Animythical Tales [Paperback]

Sarah Totton (Author), Forrest Aguirre (Introduction)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 27, 2010

In this elegant volume, award-winning author Sarah Totton takes her readers on speculative journeys of the heart and mind that will both challenge and engage you. Within these tales, readers will learn the meaning of darkness and pain and fear. Yet they will also learn about love and happiness and laughter. Sarah Totton explores the full kaleidoscope of the human heart and peels it back, one layer at a time. She offers her readers a full palette of emotions and stories to sift through, never settling, never holding back, and never flinching. Whether she is writing about the loss of innocence through dark revelations, the point to which a human mind can be stretched before succumbing to the magic of faerie, or something as preposterous as cloud-fishing in a world with pink yaks, the stories in Animythical Tales are always told with an eye toward revealing something important about the human condition. If you have ever yearned to fall into fabulous adventures in unforgettable worlds, Animythical Tales is the collection for you.

Reviews:

"A pleasantly absurd comedy of manners with an ending highly satisfactory to most of the parties concerned. Recommended." —Lois Tilton, Internet Review of Science Fiction

"…wildly inventive…" —Rich Horton, Fantasy: The Best of the Year, 2007

"'A Sip from the Cup of Enlightenment' was one of my favourites in the book. It's a perfect example of why I found Totton's work to be so intriguing and alluring; it's fantasy that challenges the reader in unfamiliar, surprising ways. The story is gorgeously written, and its imaginary culture effortlessly evoked. It's a murder mystery, a fantasy, a horror story, and terrifically ominous. It works, despite being eminently perplexing. If anything, I was left wishing she'd written a novella set in Congaree instead of a short story.… The writing, as with all of Totton's stories, is exquisite, infusing the mundane with magic.… Even when set in what is ostensibly the 'real' world, Totton's writing is gifted with this intangible but lovely quality of transformative fantasia that reminds one of a child's imagination and perspective (both dark and light), lensed through an adult's language.… This is a collection worth owning. I look forward to Sarah Totton's future work." —Tangent Online

Awards:

"The Man with the Seahorse Head" (included in this book) was the Regional Winner (for Canada & the Caribbean) of the Commonwealth Short Story Competition (2008).

Product Details

• Paperback: 126 pages
• Publisher: Fantastic Books; paperback / softcover edition (February 27, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1604599324
• ISBN-13: 978-1604599329
• Product Dimensions: 6 x 9 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,072,536 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Darker Side of Fantasy Inspires a Multi Colored Tapestry of Imaginings, May 22, 2010

By 

L. C. Henderson (Velddrift, South Africa) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Animythical Tales (Paperback)

In Forrest Aguirre's introduction to this collection of fantastical tales, he describes the reading of her stories as resembling "walking into a field of Technicolor gems", in which "the rainbow colors" account for "the distinctive, sharp visual lines that make her word-paintings so striking". He finds that her characterizations show a wide breadth of emotion, and are hard to categorize "because they are moving targets, capable of change and growth". Their variable moods make them more like the rest of us than are the average melodramatic characters that frequent the pages of certain other speculative fiction.

A sense of either the celebration or loss of childhood innocence that permeates these pages speaks to one on an emotional level throughout the tales, being all the more effectively conveyed by the closeness to the animal world that the stories reflect. The androgynous nature of the tales should also appeal to a wide audience, no matter whether it is the role reversal in "A Fish Story", in which an undesired, but exceptionally resourceful, maiden attempts to snare a disinterested young man whom she ardently admires by catching an elusive fish, or in "The Man with the Seahorse Head" (a Regional Winner for Canada and the Caribbean in the prestigious Commonwealth Short Story Competition in 2007), who nurtures progeny that ultimately swim out to sea. In writing these stories, it can clearly be seen that Totton drew from her own experiences as a wildlife biologist and veterinarian.

Most of the stories have previously been published in such magazines as Realms of Fantasy Magazine and Fantasy Magazine during the last five years, or in such collections as the Commonwealth Short Stories CD 2007-2008, and TEXT: UR-The New Book of Masks. Her tales of "The Teasewater Five", "The Bone Fisher's Apprentice" and "Bluecoat Jack" all received Honorable Mentions in the Year's Best Fantasy & Horror listings for the years 2006 through 2008, respectively, while "A Sip from the Cup of Enlightenment" is due to be published in Polyphony 7. "Flatrock Sunners" won a 3rd Annual Black Quill Award (Editor's Choice Best Dark Scribble category), awarded by Dark Scribe Magazine to honor outstanding works of dark genre literature from both mainstream and small press publishers. Two of the tales have not been published elsewhere so far, namely "Pelly Medley" and "A Little Tea and Personal Magnetism".

Animythical Tales contain just enough of reality to place the scenes within the broader context of the real world, so that the readers are not estranged from what transpires in the course of the stories themselves. The stories are all organic entities, complete and entire within themselves. Totton's writing has depth and is multilayered, inviting the reader to explore the deeper meaning of the issues that she covers. Such issues include both the creativity and destructiveness of those who admire and create artistic forms, as well as the darker side of sexuality that can result in both physical and spiritual corruption and decay.

If you are interested in venturing beyond the norm, you're likely to enjoy Animythical Tales very much indeed. But beware, it is not suitable reading matter for the faint-hearted... [Reviewer for [...]]

5.0 out of 5 stars A read no fantasy or short story reader will want to miss, June 6, 2010

By 

Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Animythical Tales (Paperback)

Stories of the fantastic have a lot of place in reality. "Animythical Tales" is a collection of short stories from Sarah Totton using a wide array of characters to discuss many elements of human nature and the psyche around that. Entertaining, clever, and thought provoking, "Animythical Tales" is a read no fantasy or short story reader will want to miss.