Posted on by Joelendil

Fantastical Fiction

Title: The Big Book of Classic Fantasy
Editors: Ann & Jeff VanderMeer
Genre: Fantasy(ish)
Pages: 848
Rating: 3.5 of 5
Future Release Date: July 2, 2019 (Thank you to the editors and publisher for a free eARC via NetGalley. This in no way affects the content of the review)

Having read and greatly enjoyed Ann & Jeff VanderMeer’s massive anthology entitled The Weird, I jumped at the chance to review another one of their tomes. This volume collects “classic fantasy” stories (and excerpts from longer books) ranging in date from the early 1800’s up until World War II when fantasy became more of a defined genre. The blend of authors includes classic fantasy/sci-fi/weird writers, classic literary legends dabbling in the fantastical, and many authors less known to the English-speaking world.

The editors’ most basic definition of fantasy is: “…any story in which an element of the unreal permeates the real world or any story that takes place within a secondary world that is identifiably not a version of ours, whether anything overtly ‘fantastical’ occurs during the story.” This allows for a wide variety of stories, very few of which fall into high fantasy, swords & sorcery, or other popular modern sub-genres.

A large number of the stories have a folklore, fairy-tale, or tall-tale feel with all the incoherencies and random digressions common to them. Quite a few are unclassifiable other than to say that they contain a fantastical element…maybe magic realism or surrealism? Some are more didactic like beast-fables or political satire that dips into the fantastical. A few I would classify solidly in the weird/horror or pulp sci-fi categories rather than fantasy, but such things are always a matter of opinion.

Overall, the editors have produced an interesting blend of the fantastical. How much you enjoy it may depend on your taste and how willing you are to give fantasy an extremely broad definition. Personally, I like a fairly coherent story even when I read fantasy, so the high number of folkloric tales, surreal stories, and small excerpts from longer books sometimes got on my nerves. However, if you’re into fantastical stories or “fantasy before there was a fantasy genre” this book is well worth your time.

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Potpourri

I’m trying to review at least 100 books this year…9 to go. Toward that end, here is a random assortment of 5 mini-reviews.

Title: Our Kind of Traitor
Author: John LeCarré
Genre: Espionage Thriller
Pages: 320
Rating: 2.5 of 5

This tale of an average British couple whose lives become entwined with a Russian mobster/defector started out as one of LeCarré’s better post-Cold War novels (which, honestly, isn’t a very high bar). However, the ending was just stupid. It felt like LeCarré got bored and just quit writing. The final action of the book made sense, but it was absurdly abrupt and left almost all of the plot lines unresolved.

Title: Fearsome Journeys
Editor: Jonathan Strahan
Genre: Dark Fantasy Short Stories
Pages: 416
Rating: 3 of 5

I purchased this primarily because it has a Black Company story in it. That story was mediocre…as was the collection as a whole. I have no idea why this anthology is titled Fearsome Journeys as there are few stories that focus on journeying. The unifying theme actually seems to be people with morally ambiguous (at best) professions: mostly mercenaries, thieves, and assassins. It wasn’t bad, but a bit one-note.

Title: The Bear and the Nightingale
Author: Katherine Arden
Genre: Russian Fairy Tale Fantasy
Pages: 368
Rating: 3.5 of 5

This is ridiculously well-written for a first novel! The fairytale style and 13th century (I think) Russian setting were fascinating. What annoyed me was the “dour, manipulative, fear-mongering Christianity vs. harmonious paganism” narrative that was fairly central to the story. Depending on your particular worldview, your mileage may vary…stylistically it was a well-executed fairy tale (of the original variety, not the the cutesy Disneyfied kind).

Title: Judge Sewall’s Apology:
The Salem Witch Trials and the Forming of a Conscience
Author: Richard Francis
Genre: Colonial American History
Pages: 388
Rating: 4 of 5

Samuel Sewall was the only judge from the Salem witch trials to publicly apologize for his involvement. While that apology is the source of the book’s title, the book actually covers his entire life as recorded in his journals. The author presents Sewall as charming and ahead of his time in regard to slavery, the treatment of native Americans, etc. He sometimes lays it on a bit thick and seems to read too much between the lines, but overall this is an interesting, informative look at Puritan culture and religion.

Title: The Shakespeare Requirement
Author: Julie Schumacher
Genre: General Fiction / Satire?
Pages: 309
Rating: 4.5 of 5

If you’ve ever worked in academia and/or some similar buzz-wordy bureaucratic job, you should really read this book. I would say that it’s satire, but the woes of the new head of the English department trying to wrangle his colleagues into agreeing to a mission statement while fighting off the economics department (and convince the public that he is not anti-Shakespeare) ring all too true. Hilarious!

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Crime & Detection Mini Reviews

My life is still pretty chaotic so nothing long and detailed today, but here are some mini reviews of several crime and/or investigator stories I have read recently.

Related imageTitle: Kill the Boss Good-by
Author: Peter Rabe
Genre: Crime Noir
Pages: 124
Rating: 3.5 of 5

Tom Fell, A small-time crime boss, checks himself out of a mental institution (against doctor’s orders) and tries to re-assume leadership of his bookmaking/gambling racket. With Tom’s mental stability in question, a power struggle ensues. Plotwise it’s a fairly typical mob story with the added dimension of the protagonist becoming increasingly manic throughout. That dimension gave it some added interest but didn’t pull it up into the category of the great crime writers like Hammett or Cain.

Title: Standard Hollywood Depravity:
(Ray Electromatic Mysteries: Book 1.5)
Author: Adam Christopher
Genre: Sci-fi Noir
Pages: 144
Rating: 4 of 5

This novella of earth’s last robot, originally a programmed as a private eye but now a hit man in alternate 1960’s LA, fits nicely between the first two books (reviews here and here). In this one, Ray’s violent, morally ambiguous hit man side is more on display than  previously. This made him a bit less sympathetic but no less interesting and entertaining. My copy also contained the very first Ray Electromatic short story Brisk Money, but it wasn’t very interesting if you’ve read the other three books since most of it has been recapped at some point.

Title: A Tale of Two Castles
Author: Gail Carson Levine
Genre: Children’s Fairy Tale
Pages: 352 [Audio – 8:27]
Rating: 4.5 of 5

Gail Carson Levine is one of those children’s authors whose works are worth reading as an adult. Her plots are either clever reworkings of classic fairy tales or highly original worlds that are all her own. In this book, a girl trying to apprentice herself to a mansioner (actor) instead finds herself assisting a dragon in investigative work, largely related to the noble, much despised, ogre who owns one of the two castles in Two Castles.  The dragon and the ogre are both outsiders with their own quirks and lore. I found the dragon particularly entertaining IT (that is how you must refer to dragons since they do not reveal their gender) is a commoner who makes most of ITs money toasting bread and cheese skewers in the market. IT is a bit capricious and vain but ultimately a good masteress (master + mistress). I listened to the audiobook narrated by Sarah Coomes and her voices (especially the dragon’s self-satisfied laugh) added to the enjoyment of the book.