Customer Reviews

Twice upon a Time

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

 

 

This is definatly a great fairy tales book...with a bit of a twist. Okay, more than a bit, but who's counting? My favorite stories: True Love and The Constant Tin Soldier. Although I must say, despite what they say, this book is not for nine year olds. Let's rule out 10 and 11 year olds too. 12 year olds, I think they can handel it. Some of this book is quite, shall we say...vulgar, but I think they should be able to handle it. Over all it's a great book especially if you're looking for a good laugh.

_Twice Upon a Time_ is a glib, sarcastic take on fairy tales. Yes, a few of the retellings are serious, but most of them are attempts at poking fun at the conventions of fairy tales. I like these sorts of stories when they are well done, but most of these stories seem to be groaners rather than side-splitters; farces whose main purpose seems to be dragging every single fairy tale cliche into every single story. I mean, seriously, does a detective story about Rumpelstiltskin, which was just getting interesting, really need Hansel and Gretel barging into the plot? Many of the stories are like this. Just throw the ten or so most famous fairy tales into a blender and see what comes out, and top it off with a forced wittiness. If you're looking for cheesy fairy tale humor, check this out. Otherwise, look up Datlow and Windling.

Twice upon a Time is an anthology of eighteen fractured fairytales. Taking off on such stories as sleeping beauty, the emperor's new clothes, and Jack and the beanstalk, these stories recast the stories in a new and often humorous form. My favor was True Love (or The Many Brides of Prince Charming), which is hilariously funny, showing that happily ever after isn't always in the cards for Prince Charming either.

Some of these stories are somewhat off-color, and inappropriate for small children. However, as these stories are not intended to teach uplifting stories, as the original fairytales are, I would recommend against using these stories for small children. That said, though, this book does contain a number of quite entertaining stories, and is a very good read.

This collection of retold Fairy Tales, edited by Denise Little, is your basic example of the state of the genre today. In their retellings of mainly Grimms' and Anderson's stories (including three that deal with Jack and the Beanstalk, two with Rumplestilskin, and most with cutesy cross-references all over the place - I'd no idea so many people had difficulties with the Hansel and Gretel tale!), about a third are really well done, a third are written well but with dangerous or offensive content, and a few are just paltry.

The best story in the collection is the story about Rapunzel, wherein the author (sorry, don't have the book on hand!) deals precisely with the question of the ramifications of retelling fairy tales. His conclusion is unsatisfactory - since he seems to long to marry the secular answer with the one written on his heart (basically he says something along the lines of forget the authorities/authors, and just live your life/believe in yourself/choose your destiny, etc. - *sigh*), but his execution is interesting. "Jack and the Castle," the second of the Jack and the Beanstalk retellings (the editor really could have used a course on fairy tale delegation) is also very good, with a satisfactory ending, and good morals - certainly loads better than either of the other two retellings of that tale which both took place in a courtroom. "One Fairy Tale: Hard Boiled" is the search for Rumplestilskin's name from the point of view of a private eye - a fun read, even if he drags in Hansel and Gretel, like several others do.

However, these are only three stories - there are many, including retellings of Prince Charming's many loves (well told, but too many sexual jokes), the Snow White story, the Big Bad Wolf's story, the Steadfast Tin Soldier's story which include animalistic and sometimes bestial sexuality and violence.

Overall, there are no stories so utterly compelling that one must buy the anthology just to read it, and the mediocre and horrid tales more than overwhelm those few which are half-intriguing.

Those who *must* read a retelling of a Fairy Tale would do well to take a look at Robin McKinley's stories, with another glance for older readers to Donna Jo Napoli's books. Or, if all else fails, write your own!

In DAW anthology, classic fairy tales are examined and retold from a perspective different than the original telling. Often this leads to cleaver, imaginative stories that have the power to make you laugh, cringe, and most of all... want to read more.

A full list of authors and stories include *** Spinning a Yarn by Lody Lynn Nye *** How I Came to Marry a Herpetologist by Nina Kirki Hoffman *** Puck in Boots, the True Story by Connie Hirsch *** Case #285B by Esther Friesner *** The Beanstalk Incident by Jane Lindskold *** Gilly the Goose Girl by Nancy Springer *** Fifi's Tale by Alan Rogers *** Thy Golden Stair by Richard Parks *** True Love by Fahnestock and Custer *** Savior by John Helfers *** Wolf at the Door by Lupida Shepard *** The Castle and Jack by Tim Waggoner *** Baron Boscov's Bastard by Jacey Bedford *** The Emperor's New (and Improved) Clothes by Leslie What *** One Fairy Tale, Hard Boiled by P. Andrew Miller *** Feeding Frenzy by Josepha Sherman *** A Leg Up by Gary Braunbeck *** and Mrs. Myrtle Montegrand vs. The Vegetable Stalker/Slayer by Elizabeth Ann Scarborough

The stories included are solid and entertaining. My run away favorite is True Love by Fahnestock and Custer. It's a real eye opener with a shock ending so good I immediately forced the book upon my friend and made her read it. The only reason this anthology gets 4 stars instead of 5 is that many of the same fairy tales are revisited time and again. With the wide variety of world myth a greater amount of stories could have been retold.

Also, if this book is a personal favorite, check out Rotten Relations also edited by Denise Little for DAW. It's also a retelling of fairy tales from the `villains' point of view, and a highly entertaining book.

An extremely funny book. I couldn't stop reading it. If you like alternate universe stories or pollitically correct stories, this book is for you. A MUST HAVE!!

I didn't hate this collection of stories. Well, I didn't hate most of them, anyway. But I didn't love them either.

A fairly lacklustre collection, nothing very exciting, and unfortunately rather prone to repitition -- I mean, for instance, I didn't think the book needed to have TWO incredibly similar stories detailing the court trial of Jack (of the Beanstalk fame) with the giant's wife giving testimony. One was more than enough, thanks.

This is NOT a kid's book -- there are a lot of adult themes involved. Yet I wasn't convinced it was entirely an adult book, either. It lacked maturity in places, not least of all in the way it was cobbled together.

It was not overly well edited or put together. It was full of typos, and many of the stories gave the impression of being hastily written and not really thought through and finished off properly.

The most interesting story in the collection was 'Baron Boscov's Bastard' by Jacey Bedford, which gives us a sweet new version of the Cinderella tale. But even this had flaws, like the heroine referring to her mother as 'mommy' in spite of the story being set in Ye Olde England.

If someone stole my copy of this book, I wouldn't be sad. I also wouldn't recommmend it to anyone else to read. I don't think I'll ever read it again myself. But hey, there are worse books around. This one sits somewhere in the middle of the road.

I would highly recommend this book to any adult reader, however I have no clue why it has "reading level: 9-12" on the information, because it definitely deals with some subject matter not suitable for those ages at all. This is a retelling, putting an often sarcastic but at the same time very adult spin on some old, beloved fairy tales. If you enjoy retold fairy tales, or simply finding out what happens after "happily ever after", or even just hearing the other guy's side, definitely check it out.

Twice upon a Time is an anthology of eighteen fractured fairytales. Taking off on such stories as sleeping beauty, the emperor's new clothes, and Jack and the beanstalk, these stories recast the stories in a new and often humorous form. My favor was True Love (or The Many Brides of Prince Charming), which is hilariously funny, showing that happily ever after isn't always in the cards for Prince Charming either.

Some of these stories are somewhat off-color, and inappropriate for small children. However, as these stories are not intended to teach uplifting stories, as the original fairytales are, I would recommend against using these stories for small children. That said, though, this book does contain a number of quite entertaining stories, and is a very good read.

The idea of this was fresh, taking well known fairy tales and rewriting them. I LOVED almost all of them, except there was an occasional one that I didn't like as much. Anyway, don't let that discourage you. BUY THIS BOOK!