Elf Love: An Anthology

I was a little uncertain about requesting this book from Early Reviewers. I enjoy a good fantasy story, and themed anthologies can be fun, but the title and the rather lurid cover did make me wonder whether the contents were likely to consist of schmoopy supernatural romance, or possibly softcore elf-fetish porn, neither of which holds much appeal for me. I felt greatly reassured, though, when I read the introduction, in which one of the editors writes, "A talented author sees a theme like that and says, 'That will be terrible unless...'" Which seems to me to be exactly the right attitude to take towards this kind of topic; that "unless" holds the possibility for generating all kinds of creative and worthwhile ideas. And the authors show more represented here do mostly seem to have taken that kind of approach and gone looking for non-traditional angles on the subjects of elves and love. There's lots of modern-day settings here, lots of alternative sexuality, lots of little idea-based stories...

However, most of the contributors seem to be first-time or relatively inexperienced writers, and I'm afraid it does show. Generally, the stories aren't bad, and a several of them are quite pleasant reads, but almost none of them feels truly, completely satisfying. There are stories with interesting ideas that aren't fleshed out fully, and, conversely, ones with ideas too slight to sustain a whole story without some extra spark that just isn't there. There are decent premises executed in adequate but unengaging prose, and one piece that has lovely prose but is so obscurely written that it's impossible to tell what it's actually about. There are stories that are trying a little too hard to be dark and gritty, or attempting to do social commentary with too heavy a hand, or both at once. One of the best-written stories seems to exist mainly to lead up to a surprise ending that contains no surprise whatsoever. Another is a noir-ish detective pastiche that's rather delightful, until the realization sets in that it really just inelegantly and rather pointlessly grafts elves onto a hardboiled detective tale that would have been better off without them. (And according to the author's note, in which he confesses to essentially lifting the plot from someone else's novel, probably was.) And so on.

Bottom line: It's better than it looks, but not nearly as good as it could be. show less

I like small presses - some of them have distinctive voices, some of them simply print whatever their editors like. But in all cases they give chances to authors that cannot or would not sign with a big publisher. And a lot of the small presses will publish short stories anthologies - it is easier to try to please more readers with different stories from different authors than to try to publish the next big novel.

So when I saw that book in the Early Reviewers list, I decided to give it a try - small press, anthology (and I love reading short fiction), fantasy - I had picked up books for less reasons than that. And when I got the book and started reading it, I had quite low expectations - I like this type of anthologies but the quality show more is rarely great so I had learned not to expect too much.

Unfortunately the problems start even before the stories - implying that fantasy is not mature reading and the explanation about what they decided to print is weird. In a bad way. That's a new press -- alienating everyone is a bad idea. There is NO mention anywhere what any of the editors consider good literature (besides the dedication to Tolkien... even though the way it is done it sounds more like an attempt of a witty line that matches the anthology theme than a real dedication... might be wrong though). You just cannot explain how you want to print "things that do not suck" without explaining what you like.

And then there is the very strange decision to preface every story with a line from the story (just above the author/story bio). Usually an important line. Sometimes a line that ruins part of the story - because knowing that this line is coming, you see some things differently -- sometimes it might lead you in the wrong direction but these are short stories -- in most cases as soon as you start reading, you know what is coming because of that line. I stopped reading these lines after the first few stories and then checked them after I read the story itself -- some of them just had no work there.

But let's concentrate on the stories for a while - 20 stories overall - 1 graphic and 19 traditional ones. None of them really stands out - they rate between average and plain weird (with a few being almost unreadable). And even if a few did have a potential, it was lost quite fast - a good idea and a good first few paragraphs do not make a good story when the plot get lost midway and the end is simply predictable. And despite the claim that the anthology aims at showing the elves in a new light, that never happens -- none of the stories even tries to get out of the stereotypes - both for elves portrayals and for the type of stories - a lot of the stories are trying to sound as something they are not - noir stories, fairy tale stories, you name it. They try and fail - almost as if the authors tried to fit into a framework that just does not fit their work. The only story that really worked for me was "Of Roots and Rings" (the graphic story) - the medium and the fact that the story needed to be concise allowed the author not to screw up and finish the story badly. Not that even that one is a masterpiece or really original. But compared to the rest of the stories - it does stand out. And the sad thing is that some of these stories could have been saved if someone had worked with the author (or if the author had edited the story...)

And then there is the cover. Technically the cover kinda matches the topic. But it is so cliched... and the barely dressed elf-lady is unneeded -- there is a difference between love and sex... and the cover fits the second one better.

Is that the worse anthology I had read? No, not really. Even when the stories were failing at the end, some of them did have something in them. But it is not exactly a good one either and not something I would recommend. I would pick the next book from the publisher though (depends on the topic of course but if they stay in the fantasy/borderline genres, I will give them one more chance). show less

This was painful. Look, it's a small-press anthology, and my expectations were really essentially for something that would be all right, maybe cute, mostly forgettable, and I was hoping to be pleasantly surprised. That this came down on the disappointing still, despite these limited expectations, is unfortunate, I'd say. I'm glad that the people who contributed to this sounded like they were having fun, and I think some of the pieces may have been improved with some more revision and work, but some of them (Elvis was the heir to an elf kingdom? The real provenance of fairy dust?) were probably never going to go anywhere, and others probably maxed out the limited value of the particular stories they wanted to tell. There are a couple of show more good stories in here; I liked To Kill the Oak King, for example. But that said, it's hard to tell if that story was good in its own right, or if it was good in the context of the other stories around it.

I don't like going on and ripping books when I don't feel I have anything intelligent to say about them that I can't sum up easily, so let's leave it at this: I would be remarkably surprised if it turned out this wasn't the worst book I read this year. I wish these people luck in the future, but there it is. show less

On the whole, Elf Love was a rather disappointing collection. I understand Pink Narcissus Press is relatively new, and I was quite willing to give them a break on that account, but I came away from this anthology with only one story I would recommend highly, and wouldn't you know, it's the only one without an actual Elf in it. A few more are solid, if not full-fledged standouts. The rest, unfortunately, are stunningly average stories, where some believe they're far too clever for words, and others simply and abruptly end, as if the author had a great idea that s/he was unable to fully execute, so s/he gave up and walked away.

I certainly appreciated the fact that the anthology attempts to provide a breadth of interpretation of "elf show more love," and a range of genres and stories, but overall, I felt as if there was no rhyme or reason to the ordering of the collection, and thus no sense of movement or thematic flow. In fact, many of the problems I had with the anthology appear to be editorial in origin. Since this is an ARC, I was not terribly concerned about typographical mistakes, but given how late in the publishing game ARCs go out, the fact that many of the stories clearly needed a heavier editorial hand to help tweak and clean up clunky writing as well as nudge the authors towards revising many an abrupt ending was beyond disappointing.

I'm going to take a cue from another LT reviewer and go through the stories one by one. I appreciated the dedication to Tolkien and Gygax, which showed me that the editorial team knows their audience, and the introductory material certainly set me up for an enjoyable reading experience.

However.

Not an Elf Yet - Ed Cooke
"Not an Elf Yet" was an interesting choice to start with, and entertaining enough. The throwaway nod to Tolkien was amusing, and I enjoyed the support group twist. I did feel, however, that the plotline ended rather abruptly, the reveal not seeming to have any clues dropped earlier in the (incredibly short) story, making it feel very much like a deus ex machina move. I actually expected to hear a "Ba-dum, tish!" at the end.

Tidings of Comfort and Joy - Josie Brown
This was, far and away, my very favourite story in the collection. It was a wonderful take on the theme, and managed to portray a range of emotion in a very compact form. I thought the framing tale added depth that wouldn't have been there if the story had simply gone straight to the experiences of Jesse, and while the story-within-a-story verged on telling instead of showing at times, it still worked. When I hit the end of this tale and with it, the full force of what had happened and the consequential fallout, I actually had to put the anthology down and take a break, because there was no reading anything afterwards without a breather in which to recover my equilibrium. A beautiful, sad story, I'm disappointed that none of the other works rose to its level.

Reclaiming the King - Duncan Eagleson
It was a good thing I took a break, too, because reading "Reclaiming the King" directly after "Tidings of Comfort and Joy" would have been a huge mistake. This was one of the stories that felt like it thought it was too clever by half, and another that obviously had a "Ba-dum, tish!" waiting at the end. I found much of the story chaotic and muddled, leaving me in a position where I had to reread small bits in order to puzzle out what I was supposed to be getting from them. There were a number of little things that niggled at me in the reading. For instance, I did not understand the obsession with the Pontiac LeMans and wondered why, after the initial explanation, it wasn't dialed back to "the car." And I found myself oddly offended at the way references to Tolkien were mixed in so they seemed less like referencing and more like trying to pass off Tolkien's work as the author's own. (And here I'm referring to his use of "Melkor," "Teleri," "Marroc," "Noldor," "Tirion," "Alqualondë," "Ainur," "Tol Eressea," and possibly some others I'm forgetting.) Given that the elves and their cultures as presented in the story bore no resemblance to those of Middle-earth, and the fact that the story itself was just a setup for a joke, it felt very much like a sullying. Additionally, so much of the plot hung on the reader not cluing in to the joke until late in the game that if you figured it out early and quickly (which I did), it simply ended up falling flat.

Color of the Sky - Juniper Talbot
This story was the first of a few that I was unable to puzzle out. It was an interesting premise, and I enjoyed the format and mixed perspectives, and I was hooked by the idea of a murder without a body, but by the end of the tale I was no more illuminated as to what was going on than at the beginning, and I found that when nothing new came clear on a quick reread and reconsideration, I moved on. I'm as interested in surreal, strange, twisty tales as the next person, but if I don't even have a glimmering of what's going on at the end, then something's gone wrong with the text.

The Phone Booth - Athena Giles
An enjoyable tale, with an interesting setting and set-up, this one got my hopes up before dashing them on the ground with an abrupt and disappointing ending that went nowhere. Additionally, the "romantic" subplot felt tacked on and unbelievable. I would have liked to at least see this one develop into a creepy tale of stalking, if nothing else. As it was, it was an explication of a moment in time that was weird, but ultimately inconsequential.

Goodnight, My Lady - Duncan Eagleson
I disliked Eagleson's "Reclaiming the King" so much that I was not at all set up to like "Goodnight, My Lady." However, it turned out to be marginally better than "Reclaiming." Sadly, all it was was a standard 1930s noir detective pot-boiler with an elfin twist. Vaguely entertaining, but fairly forgettable.

(S)elf Love - Rose Mambert
It's all right there in the title. An exceedingly short story built around the obvious gag. Good for a quick laugh, but there's not a lot there to sink one's teeth into.

A Long Friday - David Vernaglia
I liked the way the background was sketched out in this particular tale, in that the details were not set out up front, but rather skillfully revealed over the course of the story. "A Long Friday" felt very much like a companion piece to "Goodnight, My Lady," in that it, too, was a violent portrayal of crime and law enforcement. I didn't feel like the "love" component quite fit in the plotline, since I think it required a little more foregrounding than it received, and the ending was both abrupt and brutal, which I suppose is reasonable, given what happened, but as a reader, I felt a bit like the story came to a bone-shuddering, truncated end.

One of the Huldu - Otilia Tena
Much like "Color of the Sky," "One of the Huldu" was difficult to read. The fairy-tale tenor was there, and I loved that, but I got little out of the story itself, as I felt beaten down enough by the anthology at this point that I just didn't have it in me to puzzle out what was going on. This one was far too unclear, and would've benefited from more space and clearer explanations as to what was going on.

Whelp - Michelle Markey Butler
"Whelp" had a lot of promise, and I actually really enjoyed the conceit behind it. I loved the Shakespearean reference to Peaseblossom, I loved Madison (and the reason for her name and her boyfriend's name), and I thought the complication at the end involving the main character's sister was fascinating. I would have loved to see it play out a little more, but on reflection, after "Tidings of Comfort and Joy," "Whelp" is a very solid story, and one of the better ones in the anthology.

Of Roots and Rings - Sarah Eaton and Duncan Eagleson
I actually really like the fact that Elf Love mixed mediums by including a comic/graphic short story. It was a nice change, and proved that even if I wasn't fond of Eagleson as a writer, I liked his illustrations much more (although I did have to laugh at the fact that the title lettering is rather reminiscent of that found on The Lord of the Rings-related properties). Eaton's story was compact and satisfying in a way that many of the other tales were not. I liked the fact that the ending was both bittersweet (for the elf) and hopeful (for the main character). Another solid story, and a credit to the larger collection.

Xenium - Michael Takeda
I quite enjoyed most of "Xenium," as it had a very Arabian Nights feel to it. I was impressed with the slow movement from xenophobia to understanding by the various characters, but due to an obvious omission in correct grammatical usage, I also sussed out the end of the tale and what the whole conceit was hanging on far, far earlier than I think the writer was prepared for. Unfortunately, the reveal therefore fell flat for me, as the depth of the rest of the story was swept aside in service to it. This was another story that I felt really aspired to a wonderful height, and then fell a bit short.

The Turn of the Spoon, or Love and Bootblack - Bill Racicot
This story was a fun take on both The Shoemaker's Elves and the Keebler Elves with an interesting twist. I certainly appreciate that this collection included LGBT works without larger comment, and I enjoyed the handful of stories that included these elements (this being one of them). A nice, concise story that mixed a rather light tone with a macabre twist.

The Saga of Anund the Berserk - Rev DiCerto
I certainly appreciate the Scandinavian slant present in this story, but the fact is that all the wrong words were footnoted, or rather, not enough words of Scandinavian origin were footnoted. As it stood, I found my eyes simply moving across the page while I was barely taking in what was going on and not moved to find a dictionary or other reference work to look up the things I simply wasn't getting. I hit the end, found myself unmoved and adrift, and moved on.

And Their Mothers - David Vernaglia
"And Their Mothers" is a bit of a poor followup to "A Long Friday." It was obvious that the writer was attempting to show elves as rather cruel and unfeeling to one another, but it tipped over into sexism and misogyny far too fast. While Porpra is obviously the only sympathetic character in sight, Rosa and Gris' mother (Ama) are awful caricatures of females. I cringed at the sexism slung around by Rosa when talking of Ama, and was deeply disappointed by the portrayal of Ama herself. Vernaglia went far too far, implying that where elves as a whole are cruel, elf women are even worse, and that simply didn't sit right with me. There's also a weird point of view shift away from the narrator to Rosa for the duration of a paragraph that the editors really should've caught.

The Mischief Makers - Joe Mogel
"The Mischief Makers" starts out with a promising satire of the Twilight phenomena, which I appreciated, but quickly becomes a far too heavy-handed comedy. It is rife with pratfalls, slapstick and insult humour, and that's just not my thing. I was also horribly creeped out by the romance subplot, from its non-consensual beginnings to the underage pregnancy at the end.

To Kill the Oak King - Rose Mambert
Oh, I was entranced by "To Kill the Oak King" right off the bat. I enjoyed the intrigue, the setting, the characters... It was a really very promising story, working with all the right tropes and cliches. But the end of this one was like hitting a brick wall. I think I know what the author was going for, but I was too busy picking brickwork out of my teeth to feel like it hit the mark. The parallels between the elf's experiences and what happens to the human characters were a little too tenuous to properly line up.

David and Gerty - Jon Bishop
I can say, without hyperbole, that this was an awful story. I cannot imagine why anyone would think to include something like this that not only plays on ridiculous negative stereotypes about gamers and fantasy/sci-fi fans, but is directly insulting the very audience this collection is set up for. And for that matter, not only was it a terrible choice, the topic is beyond played-out. That ship has sailed. Painting speculative fiction fans of any stripe as socially awkward, corpulent, unemployed losers is no longer fresh or edgy; it's just sad.

Unseen - James Thibeault
"Unseen" was an impressively dark and bittersweet short that worked quite well and was very solid. Some of the dialogue was a little stilted, and overall I would have liked to see more space for this story to be developed in, as the sparseness of characterization created distance between myself as a reader and any larger emotional impact.

Feather Fall - Joanna Fay
"Feather Fall," as the last piece in Elf Love, was a good choice to end on, as it returned to the more traditional application of the theme under exploration. I was taken in by the world Fay sketches out, and the conflicts within it, but this tale definitely needed far, far more space for development. It is a really interesting sip where a larger draught is needed. As a result, the love story itself is so condensed it becomes unbelievable.

As I said up top, Elf Love is an average anthology with glimmers of greatness that never quite materialize. The overall quality is not high enough for me to recommend it as a purchase, but I do hope that the folks at Pink Narcissus Press gain some experience from it, and are able to polish those glimmers and turn them into stronger, higher quality works in the future. show less

I'm pretty sure this book review is going to end up NSF work, mothers, grandmothers, little sisters, the innocent, the easily offended, people who think fairies are a nice version of Tinkerbell, and people who think fairies are everything Terry Prachett says of them in one of my favorite Discworld quotes:

Elves are wonderful. They provoke wonder.
Elves are marvellous. They cause marvels.
Elves are fantastic. They create fantasies.
Elves are glamorous. They project glamour.
Elves are enchanting. They weave enchantment.
Elves are terrific. They beget terror.
The thing about words is that meanings can twist just like a snake, and if you want to find snakes look for them behind words that have changed their meaning.
No one ever said elves show more are nice.
Elves are bad.
--Lords and Ladies, Terry Prachett

This quote encompasses everything I believe about elves and fairies and all the Goodly Folk. Sometimes I half believe in them. I certainly would be more willing to believe in Fairy than aliens. No one can deny that I adore elves. The only plastic surgery I would remotely consider is having my ears pointed (don't worry, mom, I would never actually do that). I've been reading fairy tales, urban fantasy, and regular fantasy for longer than I can remember.

All of that said, I was mildly skeptical when I requested this book from LibraryThing's Early Reviewers. The cover is lurid and sensationalistic, but since I seek out urban fantasy, it seemed like something I should try. Really, when good elf stories are hard to come by, one must look where one can.

Well. Shall we begin?

Given that this is an advance reader edition of the book, I can hope that the misspelling of J.R.R. Tolkien's last name in the dedication and the typo in the sentence thanking the copy editor will be fixed by the time the official print run is completed. There were several other typographical errors and misspellings that I noticed, but by far, those were the most grievous offenses.

...but on to the stories. The introduction states that they hope to "defy the boundaries of genre" and publish fantasy that "doesn't suck." This sets the bar high: a lot of fantasy does, in fact, suck, and the boundaries of the fantasy genre are so wide as to be nearly all-encompassing. I was curious as to how they intended to accomplish these goals when I dove into the first story.

The first two were nothing special- both themes I've seen done over and over again in fantasy and horror. The third... without giving anything away, the third is a giant set-up for a one-liner at the end. A very well-known one-liner. I groaned, and not in amusement. More at the waste of my time.

But I continued on, working my way through more short stories. There seemed to be a running theme in the author blurbs about how they threw together their story so quickly- and this is something they state with pride. Revision would really have been their friend. Believe me.

For all the desire to defy boundaries, they never even approached sight of them, so deep in the heart of stereotypical elf fiction they remained. There was a great deal of gender ambiguity to- I think- prove a point about stereotypes, but even the attempts couldn't disguise the gender or what the writer was trying for. A lot of non-heterotypical relationships, to prove how open-minded and better elves are. (Except when it comes to half breed elves- then their prejudice comes out full force.) A lot of vulgar language that, in most cases, seemed forced and unnecessary. If it jolts me (a reader used to such language) out of the story, I'm going to think the author was shoving it in there like a teenager hell-bent on scandalizing the staid adults around him.

And don't forget to toss in a story about how people who game online can't interact with others in real life!

But sometimes you can find a gem hidden in the offal- and this would be To Kill The Oak King by Rose Mambert. Courtly intrigue, rebellion, and betrayal make for a good story, and hers was well paced and written.

However... I find it ironic that the one good point in the whole book was written by the same person who wrote the title(ish) story. Wherein we discover that fairy dust is actually elf ejaculate.

!!!!!!

The pre-story blurbs on her stories made it clear to me that the underlying goal of this anthology was to shock- because she states in To Kill the Oak King that the story almost didn't make it into the anthology and she was forced to revise twice. But she also was pleased to have banged out the first draft of (S)Elf Love in half an hour. The best story they had was nearly rejected, in favor of glittery elf ejaculate. There is not enough sarcasm in the world to cover that sentence.

I was surprised at how many of the writers approached the topic of elf love as though it had never been done before- odd, when you consider that many more stories have been written about elves and love than otherwise. And, other than To Kill the Oak King, none of the stories were worth the time it took me to read them.

I received this book for free through the LibraryThing Early Reviewers program. show less

I have to admit to something before we start, I applied for this book for a laugh. When I got it, I faceplamed. It looks a lot, from the cover and from the title and from the blurb, like this is one of those thinly disguised pornographic anthologies that normally call themselves "best love stories" or such.

It isn't porn.

I was pretty relieved when I realised this, then again when I realised it had some good stories in and I was going to enjoy it! I have to say that the second half of the book was not as good as the first half but stil, overall, it had some interesting stories and I enjoyed it.

One of the things I have to admit about this book is the way it incorperates gay and lesbian fiction like it's not a big deal. I love that. I show more hate that gay and lesbian fiction gets it's own little box, like it needs to be kept away from the straight fiction lest it corrupts it. Right, let's go through each story, that seems most sensible, since I did get this book free to review it.

Not an elf yet
This is funny and pretty inteligent, a girl writing about her boyfriend who's decided he'd an elf.

Tidings of comfort and joy
This was one of my favourite stories in the book and set a lot of my early impression of it as possitive. A guy finds work in an all-year christmas shop and tries to work out why his co-worker is so into dressing and asking like an elf. It's touching and interesting and well written, I enjoyed it very much.

Reclaiming the King
Another good story, which I enjoyed. The cast of characters are interesting and believable and the entire premis amused me a lot. Funny and interesting.

Color of the sky
And we hit the first bump in the road. I think it was about online gaming but...ok, I didn't get it. I hated the language and the way it was made deliberatley difficult to read. I'm not an intellectual lightweight but if you go out of your way to confuse and disorientation me you piss me of. What's the point of telling a story if nobody can even work out the plot? Not my thing at all.

The phone booth
Then we come back with another good one. This story sets up the kind of cliche, teen supernatural romance plot then foils it by having the teen in question act like a teenager. Very well thought out and funny.

Goodnight, my lady
A kind of noir detective novel only shorter and with elves. This was, along with Tidings of comfort and joy, the high side of the collection for me. I did enjoy this short story a lot. It reads well, the story is revealed just enough to keep you interested, the protagonist is just what one would expect, it was great.

{s}elf love
Didn't like this one. Elf learns to masturbate. Fairy dust is involved. I get the joke but I don't think it's funny and, yeah, the story just didn't work for me overall.

A long friday
I'm more on the fence about this one. I can see where it's coming from but it's not for me. An elf is beaten up by corrupt cops for a crime he didn't commit.

One of the Huldu
A more traditional fairy-tale style elf story, but...it's not incredibly well written, the point of it gets lost sometimes and I was left kind of wondering what the point even was. Not a bad story, just not good either.

Whelp
And we have a good one again. Not as good as my top two, just for the cliche factor, but I loved the characters. Our protagonist is a wolf/elf hybrid trying to find someone to mate with him but the only one like him is his sister (though one wonders why we can't go one way or the other, it's obviously possible for elves and werewolves to mate because, hello). I mostly remember the mermaid and the impotent vampire, who were hillarious and adorable. The plot was a little patchy but the characters were lovely.

Of roots and rings
A comic, and the middle of the book. Well drawn and I did like the story, there are a lot of good things going for this comic. I enoyed it very much.

Xenium
This story should have been cut in half. The prose is horrible sometimes, and I can see why it's included, the last line makes the piece and made me actually see why what, until that point, had been typical "Oh, the sexy whores like their fate" stuff, but it could have been at least cut in half and still kept that thing I liked at the end without pissing me off so much to get me there. But clever.

The turn of the spoon
Strange, and kind of funny but not. It takes the idea of shoemakers elves and kind of overlays some kind of odd justice system and adds a plot about revenge which I found odd, though I can see the thing in applying the worst of human emotions to things that are essentialy meant to be the best of human emotions only.

The saga of Anund the Beserk
I could not make head or tale of this. It's written in the style of a old Norse legend and involves some Vikings who wander around a while then find the land of the elves, kill and rape them, then go home and it's all good. I just, it was incredibly hard to read and I didn't get what the point of it was.

And their mothers
A kind of strange follow up to the story about the elf getting beaten up by the police. I didn't really know why it got included so much later in the book or...just why in general really The point about elves not loving was made in the first story, we didn't need this continuation.

The mischief makers
Read kind of like a emo kid's wet elf-dream. There is a elf who plays tricks, like in old elf stories, only they're tiny and live in a tree and have beurocrasy for some reason. And he needs to trick this girl who is like totaly a prep and into twilight and this girl who is so goff of whatever helps him and then the fall in wuv and trick people together. Yeah, I didn't think highly of it.

To kill the oak king
Ok, this...I admit I liked. We have the set-up of a Kingdom where elves are opressed and a nobel is saved by an elf (both male) who he then nurses back to health and they have sex and it reads kind of like a cliche fanfiction plot appart from the ending which I won't spoil and I'm kind of a sucker for these kinds of stories so, yeah, I have to admit that I enjoyed reading this one.

David and Gerty
The joke is that all online gamers are fat, socialy-inept fanboys who should never leave their computers. Hahahahahaha, that's never been done before.

Unseen
The last two play to cliche a lot. Ok, the back half of the book does and I didn't mind it what it was a cliche I liked but poor little elf girl gets trampled by horse and lover is upset doesn't do much for me.

Feather fall
Last one is a bad case of really bad love at first sight. They're from rival clans and his side killed her brother and her ide killed his son but they see each other and inexplicably fall in love and defy their tribes and their love that is like an entire 5 minutes old so totaly destined to last will definetley eventualy unite these two lands. Definitley.

So, yeah, that's the book. It's not a bad collection, if definitley has some high notes. It does have some low ones too, and the strong first half was very much let down by the weaker back half which is why I've given it a three. I think there are good stories and it's worth looking for, and I'll be keeping an eye open for other anthologies from this press, but the good is weighed down by the bad and the mediocre. show less

Hmm, this was a mistake, I think - that'll teach me to request books I'm not sure about. You get used to covers that mislead, and I hoped this one (which I don't like) might, but there was indeed way too much sex for me. That said, some of the stories are quite good - I thought "Tidings of Comfort and Joy" was original and interesting, and the graphic story was quite attractive and thoughtful, but too many of the others rely on a mock-heroic series of names, or on intentionally shocking quantities of blood and violence, for effect. Some are disconcertingly short. Duncan Eagleson's take on Chandler looked promising but failed to live up to my hopes. Disappointing.