Search - The Faery Reel

· 1 • Preface • Ellen Datlow & Terri Windling

· 5 Introduction: The Faeries • Terri Windling

· 33 • The Boys of Goose Hill • Charles de Lint - poem

· 37 • Catnyp • Delia Sherman
Entertaining but very YA story about a human changeling who lives in “New York Between” – the parallel, faery version of NYC. She meets a very attractive young man who wishes nothing more than to get to the “real” NYC – but, through an adventure at the midtown public library, has to make some decisions about what she herself wants.

· 68 • Elvenbrood • Tanith Lee
Another story, this one more traditional, yet contemporary, on the changeling theme. After a bad divorce, a British mother and her two children move to a rural town – but for some reason, the teenage son, Jack feels uncomfortable with the place. And he is strangely unnerved when a homeless-looking man starts giving his sister warnings. In tone, this reminded me a lot of Mary Gentle’s “A Hawk in Silver.”

· 97 • Your Garnet Eyes • Katherine Vaz
Although the author says she has never been to Brazil, I found the Brazilian atmosphere of this story very convincing. (Of course, I haven’t been either). Either way, I really liked this story of a daughter who tries to use magic to help her father forget the fairy wife who left him, leaving him with no enthusiasm for life…

· 115 • Tengu Mountain • Gregory Frost
I liked this story, but it was so similar to the traditional Japanese stories that it was influenced by that I was like, hmm.. is this actually original at all? I kept feeling I’d read it before. A young man goes to visit his aunt in a remote mountain area. He meets a monk who warns him of tengu, or demons in the mountains – but his strangely alluring aunt convinces the young man that the monk himself is probably a demon in disguise…

· 146 • The Faery Handbag • Kelly Link
I loved this story. It’s seemingly, at first, very light and contemporary, as a young woman talks about thrift shopping and reminisces about her eccentric, story-telling aunt…. But as we learn that not all the stories may have been only stories, the enormity of what has been lost hits us… Really great.

· 175 • The Price of Glamour • Steve Berman
This story definitely seems like the introduction to a novel or a series. Set in 19th century England, it sets up an intriguing situation where a human urchin and one of the Folk agree to become partners in crime.

· 198 • The Night Market • Holly Black
I just bet Holly Black at FaerieCon! She is awesome! And this story is very good too! Set in the Phillippine and drawing on local myth, this tells of a young woman who tries to protect her sister from the fae who has made her ill… folklore has it that such illness is caused by the love of such a magical being… but in this case, the truth may be more complicated…

· 219 • Never Never • Bruce Glassco
A new take on Peter Pan – and what exactly Captain Hook’s place and role in this drama is.

· 249 • Screaming for Faeries • Ellen Steiber
Another very very YA story. I like the message, but it’s a little bit TOO message-y, at the same time. A babysitter meets a couple of sensual faeries who basically tell her it’s important to be honest, and OK to have sex with her boyfriend if she really wants to and they’re really in love.

· 292 • Immersed in Matter • Nina Kiriki Hoffman
Set in your basic faux-medieval fantasy milieu. The court of the fae is rife with prejudice against mixed-blood and changelings – but yet, more Fae, at this point, have mixed blood. One such is a shapechanger who loves horses – and dares to change into human to be able to be around them. His experiences allow him to bring a bit of tolerance back with him…

· 329 • Undine • Patricia A. McKillip
Sirens usually entrap human men a drag them under the waves… but when this one encounters an environmentalist fisherman, somehow things don’t go as planned… and next thing she knows, she’s out of water, and somehow being dragged around to a series of rallies for clean water, unable to find the unsullied place she needs…

· 341 • The Oakthing • Gregory Maguire
In a wartorn French countryside, accidentally left behind by her fleeing family, an eldery grandmother finds herself in her cottage with a fey oakthing, whom she feels the need to help… and a wounded German soldier, whom she says she plans on killing… well done, complex and interesting…

· 367 • Foxwife • Hiromi Goto
A story of a poor fisherwoman, lost in the mists, who, unknowing, finds herself helping a kitsune, or fox spirit, against its vicious kin. Very atmospheric, very well done. I really liked this better than the book I read recently on the theme of the kitsune. (Kij Johnson’s Fox Woman).

· 402 • The Dream Eaters • A. M. Dellamonica
Weird, sci-fi-esque story that’s like an attempt to blend Faerie with Cyberpunk. Hallucinatory and nightmarish, I can’t say I unreservedly loved this – but it was definitely interesting, with fairies that suck away people’s dreams, and a mask invented by a cutting-edge fashion designer that can prevent this..

· 435 • The Faery Reel • Neil Gaiman
I think Neil Gaiman has some kind of rule that he will ONLY give poems to anthologies, never short stories.

· 439 • The Shooter at the Heartrock Waterhole • Bill Congreve
A young man in Australia has been hired by the government to shoot invasive species of birds to protect indigenous ones. But he accidentally shoots something ELSE altogether… and drives off with it- or her – in his trunk, distraught both about this and the recent death of his father…

· 471 • The Annals of Eelin-Ok • Jeffrey Ford
The diary of a tiny fairy whose life span is less than a day, who inhabits sand castles left on the beach for the tide to erode…

· 497 • De La Tierra • Emma Bull
Effective, well-done piece which gives us a hit man hired by faeries to kill other faeries… he’s believed what he’s been told, and think he’s been doing the ‘right thing.’ But even when doubts come into his mind – what choice does he have? Parallels currents arguments over illegal immigration, but not in an overly overt way.

· 521 • How to Find Faery • Nan Fyr
And one last poem, to conclude…

Really a great anthology!

I skimmed the preface, intro. and the poem by Charles De Lint. Sorry, poetry just isn't for and because my reading time is so sparse and this book is such a tome I wanted to get straight to the stories.

Catnyp by Delia Sherman: I loved this one about a human child kidnapped by the faery, renamed Neef and raised as a changeling. On a whim, she makes a bet with a broken hearted swan maiden that humans know more about love than faeries do. Unfortunately, she knows nothing about love and ventures into the library to do some research and learns a heck of a lot more than she intended to. This story was light-hearted and so much fun, the world really came alive for me.

Elvenbrood by Tanith Lee was an okay read for me but just didn't grab me the way Catnyp did. Something about Lee's writing almost always manages to keep me from connecting to the stories she writes.

Your Garnet Eyes was a very enjoyable story of love, loss and the inability to move on.

Tengu Mountain, like the others before me have said, is a beautifully atmospheric and extremely creepy story. It would make a fantastic horror movie.

The Faery Handbag by Kelly Link This was an interesting story but it almost felt like I was reading an intro. to a much longer book and it didn't feel complete all by itself.

The Price of Glamour by Steve Burman: I couldn't get into this one at all.

The Night Market by Holly Black: I always enjoy Holly Black's writing and dark edged characters and this one didn't disappoint.

Never Never by Bruce Glassco: In all honesty, when I realized this was a story about Peter Pan I started to skim but just when I thought I'd dismiss it mostly unread something in the story hooked me and I went back and read it thoroughly. Nice to see a familiar cast of characters in a different light.

Screaming for Faires by Ellen Steiber: Is another one I enjoyed quite a bit. The fairies here are the cute little pixies you see in statuettes but they may have a sinister side. A young teen is unsure once they enter her life. Along with dealing with typical teen angst and a cute boyfriend who wants more than she's willing to give she's unsure whether to trust the fairies or fear them. There's a lot of sexual tension and frustration in this one and I think the author did a great job of recreating some issues teens struggle with on a daily basis.

Immersed in Matter by Nina Kiriki Hoffman: This story hooked me and started off well but came to a screeching halt at the end and felt irritatingly unfinished. The fact that the author, in her afterward, has to clean up two dangling items really annoyed me.

Undine by Patricia McKillip: This one was pretty good about mermaids, their quest for human men and the ruin of the environment.

Oakthing by Gregory Maguire: I wasn't a huge fan of Maguire's Wicked. It was too political and too all over the map for me as well as being way too hard to follow at times so I wasn't expecting to like Oakthing much. But I was surprised. I was very engrossed in this story of a strong willed old woman left behind when her family flees the German occupation, and the odd friend she acquires.

The Foxwife by Hiromi Goto: This was definitely one of my favorites. It had the whole J horror film feel that I enjoy so much and wasn't expecting in this book. It was creepy with disturbing imagery, haunted characters and an oddness I loved.

The Dream Eaters by A.M. Dellamonica: This one just didn't grab me. The fact that I was sitting in an emergency room stressed out and hungry may have been a factor as well but I skimmed and then quit it.

The Shooter at Heartrock Waterhole by Bill Congreve: There was a good use of landscape in this story but I didn't like the premise or the lead character and thus didn't enjoy the story much.

The Annals of Eelin Oak by Jeffrey Ford:
Meh, another I just couldn't get into. Read it in the ER as well and skimmed.

De La Teirra by Emma Bull: I enjoyed this one more than the previous few. The story was original and thought provoking.

This was a well balanced collection with only a few duds. I'll be looking for more from some of these authors.