Winter Shadows & Other Tales [Paperback]

Mary Soon Lee (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 2001

Winter Shadows & Other Tales is Mary Soon Lee's first fantasy and horror short story collection. Introduction by Mary Soon Lee. Cover art by A.B. Word. Stories included are "Monstrosity," "Cause And Consequence," "Winter Shadows," "Vigil," "Mail-A-Day," "The Three Kingdoms," "Roadside Stop," "The Hollow Dancer," "Conversation Pieces," "Spell Night," "Seeing Deeper," "Homecoming," "Gift," "Not Another Unicorn," "The Winter of The Rats," "Heron," "Puppetta," "The Fall of The Kingdom," "Dragonslayer," and "City of Mercy."

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Brilliant and Passionate. Hard-edged, glittering rides through the dark." -- Jack McDevitt, author of Infinity Beach and Deepsix

About the Author

Mary Soon Lee grew up in London, but now lives in Pittsburgh, where she runs a writers' group called the Pittsburgh Worldwrights. She has had over fifty stories published, including "Lifework" in David Hartwell's anthology The Year's Best SF#5, "The Day Before They Came" in The Year's Best #4, and stories in Aboriginal Science Fiction, The Age of Wonders, Dark Regions Magazine, Amazing Stories, Between the Darkness and the Fire, Fantasy & Science Fiction, Interzone, On Spec, Pirate Writings, and Sword & Sorceress XIV. Her first poem was published in November 2000 in the Pittsburg Post-Gazette, and her fiction has appeared in ten countries and seven languages.

She is married with one son, William Chye Lee-Moore, born in April 1999, who is exceedingly cute. Her father was ethnically Chinese, grew up in Malaysia, and met her Irish mother in Dublin.

She has an M.A. in mathematics and a diploma in computer science from Cambridge University, and an M.Sc. in astronautics and space engineering from Cranfield University. Before the birth of her son, Mary worked as a consultant to an artificial intelligence company. Now she splits her time between writing and looking after William.

Product Details

• Paperback: 150 pages
• Publisher: Dark Regions Pr; First Edition edition (October 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1888993235
• ISBN-13: 978-1888993233
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.2 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,088,933 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A collection where all the stories are good., January 4, 2002

By 

Barton Paul Levenson (Pittsburgh, PA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Winter Shadows & Other Tales (Paperback)

In collections of an author's short stories, usually you like some, and some look boring and you skip them. Not so with Mary Soon Lee's Winter Shadows -- each story draws you in and you read through the book from first page to last.

If there's a unifying theme to the collection, it lies in the word transformation. Not just humans turned into animals, but people in general being transformed by their experiences. A lot of fantasy and science fiction is weak on characterization; but not the stories of Mary Soon Lee. In short, I can't recommend this book enough. I understand this is Ms. Lee's first book, though she has been appearing in the pages of magazines like Fantasy and Science Fiction, and Interzone, for some time now. If her later books are as good as this one, she will be a formidable presence in the spec-fic world indeed.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Love Survives All Dark and Cold, March 27, 2002

By 

William Blake Hall (Pittsburgh PA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Winter Shadows & Other Tales (Paperback)

I thought I might try to get through all of the Mary Soon Lee anthology WINTER SHADOWS AND OTHER TALES in one go, but really could not. Lee is a masterfully efficient storyteller, and packs great impact in a mere few pages. Her theme may frequently be the angst of the need and the search for true love, but there isn't much sentimentality here, and a very small margin for mere flattery and superficiality. For those who prefer that love be proven, genuine, and hard-earned, these are small but memorable gems, making strong use of easily accessible fantasy settings but always relevant to reality. It is tempting to wonder what Lee could do at greater length, but I personally have no idea how, or why, I would dilute such potent content.