Errantry: Strange Stories

An absorbing collection of surreal tales in which anyone is liable to shape-shift or burst through a portal at any time. That makes it sound madcap, but most of the stories are carefully constructed, with strong and sometimes unsettling buildup to a moment of disruption, either internal or external. My two favorites were "Near Zennor", which is very effectively creepy without overdoing it, and "The Return of the Fire Witch", which entertained me greatly by returning to the weird world-building and verbiage of her novel Winterlong, which was my first introduction to Hand's writing back in the '90s. But I also appreciated her deep identification with the landscape of Maine, and the recurring message that a primeval green energy waits to show more burst forth again from the human-blighted earth. show less

The best of these stories are able to hint at horror and fantastical elements without ever making it wholly explicit: you're never sure if maybe the horror you feel creeping up has as much to do with the narrators as it does the experiences they are narrating. "Near Zennor" is a masterpiece of ambiguity, and probably my favorite story in the book. The one I liked least was "The Return of the Fire Witch": engaging with explicitly fantastical tropes removes the feeling of the uncanny that Hand works with so well. It ends up feeling like "The Masque of the Red Death" performed by Adventure Time characters. But the good definitely outweighs the bad in this collection, and I look forward to lending this volume to my friends.

I'm partial to Elizabeth Hand's writing, and Errantry is no exception. Hand is especially strong at stories where the ordinary collides with the strange, and some moment of transcendence or horror touches everyday life. This collection hits it out of the park, again and again; her writing is just so on-key, always. Particular favorites are "The Maiden Flight of Macaulay's Bellerophon," "Hungerford Bridge," and "Winter's Wife." "The Return of the Fire Witch" was in a very different mode than the others, but has given me a not-at-all-unwelcome "earworm" for "In The Court of the Crimson King" which I probably last heard twenty years ago . . .

I received a copy through the Librarything Early Reviewers program.

I received a copy of this book through the LibraryThing Early Reviewer program.

"Strange Stories" is an apt subtitle for this collection of ten tales, ranging from the novella-length Hugo-nominated, "The Maiden Flight of McCauley's Bellerophon" to the flash-length "Cruel Up North." Hand has a knack for creating vivid, flawed characters--very normal people--who encounter something extraordinary on the fringe of society. Often these encounters are rather disturbing. "Near Zennor" struck me as the creepiest, evoking the isolated moorlands of Cornwall and beings that drift from the beyond.

That said, I'm not into creepy. I appreciated Hand's realistic characters, but overall the anthology was a disappointment for me. Maybe my expectations show more were too high, as I've heard wonderful things about Elizabeth Hand for years and this was my first time reading her work. There was a pattern to how many of the stories ended: this strange thing happened, and that was that, and I was frustrated by the lack of explanation or finality in some cases. "The Return of the Fire Witch" didn't feel like it belonged in the collection at all; it fit the theme of strangeness, but was a pure fantasy work, not set on Earth like the rest.

I'm glad I read this, just to have read Hand's work, but I think my disappointment came down to personal taste. I would be hesitant to read more of her work in the future. show less

These stories are more folk tale than fantasy, and seem to take a lot of inspiration from Washington Irving. They're not not focused in America, but they draw from the tradition of American folk tales. The stories are all well-written, but unfortunately predictable - a few pages into each, I knew exactly how it was going to unfold and end. The journey there is nicely phrased, though.

Strange stories indeed. Some plain strange, some melancholy, some, well some didn't quite work for me, but that's often what happens with collections of short stories. I really enjoyed "Near Zennor" but I also felt it could be expanded into something more, that there was something just beyond reach that I wanted more of. Although perhaps that was Hand's intent--with her, you can never quite tell and that's one of the reasons I really enjoy her work. I also very much liked "The Far Shore" and how I thought I knew what it was going to be and I was sure it was a retelling of a particular fairy tale but ended up as something rather different. "Winter's Wife" was far and away my favorite though. If you like strange stories, definitely pick show more this one up. show less

This is a short story collection. I found the stories to be filled with sadness and melancholy. They're well-written, but all left me with a feeling of nostalgia. In fact, many of the stories could have been published in an earlier SF era.