Customer Reviews

Scarborough Fair and Other Stories

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

 

 

I've never read Elizabeth Ann Scarborough's books in the past, but I definitely will be looking out for them now. These short stories draw in the reader and make you laugh. Some of them make you choke up and think very long about our veterans. Some are very much showing her love for felines, and the ability of a cat to be above all other species on the earth... at least in their own minds. I picked it up because of the artwork on the cover by Ursula Vernon, a favorite artist of mine, and was not disappointed by the contents!

I discovered this book simply because I found the title and cover intriguing, but it gets even better on the inside! Each of the short stories is well-written and unique, and I loved them all. This book has appeal for almost everyone, from cat lovers to science fiction fans. (As it happens, I fall into both of these categories.) If you like fantasy, humor, mystery, or a story that leaves you a bit teary-eyed at the end, there is something in this collection for you.

This eleven-story collection runs the gamut of speculative fiction. For the most part, the tales take place on a "mundane" earth that is where the readers and the author live, but something extraordinary occurs to this everyday environs. Some of the contributions use supernatural elements, others fantasy, and finally science fiction to tell a story of the unexpected imposing on the "normal". Most contain humor (though some more are more subtle than others) and the key characters seem real whether they are mummies rising from roads or creatures residing in fairyland. Each tale entertains the audience who will agree on how astonishingly well Elizabeth Ann Scarborough blends the whimsical and otherworldly into the "realistic" in her telling of pleasant stories.

Harriet Klausner

Most of the stories in Scarborough Fair are bland and unexciting. The author somehow manages to make even her original ideas feel cliched.