacob’s overdeveloped back story gives the tale a slow start, the pictures add an eldritch element from the early going, and along with creepy bad guys, the author tucks in suspenseful chases and splashes of gore as he goes. He also whirls a major storm, flying bullets and a time loop into a wild climax that leaves Jacob poised for the sequel.
A trilogy opener both rich and strange, if heavy at the front end. (Horror/fantasy. 12-14)Pub Date: June 7, 2011
ISBN: 978-1-59474-476-1
Page Count: 234
Publisher: Quirk Books
Review Posted Online: March 30, 2014
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by Ransom Riggs ; illustrated by Andrew Davidson
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by Ransom Riggs ; illustrated by Jim Tierney
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