Stuff As Dreams Are Made On…

Crossroads: Tales of the Southern Literary Fantastic is a collection of short fiction edited by award winning authors F. Brett Cox and Andy Duncan. I read Nymeth’s review of this book last year and knew right away that I had to have this one. Fantasy isn’t often paired with the deep south, but it really should be more often. The atmosphere of the south lends itself so well to a fantasy atmosphere. Warm nights and the hum of cicadas always put a spark of magic in the air in my opinion.

I’ve lived in New Orleans my whole life and we’ve always prided ourselves in a certain sort of something special. Call it voodoo, call it the ghosts of the past, but there’s just a magical feel this city and it really lends itself to this sort of writing. I was so pleased to see so many writers from New Orleans in this collection and so many stories about New Orleans in this collection. Some of the stories tell magic based fantasy tales and others are more speculative fiction. One of my favorites of the spec. fic. stories that focus on New Orleans was a story called “See My King All Dressed in Red” written by James L. Cambias. I fell in love with the title right away and I think it may be one of my favorite titles for a short story ever. It’s a beautiful sentiment after reading the story, particularly if you’ve grown up in New Orleans. The story is about a couple who once lived in New Orleans, who met in New Orleans, but now live in another state since New Orleans is under water…a forgotten city. Now, years later, they are traveling to New Orleans by boat one final time for a last Mardi Gras and to recall forgotten memories. Really enjoyed this one.

I had my first experience with Daniel Wallace in this book with his amazing story “Slippered Feet”. It’s the story of an elderly couple who have plans to journey to a faraway land to spend some time in their older years. They begin to learn the language of the new land through a series of audio tapes and a husband watches his wife begin to get lost in this land before they have even left their home. This story was heart breaking and heart warming all at once and I loved it.  I can’t wait to read The Watermelon King now!

One of my favorite stories in the book was Kalamu Ya Salaam’s “Alabama”. This was so much more than just a short story. It was a philosophical piece on the nature of death, the cruelties of life, racism, and humanity in general…all told through a very well written story that I’d love to hear him read aloud. He’s a spoken word artist and I found out that he lives here in New Orleans. I’d love to go to one of his readings…I’m going to have to keep an eye out for him.

There’s so much more to this book…26 stories in all. I thoroughly enjoyed most of them, but there were a few that I just didn’t like at all. But that’s bound to happen with any short story collection with 26 stories. Lots of writers that I had never heard of before and what I loved most about this was the setting of all of the stories. They were just dripping with atmosphere. If you’re looking for something for the Southern Reading Challenge, this is it!

This will be my second read for the Irresistible Review Challenge (thanks Nymeth!)

The Book of Ballads is a book that I think should be in the collection of any lover of folklore, fairy tales, ballads, myths, legends, and fantasy. It’s one of the most well compiled collections I’ve seen in a long time and it’s presented in such an amazing format with a lovely introduction by Terri Windling, beautifully illustrated throughout in graphic novel form by Charles Vess, stories told wonderfully by some amazing authors, and it includes a discography of ballads at the end.

The book begins with Terri Windling giving us the history of ballads and how they have been passed down throughout the ages from their earliest roots where they were tales sung and rarely written down, an “ancient folk poetry” as she puts it, to their more modern roots of being recorded and reinterpreted by modern novelists. She explains the different instruments used to perform the ballads and explains to the reader the different types of ballads that exist: mainly magic, love, death, and family troubles. Those are all illustrated throughout The Book of Ballads.

It’s impossible for me to go through all 13 ballads in this collection, but they were all exquisite. There wasn’t a single one that I didn’t enjoy. As I said, they’re presented in graphic novel format and beautifully illustrated by Charles Vess. He was made for this project and it was a project that was his own vision as he is a long time lover of ballads. Here’s the amazing table of contents for this project:

The False Knight on the Road by Neil Gaiman
King Henry by Jane Yolen
Thomas the Rhymer by Sharyn McCrumb
Barbara Allen by Midori Snyder
The Three Lovers by Lee Smith
Tam-Lin by Elaine Lee
The Daemon Lover by Delia Sherman
Twa Corbies by Charles de Lint
Sovay by Charles de Lint
The Galtee Farmer by Jeff Smith
Alison Gross by Charles Vess
The Black Fox by Emma Bull
The Great Selchie of Sule Skerry by Jane Yolen

I had no idea that some of these amazing stories were actually ballads. Honestly, I didn’t know where many of them had originated and now I do. Each author interpreted the story in their own way but most of them stuck pretty close to the original story. What I loved most about this book is that at the end of each story, the full text of the original ballad was included, so this is really a treasury of some of the most well known ballads. It’s such a special book really.

At the end of the book, they’ve included a discography that includes a list of recordings for each ballad in the collection where you can find numerous musical performances of the ballads. I can’t wait to listen to some of them.

This was truly an amazing read and I’m so happy to have read it. Hope you do the same! In fact, I loved it so much and think that it is such a great resource that I’d love to give away a copy! So if this sounds like something that you’d be interested in, leave me a comment and I’ll draw a name next Sunday, May 31st (plenty of time) and you’ll be entered for a drawing for it!

My reading seems to have sloooooooowed down at the end of April, but I ended the month with an awesome book that I think everyone should read if you haven’t already – Here, There Be Dragons by James A. Owen. It’s book one in the Chronicles of the Imaginarium Geographica and there’s not much not to like about this series from what I can see.

Owen has put together a fantasy lover’s dream with this one. Throughout the book there are not only references made to other books and authors that we have come to love, but we actually visit their lands through the Archipelago of Dreams, a world that exists parallel to ours that consists of many islands such as Avalon and Byblos to name a few.

The book opens during WWI in London with the murder of a professor who has been protecting a book called The Imaginarium Geographica. The book is an atlas to the Archipelago of Dreams and 3 caretakers have been unknowingly assembled to bear it’s burden. Their names are John, Jack and Charles. After being questioned for the murder they meet at 221B Baker Street (recognize that address?) and are suddenly visited by a man named Bert who tells them that they must leave as there are otherworldly beings coming after them who will kill them. They of course don’t believe this because they know nothing but the London that they’ve always lived in….until they see these dark creatures looming towards them. Bert hurries them towards a ship with the head of a dragon. It is one of 7 dragon ships and it is alive…it’s able to cross between our world and the Archipelago of dreams.

Once inside the Archipelago of Dreams, they learn that The Winter King is slowly erasing many of the islands in the Imaginarium Geographica and claiming the shadows of it’s residents. He wants to rule over the world and claim his seat as the rightful king. But to do this, he needs the book that John, Jack and Charles are now the caretakers of.

I won’t say anymore about this book except that it was quite an amazing ride and that the last chapter will blow you out the water! I can’t wait to read the next installment of the series. Oh and more thing…Owen also did his own illustrations for the novel which were top notch! One for each chapter and I really like the cover of this one. I loved Orson Scott Card’s quote on the back of the book: “Is there anyone who wouldn’t enjoy reading Here, There be Dragons? If there is such a person, I haven’t met him, and I doubt that I would like him if I did….” Classic :p

The second book that read today was the new Neil Gaiman! Yes, the new Neil Gaiman…No, it’s not a novel, it’s a new picture book illustrated by Grim Grisly called The Dangerous Alphabet and it was great. I don’t think that I’ve seen Grisly’s illustrations before, but I loved them. His monster drawings remind me quite a bit of Ralph Steadman’s art and I’d consider that a compliment. This was quite a fun little ride. It’s the story of a brother and sister and their pet gazelle who sneak away from their father with a treasure map in tow and go on quite the creepy adventure. Along the way they are greeted with all sorts of ghastly apparitions, dead things, soon to be dead things, and strange devices. The story is told in rhyming couplets by Mr. Gaiman with each part of the couplet starting with a letter of the alphabet…though there’s no guarantee that they’ll always be in order…but for the most part they will be. Whenever I have kids, they’ll most certainly get a copy of this book, but they won’t be getting my copy We can’t be having jelly all over it…

Next up is Terri Windling’s The Wood Wife!

I think I’m the last one to start reading this series but I’m so glad that I finally have. Not everyone is a huge fan of stories that take fairy tales out of their normal context and put them into a different one, but I’ve always enjoyed that. And that’s exactly what Fables is.

The basic story behind Fables is that all of the creatures and folk of fairy tales and stories have been exiled from their land after a great evil has taken it over. They have set up shop in no place other than New York. Here in New York, King Cole reigns supreme while Snow White oversees everything as Mayor of the Fable world. They must remain secret from the mundanes (that would be us normal folk). Every fairy tale character you can imagine makes appearances throughout the comic.

In volume 1, we are faced with a crime scene. Rose Red, sister of Snow White has gone missing and her apartment is found completely upturned and covered in blood by her boyfriend Jack (of the beanstalk fame).  Bigby aka the big bad wolf sets to solving the mystery in these first 5 issues that are gathered in volumed one.

I can’t wait to read the rest of this series. It’s such a refreshing read brought to us by Vertigo with amazing writing by Bill Willingham and a fantastic art team. I loved the James Jean covers and would really like to get some prints of some of them. I’ll have to look into that. I’m sure I’ll be picking up Volume 2 soon!

I got the long shift today. 13 hours. Fun. Not really. But it’s over now and I’m off tomorrow, so it’s all gravy baby. I can’t wait to just find another real job and have weekends off again. I like to be on schedule with the rest of the world…it makes life seem at least a tad bit more normal. There are a couple of job prospects out there though which is better than I’ve been able to say in awhile though, so that’s good! Working 13 hours did allow me some reading time which was a good thing. I finished Laurie Halse Anderson’s Speak for Becky’s Book Club (early, don’t be mad Becky :/) and started The Book of Flying by Keith Miller.  So here’s the short review…

The short review is not because I didn’t like Speak. In fact, I thought it was an incredible book and should be mandatory reading for high school students. I just don’t feel like typing up a full review right now and I’ll just procrastinate and never do it if I don’t do it now :p Speak is the story of 9th grader Melinda. Melinda has gone through a major traumatic event the summer before beginning her freshman year of high school and since then has become shunned by everyone at her school. She doesn’t fit in, she doesn’t know if she wants to fit in. The book is told from her point of view as she relates to us the different cliques of high school, the different fashions, the teachers, the stupid rules, the superficial stuff…but in between the superficial stuff she shows us a past that has literally scarred her as she bites her lips to the point of bleeding and scabbing. She becomes secluded without any friends, her grades fail, she retreats to a closet that is her only safe harbor, and she refuses to Speak. But speaking is the only thing that will release her from her burden…speaking of her past, speaking for communication, speaking for relationships, for understanding…she needs to speak up.

I was glad to see that Anderson got so much exposure for this book. It should be read by every bully out there in high school. Or anyone who never thought twice to say a word to the “weirdo who won’t talk to anyone”. Kids can be so cruel these days…we see this all the time as videos pop up of girls videotaping themselves beating up other girls. It’s just a different form of trauma. It’s glorified, and it shouldn’t be. These types of things have lasting impressions on people’s lives and can cause severe damage. Speak can also help those who have gone through situations similar to Melinda’s. The author herself says that her high school experience was somewhat similar to Melinda’s. If you know a teen, treat them to this book. Or read it for yourself if you’re looking for an excellent read. Despite all of this depressing talk, it’s actually quite comical too believe it or not.

I was looking at my Netflix queue and saw that I had The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe coming up soon, so I decided to reread the book before seeing the movie version. I had committed to reading the series for a couple of challenges, but I hadn’t been in the Narnia mood. Or so I thought…

This was one of the first fantasy books that I read as a child. In fact, it’s the first fantasy book that I clearly remember reading as a child and I fell in love with it. The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe and Madeline L’Engle’s A Wrinkle in Time were two of my favorite books growing up and really instilled my love for fantasy. It wasn’t until I was an adult that I realized that the main reason I discovered these two books was because I went to a Catholic elementary school and they were required reading because of their religious undertones. And I’m thankful that they were given to me back then because as I said, they opened up the whole fantasy genre to me.

I’m fairly certain that I’ve read other books in the Narnia series, but I’m really not sure now. The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe was like revisiting an old friend and it swept me back to my childhood…to a place that was at the same time forgotten yet just within reach after a few words. What a magical book, what a feast for a child’s imagination. I was instantly swept back to “reading time” while reading this and remembered how much I treasured those moments when we were able to spend some time with our books in school…I think I may have been the minority in that :p Lewis created such a magical universe with this book and created characters that truly live forever in our hearts and minds.

Sure I remembered going through the wardrobe, but I forgot the feeling of going through it for the first time and realizing that you’ve walked into another world…what a neat idea for a child. Sure I remembered Mr. Tumnus, but I forgot having tea with him and his quirks. I had completely forgotten Mr. and Mrs. Beaver and it was delightful to meet them again! And Aslan…what an amazing character, I can’t wait to see how he was portrayed in the movie.

I’m hoping to remember having read some of the other Narnia books as I continue with the series, but if not, it will be great to experience them for the first time. Like I said, this was one of my most cherished memories of reading as a child and I had lost my set of Narnia books in Katrina. So I bought a new set afterwards and they’ve just been sitting on my TBR shelf just waiting…I’m glad that they’ve finally called to me! Looking forward to the rest!

I took a Sci-Fi course in college and read The Lathe of Heaven by Ursula LeGuin and couldn’t stand it. Although I also couldn’t stand the teacher who was teaching it and never finished the book, so that could have had something to do with it, but after that experience I didn’t think that I’d return to Ursula LeGuin’s books. And then Nymeth wrote a review of Gifts. The premise reminded me a lot of Orson Scott Card’s Alvin Maker series: a society where different people have different powers, but it turned out to be a completely different kind of book. Yet Like Card, she writes an amazing fantasy story that is touchingly human throughout.

Gifts was such a unique book. It’s the first book in her Annals of the Western Shore series, though from what I understand the books aren’t necessarily a continuation of the same story. The book does indeed focus on a society where individuals each have a specific gift that is inherited through their lineage. Some can “undo”, some can call animals, some can heal, some can disfigure, some can summon fire, etc. Our story focuses on Orrec and Gry, two childhood friends and the book is the retelling of their past. It focuses mostly on Orrec’s gift. Orrec comes from a line of people who can “undo”….this can mean turning a field barren, undoing a knot, or basically turning a person or animal into jello. But Orrec has not yet come into his gift. His father wants nothing more than to see his son gain his gift as it is important for him in society to have his son display it. When undoing’s begin to happen around Orrec, they are seemingly “wild” and out of his control, so he agrees to wear a blindfold and live blind until he can control his gift.

LeGuin writes an extremely touching story as Orrec navigates his surroundings blindly, listening to his mothers’ stories (which are told beautifully) and becoming a teller of tales himself. He becomes an outcast, a boy who is feared due to his strong powers that require him to be blinded and his only confidant is his friend Gry. They are a support to each other as each of their families are trying to decide what their futures will be.

I’ve cast aside all of my previous assumptions as far as LeGuin’s work goes. Maybe there are some books of hers that are not for me, but I can’t wait to read the rest of this series. It truly is a gift.

I’m beginning to put Charles de Lint right up there with Orson Scott Card and Neil Gaiman as one of my favorite authors after reading The Blue Girl. I’ve read two other books by him (Greenmantle and Moonheart) and loved both of those so much that I’ve bought about ten of his books since reading them. After reading The Blue Girl, I’m convinced that I’ll enjoy each and every one of them. Like Card and Gaiman, he has a style of writing that just works perfectly for me. He tells a true story that entertains throughout with never a dull moment, never a page wasted. His subject matter is always interesting to me, often delving into the realms of fairy lore, and he’s basically the inventor of the Urban Fantasy genre which I’ve come to love.

The Blue Girl is the first book that I’ve read of his that takes place in his fictional city of Newford, and I can’t wait to meet more of it’s residents in other books. The two main characters of this book are Imogene and Maxine. Imogene has just moved to Newford from her old town, Tyson, where she’s left behind a bad reputation for running with a bad crowd and everything that goes along with that. But she wants to leave that in Tyson. She still carries her punky look and her tattoos and her take no lip attitude, but she realizes that it’s time for a change. At her new school, she meets Maxine – a girl who has few if any friends and dresses very conservatively…how her mother tells her to dress. But the two take to each other quickly, both able to learn from the other.

Things quickly get strange in Newford. First of all, Imogene’s “imaginary friend” Pelly from her childhood is back and has appeared to her in what she first thought was a dream and he seems to be giving her a warning. Secondly, Imogene seems to be being stalked by a ghost named Adrian at school. But Adrian is basically harmless. In fact, they soon become friends and Imogene learns that Adrian actually died young while playing with fairies at school (not the cute pixie like fairies that we think of). But Imogene doesn’t believe in fairies. So Adrian (as a ghost) goes to the fairies and asks them to make Imogene be able to see them. What he doesn’t bargain for is how out of hand things will get. Unbeknown even to the fairies, there are other spirits that come to Imogene when her eyes are awakened to the faerie world…and they want her soul. Once their eyes are on here they’ll stop at nothing to get it and now her and Maxine must find a way to stop them…and she may even change colors in the process.

One of the things that I love about de Lint’s work is the amount of knowledge that he pours into them. I learned quite a bit about faerie lore while reading this book and it’s obviously something that he has researched quite a bit and that he is very passionate about. In Moonheart, I learned things of the native american culture. The point is, he puts his passions into his books. His books are meant to be an experience. I can read a de Lint book for 4 hours and completely lose track of time. In fact, I was almost late to work today finishing this book.

I could just keep reading more Charles de Lint for the rest of the Once Upon a Time Challenge, but I won’t :p However, I’ll probably add an extra book of his off of my TBR shelf to the stack. I think I have Someplace to be Flying on another challenge list so maybe I’ll read that one. Anyone read that? If you haven’t read The Blue Girl yet, do yourself a favor and read it…I can’t wait to go back to Newford!

There’s a quote on the back of my copy of Tamsin by Peter Beagle from The Orlando Sentinel that says “This is a book that any Beagle fan must have, and will convert any newcomers to his magical works.” And I wholeheartedly agree with that statement. I think that I enjoyed this one even more than Beagle’s The Last Unicorn which I read last year for the Once Upon a Time challenge.

Tamsin is a little bit fantasy, a little bit horror, a little bit of a coming of age story, and a ghostly love story all combined into one. It’s written as a first person narrative looking back at the past..telling a story, from the point of view of young Jenny Gluckstein, 13 at the time of the events of the book, 19 when she’s writing it. After growing up in New York as an only with her mother who she calls “Sally”, she moves to Dorset in England to live with her mother’s fiancee and his two sons against her wishes. She has to leave her two only friends in the states and move from a city life to a small country, farming life in the country side of England and nothing about it sounds appealing to her. The only saving grace she has is her beloved cat, Mr. Cat, who if I say so myself is one of the best written animal characters I’ve read in awhile.

On the drive up to Dorset, Jenny’s new stepdad, Evan tells her of all of the myths and legends surrounding Dorset. There are said to be boggarts, brownie like creatures that invade homes…ghosts that haunt the area from past times, creatures that roam the forests, and a wild hunt that chases ghosts throughout the night. And then there is the Pooka, a black horse with golden eyes that you can never trust. But of course all of this is legend…fun stuff not to be taken seriously. They arrive at Stourhead Farm, their new home, and it’s an old home with lots of history. Jenny slowly makes friends with her young stepbrother Julian as they begin to notice that there are odd sounds in the house and things go awry on their own.

One night while lying in bed with Mr. Cat, Jenny notices a second cat leap onto her bed…but this cat isn’t quite solid…it’s somewhat transparent. But Mr. Cat takes a liking to her anyway. Jenny soon finds that the cat belongs to no other than a ghost named Tamsin. A woman who has lived at Stourhead Farm for over 300 years. The resulting story is a beautiful one that takes the reader on a fantastic adventure filled with amazing creatures and a mystery to be untangled. Why is Tamsin still here after 300 years and what happened to her beloved Edric?

My experience with Beagle has been that he writes such original stories. He tells such a wonderful fantasy tale with great twists, an original point of view, and he adds such heart to the story. There’s such a strong emotional aspect to this story. Very strong themes of friendship, love, betrayal, bonding, etc. Each character that he writes has so much thought put into them. There are no “wasted characters” in this book. I loved (or loved to hate) each and every one of them. The point is that I really cared about this book and that’s not something that always happens.

Occasionally a book pops into your hands and you wonder how it managed to stay under the radar for so long. At the Firefly Gate by Linda Newbery is one of these books. Perhaps it is the simplicity of the story that has left this one unknown to so many readers, but it deserves to be read by a wide audience.

I first heard about this one from Deslily awhile back and I’ve been wanting to read it ever since. At the Firefly Gate is a ghost story, a story of friendship, a coming of age story, and a love story for children and adults all wrapped up in just over 150 pages and it’s told beautifully. Henry is in his 6^th year of school and has just moved from London to live in a cottage in the country. He’s never been overly confident of himself and is afraid that he won’t make any friends. On his first night at his new home he sees a man standing under his garden gate surrounded by fireflies with a bomber jacket slung over his shoulder. Only no one else sees him.

He meets the family living next door and is forced to hang out with Grace who is less a couple of years older than him and less than pleasant. But he finds that he enjoys the company of her grandmother, Dottie, more than anyone and strikes up quite a friendship with her. As Henry continues to have dreams about days gone by from the WWII era and of pilots from that time, he finds that he knows the stories that Dottie shares before she tells them. He also starts to notice that Dottie looks towards the Firefly Gate as well when the man with the bomber jacket appears. He begins hearing planes that fly overhead at night that no one else hears. Puzzle after puzzle presents itself leading him to answers of the past as he forms his own new friendships in the present.

I enjoyed every page of At the Firefly Gate and Linda Newbery is an author to keep an eye on. This is quite a refreshing book that tells a simple story and examines relationships in every sense of the word. I love the melancholy feel of this book and the nostalgia that she so wonderfully created of a time gone by and of a present day country side in England. 4.5/5

(copyright 2008 by Chris Howard for Curled Up With A Good Book)