Customer Reviews

Firebirds: An Anthology of Original Fantasy and Science Fiction

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

 

 

Firebird, a new imprint of Penguin Young Readers Group, offers reprints of classic fantasy and science fiction books for both teenage and adult readers. One of their most recent original releases is a one-of-a kind anthology appropriately titled FIREBIRDS.

This magical collection covers a wide range of genres --- fantasy, romance, time travel, adventure, and suspense. Popular authors such as Garth Nix and Lloyd Alexander contribute tales, along with strong, newer voices Michael Cadnum and Megan Whalen Turner.

A description of a couple of the stories hardly does this vivid collection justice, but it does show that there is something for all readers here. In Nix's "Hope Chest," sixteen-year-old Alice, who is adopted, is surprised when the never-opened magic chest that she was discovered with as a baby springs open to reveal some powerful guns. Her hands know what to do with them but her heart does not, until evil comes to her town. In Turner's "The Baby in the Night Deposit Box," a child is slipped through the slot for night deposits, and is raised by the bank and its workers. The child, Penny, is happy enough until someone comes to claim her "deposit."

Editor Sharyn November is known for seeking input from teens, which is undoubtedly a large part of what makes this collection so strong. FIREBIRDS is a great gift for the many devoted fans of fantasy stories, or for anyone looking for a highly engaging read.

--- Reviewed by Amy Alessio

"Firebirds" came into my hands with high praise from sources I respected, and I was not disappointed. I was not overly impressed either. The collection of stories is fairly broad, but the focus is clearly on fantasy (broadly defined, not just swords and sorcery, although there is that too). I have no idea why it includes science fiction in the title, I can't remember a single title I would classify as SF.

There are several stories that revisit old tales to give them a new spin: "Cotillion" (D Sherman) places Tam Lin in 1960's New York, "The Fall of Ys" (MA Pierce) questions the character motivations of the original, "Medusa" (Cadnum)retells the story from the title character's point of view, "Lady of the Ice Garden" (K Dalkey) sets an Andersen tale in Japan. With the ties to classic tales and the strong female leads all around, these stories are particularly well suited for classroom use.

Changelings also play a prominent role: "The Baby in the Night Deposit Box" (M Whalen Turner) in which a magical child is raised by a bank; the surprisingly effective "Hope Chest" (G Nix) which combines elements of horror, political dystopia and, of all things, the Western; "Remember Me" (N Farmer)in which a changeling's differences ostracize her family and "Flotsam" (N Kiriki Hoffman) an overly ambitious about a little boy lost among worlds that ultimately fails to move the reader.

Most of the stories feature female leads, but the two stories with male leads were standouts for me: "Max Mondrosch" (Lloyd Alexander)an understated and oddly comical story about the horror of modern life and "Byndley" (P McKillip) a more traditional tale of a wizard, a fairy queen, and the things that can be stolen in the forest.

Of the remaining stories, I would recommend "Beauty" (S Smith), an "odd princess out" o fthe sort that have become popular since "The Ordinary Princess". "Black Fox" (E Bull) also bears mention as the only graphic entry in the anthology, illustrated by Charles Vess.

"Mariposa" (N Springer), "Chasing the Wind" (E Wein), "Little Dot" (D Wynne Jones, for the magical cat lovers) and "The Flying Woman" (L Winter)were all fine stroies, but none of them proved memorable for me.

The title is definitely recommended if you are a fan of fantasy short stories or the Firebird authors. If this is not something you read every day, I would recommend a Datlow/Windling anthology, such as "The Faery Reel" or one of the Year's Best Fantasy and Horror (Datlow/Windling and Datlow/Link).

This is an amazing collection of fantasy and science fiction short stories. There is a variety of popular authors, and great authors waiting to be discovered. This is sure to attract many fans and make fans of non-believers!

The calibre of the stories is excellent all around, there's not just a few good stories. Patricia McKillip's "Byndley", Nancy Springer's "Mariposa", Michael Cadnum's "Medusa" and Sherwood Smith's "Beauty" are among my favourites.

Some have sword and sorcery, some are fairy tale or myth retellings, and some have such a subtle ingredient of magic, you have to look closely for it. But they all ask us to believe, even if it's just for the time it takes to read this delicious volume.

Thanks to smooth writing and a classically romantic sensibility, this collection seems light and airy on first reading. The darker images crept up on me later.

Lloyd Alexander's "Max Mondrosch" is a sneaky little story, vivid and disturbing. So, to, is "Hope Chest" by Garth Nix, a compulsively readable but violent story. Nancy Springer's "Mariposa" is funny and kind of mean. (Which is always a compliment from me.) Megan Whalen Turner's "The Baby in the Night Deposit Box," is just funny.

Other stories, like Delia Sherman's "Cotillion" and Kara Dalkey's "The Lady of the Ice-Garden" are retellings that are nicely written but not outstanding. Only one of them, "Beauty" by Sherwood Smith, seems incomplete. I am not familiar with the world this story is attached to, which may have helped.

Overall, though, this is a thoroughly enjoyable collection for teen or adults. For those (like me) who have a sneaking suspicion that YA fantasy writers are more talented than most of the mainstream adult fantasists, this collection provides great ammunition.

Let me begin by saying that I am not a huge fan of short stories: I prefer larger novels that I can really sink into, and of course short stories can only whet one's appetite. But when I saw the calibre of the authors presented here, I had to have a read: Lloyd Alexander, Garth Nix, Diana Wynne Jones, Meredith Ann Pierce, Patricia McKillip - wow! I adore all these authors, but had never experienced any of them in short story format. Maybe because my expectations were too high, or maybe because of my bias against short stories, reading became a little tedious after a while, and though I never regret reading a book, I doubt I'll be picking up this particular anthology again. However, there are some gems spotted in amongst them, and the skill of the authors involved is to be recommended:

"Cotillion" Delia Sherman - a retelling of the Tam Lin tale in 1960's New York, with a few tweakings and an unfortunate case of love at first sight. Beautiful imagery though.

"The Baby in the Night Deposit Box" Megan Whalen Turner - a comic-fantasy tale of a bank that takes an abandoned baby into its care, and the evil enchantress than turns up many years later to "withdraw her niece".

"Beauty" Sherwood Smith - a 'sequel' of sorts to "Crown Duel", which was unbeknownst to me when I began reading it. Ironically enough, I had checked out "Crown Duel" from the library at the same time as this anthology and now know how the story ends. Sigh.

"Mariposa" Nancy Springer - a nice little story about a young woman searching for her soul, left in the care of the fishes that swim in the stream at her childhood home.

"Max Mondrosch" Lloyd Alexander - don't expect Alexander's usual fantasy-comic fare in this story: it's a dark, disturbing tale of a man who does everything he can to succeed, and *still* fails.

"The Fall of Ys" Meredith Ann Pierce - one of my very favourite authors retells the legend of sunken Ys from a slightly more feminist point of view. Pierce's stories are always worth while, and her name was the main reason why I picked up this book.

"Medusa" Michael Cadnum - a dreamy version of the Medusa myth, more poetry than prose, with a poignant ending.

"The Black Fox" Emma Bull and Charles Vess - the adaptation of an old English ballad into comic book form, in which a hunting party comes across a demonic black fox...or is it?

"Byndley" Patricia A. McKillip - again, another author that doesn't disappoint, weaving her extraordinary language about a wizard trying to find his way back into Faery, to return something that he once stole.

"The Lady of the Ice Garden" Kara Dalkey - try and see how long it takes you to see what European fairytale Dalkey has retold in a Japanese setting. A great idea, though with a rather unexpected ending for her young hero and heroine.

"Hope Chest" Garth Nix - as usual his descriptions are detailed and intricate, but the story (a blend of Western and fantasy) rather baffled me, and left about a thousand questions unanswered. Sorry Nix, I love your "Old Kingdom" trilogy, but this just wasn't my cup of tea.

"Chasing the Wind" Elizabeth E. Wein - definitely the odd one out, considering that this isn't even a fantasy story. A young girl travels over Africa to join her missionary parents.

"Little Dot" Diana Wynne Jones - quintessential DWJ fare: bizarre magics, mythological gods and creatures brought into the modern world, quirky humour, and lots and lots of cats. J. K. Rowling has *definitely* read DWJ.

"Remember Me" Nancy Farmer - a nice, but kinda forgettable story of a changeling child and her misunderstanding family.

"Flotsam" Nina Kiriki Hoffman - a short story that perhaps tries to squish too much into it: a grieving family, an otherworldly boy, the magical backstory that gives explanation for why he's there, how the family deals with the magics, a high-school crush, and how they get him back home again.

"The Flying Woman" Laurel Winter - out of all the stories, this one has the most potential for being expanded into a book. After being abandoned on a desert island (presumably due to their powers) two children fend for themselves until they find a mysterious winged woman washed up on the shore.

The editor is Sharyn November (who I've never heard of before!) and after each story is a comment from the author on the stories that they've presented here. Oh, and just in case you get the wrong idea: none of them are about Firebirds - that's the name of the imprint. Looking over my list, I concur that this *is* a decent series of stories, and for those that enjoy the authors or the format, then its well worth exploring.

Firebirds is a short story book by Lloyd Alexander, Michael Cadnum, Kara Dalkey, Nancy Farmer, Nina Kiriki Hoffman, Diana Wynne Jones, Patricai A. Mckillip, Garth Nix, Meridith Ann Pierce, Sherwood Smith, Nancy Springer, Megan Whalen Turner, Elizabeth E. Wein, Laurel Winter, Emma Bull with illustrations by Charles Vess. The book is edited by Sharyn November.

Firebirds is a collection of stories all based on different themes. Each author has a different style of writing. Firebirds has two genres, fantasy and science fiction. I liked this book because the endings were always surprising. I didn't know many of these authors and reading these short stories gave me an idea of how they wrote. All the stories in Firebirds were interesting and different. I would rate this book an eight on a scale of one to ten because some of the stories weren't very interesting. I haven't read many short story books but this was one of the books that I enjoyed. Many of these stories are parts of books that the author has written or sequels.

Some of my favorite stories were Beauty by Sherwood Smith and Little Dot by Diana Wynne Jones. Beauty's about a princess named Elestra. Elestra didn't have any beauty and no one really cared about her. In the throne room, there was a tree that was really a person turned into a tree. One night the Elestra goes into the throne room and is captured by Flauvic, the person who was tree. Beauty's a story that makes you wonder what's going to happen. Little Dot's a story about several cats and a human named Henry. One day Henry is told that there is a Beast that's eating many animals. Find out what happens by reading Firebirds. Little Dot's an engrossing story that captures your attention.

This is the first anthology I have ever read and I absolutely loved it. Almost all of the stories in here are of highest quality. The collection gets off to a great start with "Cotilion" by Nancy Springer, which is an incredible Tam Lin spinoff. "Medusa" by Michael Cadnum is another great piece, told from the title character's point of view. "Max Monderasch" by Lloyd Alexander and "Hope Chest" by Garth Nix are disturbing yet thought-provoking stories. (I personally found "Max Monderasch" eerily realistic yet comically entertaining.) However, my favorite piece is "Floatsam" by Nina Kiriki Hoffman. All in all, this is a must-read collection for YA fantasy fans. Don't miss it!

I really like this book. I sought it out because it had a Nancy Farmer story. I read everything by Nancy Farmer. I ended up reading every story. I rarely read fiction. This was a treat.

Firebirds is another masterpiece of editing by Sharyn November. I've heard a lot about the horror that is the slush pile, but people like Sharyn seem to keep finding literary gold. Sure, they're supposedly for kids age 12 to 18, but I tend to think that kids that age are better described as "people", and Firebirds is an excellent book for people (and if you're reading this, odds are that you are one).

I picked up this anthology because it has a Nina Kiriki Hoffman story in it, and she's one of the few authors for whom I am still something of a raving fan. I read that one first. :)

"Flotsam" by Nina Kirki Hoffman is a story about a young boy from another land who winds up in ours and the people that help him out. It's a formula that's been done before, but you know, so was "Fear Street" and Nina Kirki Hoffman managed to write three stories in that trope that were new. She managed to do the same here. What's particularly nice here is that, while there is magic, it's not particularly magical. Though astonishing to the people that have not previously seen it, it's nothing special to the people doing the magic.

"Cotillion" by Delia Sherman is a remarkably (albeit lantern-hung) variant of Tam Lin. There's nothing very special here, which was surprising, as I generally enjoy her work. Then I got to the end, and it ended correctly, even though it broke the pattern. I appreciate that at lot.

"The Baby in the Night Deposit Box" by Megan Whalen Turner was wonderful. I shant bore you with a plot-based retelling, so let me just say that it's a story about a small town and their collective love for a child. I mean, sure there's a fairy war with goblins, enslavement and death as well as buracracy on many levels, but that stuff's not important. Really, it's all about love and bunnies... as well it should be.

"Beauty" by Sherwood Smith felt strange. It was like reading a story that was only half-told. As I read it, I thought that it was a vehicle for a bit of philosophy on pretty people and rightness of action. Then, when I got to the end and read the Author's Note, I saw that it was a sequel of sorts to Crown Duel. It sorta stands on it's own, but I suspect that I would have liked it better had I read the other book first.

"Mariposa" by Nancy Springer is a story that needed to be written. It's very good and addresses a common social problem in a very matter-of-fact and unusual way. This is one of those that is definitely aimed at the 12-18 age range, but also serves as a good reminder for those of us who are a wee bit older.

"Max Mondrosch" by Lloyd Alexander is horrifying and nightmarish and should not be read. Really, get out your tape and stick these pages together. Put a PostIt note on the front of the story with the note "Do not open until economy has improved." You'll thank me later. (Oh yeah, it's really good, you just don't want to read it.)

"The Fall of Ys" by Meredith Ann Pierce really requires knowledge of Celtic myth. This is one of those sories that should really stand on it's own, but really doesn't. It would be better if it were framed as a story within a story, so that the traditional myth could be briefly retold than this story could be told from a "what really happened" perspective. Maybe there wasn't enough space to do it that way, I don't know. In the end, it was somewhat disapointing.

"Medusa" by Michael Cadnum was another story that requires knowledge of myth. However, I think that this story still permeates our mainstream culture, so that's OK. Unlike many retellings, it really dwells on

the concept that the Greek gods really don't care about humans, so I applaud its historical accuracy as well as the way that it twists the form just enough to resolve appropriately for modern audiences.

"The Black Fox" by Emma Bull and Charles Vess is a surprise comic book! Like most of Emma's work, it's well researched and well told. Like most of Charles's work, it's very well drawn and annoylingly lettered. I mean, sure the lettering is beautiful, but it's a little harder to read than the more classic style. Maybe it's just what I'm used to, I don't know. Anyway, it's a good retelling of a classic folk song and again tweaked so as to be accessible to modern readers. I enjoyed it.

"Byndley" by Patricia A. McKillip is pretty much a classic McKillip story. The writing sparkles and the storytelling winds its way through the woods much like the characters it describes. It feels like it should be a novel, yet, at the same time, it's good that it's not. As a novel, it would be ponderous and difficult to get through. As it is, you come in at the end of the story and enough is retold that you understand and appreciate it. It's done well and well done.

"The Lady of the Ice Garden" by Kara Dalkey was another retelling of "The Snow Queen", and I must admit that Kelly Link's version has spoiled me forever. Had I not read that one, I would have thoroughly enjoyed Dalkey's version. As it was, there seemed to be something missing. Granted, there is a subtlety to Japanese culture that I may be missing due to incomplete historical knowledge, but in the end, I just didn't enjoy this one as much as Link's. So it goes.

"Hope Chest" by Garth Nix was holy-crap-what-am-I-reading fantastic. It's another foundling story, but is very different from any other such story I've ever read. It takes the interlinked concepts of destiny/fate/purpose and tells a story that is every bit as heartbreaking at Greek tragedy and still unbelievably good (despite being an American Western). It's worth the price of the collection all by itself.

"Chasing the Wind" by Elizabeth E. Wein was good, but didn't make much of an impression on me. This may have been due to the immediately preceding "Hope Chest", but it could also have been that it was about a time period that doesn't really do much for me, nor does aviation history. I suspect that WWII and aeroplane aficionados would have a very different opinion.

"Little Dot" by Diana Wynne Jones is about kitty cats. It doesn't really work well as a story, as there are too many things left unexplained and the world isn't well built. Were this a story among other stories set in the same world, it would be better. However, the kitty cats feel real, and that's worth something.

"Remember Me" by Nancy Farmer is good but sad. It's about families and misfits. Mostly though, it's about being different, as seen by those who are not. It's short and worth reading, so I shall not say any more here.

"The Flying Woman" by Laurel Winter is an interesting exploration of magic, honor and care taking. There's also an element of "you can't change people", which is a good, though difficult, lesson to learn. In a book full of life lessons, this is an appropriate story to exit on.

Taken as a whole, the collection is wonderful, and the only real problem was that it took me five years to get to it (and then two months to write this review, *sigh*). Sure would be nice if there was a subscription model so one could get the latest monthly or bimonthly Sharyn November book without having to track them all down. Sure, tracking things down is fun, but I don't have the same amount of sleuthing time I once did.

But, if that's the biggest complaint I have, I guess I'm OK.

There are very few books out there that I can honestly see myself reading multiple times. This, however, is definitely one of them. I had often been recommended books by the various different authors in it but had never wanted to buy their individual books with the possibility that I might not like their styles. This compilation of short stories has really given me a great respect for all of the different writers as it showcases their incredible abilities to keep an audience attentive. No matter how unusual or fanciful each story seemed to me, I was delighted and thrilled to keep reading in order to find out "what happens next?"

What I found in Firebirds was an amazing collection of stories, some very fantasy driven while others were more inclined to historical fiction. There was a fun little story by Sherwood Smith that follows the daughter of her Crown Duel characters, a different story about a female sharpshooter who stops a town from being brainwashed by a politician, a story that is unfortunately chilling about the status of unemployment levels, a tale of a young lady's journey to meet her parents in Africa, and a very funny Wicked Witch of the West meets Sleeping Beauty and small town America tale of an abandoned baby who turns out to be a princess (if you read it you will understand... it's a very different but great story).

I highly recommend the book to people who normally like authors like Tamora Pierce, Robin McKinley or Lloyd Alexander.