Wolfsbane & Mistletoe; edited by Charlaine Harris and Toni L P Kelner

The holiday season can bring out the beast in anyone - literally! Fifteen werewolf tales from an all-star line up.



Charlaine Harris, Keri Arthur and Patricia Briggs bring you a Christmas present to remember!


We all know the holiday season can bring out the beast in anyone - but it's especially hard if you're a lycanthrope! Gathered here together is a veritable feast of fears and tears: fifteen of the scariest, saddest, funniest werewolf tales, by an outstanding pack of authors, best read by the light of the full moon, and with a silver bullet close at hand.


WOLFSBANE AND MISTLETOE, the perfect antidote to Christmas mawkishness!

Thanks so much to our good friend Jamie "Wordweaver" Ambrose for reading and reviewing Wolfsbane & Mistletoe and for her sterling review.

***

When this book arrived from the kind folks at MFB, I have to admit I was fairly sceptical. I mean, c’mon: a collection of 15 werewolf short stories is one thing, but one with a Christmas theme seemed a bit, well, mismatched, somehow.

Until, that is, I got started on them.

From the first page of the first tale, ‘Gift Wrap’ by Charlaine Harris, whose Southern Vampire Mysteries have been turned into TV’s True Blood, I was hooked – and delighted. Here are stories with comic turns, dark imaginings, new takes on old myths, and genuinely haunting themes, and all of them wonderfully and imaginatively well-written by authors such as Patricia Biggs, Keri Arthur and Kat Richardson. They feature good weres and not-so-nice weres, by-accident weres and on-purpose weres, successfully integrated weres and desperate loner weres, and each has a holiday-related tale to tell (or should that be tail to wag?).

Richardson’s ‘The Werewolf Before Christmas’ is one of the cleverest things I’ve read in years, effortlessly weaving global legends and folklore into a seamless and unexpected twist on ‘a visit from Saint Nicholas’. If nothing else in this book appeals to you, please, please give this one a try.

Harris’s ‘Gift Wrap’, set in the bayous of Louisiana, features her well-known Sookie Stackhouse character, whose matter-of-fact, Southern dialog makes the perfect narrative voice for a story that wanders in and out of magic and ‘real life’ as effortlessly as stepping from one room into another.

Being a rather timid soul, I was a bit apprehensive by the title of Alan Gordon’s ‘Fresh Meat’, not to mention the first line, which mentions newly slaughtered beef carcasses ‘…so fresh they were mooing yesterday’ (ick!). But by the end of it, I was firmly on the side of Sam Lehrmann and his telepathic pack – just as I became a big fan of Patricia Biggs’ ‘The Star of David’ werewolves, whose decency (or agenda) wasn’t immediately apparent.

Obviously, I enjoyed some of these stories more than others, and although there are a few I found a bit ‘much’ on the gratuitous bloodlust front, each one is well worth reading – not something I can often say about anthologies. And many are certainly worth reading over and over, which, given the season, is something I’m just about to do.

So kudos, Ms Harris and Ms Kelner, and thank you MFB, so much, for introducing us. Wolksbane and Mistletoe is a great collection of imaginative writing, one that’s had the effect of making an overworked and slightly jaded fantasy reader sniff the air, hear a far-off howl – and be thrilled by it again.

The Coyote Road - Trickster Tales, edited by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling

Coyote. Anansi. Brer Rabbit. Trickster characters have long been a staple of folk literature—and are a natural choice for the overarching subject of acclaimed editors Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling’s third “mythic” anthology. The Coyote Road features a remarkable range of authors, each with his or her fictional look at a trickster character. These authors include Holly Black (The Spiderwick Chronicles), Charles de Lint (The Blue Girl), Ellen Klages (The Green Glass Sea), Kelly Link (Magic for Beginners), Patricia A. McKillip (Old Magic), and Jane Yolen. Terri Windling provides a comprehensive introduction to the trickster myths of the world, and the entire book is highlighted by the remarkable decorations of Charles Vess. 


Datlow and Windling are two of my all-time favourite editors when it comes to putting together anthologies of mythic nature, and The Coyote Road: Trickster Tales anthology is one of my all time faces.

The Coyote Road - TCR - like its companions The Green Man and The Faery Reel makes great reading for anyone interested in myths, legends and folk tales.  Some are new stories, some are old and are being retold, but they are all fresh and unique and great to dip in and out of for tired minds in need of inspiration.

I am a great big fan of trickster tales and am therefor the one who loved Loki's duplicity and interesting character in the newest Thor movie. This collection of short stories and poems, with artwork by Charles Vess, is one of my desert island books.

In The Listeners by Nina Kiriki Hoffman we meet Nysa, a young slave in ancient Greece.  She is fourteen and pretty enough to draw the attention of her owner's one friend.  After overhearing the men speak after too much to drink one night, Nysa discovers that her owner has agreed to sell her, for one night, to his friend.  The thought of having sex with this odious man does not appeal to Nysa and she mentions it to a friend of hers, at the well as they draw water together.  Her friend hands her a small cake of incense to burn and assures Nysa that it may not be that bad after all.

Nysa ends up burning the incense and saying a prayer to Hermes, the god of thieves, travellers and guardian of roads and boundaries, begging him for help, to set her on another path.  And miraculously, Hermes does appear and places his mark on her...changing her path and life irrevocably.

It is a great story - a strong heroine bargaining with a god, yet she remains humble enough to accept his grace and guidance. The story is set in ancient Greece and a lot of terms are unfamiliar to the english reader yet the author takes great care to explain what each of these words mean through making use of context.  It is a trick that works really well and she has a light hand giving us lots of info about ancient Greece and the way women were treated (not nice) without us realising it.

It is a thoughtful story and well written.  The author is new to me, which is silly as she's been around for some time.  I had recently bought a book of hers which I'm reviewing in December and would like to say thank you to Kaz Mahoney for putting the ear worm about this writer in my brain.

Sabbat Worlds - edited by Dan Abnett

So what the hell is ‘Sabbat Worlds’ I hear you ask.

Well, gather round, make yourself comfortable and I’ll tell you. No, that’s my chair.

In it’s simplest form, the Sabbat Worlds is the name given to a small corner of the Warhammer 40K that forms the backdrop for Dan Abnett’s hugely popular Gaunt’s Ghosts series of novels. As with most things, it started small, then grew and grew, acquiring its own history, legends and heroes with each instalment – there are 14 books in the series so far (well, 15 if you count Iron Star, which was printed as a limited edition short story but is now included in this anthology), and it now stands as a fully fledged and recognised corner of the universe. Until recently it’s pretty much been Dan’s personal playground, but now he’s invited a few select friends over for literary sleepover, and the result is this anthology.

The anthology features eight stories, and pole position goes to Apostle’s Creed by Graham McNeill.

Apostle’s Creed revisits a squadron of elite Thunderbolt fighter aces called the Apostles, who made their debut in Double Eagle back in 2004 (so long already? Where’s our sequel?). Graham’ story revolves around Larice Asche, a capable and experienced ace in her own right who’s still trying to find her place amidst the emotionally distant brotherhood of the Apostles.

With her Thunderbolt damaged in a savage dogfight, Larice is escorted to the nearest airbase by an army pilot, who she discovers is an ace in his own right. Impressed, she approaches the rest of the Apostles to put him forward as a candidate to join their ranks. But her peers know there’s a cruel but unavoidable truth that Larice has to face up to, one that she will have to confront sooner than she expects.

That journey is the crux of the story, and it works because Graham really does well to bring her character to life in such a relatively short time- by understanding her, we understand more of the campaign they are fighting and the nature of what she is -and will be- going through, which gives it a good emotional resonance. Not only that, he’s also recaptured the exhilarating feel of high speed, life or death dogfighting with a distinctly 40K flavour. And there’s plenty of it too, which is ace.

Apex Magazine - January 2011/Issue 20 - The Tolling of Pavlov's Bells by Seanan McGuire

I did not know Seanan McGuire also writes as Mira Grant (published by Orbit here in the UK and elsewhere).  This short story in the Apex Magazine that I bought for my Kindle a while ago, has now made me a huge fan of her writing and I will hungrily find her writings in both of her incarnations.

In The Tolling of Pavlov's Bells we are introduced to Dr. Diana Weston, author of medical thrillers and slayer of humanity.  The short story opens with great impact, where Dr. Weston tells us of her trial being conducted in her absence, where she is convicted of fraud, treason, bio terrorism and sixteen million counts of murder.  The trial is broadcast the world over, on TV and radio but instead of cheering and joy in the streets, it is all oh so quiet.

Told retrospectively and in current time, we find out more about Dr. Diana Weston, her research, her decisions to give the world a wake-up call.  Only the wake-up call is not heeded by anyone, so she takes matters into her own hands. The story is pacey and gripping and scary and thoughtful and it's made me hungry to read more of Ms. McGuire's work.

Written in a harrowingly personal voice we are left in no doubt that Dr. Weston is utterly insane and yet like Hannibal Lector, she is hugely charismatic, believable and oh so logical.  The short story gave me the heebie jeebies, especially in the face of the movie Contagion that's doing the rounds at present, as well as Michael Crichton's new novel: Micro.

I thoroughly enjoyed The Tolling of Pavlov's Bells, even if I am now keen to wear a face mask and surgical gloves.

Find Seanan McGuire's website here.

Truth or Dare anthology, edited by Liz Miles

Tales of Love, Life and falling on your face for the Young Adult reader. The truth is that for those who dare to be different school and growing up can be hell. Truth &; Dare is a collection of edgy, quirky stories that revolve around a funny, nerdy cast of characters who struggle to fit in . . . or struggle not to. They will appeal to the inner geek of anyone caught up in attempts to navigate the labyrinthine teen caste system.

Written in authentic teen voices, they speak to fans of the movies Juno and Nick and Nora's Infinite Playlist and the TV series The Gilmore Girls. Witty and smart, these are short stories from the point of view of funny, though not always cool or popular guys and girls, who are dealing with all the pressures of growing up - school, friends, music, relationships, parents, and just plain fitting in (or not).

I received a copy of Truth & Dare to review a while ago and then stumbled across the kindle version of the book online shortly after and thought, this would be a cool thing to have on the kindle to dip and out of.

And I was right.

On my commute I read three of the short stories - the first three, in fact.

I read and loved and was amazed by the coolness of GIRL JESUS ON THE INBOUND SUBWAY by Matthue Roth. Any book or story that starts with the line: The saviour of the universe is a girl in a trench coat, a hoodie, and twenty pound earphones, and more than anything I want her to kiss me makes me want to run around and scream at its sheer coolnicity. The story is swift, it's beautifully written with a stinging twisty bit at the end. I loved it. In fact, I want Matthue to move into my house and tell me more stories like this. I have a very comfortable couch.

Sarah Rees Brennan's YOUNG STALKER'S HANDBOOK almost had me tossed off the bus for strange behaviour. I was laughing out loud, shaking and snorting. Hilariously funny to the max, it is Sarah's particular brand of humour that we have all come to know and love through her Demon books. The main character has such a great voice and is utterly believable in her quest to follow the handsome guy she spotted in the record store. As she drags her bff around with her, both her inner dialogue and her argument with her friend makes required reading for great punchy character creation. I loved it!

Because I dislike being predictable...I skipped a few stories and ended up reading one of the most disturbing short stories I may have ever read. Written by Sherry Shahan, IRIS AND JIM centres around a very destructive relationship of two anorexics in a clinic. Brutally real and frightening because she gets them and their ordeal and reasoning so right, this made me deeply uncomfortable and worried. It is a great story and even just thinking about it...makes cold shivers pit pat down my spine.

I'll review more from this superb collection next week!

Contributors:

Jennifer Finney Boylan is author of eleven books, five of which are YA books.

Sarah Rees Brennan is author of The Demon's Lexicon, which was one of Kirkus' Best Books, ALA's Top Ten Best Books and a Best British Fantasy book.

Cecil Castellucci author of Rose Sees Red and a picture book Grandma's Gloves.

Emma Donoghue author of Booker-shortlisted Room.

A.M. Homes is the author of, This Book Will Save Your Life, Music For Torching, The End of Alice, In a Country of Mothers, and Jack.

Jennifer R. Hubbard author of the contemporary YA novel The Secret Year, published in 2010.

Heidi R. Kling is the author of the Penguin Young Readers YA novel Sea,a story of hope after tragedy set in the aftermath of the 2004 tsunami.

Michael Lowenthal is the author of the novels Charity Girl, Avoidance, and The Same Embrace

Saundra Mitchell author of Shadowed Summer and The Vespertine.

Luisa Plaja author of the teen novels-Split by a Kiss, Swapped by a Kiss and Extreme Kissing.

Matthue Roth author of Never Mind the Goldbergs, his first novel, a coming-of-age tale

Sherry Shahan has written over 30 books, including Purple Daze.


Shelley Stoehr author of four award-winning novels for Young Adults, including the still popular, award-winning, Crosses.


Ellen Wittlinger had her first teen novel, Lombardo's Law,published in 1993.


Jill Wolfson author of award-winning novels for young people including What I Call Life; Home, and Other Big, Fat Lies; and Cold Hands, and Warm Heart.


Also includes: Courtney Gillette, Jennifer Knight, Gary Soto, and Sara Wilkinson

Dreaming Again - The Lost Property Room by Trudi Canavan

Dreaming Again is an anthology gathering 35 of the best and brightest Australian fiction writers together in one anthology.  It is the follow-up to the award winning anthology:  Dreaming Down-Under.

This anthology does not disappoint and it is Trudi Canavan's The Lost Property Room that really sticks in the mind. Trinity Hunder, our main character, accidentally forgets her umbrella on the train and upon contacting The Lost Property Room is told to come on down to check to see if her umbrella was handed in.  The thing is, the country is currently sweltering beneath a heatwave and drought.  Here and there it will rain a bit, just stirring up the dust, but nothing serious.  So she feels a bit silly going in to collect an umbrella.

Once at the LPR she is ushered through and instructed to take nothing from the room, except what she came for.  Trinity checks through all the umbrellas - there are a lot of them - but there is no sign of her umbrella.  She liked this one as it had quite a bit of sentimental value, hence her quest to find it.  Sadly, she has no luck finding it.  And then, on a whim, she nabs an umbrella and leaves with it, all too aware of the warning the man gave her...

Matters get a bit out of hand and mobile freak storms start following Trinity around, wherever she goes.  It becomes a complete nightmare and convinced that it is the umbrella's fault, she heads back to the LPR and speaks to the caretaker.  She hands back the umbrella after he assures her that she's not going mad, that the freak storms were in fact following her around.  Obviously there is a bit of a spin, and it is a great subtle one and the story ends perfectly.

Authors in the anthology include people like: Garth Nix, Margo Lanagan, Sara Douglass, John Birmingham, Kim Wilkins, Celia Dart-Thornton, Rowena Cory Daniels, Trent Jamieson and a host of other names both well known and some lesser knowns.  The anthology is edited by Jack Dann and published by Harper Voyager Australia.

The Monster's Corner- Breeding the Demons by Nate Kenyon

As I mentioned in my previous review , there were two standout stories for me in this anthology and Breeding the Demons is the second of these.

BtD snared me from the opening and immediately made me want to know what Ian was up to and I was quickly drawn into the dark, sordid thing that had become become his life. I was impressed with the economy with which Nate outlined the underworld that Ian had become part of while still keeping the character likeable despite his monstrous tendencies. He manages a fine balance that teases out enough of the background so that the mythology of the demons rings true while still keeping enough back that you can't pigeonhole them, which really adds to the atmosphere- like an old school horror where you never actually see the tormentor.

Wonderfully creepy!

You can find out more about Nate's work here.

Red Spikes, Margo Lanagan - Baby Jane

UK cover

Red Spikes is ten short stories by Margo Lanogan in a deceptively slender yet powerful volume, aimed at young adult readers.  I read and fell in love with the opening story - Baby Jane - in which we meet Dylan, our main character, and his family as they leave their house in the middle of the night.  We're not entirely sure why they are doing this, but it isn't for fun.

The story unfolds and it turns out that Dylan had picked up miniatures by the rocks earlier the day - intricately carved and painted, he decided to keep them and carry them home.  He had put them under his pillow and during the night, these miniatures had come to full-size life, basically ousting his family from their own home.

A fantastic concept! I loved it.  We were also made aware of the nightmares Dylan suffered as a younger child.  He had nightmares about creatures jumping out of his wardrobe making jabbering noises.  This all ties in with the miniatures that have come to life in the here and now.  And one of those miniatures is a heavily pregnant queen who is dressed in pregnancy battle armour.  Naturally something weird is going on here and Dylan copes admirably well under the circumstances.  This really is a superb vignette, a cut scene from a longer book, in my mind and short story I wish would be far far longerer!

Vivid storytelling here - just glorious.  Part fantasy, part dystopian something, wholly its own thing, Baby Jane blew my socks off.  It was shortlisted for the Aurealis award in 2006 (which btw, was won by Shaun Tan's The Arrival) and really is worth reading if you are in the mood for a bit Lanagan fantasm.

Australia cover - just gorgeous!

The Monster's Corner- Torn Stitches, Shattered Glass by Kevin J Anderson

An all-original anthology from some of today’s best supernatural writers, assembled by Bram Stoker Award winning author Christopher Golden , featuring stories of monsters... from the monsters’ point of view.

The first thing that grabbed me about Monster’s Corner is the striking cover. Just look at it; the monsters are beautifully rendered and they look like monsters should.

MC packs 19 short stories into 380 pages, each telling a unique story from the monster’s POV. I’ll freely admit that I rarely delve into short stories, perhaps a lingering by-product of having been made to analyse them to death in high school, but if the quality I've seen so far continues I think that’s going to be changing.

Two have really stood out for me so far- and I’m not trying to be glib by saying it wasn’t easy to choose. It really wasn’t, and I’m only forcing myself to do so for the practicality of doing a variety of reviews.

The first is Torn Stitches, Shattered Glass by Kevin J Anderson. What a great title too. It’s a pretty straightforward story on the surface, centring around two days in the life of Frankenstein’s monster as the shadow of World War II darkens the small town where he has tried to make a life of sorts for himself. He’s found a kind of acceptance here, keeping to himself and working tirelessly, enjoying the quiet respect of those around him and a distinct lack of pitchfork waving mobs. But as those around him quickly discover, you don’t need to be a monster to be a monster. The blood begins to flow and he’s called to make a choice, and in doing so discovers that it really isn’t a difficult decision though those around him view it differently.

It’s a clever, engaging story, told solely from the monster’s perspective as all of these are, dipping into the original story and hinting at what happened after he killed his creator in a way that anyone can tune into, even if they’re only vaguely familiar with the highlights of Shelley’s original or subsequent Hollywoodisms. Kevin quickly builds up an image of a hulking yet ultimately lonely creature striving for an inner peace that continues to elude it, and plays that off against its brute power and potential for violence.

He’s done a great job with the monster and I’d really like to know what happens next!

Welcome to Bordertown: The Wall by Delia Sherman

Bordertown: a city on the border between our human world and the elfin realm. Runaway teens come from both sides of the border to find adventure, to find themselves. Elves play in rock bands and race down the street on spell-powered motorbikes. Human kids recreate themselves in the squats and clubs and artists' studios of Soho. Terri Windling's original Bordertown series was the forerunner of today's urban fantasy, introducing authors that included Charles de Lint, Will Shetterly, Emma Bull, and Ellen Kushner. In this volume of all-new work (including a 15-page graphic story), the original writers are now joined by the generation that grew up dreaming of Bordertown, including acclaimed authors Holly Black, Cassandra Clare, Cory Doctorow, Neil Gaiman, Catherynne M. Valente, and many more. They all meet here on the streets of Bordertown in more than twenty new interconnected songs, poems, and stories.

I have so much love in my heart for my Borderline anthology. Back in the 80's Terri Windling came up with this crazy idea of mixing punk elves, music, contemporary settings and magic and asking friends to contribute to an anthology. The outcome was the original set of 4 Borderland anthologies. These are:

Borderland - edited by Terri Windling and Mark Alan Arnold
Bordertown - edited by Terri Windling and Mark Alan Arnold
Life on the Border - edited by Terri Windling
The Essential Bordertown - edited by Terri Windling and Delia Sherman

These anthologies were completely new things. They rocked the fantasy world, introducing readers and writers to new avenues and new stories and ushered in the boom in urban and paranormal fantasy as we see it today. Through these anthologies people like Holly Black recognised what Terri was doing - giving them real teens with attitude, crazy hair, too much sass and the ability to get into real world danger as well as otherworldly danger - these stories also gave the reader something else: the permission to believe in something magical.  A whole new breed of writer was born and influenced by these anthologies - not many readers realise this as they tuck into books by Cassandra Clare, Emma Bull, Neil Gaiman and Charles de Lint, Holly Black et al.

Several years on, Welcome to Bordertown is the brainchild of Holly Black and Ellen Kushner. They asked Terri if they could play in the town and Terri gave her permission.  The stories are wide and varied and the authors run the gamut of the who's who of well known writers in both the adult and young adult world of literature.

I chose Delia Sherman's poem as my first review from this superb anthology. I chose it because I think it embodies not just what Bordertown is about but what makes urban fantasy and paranormal fantasy (including paranormal romance fantasy) it's own creature and keeps us coming back for more.

The poem is from a young scribe's point of view - they go around asking humans and elves what they think of Bordertown and the answers are wildly different, revelatory and genuinely forms the framework of many an aspiring writer's thoughts about creating an urban fantasy.

I give you part of the last stanza:

Mortals need mysteries.

They may not like them, but they need them

As vampires need blood,

As elves need mortals.

Stay tuned to MFB for more reviews from Bordertown, but in the meantime, check out the dedicated website here. 

November is Short Story Month

With a nod to Gav of Gav Reads who did this first, MFB will be hosting Short Story Month this entire month of November.

The selection is varied and wild - from fairy tale reworkings, to science fiction, adult urban fantasy to YA travelling stories, and stories of zombies and unicorns, to stories of sheer fantasm, horror and bizarre tales of the weird, to stories taking us to the 41st millennium and back, we hope to bring you mini-reviews of individual short stories from a handful of anthologies the three of us own.


Liz and Mark's random selection of anthologies 



Sarah's choices for November's Short Story Month



We hope you enjoy November and Short Story Month with MFB.