Emerald Magic: Great Tales of Irish Fantasy

http://nhw.livejournal.com/347467.html

Collection of fifteen fantasy stories set in Ireland, thirteen of them published here for the first time.

The authors are a stellar array: Diane Duane, Tanith Lee, Jane Yolen & Adam Stemple, Judith Tarr, Elizabeth Haydon, Charles de Lint, Ray Bradbury, Andrew M. Greeley himself, Jane Lindskold, Fred Saberhagen, Peter Tremayne, Cecilia Dart-Thornton, L. E. Modesitt, Jr., Jacqueline Carey and Morgan Llywelyn.

All of these are competent enough, but few really grabbed me. Most of them are either cut-n-paste from Celtic mist themes (merrows; the wee folk; a rather pedestrian retelling of the Oisin legend) or else simply transplant well-worn fantasy tropes into an Irish setting (a couple of vampire show more stories, one including Bram Stoker; a little girl with a ghost kitten).

My expectations may be too high. Being Irish myself, I hoped this collection might be of stories that didn't drip too much of Celtic mist, and didn't equate being Irish with being funny. I tend to sympathise with the heroine of Charles de Lint's "The Butter-Spirit's Tithe", who is chided for her lack of fervent Celtiosity by the narrator:

I shrugged. "I don't know. It just seems that for a woman born in Ireland, who makes her living playing Celtic music, you don't care much for your own traditions."

"What traditions? I like a good Guinness and play the dance tunes on my box - those are traditions I can appreciate. I can even enjoy a good game of football, if I'm in the mood, which isn't bloody often. What I don't like is hen people get into all that mystical shite." She laughed, but without a lot of humour. "And I don't know which is worse, the wanna-be Celts or those who think they were born to pass on the great Secret Traditions."

Of course, this being a Charles de Lint story in this particular anthology, she is in fact drawn into the "mystical shite" in one of the three particularly grabbing stories of the anthology. And of course, I too am susceptible to well-told stories in this genre; it's just that my demands of the authors are probably higher than the book's target readership.

On of the two other standout stories for me was Jacqueline Carey's "The Isle of Women", an episode from the Mael Duin saga, but told for a change from the point of view of the women, in Carey's typically sexy prose (though she tones it down here compared with her novels). I'll pretty much buy anything with her name on it these days.

The other great story was the very first, "Herself", by Diane Duane. I happened to catch the end of the story when the author read it at P-Con back in 2003, and was delighted to recognise it immediately. Rooted very much in the reality of 21st century Dublin, but the leprechauns etc are still trying to eke out a living in today's world; threatened, quite literally, by the Celtic Tiger. A hilarious bit of satire, which will have completely mystified those readers who only know Ireland from folk music and cinema. show less

Another book I'm clearing for my upcoming move. A lot of name writers doesn't really amount to much in this collection, in which the stories suffer from unimaginative plots (Elizabeth Haydon's "Long the Clouds are Over Me Tonight", "A Drop of Something Special in the Blood" by Fred Saberhagen), staid execution (Diane Duane's "Herself"), or the biggest curse of novel writers tasked to writing short stories: half-baked-ness (“The Swan Pilot” by L.E. Modesitt, Jr.,"Speir-Bhan" by Tanith Lee).

The execeptions are:
"Banshee" by Ray Bradbury- a tight, chilling piece about a put-upon screenwriter which uses an unreliable narrator to blend the lines between supernatural and human darkness.
"The Butter Spirit's Tithe" by Charles de Lint- an show more update of your usual fairy hex that brings New World charm and comteporary charm to an old plot. show less

Overall an engaging read about Irish fantasy that left me fascinated with Irish folklore and culture. I particularly enjoyed "Speir-Bhan" by Tanith Lee, "The Butter Spirit's Tithe" by Charles de Lint, "For the Blood Is the Life" by Peter Tremayne, and "The Isle of Women" by Jacqueline Carey.

I read this book several years ago. I found it rather bland and the stories rather similar.

In truth, I've only read Herself from this book - it was free from Diane Duane's site - and it rocked socks. So, tagging this book because I can't find a source anywhere else, and am unclear if adding a new record for the story would be ideal.