Tails of Wonder and Imagination: Cat Stories [Paperback]

Ellen Datlow (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 15, 2010

From legendary editor Ellen Datlow, Tails of Wonder collects the best of the last thirty years of science fiction and fantasy stories about cats from an all-star list of contributors. The Stephen King Story is UNCOLLECTED, and has not been in print since the Horrorstory III anthology.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Few things alarm the experienced reader more than the prospect of a science fiction, fantasy, or mystery book that involves—or worse, fetishizes—cats. This reprint anthology is the exception, an assortment of 40 stories by authors who are for the most part willing to take cats on their own ground. Datlow avoids the trap of a too-narrow premise: though there appears to be a slight bias toward horror, the stories are various within that field, from Jack Ketchum's ghost story Returns to Michaela Roessner's highly scientific Mieze Corrects an Incomplete Representation of Reality and Edward Bryant's brilliantly repellent Bean Bag Cat. Other tales are amusing, like Lawrence Block's The Burglar Takes a Cat, or gently sentimental, like Dennis Danvers's Healing Benjamin. This is that rarity of rarities: an anthology of cat stories worth reading. (Feb.)
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From Booklist

Datlow’s anthology intentionally (i.e., thematically) full of cats manages to showcase quite a variety of stories by a very impressive list of authors—Stephen King, John Crowley, John Kessel, Neil Gaiman, Susanna Clarke, Joyce Carol Oates, Sharyn McCrumb, to name just a few. Ordinary housecats are on view, of course, and so are lions and tigers and manticores and one thought experiment. Mary A. Turzillo’s “Pride” is the bittersweet story of a boy and his saber-toothed cat; Jeffrey Ford and Catherynne M. Valente both offer tales of manticores, though their respective examples of the species are very different creatures; and Michaela Roessner gives voice to a famous physics thought experiment in “Mieze Corrects an Incomplete Representation of Reality.” Datlow brings horror, sf, and fantasy all into the volume on equal footing, making it likely that even genre readers who aren’t cat people will find something very much worth their while in it. --Regina Schroeder

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Product Details

• Paperback: 500 pages
• Publisher: Night Shade Books; Reprint edition (February 15, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1597801704
• ISBN-13: 978-1597801706
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #831,903 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

25 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Table of Contents for anyone wondering just what's in this hefty tome, January 19, 2010

By 

Richard Kukan "rkukan" (Toronto, ON Canada) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Tails of Wonder and Imagination: Cat Stories (Paperback)

Table of Contents:

Through the Looking Glass (excerpt) - Lewis Carroll
No Heaven Will Not Ever Heaven Be... - A. R. Morlan
The Price - Neil Gaiman
Dark Eyes, Faith, and Devotion - Charles de Lint
Not Waving - Michael Marshall Smith
Catch - Ray Vukcevich
The Manticore Spell - Jeffrey Ford
Catskin - Kelly Link
Mieze Corrects an Incomplete Representation of Reality - Michaela Roessner
Guardians - George R. R. Martin
Life Regarded as a Jigsaw Puzzle of Highly Lustrous Cats - Michael Bishop
Gordon, the Self-Made Cat - Peter S. Beagle
The Jaguar Hunter - Lucius Shepard
Arthur's Lion - Tanith Lee
Pride - Mary A. Turzillo
The Burglar Takes a Cat - Lawrence Block
The White Cat - Joyce Carol Oates
Returns - Jack Ketchum
Puss-Cat - Reggie Oliver
Cat in Glass - Nancy Etchemendy
Coyote Peyote - Carole Nelson Douglas
The Poet and the Inkmaker's Daughter - Elizabeth Hand
The Night of the Tiger - Stephen King
Every Angel is Terrifying - John Kessel
Candia - Graham Joyce
Mbo - Nicholas Royle
Bean Bag Cats(R) - Edward Bryant
Antiquities - John Crowley
The Manticore's Tale - Catherynne M. Valente
In Carnation - Nancy Springer
Old Foss is the Name of His Cat - David Sandner
A Safe Place to Be - Carol Emshwiller
Nine Lives to Live - Sharyn McCrumb
Tiger Kill - Kaaron Warren
Something Better than Death - Lucy Sussex
Dominion - Christine Lucas
Tiger in the Snow - Daniel Wynn Barber
The Dweller in High Places - Susanna Clarke
Healing - Benjamin Dennis Danvers
The Puma - Theodora Goss

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Cats and more cats, February 17, 2010

By 

Janlynn (Sussex, WI United States) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Tails of Wonder and Imagination: Cat Stories (Paperback)

A nice thick book for any cat lover to enjoy, also for the reader who can take or leave cats but just enjoys a good mystery or sci-fi story. Also some horror. As there are several series of books with cats as one of the main "characters", Lillian Jackson Braun comes to mind, or the authors who have talking cats solving mysteries, this volume of short stories should be enjoyed by many. Some stories are reprints, others brand new. Many well known writers are here including Neil Gaiman, Lawrence Block, Sharyn McCrumb and Joyce Carol Oates. Something for every cat lover. If you don't like cats, well, you might, nevertheless, find some of the stories enjoyable.

23 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Force yourself past the sickening stories, March 15, 2010

By 

Cat Momma ":)" (Texas) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Tails of Wonder and Imagination: Cat Stories (Paperback)

I have followed Ellen Datlow's work and her anthologies for most of my adult life. I was excited to get this anthology. However.... The stories in which the cats are harmed, specifically "Catch" turned my stomach and distressed me so greatly I almost tossed the book away. I felt betrayed by this. I have never in my life gotten so angry and upset at a simple 3 page story. The most distressing point was that this story closely followed on the coat-tails of another that ended with the implied consuption of a cat.

There are other stories in this anthology, and they are worth the read. I am happy that Ellen herself has provided a guide to the stories to avoid, but to me, that isnt enough. It's like providing a fire extinguisher after a fire. To defend your position and say "This book *is* for cat lovers" while at the same time saying that you probably shouldnt have put some stories in the anthology, ALL during the same month of the release.... seems a little preposterious to me.
Source:[...]

Read if you dare. This ISNT a book for cat lovers. This is a book for people who like reading about cats. There is a difference. I wouldnt say that I would line my cat's litter pan with this book, But I definately wish that I could have kept away from some of the horrible, stomach wrenching words and images that some of the stories delivered.