Customer Reviews

Sirens and Other Daemon Lovers

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

 

 

Definitely a worthwhile book to read if you enjoy both SF/fantasy and erotica. I thought the stories were well written and posed some interesting scenarios. I think the editors did an excellent job putting together this collection of sexy stories. My favorite story was "The Eye of the Storm" by Kelley Eskridge and I look forward to reading more of her work in the future. In many ways I felt that this was the most original story in the book and I find myself going back to reread it often.

I stumbled across this book by chance, and I'm SO glady I did. It's extraordinary, sensual, and a completely wonderful read from start to finish. There's not a bad story in the book, and all of them are of the highest literary quality -- so much so that it's a shame this was published as "fantasy" and may not reach a wider mainstream audience. Whether you love fine literary fantasy or fine mainstream literature of an Angela Carter or Joyce Carol Oates calibre (Oates actually has a great new tale in the book), I can't recommend this one highly enough.

This is a gorgeous--magical--erotic--highly literary collection -- as one would expect from Ms. Datlow and Ms. Windling. I've never read anything like it before -- and I ended the book wanting more (I hope there's a sequel). The fascinating introduction by Terri Windling about eroticism and mythology is worth the price of the book alone -- but add stories by Ellen Kushner, Joyce Carol Oates and other luminaries and this becomes a book to treasure. I was almost put off by the cover --for some strange reason there are dead-looking women on the cover and I thought this was yet another sex-and-blood horror collection-- but when I saw the names of the editors I knew I was in good hands. Some of the stories are dark, but not so dark as Horror fiction, more like Angela Carter's dark fantasy. And other stories are as bright as day -- like Delia Sherman's scrumptiously bawdy Elizabethan fairy tale for instance. So ignore the cover -- or paste a romantically sexy picture of your own over it -- and enjoy this wonderful WONDERFUL book! Datlow and Windling have done it again.

This is not a terrible anthology, but it wasn't great. Many of the 22 stories were forgetable, but a few were good, such as Bird Count by Jane Yolen, Persephone by Wendy Froud (I wish this had been longer), and The House of Nine Doors by Ellen Kushner. Most of the other stories were mildly erotic at best. Still, they were all pretty creative. If you're into sci-fi and fantasy stories, you'll probably enjoy it. If you only want good erotica, you might want to pass this by.

Most erotica is rather sloppily written, on the theory that the people who are interested in it are not, in fact, interested in literary value, but in sexual arousal; the authors and editors of this book understand, delightfully, that there are those of us out here who enjoy an arousing story who are sufficiently literate as to be completely distracted from our arousal by poor writing, and they have written a wonderful anthology of extremely arousing stories with plot, characterization, and coherent language. If that's what you want, this is the book for you!

Not quite what I expected. The stories were a little wierd. There was quite a bit of sex, but towards the end, it seemed tedious. There really wasn't any point in the act. Some of the stories were good. I enjoyed the one about the Acorn, Leaf woman. Mainly because of the Sidhe being in "our time" and known and descriminated against. I also like the Vampire one (there was only one Vampire story), but it ended abruptly. There was one about a "bird man" it was very short but cute. As for the book being "erotic", it didn't give me a rise. The stories were either humiliating and mean (the one about incest), or you just couldn't feel for any of the characters in any of the stories. If your a romance reader, or a lover of paranormal stories, save your money. There just doesn't seem to be any substance in any of these stories to warrant a good read. If you like off-the-wall stuff, then maybe this is for you.

Magical tales of love and seduction, the cover promises. Stories of sirens and other daemon lovers. On the back cover, we're told `Prepare to be seduced by powerful magic... twenty-two tales of unearthly temptations wickedly concocted by some of today's most potent literary conjurers... Lie back, relax and submit to the darkest delights you have ever experienced.'

Can I sue for misrepresentation??

To say that this book failed to live up to expectations is putting it mildly. I should have known when the editors' introduction put me to sleep after only a page. Then I began reading the novellas... and couldn't believe what I was reading. The first was just weird, and with a writing style which completely failed to capture my attention. The second had a potentially interesting story, but written in such awful purple prose that I wanted to scream at the author to learn to write. And then there was Joyce Carol Oates' effort... WHAT the heck was that supposed to be? It had no beginning and no ending. It just started and finished. As for the content, I was left shaking my head, and even after I read the final half-page again was still baffled as to what it was supposed to be. In the authors' notes at the end of the book, I discovered that this was actually part of a novel. Huh? What was the point of that? I thought this was supposed to be a collection of novellas, not extracts!

Unfortunately, Oates' contribution was not the worst, or the most boring. Several others nearly sent me to sleep; others still left me rolling my eyes or wondering where the ending was when I read the final line. Why do these writers not seem to have a clue how to finish a novella? Is the reader supposed to invent an ending? And then there were the stories which just made me go `Huh? What the hell was that all about?' - Persephone and The Light That Passes Through You being examples. O For a Fiery Gloom and Thee and Taking Loup had me skimming after a few tedious paragraphs.

A small handful of stories were somewhat enjoyable - The Eye of the Storm, though it took too long to get going and ended too soon; A Wife of Acorn Leaf and Stone had potential, but again was under-developed. The Scent of Bitter Bark and Clove and The House of Nine Doors both needed to be full-length novels; both were promising, but ended far too soon and with inadequate character development.

Don't waste your money. This book should be advertised as offering Tedious Unfinished Meanderings of Weirdness and Drug-Induced Insanity.


wmr-uk

OK, I mainly bought this book because of Neil Gaiman. I love his work in Sandman and with Neverwhere. Of course, I read his short story first. It was OK, but a little weak, I felt, and definitly too short. As I branched out into the other short stories, the book continued to become worse. To the unread eye and someone who feels the need to read this, it's OK. Passible. However, I feel that there was very littly literary quality to it and many stories really served no purpose.

I've written better material then some of the stuff in this book. Trust me. That's saying something.