In the Palace of Repose [Hardcover]

Holly Phillips (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 20, 2005

In the Palace of Repose is a collection of nine such stories, ranging from the delightfully fantastic "In the Palace of Repose," to the delicately horrific "One of the Hungry Ones," to the hauntingly literary "The Other Grace." Here indeed are young women, and young men, who have seen too much, and who have been abandoned to wrestle alone with the strange, the wonderful, the terrifying. Some triumph, some tragically fail. Most struggle on beyond the boundaries of their stories, carrying their wonders and horrors into their lives, into their worlds -- worlds, and lives, startlingly like our own.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

This collection of nine fantasy and slipstream short stories from Canadian author Phillips, her first book, offers a neat package of quietly thoughtful, composed writing. In the title story and "The Other Grace," characters must deal with the unalterable changes caused when dream and reality diverge. Similarly, in "The New Ecology" and "One of the Hungry Ones," runaway girls learn that safety is relative and the easiest route is seldom the safest. Likewise in "Pen and Ink," "A Woman's Bones" and "By the Light of Tomorrow's Sun," the main character must discover the fate of a forebear before she may define her place in the world. "Summer Ice" and "Variations on a Theme" detail the efforts of artists to find completion in their lives and work. Indeed, each of the stories is a variation on a theme, illustrating the many methods--some successful, some not--one may attempt in search of a place to belong. Along the way, Phillips offers gentle epiphanies rather than more conclusive endings, often leaving her characters hanging in mid-revelation. Despite the thematic repetition, readers will find themselves drawn in by elegant imagery and evocative settings.
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From Booklist

*Starred Review* Horror-movie buffs may love monsters and mayhem, but many of them also laud the 1940s B movies produced by Val Lewton and famed for suggesting horrors rather than showing them. Canadian newcomer Phillips one-ups Lewton by refraining to characterize what menaces her protagonists as evil or necessarily threatening. The king locked away for five centuries in "In the Palace of Repose" may be too much for all society to handle, but when he emerges, the three men who assume his keeping seem up to the challenge. The spirit of the female conqueror interred in a barrow in "A Woman's Bones" is dreaded by the native peoples who know her legends, but the interpreter for the archaeologists digging at the barrow becomes prepared to welcome the violent wraith's release. The girl art thief in "Pen and Ink" seems threatened more by the mysterious curator who spurs her on than by her quest for her vanished father literally in his paintings. Often Phillips' protagonists' desire to bring magic back into the world is greater than any fear of supernatural forces. The heroine of Phillips' least fantastic story, "Summer Ice," succeeds at working magic, and her reward, like her accomplishment, is altogether natural, though wonderful indeed. Phillips writes dark fantasy mostly with the aura of heroic fantasy, aiming to awe far more than to frighten--and succeeding, awesomely. Ray Olson
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 208 pages
• Publisher: Wildside Press (April 20, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1894815580
• ISBN-13: 978-1894815581
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,293,411 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Stories to Savor, June 3, 2005

By 

Nicole Lowery (WI) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: In the Palace of Repose (Hardcover)

With this masterful collection, Holly Phillips has given us a genre-defying set of stories about magic, family, and finding your place in the world. She writes about places that are only slightly removed from our own, places we recognize but find are subtly different.

The title story, about an ancient king whose release may (or may not) cause great chaos in the world, is told matter-of-factly by one of his last remaining guardians. The ending is as sensible as it is surprising. The rest of the stories unfold similarly with delicacy, but never aimlessness. Take your time with this collection -- there is such a richness of characterization and, yes, magic, that you'll want to slow down and enjoy it.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A jewel of a book ..., December 26, 2005

By 

B. Kajer-Crain (Northern California) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: In the Palace of Repose (Hardcover)

As a rule, short fiction doesn't interest me much. I prefer novels - there's more time for the detailed development of plot, character, theme, etc. I also enjoy genre-bending fiction. So when I read the fly leaf of this book, I wasn't too thrilled about it being a collection of short stories, but I was willing to give it a try. And I'm very glad that I did.
The writing is concise and lyrical. The stories are gems that still resonate. And the author is a master at setting the mood for each of her stories. I look forward to this author's first novel.

3.0 out of 5 stars A slow start is redeemed by some beautiful stories, but none of them are must-reads. Moderately recommended, April 16, 2009

By 

Juushika (Oregon, United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: In the Palace of Repose (Paperback)

Nine stories of the magic that hovers at the edges of the known word, In the Palace of Repose ranges from a girl found in a fairy's palace to a homeless woman invited to magical masked balls, united by quiet storytelling and unique magic. Many of the stories are unremarkable, but the best--"One of the Hungry Ones" was my favorite--are beautiful, striking a balance between magic and meaning and redeeming the collection. Moderately recommended.

I fell in love with Phillips's The Burning Girl, and came to In the Palace of Repose in search of more of her work. What I found did not quite live up to my expectations, but nonetheless offers some beautiful moments. The stories are united by their quiet, concise narrative voice which creates slow, reflective pacing in some stories and distances the reader from the characters in others. It takes a a bit to adjust to this style, so it's just as well the first few stories have attention-grabbing premises but are largely unremarkable: they're enough to make the reader stick around, but not so nuanced that he'll miss anything while he adjusts.

The reader slows and the story quality improves, and the second half of the collection (with a turning point midway through "Pen & Ink") is much better. Detailed descriptions and dreamlike sequences augment the slow pacing, and the magical aspects are subtle and haunting. Some of the stories still falter under the weight of foreshortened plots, but there are moments in the second half which are simply beautiful: unexpected hauntings, fetês like fairy-rounds, unusual magic and realistic emotions all come together to create stories which balance magic against meaning and wrap both in subtle, quiet storytelling. The slow start and a few duds in the lineup make this collection a bit of a disappointment, but the few good stories redeem it--though none of them are must-reads. In the Palace of Repose is good on the whole, but deserves only a mild recommendation: pick it up if you're curious, but don't go out of your way to read it.