The Wood Wife (Fairy Tales) (Mass Market Paperback)

~ (Author), Susan Seddon Boulet (Illustrator) "Nigel came down the street toward her, his face shadowed with annoyance..." (more)
Key Phrases: dry wash bed, wood wife, stag man, Davis Cooper, New York, Anna Naverra (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Journalist and ex-poet Maggie Black has inherited the estate of Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Davis Cooper, with whom she corresponded for years, but never met. Maggie is a cosmopolitan woman of the West Coast and Europe, and a child of the Appalachian mountains; she has no interest in the desert. She has an ex-husband she still loves in L.A. And Davis Cooper drowned in the Arizona desert, the victim of a mysterious murder. Maggie has many reasons to stay away. Yet she moves to Cooper's desert home, seeking to unravel the secrets of Cooper and his late lover, the mad painter Anna Naverra. But these, Maggie will discover, are not the desert's only mysteries. Ancient powers are stirring--enigmatic and dangerous spirits that would use humans for their own purposes.

Terri Windling is the most important and influential fantasy editor of the 1980s and 1990s: Her many accomplishments include editing (and often discovering) a pantheon of fantasy gods--Steven Brust, Emma Bull, Charles de Lint, Jane Yolen, and many more. She edits, with Ellen Datlow, the indispensible annual Year's Best Fantasy and Horror and the acclaimed revisionist fairy-tale anthology series that began with Snow White, Blood Red. She has won the World Fantasy Award five times. So it's not too surprising that her first novel, The Wood Wife, is well written, fascinating, insightful, and the winner of the 1997 Mythopoeic Award for Best Novel. --Cynthia Ward

From Publishers Weekly

Winner of five World Fantasy Awards for her editing, Windling (coeditor with Ellen Datlow of the annual Year's Best Fantasy & Horror anthologies) now shows off her writing skills with this strong first novel, a fantasy. When writer Maggie Black learns that her friend and mentor, poet Davis Cooper, has died and left her his house in the arid hills outside Tucson, Ariz., she travels there intending to write his biography and to investigate the mysterious circumstances of his death. Every detail she uncovers about Cooper's past, however, only seems to raise more questions. When Maggie comes home one evening to find that the house has been ransacked, it becomes clear that she's not the only one looking for answers. To solve the puzzle of Cooper's life and death, Maggie will have to outwit the Trickster and the other powerful quasi-human creatures that roam the desert hills and feed on creative energy. Although at times Windling's humans come off as too sensitive and artistic, her Native American spirits comprise an intriguing blend of human folklore and alien emotion. Her debut novel is richly imaginative, a captivating mix of traditional fantasy and magical realism.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: Tor Fantasy; First Mass Market Edition: Aug. 1997 edition (August 15, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0812549295
• ISBN-13: 978-0812549294
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.2 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.3 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (42 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,168,399 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

  Popular in this category: (What's this?)

  #46 in

  Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Authors, A-Z > ( W ) > Windling, Terri

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Haunting Tale That Captures The Sonoran Desert, April 13, 2001

By	Elyon (Mesilla, New Mexico) - See all my reviews

I have been to Tuscon only once, but Terri Windling's tale brought the Sonoran desert town and its surrounding mountains back to life, stirring reminiscences of the sparse yet magical landscape in which the ever-sprawling and ever-growing urban, and thus increasingly incongruous, city is nestled. Through her words I was again able to travel the streets and canyons of Tuscon and the Rincons, experiencing the heat and dust of summer and sandy, dry washes, seeing again the stately, suggestively sentient assembly of saguaro, the ephemeral, blood-red blooms of the ocotillo. And, yes, viewing the saguaro one can truly believe Maria Rosa's bedtime story that at night, when no one is looking, the saguaro gather to dance. In the imagination, Terri Windling has beautifully and magically captured the Sonoran desert with her prose.

While I in part agree with M. Weaver's demanding yet incisive observations, I cannot concur with the harshness of his final ranking and conclusions. True, the book is to a degree somewhat loose of structure, with elements, such as the characters of the Alders, Angelina and Isabella, Tomas only partially realized, seeming to drift in and out of the narrative as needed, their roles only hinted at and never fully realized or completely integrated. The relationship and purposes of the mages, as well as certain other magical elements, are hinted at, but as often as not never clearly revealed as to their true import upon events, remaining as incompletely visible as the spirits seen in the smoke of Tomas' or John's vision fires. And the death of one of the minor spirits at the end seems largely extraneous. But the author has successfully recreated the mystery and underlying magic that should be sensed by anyone walking the arroyos or mountains surrounding Tuscon, a presence felt but eluding exact perception. Perhaps, as in the best of poems that Windling exalts and draws upon in her narrative, meaning is meant to remain elusive, multifaceted and open to interpretation, echoing rather than stating. I don't believe it was the author's intention to define her realm of "fairy," thus demystifying the world of the spirit, as to provide with beauty a glimpse of its mystery. In this she is entirely successful.

I feel, despite the truth of many of M. Weaver's criticisms, that the reviewer has perhaps turned too academically critical an eye at this work, creating categories---"urban fantasy," "Celtic" versus "southwestern" mythology---that ignores much of the emotional and magical tone that uplifts this novel from the ordinary fantasy however one wishes to define or classify it. The author's prose is sure, descriptively beautiful, and obviously heartfelt. If one is willing to suspend for a moment one's often overly analytical eye, and simply experience the story as it unfolds, sharing more in common with narrative folklore than the rarified or intellectual aims of literate fiction, recognizing the inherent simplicity present in traditional folklore regardless of any psychological or symbolic message often disguised beneath, I believe the reader will discover a wonderful and delightfully recreated version of the modern day fairy tale that captures both the tone and intention of its original antecedents. Nor is this work without its share of hidden import or meaning. Highly recommended and well deserving of its awards---even acknowledging M. Weaver's criticisms, four and a half stars.

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Magick and Myth in the Sonoran Desert, February 2, 1998

By	[e-mail] (Austin, Texas) - See all my reviews

This is the first full length novel of Terri Windling's that I've read. For years I've appreciated her seemingly tireless work in bringing us all sorts of fabulous short stories in her various anthologies, and I am not in the least disappointed in her novel. The Wood Wife is beautiful, brilliant, strange and powerful. Anyone who's ever been to Tucson will understand the magic that lives there, and how Windling captured that magic perfectly in her wonderful story. Being a poet myself, I was thrilled at Windling's use of poetry and representation of poets. All in all, an extremely satisfying book, and highly recommended by this die hard fan of Urban Fantasy literature! And congratulations to Terri Windling for receiving the 1997 Mythopoeic Award for this book. Well deserved!!

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant!, October 6, 1998

By A Customer

I wasn't familiar with Ms. Windling's work before this brilliant book. It was in the "Fantasy/Sci Fi" section of the bookstore--but it's really more like magic realism. I found out about it because American readers voted it one of the 100 Best Books of the 20th Century (the Modern Library 100 Best poll, check out their web site). I had to go out and buy a copy of the U.K. edition to find out why a writer I'd never heard of was on the list right next to William Faulkner. And I was gob smacked! What a book! It isn't like anything I've ever read before. I thought fantasy was all like hobbits and dragons but this is more like Alastair Grey or Angela Carter or Italo Calvino, in other words surrealistic, strange, intelligent. Filled with folkmore and mythology, some of it Native American, some of it Mexican, some of European and brought to life in a brilliant way. It's made me look at America in a whole new light. I'm recommending it to everyone I know and working my way slowly through the rest of Windling's books. This lass knows how to write!