Bookgasm! (or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Short Story)

[adelynne]

I have to admit - I wasn't a big short story fan. You couldn't (I thought) lose yourself in a short story the way you can in a long novel. Nothing is as well-rounded, there just isn't enough space. A short story captures a brief moment in time - not nearly as interesting.

Boy was I wrong.

On a whim, as I'd been collecting the Datlow & Windling anthologies for my favorite authors, I picked up Firebirds - the 2003 anthology edited by Sharyn November (that's sdn) which celebrates, in its own words "original fantasy and science fiction."

I picked it up because it had names I recognized in it - Delia Sherman, Patricia McKillip, Charles Vess, and Nancy Farmer (who, along with Patricia and Sharyn, was a guest at The Witching Hour last fall) - but it was just so incredibly good that I read all the way through, most of it in two days. I discovered Megan Whelan Turner and Diana Wynne Jones. I finally got to read some Garth Nix without tackling one of those intimidating-sized volumes in the Coop.

First of all, hats of to Sharyn November, who put together a great anthology that focused on the amazing stories these authors had to tell where the only theme was excellence. I'm seriously impressed, and will obtain Firebirds Rising and first opportunity. And speaking of the stories, let me rave about a few selections:

Cotillion - Well this story just reduced me to a puddle of squee. I loved Delia Sherman's prose ever since I read The Fall of the Kings several years ago, but never have I found it so accessible as in this story. It seemed a touch autobiographical, and her love of New York really comes through Celia's eyes. As does her love of the fantastic, and the merging is uniquely brilliant. I love the music, and the ballads (which harkens back to the Boskone panel), and the dancing task, and how she subverts the tale at the end. Because Cellia is a modern girl and smart enough to know that she doesn't know the guy to love him yet. On the whole, this story is absolutely brilliant, and I could think of no better opening to any anthology.

The Baby in the Night Deposit Box - This was my first experience with Megan Whelan Turner, and I am looking forward to checking out more things by her. I love the way this story interconnected - no character wasted, every detail exploited. And bunnies! Anya would run in fear.

Beauty makes me want to read the rest of Sherwood Smith's work, as it exists in a world previously explored. I'm particularly taken with the concept of her villain. Mariposa by Nancy Springer is just a neat concept, and beautifully explored. I don't know why I've never heard of her before. The Fall of Ys by Meredith Ann Pierce was an excellent take on an old story, as was The Lady of the Ice Garden by Elizabeth E. Wein. Throughout the latter I kept screaming "The Snow Queen! It's the bloody Snow Queen set in Japan!"

There are stories that haunt in here. Max Mondrosch by Lloyd Alexander left me utterly depressed, but both Medusa by Michael Cadnum and Nancy Farmer's Remember Me were uplifting in their final message of hope (and the latter caused an epiphany that should have come much earlier). Hope Chest by Garth Nix really took me for a ride, and was one story that left many an unanswered question (though profound in the way that it ended where that story ended - something else that is stuck in my head after being hammered in by my workshop prof).

Byndley - McKillip is love. I have only read Riddle-Master thus far (Winter Rose is enqueued), but I have read enough to know that. This tale is delighfully simple with deeper meaning and words unsaid. Multilayered and breathtaking. She seems to me a perfect author for this form - able to say so much in so few words.

The Black Fox - If I'm not mistaken, this also appears in Vess's The Book of Ballads (which is also love, and heartily recommended), but it is nonetheless grand to see here. I love the snarky American, and the beautiful artwork (have I mentioned the love I bear for Vess's art? No? Consider it mentioned.), especially of the Horned Hunter. Even learning it's not an old ballad just enriches the material.

There are a few others, but really people should go an explore this for themselves. It is sheer beauty in 421 pages. I can't say that everything hit me the right way, but I can say that it all left a mark, and I'm now obsessively devouring more short stories - currently up, The Faery Reel.

Comments

[the-jackalope.livejournal.com]

Oh, you HAVE to pick up McKillip's volume of short stories. They are fabulous. She has a retelling of The Snow Queen in there that is quite possibly my favorite version of the story ever.

Also Shade's Children or The Ragwitch by Garth Nix are both smaller novels, not part of a series, and very good. Creepy but good, which is really his trope, creepy but good.

[adelynne.livejournal.com]

I have to pick up quite a bit of McKillip. My wallet is not keeping up with my reading list, sadly. Still, every chance I've gotten of late (since I picked up that little 70's copy of The Riddlemaster of Hed) has been to get something with McKillip as at least a contributing author.

My favorite version of the Snow Queen is sentimental - the old Russian cartoon which is pretty much spot on for the Hans Christian Andersen version.

And thanks for the Garth Nix recs - I'll add them to the list.

[queenofthorns.livejournal.com]

The Sherwood Smith novels are EXCELLENT (and now published in one volume!) And I second the recommendation for McKillip's retelling of "The Snow Queen" - it's gorgeous.

As for Nix, well, you know how much I love the "Abhorsen" trilogy - so I can only second THAT recommendation as well.

[adelynne.livejournal.com]

I've purposely avoided reading your discussion of Nix just because some snatches intrigued me so I knew I'd read the books themselves eventually. :)