Customer Reviews

Black Heart, Ivory Bones

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Out of sheer boredom and lack of something better to read, I picked up this book and began reading it (it was on the shelf of a friend of mine . . . dusty and abandoned. I think I felt sorry for it). Honestly, I had my doubts. After having read numerous versions of politically correct fairy tales, I thought this would be along the same vein and completely cliche' and overdone.

Surprisingly (and most wondrously) I was wrong. This is not just a bunch of fairy tales made into gory, sex laden adult fiction. It is a great collection of short stories written by people with real narrative talent. My hat goes off to the editors for finding such gems and putting them into one easy to digest book. I have (since reading this book) gone onto other books in this series and have been just as pleased. An added bonus (as well) that I thought I would add in: throughout this series, you will find a few short stories by Neil Gaiman thrown in there. They are wonderful. He is one of my favorite writers out there, and his shorts stories are great. If you decide to venture out and buy any of the Windling/Datlow collaborations, make sure you check out his stories in particular. He's just so GOOD (yum).

Overall, I would hand this book over to anybody to read. It's fun, it's got some good stuff, and it's not hardcore sci fi/fantasy stuff like you might suspect. It's very realistic and entertaining, and you'll FLY through it.

Do yourself a favor and delve into this. You'll be glad that you did. Happy reading!

It's wonderful, first of all, that there are people writing these kinds of stories and making anthologies of them. I give the concept a couple of stars just for the principle of the thing.

That said, there are several standouts. My personal favorites are:

"Rapunzel", in which Tanith Lee oddly goes bright-and-happy on us, presenting the delightful tale of a prince who spins a tall tale about his chosen bride, knowing "the Dad" (that's the King to you and me) is a sucker for fairy tales.

"Big Hair", another take on Rapunzel, which takes place in modern times, in the beauty-pageant circuit, yet follows the old story almost exactly.

"And Still She Sleeps", a Sleeping Beauty retelling set in an alternate, magic-rich nineteenth-century England, and full of insight about the nature of "true love". Ends not happily, but perfectly.

Also check out "Black Thorn, White Rose." It's even better!

Datlow and Windling (whose other compilations have included Silver Birch, Blood Moon and Black Swan, White Raven) have outdone themselves yet again with this latest treasure trove of modern and retold fairy tales. Containing both marvelous poetry and haunting prose, it is a must have for lovers of fantasy stories. Reader's will enjoy stories such as Tanith Lee's (author of Black Unicorn)"Rapunzel" and Bryan Kanar's "Dreaming Among Men", a vivid and wonderful native american story. This is a collection definately worth picking up!

This book is an anthology of twenty short stories, each something of a retelling of a classic fairytale. The stories are all very well written, with the leadoff story being written by the sensational Tanith Lee. As a matter of fact, my absolute favorite story is Tanith Lee's reworking of the story of Repunzel.

These stories run the gamut between humorous and upsetting. Some of the storylines are too much for young children, but none are unnecessarily violent or sexual. Overall, I was very impressed with the quality of these stories, and I recommend it without reservations.

This book is wonderful. I only wish there were going to be more in the series. The story by Ellen Steiber stands out in a great collection of short stories. If you haven't read any of the other books in this series, don't delay. Fairy tale short stories make great bed time reading for adults just as the original tales did as a child.

It still has its charm, however, my favorite tale was "The Cats of San Martino." That story made me open my eyes, and "The Golem" was a gem, too, but all in all, I wasn't as satisfied with it as I was with the previous anthologies. Still I recommend it, if just to add to your collection.

...that this is the last compilation of rewritten fairy tales from Datlow and Windling. I have every book in this series and I've re-read them OFTEN. Stories range from the fantastic ("The Cats of San Martino")to the ordinary ("You, Little-Match Girl") with wonderful and enchanting results. Definitely check out Neil Gaiman's "Boys and Girls Together" as well as Tanith Lee's "Rapunzel." Do yourself a favor and pick up this one and, if you dont already have them, the other four in the series.

This lovely book, Black Heart, Ivory Bones, is a collection of fantasy and horror tales edited by my two favorite ladies of their respective genres Ellen Datlow (horror) and Terri Windling (fantasy). This is one book in a series of six volumes of, as they call it, reconsidered fairy tales. These fairy tales are rewritten to change the focus of the originals or perhaps just to sharpen the point of them to showcase the sinister, the sensual, and the sometimes sadistic roots of our childhood fairy tales.

Some of my favorites were "Rapunzel", "Big Hair", "The King with Three Daughters", "And Still She Sleeps", "Goldilocks Tells All", "The Red Boots", "You, Little Match Girl", "The Cats of San Martino" and "The Golem". And, yes, one of those ("You, Little Match Girl") was by the infamous Joyce Carol Oates, whose work I normally find too harsh to stomach, this particular piece though was one of the most profoundly powerful in the collection. The other piece that was the best in my opinion was "And Still She Sleeps" which brings up the very valid point that if true love's kiss is supposed to wake someone, and the only people available to kiss them were people that had not known them to love them in life, how are they ever to be kissed awake? True love is not determined on beauty alone.

My husband does not enjoy re-written fairy tales so I thought I would bring up his complaint since I don't have any of my own to voice. He says that authors that write these sorts of stories just seem to take the characters in them and drop everything else to make them act out something completely different. I don't completely agree with him because, though some stories do that, such as Big Hair, at the same time they do keep to the spirit of what the original story was trying to say, even if in a more modern, dark or surreal way.

If you enjoy reconsidered fairy tales, short stories of a more modern bent that take your old fairy tales and give them new and interesting life, then I would say definitely give this book (and the others in this series) a whirl. You won't be disappointed.

Datlow and Windling's latest, and apparently final, fairy tale anthology is a keeper. The authors take well-known fairy tales and slightly twist or bend the specific's, leading to a different take on the classics. There are no outright fantastic stories in the anthology, but neither are there any stinkers.

Original highlights include: Greg Costikyan's 'And Still She Sleeps', wherein Sleeping Beauty is discoverd at an archaeological dig in England; Howard Waldrop's melding of cyberpunk and fairy tale, 'Our Mortal Span', in which a robot in a fairy tale amusement park attains sentience and rebels; and Michael Cadnum's story, a retelling of Goldilock's. In Cadnum's story, the bears in a normal village begin speaking and behaving pleasantly. One girl doesn't like it and sets out for revenge.

The lone reprint in this anthology is Charles de Lint's 'My Life as a Bird'. It's typically de Lint, meaning that it's set in his fictional Newford and features a blending between a contemporary cosmopolitan city and faery. This story is a great addition to this anthology because de Lint's short stories are often published in small publications and so aren't widely available. This story is a good one and should be read by as widely an audience as possible.

On the whole this anthology is an enjoyable reading experience. Recommended

What a fine, and sometimes startling, collection of stories. Poetry also. This book is one to read and then keep handy, because you'll end up referring to its entirely original versions of old classics; a book that is fun to give to others, good to read aloud. Stories you won't forget. Alas, that the series has drawn to a close.