Stories for an Enchanted Afternoon [Hardcover]

Kristine Kathryn Rusch (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 2001

The first story in this collection of the author's best short fiction, 'Millennium Babies', looks at the 'losers', the infants who are not the first born in the New Year. Then in the novella 'The Gallery of His Dreams', a finalist for the Nebula, Hugo, and World Fantasy Awards, the life and talent of Matthew Brady, a daguerreotype photographer who photographs the horrors of future wars and atrocities in order to preserve the past, is detailed. The collection also includes 'Skin Deep', 'Echea', 'Coolhunting', 'Going Native', 'Harvest', 'Strange Creatures', 'Monuments of the Dead', 'Spirit Guides', and 'Burial Detail'.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

In less than 20 years, Rusch has won most of the major sf and fantasy awards, including the Best Editor Hugo during her stint at the Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. She admits that her editorial labors reduced her fictional output and apologizes, but she needn't, given the quality of these stories. "Skin Deep," her first published story, ended up in two best-of-the-year anthologies. "Echea," "Coolhunting," and "The Gallery of His Dreams" are all award winners. "Millennium Babies" is accomplished social commentary without being any less of a story. Altogether, they display versatility and capability that very few other sf hands could honestly claim to possess. Moreover, Rusch's work is more accessible than that of many others in the field. This gathering is a perfect vehicle for introducing readers to one of the more accomplished younger sf authors. Roland Green
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review

" She's one of the few writers whose style takes me right into the story-the words and pages disappear as the characters and their story swallows me whole." -- Charles de Lint

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 295 pages
• Publisher: Golden Gryphon Press; 1st edition (May 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1930846029
• ISBN-13: 978-1930846029
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.8 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,559,253 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars From the Editor, Marty Halpern, Golden Gryphon Press, September 20, 2001

By 

M. Halpern "Marty Halpern" (San Jose, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Stories for an Enchanted Afternoon (Hardcover)

As the editor of Kristine Kathryn Rusch's first short fiction collection, STORIES FOR AN ENCHANTED AFTERNOON, I'm a bit too biased to actually rate this book. But I did want all of Kris's readers to know that one of the stories contained in this collection, "Millennium Babies," has recently won the 2001 Hugo Award for Best Novelette. In fact, you might be interested to know that the title for this collection was originally MILLENNIUM BABIES: A SHORT STORY COLLECTION! This was the title Kris chose when she submitted the manuscript to Golden Gryphon Press. However, our distributor was hesitant to accept a book with "Millennium" in the title because so many other such books had already been published and the "Millennium" was now, of course, passé. So we agreed to make a title change. If only we had known . . .

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Truly lives up to its title!, October 13, 2001

By 

Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Stories for an Enchanted Afternoon (Hardcover)

Kristine Kathryn Rusch has authored more than fifty novels, won numerous awards, and is an effective, talented, and experienced storyteller. Stories For An Enchanted Afternoon showcases her best short fiction in the field of science fiction and will serve to introduce her to a whole new generation of readers. The stories comprising this outstanding anthology include: Skin Deep; Echea; Coolhunting; Going Native; Millennium Babies; Harvest; Strange Creatures; Monuments to the Dead; Spirit Guides; Burial Detail; and The Gallery of His Dreams. Augmented with a foreword by science fiction author Kevin J. Anderson, Kristine Rusch's Stories For An Enchanted Afternoon truly lives up to its title!

5.0 out of 5 stars Hauntingly wonderful, but sadly overlooked, October 16, 2011

By 

K. Ayres (D.C.) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Stories for an Enchanted Afternoon (Hardcover)

I have to confess that I was looking for this collection of short stories before I knew it existed. Two of the stories featured in this book, Echea and Coolhunting, have haunted me since I first read them in the last 90's, leaving me to ponder them years later.
The first story mentioned, Echea, tells of a young refugee adopted by a well-off family. The refugee, Echea, is a small girl from a lunar colony from a future where the Moon is a war-zone. She is adopted into a family that has planned for everything, except for Echea.

The second story is Coolhunting, which is about Steffi, a woman who hunts fashions for a living and her sister KD, whose body is frozen in time but her mind hasn't. KD wishes to finally become an adult in more than just mind, and takes drastic measures to ensure Steffi will help her.

There are other stories as well, all worth mentioning, all, in their own way, alone worth the price of the book. The stories are not set in the far future, but a future a little too close for comfort. The characters drive the stories, well fleshed and, at times, resembling those closest to you. The only problem I have with this collection is that it is out of print.