Subject: SNOW WHITE, BLOOD RED edited by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling

From: [email-masked] ()
Date: Fri, 01 Apr 1994 02:20:36 GMT

SNOW WHITE, BLOOD RED edited by	Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling
	       AvoNova,	ISBN 0-380-71875-8, 1993, 411pp, US$4.99.
		       A book review by	Evelyn C. Leeper
			Copyright 1994 Evelyn C. Leeper

     There is a revival in the fairy tale (or "marchen," to use the German
word, since as Windling points out in her introduction, there is no true
English equivalent).  One even sees panels on them at science fiction
conventions--and not in the children's programming.  The twenty authors here
have also returned them to their adult origins after decades (or more) of
being watered down for children (though some--Hansel and Gretel, for
example--would be hard to sanitize without destroying them completely).

     The authors split about fifty/fifty on how they do this.  Some retain
the ancient, never-never land settings for their stories.  Others move them
into modern cities and give their characters urban apartments and VCRs
instead of cottages and magic mirrors.  This follows the pattern of the
"Fairy Tale" books that Windling edits, and SNOW WHITE, BLOOD RED could be
considered as part of that series.  (It's not officially, of course, since
the series name is owned by Tor.  Still if there were no labels on the
books, this would certainly *look* like part of the same series, especially
with the gorgeous Tom Canty cover.)

     I never thought of myself as a fan of fairy tales, so I was somewhat
surprised to find myself enjoying several of these stories.  Not all, mind
you, and the ones I enjoyed seemed to be mostly the ones that frame an old
fairy tale in a modern setting.  (I've also recently enjoyed THE WAR FOR THE
OAKS by Emma Bull, JACK THE GIANT-KILLER by Charles de Lint, and BRIAR ROSE
by Jane Yolen, the latter two also from the "Fairy Tale" series.)  Even if
you are not a fantasy reader, you might want to give the stories in SNOW
WHITE, BLOOD RED a try.  Or perhaps especially if you're not a fantasy
reader, since it almost seems to have been designed as an introduction to
the modern fairy tale, complete with essays by Windling and Datlow, and a
recommended reading list at the end. (The latter, by the way, lists several
out-of-print books, but inexplicably--to me, anyway--omits the Charles Lang
"Fairy Books," which are where my mother first read her fairy tales and are
still in print from Dover.)

%B   Snow White, Blood Red
%E   Ellen Datlow
%E   Terri Windling
%C   New York
%D   December 1993
%I   AvoNova
%O   paperback, US$4.99
%G   ISBN 0-380-71875-8
%P   411pp

-- 
Evelyn C. Leeper | +1 908 957 2070 | [email-masked] / [email-masked]

"Remember, high-tech means breaks down next week, while cutting edge means
breaks down this afternoon.  -Bruce Sterling