Chuck Lipsig wrote this review.
Silver Birch, Blood Moon, Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling’s fifth anthology of modern retelling of fairy tales, is a solid collection. Some of the authors, such as Nancy Kress, Neil Gaiman, and Robin McKinley, are already well-known in the fantasy genre. However, some of the brightest gems in the anthology come from the lesser-known authors.
There are three variants on “The Frog Prince” in the anthology, including the first and last stories. Tanith Lee leads off with “Kiss Kiss,” a version in which things do not work out happily for the princess. While the story has a well-crafted set-up, the too brief one-page denouement is horribly disappointing. Patricia McKillip’s “Toad,” which concludes the book, also disappoints, told as a brief meandering meditation by the disgruntled ex-toad. However, Gary Kilworth’s “The Frog Chauffeur” is a charming modern version of the story that deals with an interesting question of frog prince genetics.
There are also three variations on “Sleeping Beauty.” Delia Sherman’s “Carrabosse” is a good, brief, poetic retelling, relating what the 13th fairy at Sleeping Beauty’s christening actually gave her.The poetic format is unusual, but effective. The tale could also have worked well if written as a traditional short story. “The Wild Heart” by Anne Bishop is a moderately successful version, involving a dysfunctional royal family. Pat York’s “You Wandered Off Like a Foolish Child to Break Your Heart and Mine” is one of the highlights of the collection. The princess is incidental, as the focus here is on one of the princes trapped in the briar hedge and his mother’s attempts to help him.
“The Price” by Patricia Briggs is a charming take on “Rumpelstiltskin” with surprisingly well-developed intrigues and characters for such a short story. Frankly, I would not have realized that “Rumpelstiltskin” also inspired Robin McKinley’s “Marsh-Magic,” except the editors said so in its introduction. No matter: this is a fine story of political intrigue between a long-lasting royal house, the equally long-lived family of mages who advises them, and the marsh-tribe that provides the royal household’s queens. “Clad in Gossamer” is another fairy tale of court intrigue, a retelling of “The Emperor’s New Clothes,” to which Nancy Kress gives a delightful double-twist.
Charles Perrault’s “The Fairy Gifts” is a fairy tale not as well known as other sources in this collection. The brief version is that a fairy (or, alternately, a witch) asks two sisters for help drawing water from a well. One sister is impolite, with the result that every time she speaks, toads, lizards, and snakes come out of her mouth. The other sister helps the fairy, and is given the gift of flowers and jewels spilling from her mouth when she talks. Nalo Hopkinson’s “Precious” and Michael Cadnum’s “Toad-Rich” both briefly and skillfully twist the tale, making the jewels a curse in the former and the toads a blessing in the latter.
“Glass Coffin” by Caitlin R. Kiernan is a harrowing, modern “Snow White,” set in the industrial wastelands of North Jersey. With the fine characterizations in this story, I’m hoping this will eventually be expanded into a novel. Melissa Lee Shaw’s “The Sea Hag” is a reaction to the Disney version of Hans Christian Andersen’s “The Little Mermaid” that stands well as its own story.
Several other of Andersen’s stories are also retold. Harvey Jacobs’s “The Vanishing Virgin” is an entertainingly surreal update of “The Professor and The Flea,” concerning an inept magician and his put-upon wife. Susan Wade’s “Ivory Bones” turns “Thumbelina” into gothic horror at its finest.
Neil Gaiman’s “Locks” is not a fairy tale, but a charming poem about his relationship with his young daughter, shown through the prism of his telling her the “Goldilocks” story. Melanie Tem’s “The Willful Child, the Black Dog, and the Beanstalk” is also a non-fairy tale that deals with daughters, in this case a teenager who has taken certain tales too much to heart. The story is rambling, depressing, and doesn’t so much resolve as stop.
India Edghill’s “Arabian Phoenix” is a somewhat obvious, but still enchanting, with a modern-day “Scheherazade” figuring out what happens to the young maidens that the king marries at a rate of one a month. Wendy Wheeler’s “Skin So Green and Fine” is a beautiful, straightforward retelling of “Beauty and the Beast” that is set in the Dominican Republic and involves both Catholic and Voudon traditions.
Russell William Asplund’s “The Dybbuk in the Bottle” tells a tale of a young Jewish farmer who frees what is essentially a malevolent genie, and the wise rabbi who helps him get rid of the thing. While not based on any specific fairy tale, it belongs to the long tradition of bargaining with spirits who keep to the exact meaning of the bargain. Karawynn Long also skillfully crafts an original fairy tale, borrowing from Celtic tradition, especially tales of selkies and other sea creatures. “The Shell Box” tells of a young wife, her husband’s attempts to be a fisherman, and a box that can hold anything, even the wife’s voice.
It is hard to put together an anthology of original stories without at least a few faltering here and there. Datlow and Windling have done very well in putting together this collection, in which the vast majority are well-worth reading.
(Avon, 1999)
