Reviews
Just realized I never rated this. Shame on me. This collection is amazing, and a terrific look at the current and rising talents in SFF.
The Starlit Wood will probably draw many people in due to its gorgeous design, and fortunately, the insides are just as good to match! This is a compilation of fairy retellings. I know such books are a dime a dozen, but The Starlit Wood provides readers with some truly innovative and captivating tales! The Super Ultra Duchess of Fedora Forest by Charlie Jane Anders - Anders describes this as Adventure Time fan fiction and that is most definitely the feel of the story. It is based on the most bizarre Grimm tale you've never heard of, and Anders just runs with the weird. It's a delightful spot of humour in the book! Pearl by Aliette de Bodard - Pearl is a strange story. I am not familiar with the original fairy tale, so perhaps I missed some of the meaning. It's beautiful though, with great imagery, and it's one of the few science fiction retellings in the book. Seasons of Glass and Iron by Amal El-Mohtar - Taking on two separate fairy tales at once, Seasons of Glass and Iron is about women regaining agency and power together. It's beautiful, sweet, and so powerful. The Thousand Eyes by Jeffrey Ford - Art can be quite possessive. The setting shines through quite well in this story, but I wasn't all that enraptured by the plot. Giants in the Sky by Max Gladstone - Jack and the Beanstalk post-singularity. How can you not want to read that? Feels a bit Stross-like with a touch of humour and the absurd. The Other Thea by Theodora Goss - A delightful urban fantasy about a witch who needs to recapture her shadow before she simply fades away... Even the Crumbs Were Delicious by Daryl Gregory - What if Hansel and Gretel was a story about highly hallucinogenic drugs? It's a surprisingly kind-hearted tale that takes place in one of Gregory's SF universes. No witches that want to eat anyone here! Just toxicological induced misunderstandings... Reflected by Kat Howard - A creepy sci-fi telling of The Snow Queen. Would have been better had it been fleshed out just a bit more. Some Wait by Stephen Graham Jones - Take the Pied Piper and make it a horror story about children lost in video games and the parents they leave behind. It's an effectively chilling tale about fear, lose, and desperation. When I Lay Frozen by Margo Lanagan - This... was not my favourite tale of the book. It is a retelling of Thumbelina with some oddly sexual themes, and the protagonist is frustratingly slow to act. The Briar and the Rose by Marjorie M. Liu - I always appreciate a retelling that includes ladies who love one another. In this one, Sleeping Beauty is a young women possessed by a witch, and she can only wake up once a week. She falls in love with her protector and they must find a way to break the spell before the witch kills this body and moves on to another host... In the Desert Like a Bone by Seanan McGuire - Take Little Red Riding Hood, stick her in the desert, and make her defeat the wolf who hurt her. This is a haunting, lyrical retelling of this old tale where Red has agency and Coyote is her mentor. So different from the original story, but oh so satisfying! Penny For a Match, Mister? by Garth Nix - Nix takes the Little Matchgirl tale and brings it into a weird western setting with possession and magical fire. Really really dangerous magical fire. It is quite different from the original inspiration, but a fun tale nevertheless. Also, no tears with this one! Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik - Novik takes on the story of Rumpelstiltskin, but she wants readers to feel like the ending was earned. So our fair miller's daughter gets a reboot, and her story is about pushing gendered boundaries, growing up, and not getting kidnapped by a fairy king. The Tale of Mahliya and Mauhub and the White-Footed Gazelle by Sofia Samatar - Samatar is a powerhouse in the SFF short story field, but her work and I just don't click well. I'll leave reviews for this piece to someone who felt a bit more connected to the work. Underground by Karin Tidbeck - Underground is a difficult tale to review. It's based on a dark tale of kidnapping and slavery, and despite being set in the modern day, the plot doesn't change much. But the main character is allowed to make a choice at the end, so it's almost a happy ending? Badgirl, the Deadman, and the Wheel of Fortune by Catherynne M. Valente - Not sweet, not heartwarming, but definitely captures the darker sentiments from fairy tales in a modern day setting. Badgirl is a lovely child neglected by her father and caught up in a nasty adult world. Familiaris by Genevieve Valentine - A story about unwanted motherhood and the ways that women are so often pushed into things that they don't want. It's a powerful, haunting tale about choices (or one's lack thereof) that protests and dispels the ways that women are so often seen as only mothers.
