Review: Firebirds

Firebird is a publishing division of Penguin Books specifically targeted towards teenagers, and "Firebirds" is a short story collection with material from various writers whose books are published by Firebird. I quite like pretty much all of the stories included inside, and I surprised myself with how fast I ended up reading the book. I shall give brief comments on each of the books.

The book starts out with "Cotillion," by Delia Sherman, and it deals with a young college girl who must deal with an old folk ballad coming true in 1969 New York. I really liked this story, told in an incredibly readable voice and including a lot of detail about 1969 Greenwich Village, which could have easily been the realm of Faerie in disguise, and also the information of the Renaissance- and Medieval-era ballads, music, and dancing which are a big part of the plot.

"The Baby in the Night-Deposit Box" by Megan Whalen Turner is the story of a baby left in the night-deposit box at a bank, and her life as she grows up being raised by the institution, despite the meddling of a sinister Child Protective Services agent who wishes to steal her away. A very funny story, and one that slowly but surely reveals its fairy tale roots, this was probably my favorite story in the book.

"Beauty" by Sherwood Smith is a further story in the same world as some of Smith's novels. I hadn't read the novels, nevertheless I was able to follow the story fairly well. It deals with an unattractive princess, frustrated at the beauty of all those around her, who is kidnapped by a villanous man who attempted to kill her parents twenty years ago and who was turned into a tree for his trouble. Much of the story is merely their conversations back and forth, and it really helps develop these two characters remarkably well.

"Mariposa" by Nancy Springer is the story of a woman, about to be married, who learns that she lost her soul sometime in early adolescence. So she goes home to find it. The metaphor about conformity is obvious, and I didn't particularly like this story, although it is by no means bad.

"Max Mondrosch" by Lloyd Alexander is a weird, farcical horror story of the titular young man who is constantly attempting to get a job, but is constantly being refused for various nonsensical reasons. It is both funny and terrifing, and it really identifies with the terror of being unemployed.

"The Fall of Ys" by Meredith Ann Pierce is a retelling of a Celtic myth about a man who built a city on an island in the sea, and his promise to give his daughter to the priestesses of the goddess of the sea. This was well-written, but I disliked how the deck seemed stacked against poor King Gralon.It seemed a bit of a self-consciously feminist story as well: Gralon is basically a villain because he is a misogynist.

"Medusa" by Micheal Cadnum is a retelling of the classic Greek myth. In this story the beautiful Medusa falls victim to the petty goddess Athena, who transforms her into a monster. But Medusa is not defeated, and in the end she is even somewhat triumphant, altthough how is a slightly more complicated question. I thought this story was good, although it wasn't my favorite.

"The Black Fox" is a comic written by Emma Bull and drawn by Charles Vess, based on the folk song by Graham Pratt. It's an amusing story of a bunch of English fox hunters who chase after a small black fox who is not what he appears to be. It's an interesting piece of fantasy, almost like a folktale even. I really liked it.

"Byndley" by Patricia A. McKillip deals with the story of the wizard Reck, who was kidnapped to Faerie when he was young and managed to escape, taking with him a magical item. However, now he is older and he is on a mission to return it to Faerie where it belongs. In the town of Byndley, supposedly near the border of Faerie, he meets some kindly villagers who ask for his story, which he tells. This is a very quiet but very beautiful story, and I enjoyed it immensely.

"The Lady of the Ice Garden" by Kara Dalkey is a retelling of the fairy tale "The Snow Queen," reset in feudal Japan. It tells the tale of a young woman who chases after her childhood friend, who has disappeared without a trace. She is helped and hindered by all kinds of people and supernatural creatures, until she finally finds the Lady of the Ice Garden, who has her friend. It's a good story, and I liked the characters and episodes a lot, but it seems to be somewhat artificially dark in tone, which I didn't like so much.

"Hope Chest" by Garth Nix takes place in another world which resembles somewhat an alternate history United States around the 1930s. A young baby girl is discovered at the train station sitting on a locked chest which no one can open. She grows up in her hometown, but as things get worse she needs to use what's in the chest to protect her hometown and the world from evil. I liked the earlier passages of this story, but it got very dark and violent all of a sudden, with really no explanation. The story also had several mysteries which were never explained, which drove me a bit mad.

"Chasing the Wind" by Elizabeth E. Wein is not very fantastical, but it is quite good. It's the story of a teenaged girl traveling by plane across Kenya just before its liberation. There were lots of beautifully described scenes, and it leaves some parts of the story up to interpretation, which works well here.

"Little Dot" by Diana Wynne Jones is a delightful story about a young wizard living with his aunt who saves a drowning kitten named Turandot (or "Little Dot") and adopts her, as well as several other cats, and their relations with each other. When the young man gets a cat-hating girlfriend things get complicated. A very funny and entertaing stories especially good for cat lovers.

"Remember Me" by Nancy Farmer is an odd story of a family camp out near a mysterious rock with the words of the title carved into it. Things get strange as the landscape seems to react to the narrator's mentally retarded sister, who seems to respond to the rock as well. It was an odd story, but I liked it, although I would have wished it explained more.

"Flotsam" by Nina Kiriki Hoffman deals with a teenage girl who discovers an odd young man on a basketball court and brings him home. This story used the backgrounds of the characters very well, as what happened to them before this story effects their behavior during the story. It's a beautifully constructed story of injury and healing, and I really liked it.

"The Flying Woman" by Laurel Winter starts with a brother and sister who are marooned on an island for practicing witchcraft. They are joined by a flying woman ho washes ashore and who they nurse back to health but who doesn't seem to keep on living. Again, an odd story, and I didn't really like the characters except Dannilla, the sister and the narrator. The description of the island and the background to the world it takes place in are well-done though.

All in all, it was a great collection, although I question whether some of the stories were truly targeted towards teenagers. I quite enjoyed it all in all, and I'm glad I read it.

Review: Favorite Folktales from Around the World

Reading mythology was what really got me into fantasy. It was fun reading all these different and unique stories. I don't read much mythology any more, but recently I picked this book off my bookshelf, edited by fantasy author and folklorist Jane Yolen. This collects a wide variety of stories from around the world, organized in 13 sections based on subject matter, for instance Death, Telling Tales, Shapshifters, and others. Yolen did her best to avoid the most well-known folktales and instead going for more obscure variants. Instead of the Frog Prince, we have the story of the Toad Bridegroom from Korea, which has a similar structure but is a very different story. Several of the stories are also similar to each other. For instance, the Italian story of Catherine the Sly Country Lass and the Russian tale of the Clever Little Girl involve several similar situations, but each manages to give a unique twist to what happens. Yolen has also tried her best to capture the unique flow of various storytellers who tell their story. In some cases this makes the stories a bit hard to understand, but generally it makes each story seem real, like something someone would tell their kids or friends or to entertain the patrons of some inn on a rainy and windy night. I also liked that the stories come from a diverse background (although there are a lot of European folktales, and I wish there was at least one Maori story included), although with some stories (particularly the Yakuts story "The Little Old Woman with Five Cows") where the cultural gap is too wide for me to really understand it.

I particularly like the short, punchy stories, the ones little more than clever riddles or jokes. They were often funny or wise or just plain fun to read. The longer more heroic stories were also cool though, and they really captured my interest and attention.

All in all, I really liked this collection. It makes me want to read more collections of folktales and mythology. I'm definitely going to keep it so I can eventually read it to my children.

Next post: Firebirds, a short story collection for "young adults"

Dunedin

So last weekend I went to Dunedin. I got up really early (a lot earlier than it turned out I needed to) and got down to the Intercity Bus Station. The bus ride was nice and fairly uneventful. We got in early and I waited about 10 minutes or so for Dennis, one of my hosts in Dunedin. He was a Maori guy who has worked as a music therapist working with a lot of kids, often using traditional Maori song and dance, such as the haka. He was a really cool and chill guy. We hung out on the University of Otago campus (which reminded me of OSU's campus in a weird way) until his wife, Viktoria, my other host, was done with her lectures. Then we went out to a Japanese restaurant, which was alright (perhaps not as quite as good as Aomatsu back in old Corvallis--I think I've been getting slowly but increasingly homseick for home over the past few weeks). We went back to their house in Brighton (a few minutes outside Dunedin), and watched TV through the static. Dunedin was noticeably colder than Christchurch, making me grateful for the heater in my room. The next day, Dennis and I went out to the Dunedin Farmer's Market (I've got to one of those whenever i get the oppurtunity, now don't I?), where we got, amongst other things, purple carrots. Apparently they're a heritage breed or something. Once we got back, Viktoria and I went out to the Otago peninsula and walked around various locations on the beaches looking for animals. We saw seals, shags, some other sea birds, and sea lions (those last on the beach at Sandfly Bay, which we were able to get surprisingly close to, which was I think my high point for the trip). We also saw what was probably a penguin, but it was kinda far away, and it didn't want to get out of the water. I did see its tracks though. That night we watched Back to the Future 3, a pretty fun movie all around. The next day, Viktoria drove me into town and dropped me off at the Otago Museum. They had a pretty good exhibit on Pacific Cultures. It was cool to see Rarotongan stuff and go "hey, I've been there." I also have a desire to visit somewhere in Melanesia now. There was also the Animal Attic, which had a lot of stuffed animals. After that I walked over to the bus stop, and because I still had some time, I walked a little farther to find food, which I did in a Vietnamese restaurant where I got takeaway pho, which was nice in the cold weather. The bus back to Christchurch was a double-decker (something I'd never seen before in an intercity transit bus), and I decided to sit on the top. It was similarly uneventful. I had a bit of excitement where I was unsure whether or not a particular stop on Christchurch was the best one for me, but it turned out that my gamble paid off, because it was only about a 5-10 minute walk to my flat. All in all it was a fun trip, and Viktoria and Dennis (and Teisia, their very cute baby) were very nice. Also during this trip I finished up my book of folktales and started Firebirds, which I finished today. I shall write reviews of them soon. Anyways, Ta!