Gregory Frost

I was hard-pressed to rate this one.

I loved the stories within the stories that told the mythologies of the world. The world-building was unique and left one wanting to know more.

The plot was rather thin especially from the middle to the end of the book. It felt unfinished and ended with a cliffhanger. The book was short enough that the 2nd book could have been included. It seems a recent thing to publish a series of shorter books rather than a larger one (GRRM being an exception). I suppose they can get more money that way.

I'm not sure I will get the next book as much as I want to see how the author wraps things up. I just feel cheated by having to get 2 books when they could have been combined.

Frost is a consummate writer. His wordcraft is exceptional. I'm surprised he isn't more well known.

I think he's better at writing short stories as shown with all the stories in this book and the fact that the plot doesn't really seem to move on. You get dribs and drabs after the beginning about the main character Leandra/Jax and her parents. You never find out about her mother at all really. Soter, her mentor and protector in a way, we never know much about at all. I hope that the 2nd book ties all this up, but again I'm worried because it felt cheated out of information in this first book.… (more)

A story about stories, from the point of view of a storyteller.

Of course, it's really just one main story, but the lore of the world is interwoven throughout in a more-or-less seamless manner. However, I'll admit I misinterpreted the tone of the book because of the opening "story", and was rather confused when I realized this fantasy tale does not shy away from dark and uncomfortable territory.

As someone who's not necessarily a fan of the "folk tale" style employed by the insert stories, I often found myself waiting for the main plot lines to return, though some were alright.… (more)

The latest in Terri Windling's Fairy Tale series is an adaptation of the story of Bluebeard, set in the Finger Lakes region of New York in the first half of the 19th century. I'm going to proceed on the assumption that anyone reading this is familiar with the basic Bluebeard story. A Boston widower with three beautiful daughters has remarr ied, to a woman who leads him into the orbit of a millenialist preacher, the Reverend Elias Fitcher. Rev. Fitcher has announced that the world will end within the next year, and that only those who are accepted into his utopian community of Harbinger will be saved. (Fitcher and his followers are based on a real millenial movement, the Millerites, whose leader predicted the end of the world in 1843.) So Mr. Charter takes his new wife, Lavinia, and his three daughters (Vernelia, Amelia, and Katherine) off to Harbinger. There they are installed in the community's gatehouse, to collect a toll from each family seeking to enter Harbinger. They quickly discover that the house has an odd history--the previous gatekeeper and his wife, the Pulaskis, vanished, and there's apparently a ghost or spirit residing in the room shared by the three girls. The spirit predicts that each of the girls will have a suitor before the end, and in short order, Rev. Fitcher pays them a visit and decides to take the eldest, Vernelia, as his bride.

Vern is quickly whisked off to her new life as Mrs. Fitcher, in the main Harbinger community, completely separated from her family in the gatehouse. It doesn't take her long to realize there's something very wrong about her husband, and something very strange about life in Harbinger, including some odd deaths and disappearances. Eventually, of course, her husband gives her the keys to the main house at Harbinger, tells her she can go anywhere except the one room whose lock is opened by the small, glass key, and then leaves her for another proselytizing journey. This ends in the expected manner, and Fitcher, sadly informing his wife's family that she has run off to join a lover in Boston, has the marriage annulled and marries Amy. Amy in her turn makes unpleasant discoveries, with the expected result.

None of the sisters is either stupid or weak-willed, but in proper fairy-tale fashion, itrquote s the youngest sister, Kate, who is clever enough and stubborn enough to find the truth and escape Fitcher's trap.

This latest in the Fairy Tales series is, once again, a very good adaptation of the traditional story for modern, adult readers.… (more)

part of the excellent Fairy Tale Series, with an very good introduction by editor Terri Windling. combines the Bluebeard fairy tale with another collected by Grimm called "Fitcher's Bird", and then resets the whole thing in early nineteenth century New England amid tent evangelists busily manufacturing some end-of-the-world Christian fervour. that's a lot of different elements to juggle, but the whole thing works surprisingly well, and yields some vivid characters and moments of true gothic terror.… (more)