Black Thorn, White Rose

Original anthology of 18 adult fairy tales, a follow-up volume to Snow White, Blood Red.

I'd read this anthology before, but I'm getting psyched for going to Faeriecon this coming weekend, so I wanted to read some of these... This series is one of my all-time favorites, as a whole....

7 • Words Like Pale Stones • Nancy Kress •
This is an powerfully different take on the tale of "Rumplestiltskin" – portrayed with compassion, which makes the actions of the main character, the woman who is asked to spin straw into gold – or else – that much more disturbing. We feel that she – perhaps – could love the odd and magical man who grants her the boon and saves her life – but instead, she forces him, against his will, to agree to show more teach her son by the prince, who is obviously a truly ‘bad seed,' the ways of power. Obviously, no good will come of this...

30 • Stronger Than Time • Patricia C. Wrede •
A beautiful, and bittersweet ghost story. Perhaps the ‘ghost' aspect is more obvious, at first, than it should be, but I love this take on Sleeping Beauty. The prince destined to save the enchanted princess screwed up and missed his chance. Now, he desperately leads an aging woodcarver on the quest that should have been his...

58 • Somnus's Fair Maid • Ann Downer •
Another retelling of Sleeping Beauty, but this one formulated as a Regency Romance, without any supernatural element. The beauty here is a young woman whose nasty guardian conspires to marry her to a repulsive older man – but dashing young suitors, of course, wish to save her from this fate. I'm usually not a big fan of romance, but this story is good (and quite ‘liberated,' in the end).

86 • The Frog King, or Iron Henry • Daniel Quinn •
I actually don't like this one. Too gimmicky. Frog gets amnesia after being thrown into a wall? You can read the whole thing, for free, here: http://www.gwu.edu/~folktale/GERM232/frogp/Iron_Henry.html

98 • Near-Beauty • M. E. Beckett •
A sci-fi take on the Frog Prince. Girl meets what her boring boyfriend thinks is an Australian Cane Toad in his shower. Turns out its an alien. Soon, she's running away with him to join an interstellar circus, and interspecies romance occurs...

107 • Ogre • Michael Kandel •
A humorous story which will be sure to be appreciated by anyone who's been involved with amateur theatre productions and the trials and tribulations thereof.

120 • Can't Catch Me • Michael Cadnum •
Not the hugest fan of this one. From the point of view of the Gingerbread Man – but I didn't see that much point to it.

129 • Journeybread Recipe • Lawrence Schimel •
A short poem. I like it!

132 • The Brown Bear of Norway • Isabel Cole •
I love this story. An American highschool girl falls in love with a Norwegian penpal, and goes out to seek him across Europe... Beautifully written, meshing dream and reality wonderfully.

151 • The Goose Girl • Tim Wynne-Jones •
Having recently read Shannon Hale's Goose Girl, this retelling pales in comparison (sorry!). It's still good, however. The princess here is indeed wronged – but she's also a cold bitch, and we can't help having sympathy for the wild, sensual serving maid – even though she is indeed, self-serving.

173 • Tattercoats • Midori Snyder •
A fairy-tale romance.... Some readers might feel this story is too sappy. It's just about rekindling the love in a marriage, even though it does have fairy tale elements. But it is awfully sweet and happy...

203 • Granny Rumple • Jane Yolen •
Usually I love love love Jane Yolen. But this story, which features Rumplestiltskin as a Jewish moneylender killed in a pogrom started by the vicious woman he lent money to, is rendered much less effective by the pointed sermonizing at the end.

217 • The Sawing Boys • Howard Waldrop •
Hmm. Not sure of how I feel about this one. A 1920's gang with a cobbled-together plan to pull a heist of a rural village fair is unwittingly stopped in their tracks by the beauty of a klezmer-country-saw band. It's intentionally cartoonish.

245 • Godson • Roger Zelazny •
It's pretty useful to have Death as your godfather – especially when he encourages you to become a doctor, and does you all kinds of favors. But when Death is a big sports fan, and wants to adjust things inconveniently for your relationship in order to benefit his favorite team – well, things can get difficult. Fun story.

281 • Ashputtle • Peter Straub •
Horror story about a kindergarten teacher who's a serial killer.

306 • Silver and Gold • Ellen Steiber •
Short poem based on Red Riding Hood.

310 • Sweet Bruising Skin • Storm Constantine •
A dark fantasy take on The Princess and the Pea. A manipulative queen seeks the help of an alchemist to obtain a docile bride for her son, in order to maintain her own power. But when the use of dark arts is uncovered, and the zombie-like girl starts
developing a will of her own, things turn against the queen...

359 • The Black Swan • Susan Wade
Country-princess Ylianna is desperate to gain the heart of an already-engaged prince who has nothing but scorn for her rough ways. She turns to a servant and countryman to guide her in matters of deportment and etiquette, but soon goes far further than he recommends, trying to transform herself into the sort of woman who would catch his eye. Again – no good can come of this. The story manages to get across its rather modern anti-diet-and-fashion-magazine-type message without being too in-your-face about it. show less

Mostly very good indeed; ruined somewhat by the inexplicable inclusion of Peter Straub's extraordinarily abstruse "Ashputtle." I wish I knew what possesses editors to include such pieces. (I'm fairly new to the modernized-fairy-tale genre, so I may be overrating this.)

The second in the fairy tale anthologies collected by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling. Again it contains short stories that are adult re-tellings of fairy tales. This time there are 18 tales by 18 different authors with the only cross overs from the first in the series being Susan Wade, Nancy Kress and Jane Yolen with Susan Wade writing the only completely original tale in the collection again.

Worlds Like Pale Stones - Nancy Kress
A re-telling of Rumplestiltskin looking at the magic of words and the power of knowledge. Ludie is the daughter of a drunk and a boastful washerwoman who tells people she can spin straw into gold. She is taken to the Prince and told if she cannot spin gold she will be killed. A rat-boy comes to her aid, one of show more the Old Ones, and when she spins gold she is forced to marry the Prince. She gives birth to the savage Dirk before finally running away when a woman who can spin straw into diamonds is found.

Stronger Than Time - Patricia C Wrede
A bittersweet look at Sleeping Beauty. A Prince appears on the doorstep one evening of a woodcutter and persuades him to help him reach the keep contained within the thorns. He claims there is an enchantment within caused by the Count insulting a witch-woman at the christening of his daughter. She laid a curse that on the girls sixteenth birthday she would die, but the Queen was able to counter it keeping her alive for 100 years safe in her resting place. She was very specific and her magic was to cause a specific Prince to arrive to set her free the day after the 100 years had passed. Unfortunately the Prince was impatient and arrived a day too early and was killed by the thorns. This new Prince is a relative of the one who died and has come to finish the task.

Samnus's Fair Maid - Ann Downer
Another Sleeping Beauty tale. The roles are slightly reversed and it is the male who has the sleeping sickness which his Aunt believes can be cured by a kiss from the one he loves.

The Frog King or Iron Henry - Daniel Quinn
A look at what happened to the Frog King after he was rewarded by the Princess for bringing back her golden ball. Scattered bits of information recalled by one with amnesia.

Near Beauty - M E Beckett
A strange science fiction tale if a sleeping beauty and an amphibian. Amanda talks to the three foot toad she finds in her boyfriends shower called Kane and they strike up a friendship that no one else knows about. An odd tale that sees them leaving and her becoming the Pilot for the Carnival the toad is in.

Ogre - Michael Kandel
Another strange tale about an ameatur dramatics group putting on a fairy tale performance of "The Yellow Dwarf". One of the cast members is an ogre who eats human flesh sandwiches prepared by his mother. When the director is fired by the ogre-like Connie, it is the ogre who is kind and thanks him for his direction.

Can't Catch Me - Michael Cadnum
A look at The Ginger-Bread Man. He is born in a hot oven before escaping into the cold world. On escaping from his parents and running away from them and his neighbour who chases him with a pitch fork, he stops long enough to repeatedly taunt those chasing him. He crosses a rinver on the head of a river fox who eats him all up, but ginger doesn't agree with foxes and the parts brought back up run away faster!

Journey Bread Recipie - Lawrence Schimel
A strange, short poem on how a wolf, child and hood for grandma can be made into bread. I very much enjoyed this short poem:
"5. Now crack the wolf and sseperate the whites -
the large eyes, the long teeth - from the yolks."

The Brown Bear of Norway - Isabel Cole
A classic Scandinavian tale in the "animal bridegroom" folklore tradition.It implies that the sorcery of shapeshifting is not to different from the magic used in turning from adolescence to adulthood.It follows a young girl living in New York who has a boy from Norway in her class. He gives her an address of someone back home who wants a penpal. They begin to write to each other and he signs his letters The Brown Bear of Norway. He starts to visit her in the evenings and tells her not to look at him, but one day she cannot resist and he is gone. She learns Norwegian and tracks him to his homeland, eventually finding him changed from a bear to the boy she knew from school.

The Goose Girl - Tim Wynne-Jones
Tells the story from the viewpoint of the Prince in the traditional tale. For a lark a Princess and her chambermaid exchange places before they meet the Prince the Princess has been sent to marry. Things go a little further than planned with the Prince marrying the chambermaid and the Princess being sent to work with the geese. The Old King realises what has happened and asks the chambermaid what punnishment someone who had done something like this should recieve, and then committs this punnishment upon her. Things do not quite end happily ever after as the new Queen is cold and unforgiving on the Prince.

Tattercoats - Midori Snyder
A lovely tale of Lilian who has been married to Edward for 7 years before feeling something is missing from their marriage. Her mother, the Queen, gives her a series of impressive gifts including a tattered coat made of animal skins which she says is the most important as it will teach her about herself. Lilian tries wearing the different beautiful dresses to attract her husbands attention, but ends up wearing the tattered coat on a bridge and seducing her husband. They begin to meet in secret, her hidden in the furs and him unsure who she is, until one day after they have rebuilt their marriage she decides it is the final meeting and she is going to tell the truth. Turns out Edward was not so unsuspecting afterall.

Granny Rumple - Jane Yolen
Yolen's take on Rumplestiltskin using her Granny as the main storyteller and the sad murder of her husband for being Jewish. It brought a lovely personal twist to the well known tale.

The Sawing Boys - Howard Waldrop
Based on a tale I didn't know called "The Bremen Town Musicians" and retold in the South of America. A group of people end up in a small town in Kentucky intent on mischief and murder, until they are dissuassed by local musicians entering the towns music contest.

Godson - Roger Zelazny
A very cool tale about David who has a very interesting Godfather. It is based on a Brothers Grimm tale and I don't want to say too much as it will spoil the story and it is one of the best in the collection.

Ashputtle - Peter Straub
A strange and unsettling tale about a Kindergarden teacher called Mrs Asch. She is excellent at her job although it is unclear whether she even likes the children she teaches and their parents. Every so often a child or parent goes missing from where she teaches and the implication is that she is killing them. Each time she moves on with no suspiscion to another town.

Silver and Gold - Ellen Stribar
A poem baed on Little Red Riding Hood looking at the path we take through life and the wolves we face in the real world. It is sometimes hard to tell the difference between the ones who love you and the ones who will eat you alive.

Sweet Bruising Skin - Storm Constantine
A wonderful re-telling of The Princess and the Pea told from the eyes of the Princes mother who is a cruel sorceress. Lots of alchemy, magic and death, the story looks at what happens after the Prince marries the Princess with the bruised skin. My favourite in the collection by far.

The Black Swan - Susan Wade
An original tale looking at how far women will go to transform themselves to a particular ideal of feminine beauty. Ylianna is dark to her cousins light and desires to change everything about herself secretly. When she unveils herself to everyone in the Kingdom including Prince Sigfried they all fall in love with her. However, she is accused of having an affair with the kind servant who helped her to transform (the narrator of the tale) and Sigfried openly denies her. She rushes upstairs and throws herself off the balcony, but instead of hearing her body hit the ground a beautiful black swan flies away to freedom.

My absolute favourite was Sweet Bruising Skin. It was interesting to sympathise with such a controlling tryant rather than the innocent Princess. I also really enjoyed The Black Swan, Silver and Gold, Godson (perhaps my second favourite), Tattercoats, The Goose Girl, The Brown Bear of Norway and Journey Bread Recipie. It took me a little longer to get into this anthology as the first stories didn't appeal to me as much, but I am so glad I stuck with it as they got much better. show less

I dunno. Objectively speaking this was probably very well-written and provocative. It just didn't do it for me. Part of the problem is that the editors' taste runs toward the creepy - and mine doesn't. Fans of the paranormal romances who want to broaden their reading might like it. It is a used MM pb, registered w/ bookcrossing, that I'm offering on swap.

I love this anthology series and short stories and adult fairy tales in general. The Zelazny and Constantine stories are my favorites.

This is my favourite of the series by Ellen datlow. in other collections there have always been stories that I skipped but I enjoyed every story in this one.

This is a good collection of short stories. I liked pretty much all the stories, though some are better than others.