As author, poet, and editor, Jane Yolen has published more than 150 books and has won two Nebula Awards, the Caldecott Medal, the World Fantasy Award, the Rhysling Award, the Daedalus Award, the Kerlan Award, and the Academy of American Poets Prize. She has written one of the 20th century's greatest high-fantasy series, the Chronicles of Great Alta (Sister Light, Sister Dark, White Jenna, and The One-Armed Queen). Her first collection of short fiction for adults is Sister Emily's Lightship and Other Stories. It assembles 28 stories, three of which are original to this volume, many of which take the form of folk or fairy tales, and all of which are excellent. Sometimes dark, sometimes humorous, the stories are always beautifully written, sharp, and wise.
"Snow in Summer" portrays a modern, Appalachian Snow White with a fringe-Fundamentalist snake-handling stepmother. "Granny Rumple" reveals the grim origin of Rumplestiltskin. A prequel to the Chronicles of Great Alta, "Blood Sister" explores both love and the nature of narrative. In "The Gift of the Magicians, with Apologies to You Know Who," Beauty and the Beast meet with a horrifically suitable O. Henry twist. The Nebula Award winning "Lost Girls" revisits Peter Pan's Neverland with a feminist slant. "Dick W. and His Pussy; or, Tess and Her Adequate Dick" is an amusingly naughty retold fairy tale. In the Nebula Award winner "Sister Emily's Lightship," the poet Emily Dickinson finds a strange and otherworldly inspiration. --Cynthia Ward
From Publishers Weekly
Although Yolen (The One-Armed Queen) has published a great deal of acclaimed SF and fantasy (and children's fiction), this is her first collection of genre stories for adultsAand it has been worth the wait. Three of the 28 entries here are new, and all draw deeply from themes of justice and independence, while typically spurning traditional sentimentality in favor of clear-eyed, sometimes grim realism. Yolen has a particular knack for redaction, finding new resonance by retelling old folk stories from novel points of view. The Nebula-winning "Lost Girls," for example, turns the familiar story of Peter Pan into a feminist revolt. The revisionist Snow White of "Snow in Summer" defeats her wicked, snake-handling stepmother with her own witsAno need for any prince. The ignorance of anti-Semitism brings tragedy to characters in "Granny Rumple" and "Sister Death." Meanwhile, "The Gift of the Magicians, with Apologies to You Know Who" merges O. Henry's Christmas classic with a cautionary tale of Beauty and the Beast. Feuding mobsters get more than they bargained for in "Under the Hill," which Yolen playfully describes as "Damon Runyon meets the elves." "Blood Sister," "The Traveler and the Tale" and "Speaking to the Wind" echo older themes from Ursula Le Guin's work, but the powerful title story, which also won a Nebula, closes this collection on high notes of originality, creativity and hope. As Yolen writes, "Stories are not just recordings. They are prophecies. They are dreams. And... we humans build the future on such dreams." (July)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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