The Woodcutter [Kindle Edition]

Kate Danley (Author)

Book Description

Garcia Award Best Fiction Book of the Year

1st Place Fantasy - Reader Views Reviewers Choice Awards

Winner - Sci-fi/Fantasy Category Indie Book Awards

Cinderella is dead and one of Odin's hellhounds has gone rogue. The Woodcutter, protector of peace between Man and Fae, is charged with finding the beast and returning him to the Wild Hunt. 

Unfortunately, the forces of evil have other plans. 

Leaving the comforts of his quiet home, he finds a pixie dust trade raging out of control and a power hungry Queen who will stop at nothing to take over the world.   The lives of Snow White, Rapunzel, and Little Red Riding Hood are at stake in this dark fairytale.  It is a race against time as the Woodcutter travels east of the sun and west of the moon, up beanstalks and down to the bowels of the earth to unravel a mystery that can only be described as Grimm. 

Editorial Reviews

Review

"A must read for both the lover of fantasy & mystery. It will engage the reader in a delightful journey down memory lane with recollections of fairy tales from days gone by while embracing a modern twist." -Marissa Libbit for Reader Views

"Kate Danley skillfully weaves her story around well-known fairy tales...through her adept writing, she conveys fantasy and mystery, making this book a definite page-turner." -Irene Watson, Managing Editor of Reader Views 

From the Author

For more information, please visit katedanley.com

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• File Size: 445 KB
• Print Length: 344 pages
• Language: English
• ASIN: B0046LU7MA
• Text-to-Speech: Enabled
• X-Ray: Not Enabled
• Lending: Not Enabled
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #251,698 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

32 of 33 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Slow Start, Lovely Finish September 7, 2012

By Brekke S. Ferguson

Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase

I love faerie tales; I also love unique twists on faerie tales. While "The Woodcutter" got off to a choppy start, as the story began to unfold, I found myself caught up in it. I was intrigued by the concept of the Woodcutter and his role in the world. After all, there oft needs to be an intermediary between the fae and the mortal realms. In some ways, the Woodcutter fulfills the role of a faerie godmother, keeping a guiding eye on the threads of a person's life while not interfering overly much. However, the author develops and deepens that role, because it is not a single person the Woodcutter watches over, but the entire realm.

There are definitely some cliched moments and there are a couple of places where the story wraps up too neatly, but on the whole, I found myself intrigued with how things played out. The fact that there were multiple antagonists as well as multiple quests for the Woodcutter to solve worked nicely for me. I also liked that while he finds out the threads of the plot, he can't quickly solve the problem. Multiple types of mythlore within the story was also a bonus to me.

I could have lived with fewer chapter breaks because they made the beginning of the story more choppy than necessary, but overall it didn't overly detract from the story on the whole. It's not an intensely deep story, but it's not entirely fluff either. I enjoyed it and found myself wanting to finish it just to see how it all wrapped up. I recommend it if you enjoy faerie tales, particularly those with a twist.

42 of 46 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Childhood fairy tales come together... January 12, 2011

By Valerie Erickson

Format:Paperback

Unpredictable tale with familiar stories and characters. A Dark twist to the original Grimm Fairy Tales. I loved it! My only complaint is there is no sequel or no other books by this author yet! I really enjoyed her writing and felt like a little girl again entering into the fantasy world of my favorite characters.

35 of 41 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Creative and Unique October 11, 2010

By T. Hernandez

Format:Kindle Edition

Kate Danley's The Woodcutter is a creative and unique take on the world of fairy tales. You will recognize most of the characters in this book but perhaps not quite in the settings or situations you might expect. I found the story to be captivating and the imagery to be quite powerful. An enjoyable read from a new writing talent.

27 of 31 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Fun detective story with a fairy tale twist! November 9, 2010

By Mia

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

I really enjoyed this twist on some of the fable characters that we all know, courtesy of the Grimms, which plays out like a noir crime/detective novel. It's not cheeky or campy, like Jasper Fford, but a very well paced whodunnit that just happens to involve characters from the common cannon of folklore.

The pacing was fantastic and it kept me awake late at night wanting to read more and more ("just one more chapter!").

48 of 60 people found the following review helpful

2.0 out of 5 stars Too much name dropping, not enough actual plot October 25, 2011

By Three Rs

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

The premise of this novel is indeed unique, and using the somewhat stock character of 'the woodcutter' -- that kindly, brave, helpful side figure in so many stories -- to connect multiple fairy tales into a coherent whole should have worked beautifully. Others have done something similar; Into the Woods, for example, leaps immediately to mind. Unfortunately, Danley's idea of a plot seems to consist of 'how many recognizable characters can I lump into a single story?' As such, the greater portion of the book is filled with gratuitous encounters. What's more, the woodcutter doesn't just encounter fairy tale characters, but really gets around! He meets Titania and Oberon, is given a task by Odin, and deals with Baba Yaga more than once. Despite the numerous mentions of the 'twelve kingdoms', no effort is made to explain why such disparate characters are all running around in a single magical wood, nor are most of them fleshed out beyond mentioning their names. Without that explanation or back story it just became tedious, and by the time he encountered Iron Shoes, I was rolling my eyes. I kept hoping that maybe the 'twelve kingdoms' would be revealed to be analogous to different real-world countries (Russia, England, Norway, France) -- supplying some small rationale for why so many different traditions would intersect. Yet every village was typically and generically medieval, and neither money nor language ever became a barrier. Perhaps most damaging of all, however, was the fact that there often seemed to be no particular reason why the woodcutter should need to meet these particular characters. Why Cinderella rather than Briar Rose? Why Baba Yaga instead of the witch from Hansel and Gretel? Why Titania instead of the Queen of Elphame?... Most of the figures encounted didn't really seem to be necessary; they could have been switched out with virtually any other fairy tale. In contrast, I enjoyed the way the Twelve Dancing Princesses were incorporated, because it made sense: there was an obvious reason to use them, one that was central to the overall plot. Red Riding hood and Snow White also made a degree of sense, as they were tied to other necessary elements. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said of the rest, and the resulting work is disappointing. So much could have been done with both the idea and the Woodcutter himself, had Danley only resisted the urge to incorporate so many unnecessary elements. Read more ›

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Fantasy at it's best! March 2, 2011

By Erin Neimeyer

Format:Kindle Edition

I won a signed copy of this book in a silent auction and after reading it I have decided without a doubt it was money well spent. The Woodcutter took me into a wonderful world of fantasy. It's filled with all of the fairy tale characters I grew up reading about but I felt like I was learning about them for the first time. I usually read at night but with this book I had to read it during the day because I was literally getting no sleep. I couldn't put it down! I won my copy so I came on Amazon to see if I could order it for my friends. I can't wait to see what Kate Danley writes next!

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars I love this book January 10, 2011

By Carolyn Wilson

Format:Paperback

I could not put this book down. It was so fun and a great mystery. I love that it's great for adults and young adults. It was fun to discover which fairy tale characters would appear next. I even learned of a few new ones!

More About the Author

Kate Danley's debut novel, The Woodcutter (published by 47North), was honored with the Garcia Award for the Best Fiction Book of the Year, the 1st Place Fantasy Book in the Reader Views Literary Awards, and the winner of the Sci-Fi/Fantasy category in the Next Generation Indie Book Awards. Other titles include the Maggie MacKay: Magical Tracker series and the O'Hare House Mystery series.

Her plays have been produced in New York, Los Angeles, and DC Metro area. Her screenplay Fairy Blood won 1st Place in the Breckenridge Festival of Film Screenwriting Competition in the Action/Adventure Category. Her projects The Playhouse, Dog Days, Sock Zombie, SuperPout, and Sports Scents can be seen in festivals and on the internet. She trained in on-camera puppetry with Mr. Snuffleupagus and recently played the head of a 20-foot dinosaur on an NBC pilot.

She lost on Hollywood Squares.

Amazon Author Rankbeta 

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#19 in Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > Action & Adventure

#31 in Books > Literature & Fiction > Genre Fiction > Action & Adventure

#40 in Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > Fantasy

#55 in Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Fantasy

#98 in Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy

#19 in Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > Action & Adventure

#31 in Books > Literature & Fiction > Genre Fiction > Action & Adventure

#40 in Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > Fantasy

#55 in Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Fantasy

#98 in Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy