Arty -- Half-Human, edited by Bruce Coville

I admit that I'm not a huge fan of short stories.  Unless they're brilliantly told or written by one of my friends, I just don't care to read them.

But I have a weakness for half-human, anthro-something types.  So when I saw this at a library sale, I picked it up.

I think this may be my first anthology - if not, then it's been a looong time since I've read anything like it - but from what I gather from Percy's reviews, it was a pretty typical collection.  A few stories were reeeally good, a few were just 'meh,' and the rest were okay.

My favorite, surprisingly, was by Jane Yolen.  I say surprisingly because I've read a couple of her books and haven't been overly impressed.  But her story, 'Centaur Field,' about a baby centaur (naturally) was surprisingly good and realistic.

My other favorite was 'The Hardest, Kindest Gift' by Bruce Coville himself.  It's quite a bit more complicated than 'Centaur Field,' but it's really very, very good and the mystery unfolded itself beautifully.  I liked the unique take on the fallen angel love interest.

Also good - 'Scarecrow' by Gregory Maguire.  You might know Maguire for Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West.  His story - about, naturally, a scarecrow come to life somehow - was taken from a sequel to Wicked he never published.  It's really fun to read - kind of macabre, kind of philosophical, kind of just fun in a sober sort of way.

And 'Princess Dragonblood' by Jude Mandell was cool.  There were times when the pacing went way too fast, but the idea was just awesome.  It starts out as your typical fairytale, but then Princess Eleanor grabs a sword and starts swinging and just never really stops.  (But she's not an annoyingly talented warrior babe, which is refreshing.  She just knows how to fight.)  The ending, while a bit easy, was good.

Speaking of warrior babes, Tamora Pierce has a story in here, called 'Elder Brother.'  Now, unlike 95% of the female reading population, I can't stand Tamora Pierce.  Her story, though, started out terrifically - a tree turned into a man!  A man-tree!  I LOVE trees!  A tree walking around in the form of a man?  This had to be good.  And it was for a while.  And then the tree-man - Qiom - met a young man named Fadal.

Spoiler alert, just so you know.  But I have to rant.  It's not that big of a surprise when you think about it, anyway.

Qiom has ended up in a place where women have to bundle up (a Middle-Eastern sort of city).  And Fadal is - guess what! - a woman dressed up in man's clothes to escape the oppression!

Reeeeeeeally, Pierce.  What is this, your literary signature?  I can understand her pretty much creating the clothes-switching subgenre in fantasy, but come on.  And it's not that I wouldn't have given the twist a chance, but there was no real reason for Fadal to be a woman.  Except that it got her and Qiom out of their world.  And there were so many other ways that could have happened.  It's just annoying.

Anyway.  Spoiler alert aborted.

The rest of the stories were so-so.  'Becoming,' by Nancy Springer, was an interesting take at a daughter of a Gorgon in modern-day New York.

'Linnea' by D.J. Malcolm could have had promise, but I didn't especially care whether Linnea, the MC, lived or died, which sort of hurt the execution.

'Water's Edge' by Janni Lee Simner also could have been really good - selkies!  Nobody writes about selkies!  But it was just okay, too, also due to an MC I couldn't care less for.

Tim Waggoner wrote 'Soaring,' which I really expected to like - about Icarus, a boy with wings (surprise, surprise).  It was better, but still not especially enthralling.  I just wanted to smack Bethany for being so annoying.  And the ending was a bit weak.

'How To Make A Human' by Lawrence Shimel was a depressing bit of humans-are-worthless-animals-are-awesome poetry which left me with a bad taste in my mouth stylistically as well as thematically (apparently you can just write some blocks of text and then separate them into lines and call it poetry).

So, if you're in the mood for some half-human tales, then... well, I recommend a couple stories.  But it's not a must-read by any means.

Persy -- Wednesday Scrolls

Hey, guys, guess who's back! Me!

Yeah, anyway. You may have noticed how Arty has been doing all the reviews the past few weeks, and the reason for that is that I was out of the country and didn't have any time to read a book, much less write a review of it. I was in Ireland for two and half weeks. Yep, Ireland. Frolicking in the hills and eating jelly babies.

But that's all beside the point. I only managed to read two books over two weeks (lame, I know), and one of those was a manga, so it doesn't really count. The other was Faeries, an anthology edited by Isaac Asimov, Martin H. Greenberg, and Charles G. Waugh. When I first found this book for three dollars at a bookstore, I nearly had a heart attack because I never knew Isaac Asimov did fantasy, but he does. This obscure anthology contains eighteen stories about the fair folk, one of which written by Isaac Asimov himself. What better book to read while in Ireland?

So this Wednesday Scrolls is kind of a review, but it's on Wednesday and it's kind of about Ireland too, so it's a Wednesday Scrolls. I'll just be going over (very briefly, in some cases) each story in the anthology, and hopefully it won't be terribly long...

#1. How The Fairies Came to Ireland by Herminie Templeton. Once you get over the spelling (made out to sound like an Irish accent, and believe me, it does), it's a pretty cool little story about how the fairies ended up on Earth.

#2. The Manor of Roses by Thomas Burnett Swann. This one is incredibly long, and I'm not a great fan of long short stories (key word being short), but it's still interesting and well written.

#3. The Fairy Prince by H.C. Bailey. Didn't like this. It seems very pointless and disconnected.

#4. The Ugly Unicorn by Jessica Amanda Salmonson. This is definitely one of my favorites. It's about a beast called a Liu-mu, which is kind of like a very ugly unicorn, and a beautiful blind princess.

#5. The Brownie of the Black Haggs by James Hogg. Good story, but not amazing. Not incredibly memorable.

#6. The Dream of Akinosuké by Lafadio Hearn. Also fun, but very...odd.

#7. Elfinland by Johann Ludwig Tieck. Didn't like this one. Not sure how to say it, but it just isn't interesting.

#8. Darby O'Gill and the Good People by Herminie Templeton. Again, you have to get used to her way of spelling, but I don't like this one as much as her first story.

#9. No Man's Land by John Buchan. This one is also really long, so I mostly just wanted to get it over with. Main character's a bit of an idiot, and the whole story reads kind of like H.P. Lovecraft, which isn't necessarily a bad thing, but...

#10. The Prism by Mary E. Wilkins. I liked this one in the beginning, but the ending is very disappointing.

#11. The Kith of the Elf-Folk by Lord Dunsany. Love this one. It's sweet and sad and beautiful all mixed into one.

#12. The Secret Place by Richard McKenna. This one is just weird. Not really sure what to say about it, except that I don't like the characters.

#13. The King of the Elves by Philip K. Dick. Yep, Philip K. Dick does fantasy too! And he does it well. While this wasn't one of my favorite stories, I still love Dick's writing style.

#14. Flying Pan by Robert F. Young. Love this one too. It was funny and cool, and just made me laugh and think, man, aren't fairies awesome...

#15. My Father, the Cat by Henry Slesar. The title made me excited, but the story was weird in a bad way and uninteresting.

#16. Kid Stuff by Isaac Asimov. Of course this one is good, it's Isaac Asimov!

#17. The Long Night of Waiting by Andre Norton. Good, but not my favorite. It felt a little cluttered, somehow.

#18. The Queen of Air and Darkness by Poul Anderson. It's good, but it's also...meh. It's a weird mix of science fiction and fantasy, and I don't think he quite pulls it off.

So there you go. Definitely worth reading for those few good stories, but feel free to skip over some of the more tedious ones. In that way, it's just like every other anthology out there: a few gems, some interesting rocks, and a lot of dirt.

--Persy

Persy -- Let It Snow

Merry Christmas everyone! Hope everyone had a wonderful day (it's SNOWING where I live! Snow on Christmas is a miracle at my locale)!

Let It Snow is a Christmas anthology containing three stories by John Green (Paper Towns, An Abundance of Katherines), Maureen Johnson (Devilish, Key To The Golden Firebird), and Lauren Myracle (TTYL, Twelve). I originally read it in the Summer of last year, because I was reading all of Maureen Johnson's work (that woman is amazing) and I'd finished all her actual books. So this Christmas I decided to actually read it on Christmas.

Maureen Johnson's story, The Jubilee Express, is first. Jubilee (yes, she knows her name is strange, and no, she's not a stripper) was all set on going to her boyfriend Noah's Christmas smorgasborg, but then her parents get arrested (long story), so she's put on a train to Florida to spend Christmas Eve and Christmas with her grandparents. But the train doesn't make it because of the snow storm, and Jubilee finds herself stranded at a Waffle House in a small town called Gracetown. In the Waffle House, she meets Stuart, who invites her home so she won't have to spend Christmas in a Waffle House with a gazillion cheerleaders (also long story). Hijinks ensue, and Jubilee wonders if she'll get a Merry Christmas after all.

Next is John Green's A Cheertastic Christmas Miracle, in which Tobin's parents are stuck in Boston because they can't get a flight home. Tobin is all ready to spend his Christmas Eve having a James Bond marathon with two of his best friends, JP and the Duke (who is actually a girl). But then their other friend calls and tells them about all the cheerleaders in the Waffle House, and it becomes a mad race to get there with a crucial game of twister. A hilarious struggle ensues, during which Tobin realizes something about the Duke and the Duke gets more than just hash browns.

And last, but not least, comes Lauren Myracle's story, The Patron Saint of Pigs. Addie broke up with her boyfriend, Jeb, just a week ago, so her Christmas isn't going very well (she gets her hair chopped off and dyes it pink, for starters). While having a fight with her two friends (who both tactfully hint that Addie might be a bit self-centered), she promises to pick up her friend's new pet pig from the pet store the day after Christmas. But things start happening, and Addie forgets until it's almost too late, and the pig has disappeared. Does she really always make it about herself? Addie starts to have a Christmas epiphany...

Maureen Johnson's was, naturally, my favorite story (she's one of my favorite authors for a reason). Then, following the chronological order, I liked John Green's, and finally Lauren Myracle's. But what makes this anthology really great is how all three stories are connected. They all happen in the same place (Gracetown), and they're all the result of the train wreck.

Admittedly, it's a bit late for you to read this around Christmas, but it's still good no matter what time of year you read it. It's a lot of fun, the characters are smart and developed, and each story could stand by itself (though being together makes them even better). Whether it's Christmas or not, these are great stories.

Merry Christmas!

-Persy

P.S. I CANNOT get over the snow!