Silver Birch, Blood Moon

The FIFTH in the series of altered faery tales, it's a heckuva good time. Evidently a modern fantasy trend, Datlow and Windling can't put these out fast enough; I believe there's at least 2 following this. These tales are good reads in their own right, but add the satisfying pop-pyschology crunch of being able to dissect the original tale through its modern and fractured counterpart and you've got a great read. While again, these are being turned out like organic vegetarian pizzas in Hell-A, I never felt cheated or subjected to a formula. These authors are varied in language and message, even if some themes are awfully similar. The worst that can be said about this particulair series is that it may have a feminist slant at times, being written mostly (16 out of 20) by women, and likely FOR, women, screw it. If you've got a problem with it, go grab something that Mike Whelan drew the cover art for. While some of the themes are a bit heavy, (domestic violence / female oppression in "Kiss Kiss") overall, it's pretty light-hearted, and dang it (can I say it again), it makes you think in an easy, cerebral but not all-encompassing way about the folktales that shaped our imaginations and interesting modifications of them. Pick it up, and the rest, too. I'll warn you if, as is inevitable in fiction trends, it becomes overdone and heavy-handed.

The FIFTH in the series of altered faery tales, it's a heckuva good time. Evidently a modern fantasy trend, Datlow and Windling can't put these out fast enough; I believe there's at least 1 more following this. These tales are good reads in their own right, but add the satisfying pop-pyschology crunch of being able to dissect the original tale through its modern and fractured counterpart and you've got a great read. While again, these are being turned out like organic vegetarian pizzas in Hell-A, I never felt cheated or subjected to a formula. These authors are varied in language and message, even if some themes are awfully similar. The worst that can be said about this particulair series is that it may have a feminist slant at times, being written mostly (16 out of 20) by women, and likely FOR, women, screw it. If you've got a problem with it, go grab something that Mike Whelan drew the cover art for. While some of the themes are a bit heavy, (domestic violence / female oppression in "Kiss Kiss") overall, it's pretty light-hearted, and dang it (can I say it again), it makes you think in an easy, cerebral but not all-encompassing way about the folktales that shaped our imaginations and interesting modifications of them. Pick it up, and the rest, too. I'll warn you if, as is inevitable in fiction trends, it becomes overdone and heavy-handed.

I have just learned that this book has been short-listed for the World Fantasy Award, 2000. Congratulations!

This volume is #5 in a series of fairy tales re-told for adults and I found it to be as satisfying and exceptional as the previous volumes. I won't list my favorite stories since every reader's taste is different, and what one likes best, another will like least. What I can tell you however is that the stories are wonderfully varied in tone and approach and the book courageously mixes Big Name authors with talented lesser known writers. I have always appreciated this about all the Datlow and Windling collections, and have learned about many wonderful new writers through them. One thing you can count on with their books is that all stories, whether to your personal taste or not, are of exceptionally high literary quality, showing why Datlow and Windling are widely considered the top editors of the fantasy field. I, for one, trust their editorial taste and am so grateful for all the hard work they have done to bring us this and many other collections over the years, and to provide a market for short story writers. I consider this a truly first rate collection, and Ms. Datlow and Ms. Windling have the deep gratitude of this lover of adult fairy tales.

Remember those Fairy Tales you read when you were a kid? There were evil stepmothers, good fairies, greedy kings, and beautiful princesses. Even though these stories had happy endings, you still felt there was something dark just under the surface that just didn't quite add up. This book (and others in the series) takes your favorite tales and shows you what might have been going on behind the scenes. An adult twist to children's tales.