4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
fine anthology, September 3, 2008
This review is from: Imaginary Friends (Mass Market Paperback)
The theme of this fine anthology is just what the title advertises, IMAGINARY FRIENDS, but with a fantasy or Twilight Zone twist that widens the scope of the collection. The compilation of all new tales is superb as each entry is well written with some being excellent. Personal favorites include "A Good Day for Dragons" by Rick Hautala that kept me thinking of Pete's Dragon, "Best Friends Forever" by Tim Waggoner stars Biff the stuffed animal, "Images of Death" by Jim C. Hines as the title character is a best friend who reminds the little girl of a Muppet, and the moving tale of sibling love "Greg and Eli" by Paul Genesse. The remaining tales are all fun reminding readers of their own IMAGINARY FRIENDS.
Harriet Klausner
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2 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Some good, some bad, February 6, 2010
This review is from: Imaginary Friends (Mass Market Paperback)
When I was younger I had a lot of imaginary friends. In Kindergarten I imagined that the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (plus April) were my friends on the playground, calling me for help whenever they were in the area. Then it became the Ghost Busters and later when we moved to a new town I imagined that I had a girl friend named Jacie. My younger sister, for years upon years, had an imaginary friend named Maria--we still tease her about Maria because she insists she was real. I think its a normal childhood thing to have an imaginary friend, just like talking to your dolls or pretending to play War with your friends.
Of the 13 stories in this volume I think I only really enjoyed 3 of them: 'A Good Day for Dragons' by Rick Hautala, 'Stands a God Within the Shadows' by Anne Bishop and 'Walking Shadows' by Juliet E. McKenna. Hautala's, though I guessed the twist fairly quickly, was just a cute story. Dragons, Pirates and choices when growing up--what's not to love? Bishop's is, as I've come to expect from her fiction, twisty and dark with small rays of sunshine poking out. I was genuinely surprised at who the imaginary friend turned out to be and the end, while sad, is speaks highly of the main character.
McKenna's was another sad story of choices when growing up that I would have enjoyed so much more if there hadn't been a niggling editorial lapse. In first 2/3rds of the story a character's name is Rasun--he's never actually seen, only spoken of by various characters as a 'lesson learned move on' sort of thing, but still he's important at the end. So I couldn't understand why, in the last third, his name suddenly becomes 'Rusan'. Not just once, which I tend to overlook, but at least four different times! It ruined the story for me a bit because I had to consciously remember who that was supposed to be. As for the story itself--the twist at the end is intriguing and I wouldn't mind reading more in that universe.
The rest of the stories fell rather flat for me, or just bored me. There's really no other way to explain it. Marco has an introduction that made me excited--he explains that for a college paper he was going to academically discuss Imaginary Friends influence, but couldn't find enough academic material to draw from (apparently no one does studies of this nature?). Years later the idea kept niggling at him until he finally decided to call upon fantasy writers to explore the idea and the ramifications. Some of the authors I think took it a lot looser than he meant while others I think didn't grasp why imaginary friends are important.
I would say to read this if you happen upon it at the library or a friend lends it to you, I'm not entirely certain its worth its cover price.
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0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Nice Collection of Tales, August 13, 2009
This review is from: Imaginary Friends (Mass Market Paperback)
This was a fairly good selection of short stories with an interesting theme to tie them all together. Perhaps the most interesting part of the book for me was seeing how each author put a different spin on the imaginary friends idea and made it his/her own. Some stories contain the traditional idea of an imaginary friend, some twist it totally around, while still others go on an entirely different track altogether. Stories that stood out the most for me were: A Good Day for Dragons by Rick Hautala, Best Friends Forever by Tim Waggoner, and The Big Exit by Bill Fawcett. Overall, the stories included in this collection are decent, but it's not as strong as "Army of the Fantastic" also edited by John Marco (who I might add also writes a very strong introduction in this book explaining the idea behind the theme of the book.)
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