tricksters in fiction
Jan. 16th, 2008 07:43 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
snugglekittyMonday night I finished reading two new books that I had been reading simultaneously - Firebird by R. Garcia y Robertson and Coyote Road edited by Ellen Datlow and Terry Windling. They went wonderfully together.
Firebird just kept surprising me. I had encountered the short fiction of R. Garcia y Robertson before, in some anthology or other, and liked it. It begins in a standard fantasy sort of way - Aria is the slave/apprentice of the feared Bone Witch of the Iron Wood, until she decides to rescue an injured knight she has a crush on. Rather than being a fighter or a witch herself, Aria's approach to problems is to fasttalk her way out of them, hide, or run away, often with amusing results. But the plot twists after the first few chapters (Tartars in hot air balloons! Pagan sacrifice! Earnest blond seductresses!) are impossible to foresee - and I promise I'm not telling you about the best ones. The medieval setting of the kingdom of Markovy is also unique in my experience. The book just kept getting better until I simply couldn't put it down. I stayed up late to finish it. This is not just another run-of-the-mill fantasy novel. Four stars. I'm going to need to look up more works by this author.
Coyote Road: Trickster Tales is the the new young adult anthology from Endicott Studios. These anthologies are edited by fantasy mavens Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling. The previous two are Green Man: Tales from the Mythic Forest, which I adored, and Faery Reel: Tales from the Twilight Realm which I liked. The focus of this third anthology is stories about tricksters, and in particular, tricksters that are morally neutral rather than truly evil. There are two things that I love about these anthologies - one, the stories chosen are generally really good, and two, the further information is terrific. (When I say "further information," I'm talking about the introduction, which discusses the mythical underpinnings of the anthology, and the appendix of works for further reading. Also, each story has author's notes and a biography with the author's other works included, so it's easy to find out more about the ones you liked best.)
My favorite stories were:
"One Odd Shoe" by Pat Murphy, a classic trickster tale.
"The Fiddler of Bayou Teche" by Delia Sherman, which has a terrific sense of place and history.
"A Tale for the Short Days" by Richard Bowes, which follows a rich and powerful family through several generations as they are plagued by the God of Thieves.
"The Constable of Abal" by Kelly Link, a very odd and pleasing tale.
"The Dreaming Wind" by Jeffrey Ford, which explores the necessity of the absurd in our lives. (I've liked Ford since reading his anthology The Empire of Ice Cream.)
And finally, "The Evolution of Trickster Stories Among the Dogs of North Park After the Change" by Kij Johnson is a very unsettling story, which reminded me of an equally unsettling story, "The Pretended," in the anthology Dark Matter.
There were lots of other stories that I liked a lot. This anthology is a good one. I liked it better than The Faery Reel, although not quite as much as my favorite The Green Man. Four stars.
Firebird just kept surprising me. I had encountered the short fiction of R. Garcia y Robertson before, in some anthology or other, and liked it. It begins in a standard fantasy sort of way - Aria is the slave/apprentice of the feared Bone Witch of the Iron Wood, until she decides to rescue an injured knight she has a crush on. Rather than being a fighter or a witch herself, Aria's approach to problems is to fasttalk her way out of them, hide, or run away, often with amusing results. But the plot twists after the first few chapters (Tartars in hot air balloons! Pagan sacrifice! Earnest blond seductresses!) are impossible to foresee - and I promise I'm not telling you about the best ones. The medieval setting of the kingdom of Markovy is also unique in my experience. The book just kept getting better until I simply couldn't put it down. I stayed up late to finish it. This is not just another run-of-the-mill fantasy novel. Four stars. I'm going to need to look up more works by this author.
Coyote Road: Trickster Tales is the the new young adult anthology from Endicott Studios. These anthologies are edited by fantasy mavens Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling. The previous two are Green Man: Tales from the Mythic Forest, which I adored, and Faery Reel: Tales from the Twilight Realm which I liked. The focus of this third anthology is stories about tricksters, and in particular, tricksters that are morally neutral rather than truly evil. There are two things that I love about these anthologies - one, the stories chosen are generally really good, and two, the further information is terrific. (When I say "further information," I'm talking about the introduction, which discusses the mythical underpinnings of the anthology, and the appendix of works for further reading. Also, each story has author's notes and a biography with the author's other works included, so it's easy to find out more about the ones you liked best.)
My favorite stories were:
"One Odd Shoe" by Pat Murphy, a classic trickster tale.
"The Fiddler of Bayou Teche" by Delia Sherman, which has a terrific sense of place and history.
"A Tale for the Short Days" by Richard Bowes, which follows a rich and powerful family through several generations as they are plagued by the God of Thieves.
"The Constable of Abal" by Kelly Link, a very odd and pleasing tale.
"The Dreaming Wind" by Jeffrey Ford, which explores the necessity of the absurd in our lives. (I've liked Ford since reading his anthology The Empire of Ice Cream.)
And finally, "The Evolution of Trickster Stories Among the Dogs of North Park After the Change" by Kij Johnson is a very unsettling story, which reminded me of an equally unsettling story, "The Pretended," in the anthology Dark Matter.
There were lots of other stories that I liked a lot. This anthology is a good one. I liked it better than The Faery Reel, although not quite as much as my favorite The Green Man. Four stars.