Reviews and Comments

A fun seasonal read!

A quirky tour of Japanese folk tales with extensive commentary about the meaning, historical context and, the connection to modern Japanese culture. A bit chaotic but, fascinating and easy to read. These are more detailed, more in-depth versions of the sort of stories the author posts daily on Instagram.

You would be forgiven for looking at a pithy summary of the Scholomance series and thinking this is yet another magical school wish fulfillment story. There’s a magical school, an extra-magical misfit main character who unexpectedly makes friends, a prophecy, monsters and sinister forces. Yet, for all that, this is a tale with a spirit firmly planted in reality that bends all the tropes.

What do you do when you are the best at defeating monsters when the real monster is deep systemic injustice?

Naomi Novik is producing some of the most interesting and creative fantasy stories of this generation. They are well worth your time.

This reference shows the techniques for creating Celtic knots, spirals, keypatterns, zoomorphics (animal forms), lettering and plant and human forms. There are illustrations showing how more complex designs are variants or iterations of simpler constructions.

While there are other techniques for creating Celtic art, this treatise is detailed, extensive and clear.

It takes some study to extract the insights on Celtic knots, spirals and keypatterns here but, it is worth the effort!

Some things have two natures. Or three. Or more. Even stories.

Now, I am not saying a respectable story would go putting on airs like a fancy fur coat. It would just end up thin and threadbare. There’s a bit of alchemy of fashion, though, when you take a bit of the familiar here and, mix it with novel new thoughts there. With the right bit of magic, it can come out svelte and stylish – something to make you proud just to be there to see it.

And, without a doubt, you should be there for this tale. Ms. Valente is a moste excellent guide where things are wild. Take her hand and, don’t dream of sleeping on this newly-minted classic.

Some things have two natures. Or three. Or more. Even stories.

Now, I am not saying a respectable story would go putting on airs like a fancy fur coat. It would just end up thin and threadbare. There’s a bit of alchemy of fashion, though, when you take a bit of the familiar here and, mix it with novel new thoughts there. With the right bit of magic, it can come out svelte and stylish – something to make you proud just to be there to see it.

And, without a doubt, you should be there for this tale. Ms. Valente is a moste excellent guide where things are wild. Take her hand and, don’t dream of sleeping on this newly-minted classic.

A delightful and entertaining collection of short faery stories. Terri Windling's wonderful introduction covering the history and and some anthropology around faery stories alone was worth the price of the book. Not one of the tales disappointed, either.

Alas, the digital edition (Kindle, at least) needs some attention from an editor. The Introduction appears twice, both before and after the Preface. There are pairs of words run together every couple lines, as if through some sort of formatting accident. It really does a disservice to a good book to make the digital edition feel like shovelware.