From /tmp/sf.4146 Tue Aug 9 01:52:18 1994 Path: lysator-ifm-isy.liu.se!lysator.liu.se!news.kth.se!aun.uninett.no!trane.uninett.no!eunet.no!EU.net!uknet!pipex!bnr.co.uk!corpgate!news.utdallas.edu!rdxsunhost.aud.alcatel.com!aur.alcatel.com!news From: Evelyn.Chimelis.Leeper@att.com () Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.reviews,rec.arts.books,alt.books.reviews Subject: SNOW WHITE, BLOOD RED edited by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.written Date: Fri, 01 Apr 1994 02:20:36 GMT Organization: not specified Lines: 54 Approved: sfr%sheol@concert.net (rec.arts.sf.reviews moderator) Message-ID: <9403310901.ZM363@mtgpfs1.mt.att.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: aursag.aur.alcatel.com Xref: lysator-ifm-isy.liu.se rec.arts.sf.reviews:497 rec.arts.books:77724 alt.books.reviews:2701 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 | ecl@mtgpfs1.att.com / Evelyn.Leeper@att.com "Remember, high-tech means breaks down next week, while cutting edge means breaks down this afternoon. -Bruce Sterling From rec.arts.sf.reviews Fri Apr 21 11:23:20 1995 Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.reviews Path: news.ifm.liu.se!liuida!sunic!sunic.sunet.se!news.kth.se!nac.no!Norway.EU.net!EU.net!news.sprintlink.net!noc.netcom.net!netcom.com!postmodern.com!not-for-mail From: .@midway.uchicago.edu Subject: review: Black Thorn, White Rose (REPOST) Message-ID: <199504101644.LAA14612-repost@midway.uchicago.edu> Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.written Sender: mcb@netcom6.netcom.com Organization: The Internet Date: Tue, 18 Apr 1995 21:11:44 GMT Approved: mcb@postmodern.com (rec.arts.sf.reviews moderator) Lines: 58 Black Thorn, White Rose. Edited by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling. New York: William Morrow, 1994. review by Mark Diller Collections of short stories are always a mixed bag, especially ones such as the present work which is comprised of modern re-envisionments of the classic fairytales. The stories here included range from close copies of the Brothers Grimm model to some which bear no apparent relationship to fairy tales at all, apart from their appearance in this volume. Most of the stories, though, represent serious and/or whimsical attempts to reformulate the old stories from a modern perspective, and the disjunction or resonance between old and new makes for entertaining and thought-provoking reading. The individual stories are an eclectic mix, with something for everyone to like and dislike. The book opens with Nancy Kress' "Words Like Pale Stones," a dark retelling of the Rumpelstiltskin tale in which most of the values of good and evil, protagonist and antagonist are inverted. The reader is consequently forced to look anew at familiar categories and engage the familiar story in new and challenging ways. Many of the stories follow the same narrative strategy, including Tim Wynne-Jones' "The Goose Girl," a familiar story told this time from the handsome prince's viewpoint, and Storm Constantine's "Sweet Bruising Skin," a rather horrible re-envisionment of The Princess and the Pea as told by a wicked, and wholly unrepentant, mother-in-law. These stories are among the most readable and successful in the collection. Other authors have attempted to take fairytale themes and set them within modern narratives. Among these are Ann Downer's "Somnus's Fair Maid," a telling of the Sleeping Beauty tale which somewhat recalls A.S. Byatt's _Possession_, Isabel Cole's "The Brown Bear of Norway," which touches on the role of mythic and fairytale themes in the formation of the adolescent self, and Roger Zelazny's "Godson," an enjoyable study of a very ambiguous benefactor. As modernity progresses, the reader of ancient tales is increasingly challenged to examine the text critically, noting what is transcendent and what merely antique within the old stories. The authors who follow the above strategy have attempted to parallel this activity in the narrative itself, and though they sometimes achieve an air of spooky enchantment within their modernist settings, the overall lack of conviction in the stories they tell reveals perhaps a certain alienation from their material. Perhaps the lesson to be learned here is that the fairytale's success is in part dependent on its temporal distance; its very distinctness from the here and now opens the reader to unlimited possibility in a way that contemporary fiction can only weakly emulate. Not all the stories here work; Peter Straub's "Ashputtle" in particular is, in my opinion, an excruciating read that bears no apparent relation to any fairytale that I've ever seen. Other stories are so self-indulgent as to be virtually unreadable. However, if like me you've come with time and age to appreciate fairytales more than a child ever could, this might be the book for you. %A Datlow, Ellen and Windling, Terri, eds. %T Black Thorn, White Rose %I William Morrow %C New York %D 1994 %G ISBN 0-688-13713-X %P 381pp, biblio pp. 382-86