Firebirds: An Anthology of Original Fantasy and Science Fiction

A collection of short stories from authors with books published by Firebird, a YA fantasy imprint. YA fantasy spans a wide range of reader maturity, and that range is evident in this collection. Nancy Springer's sugar-coated, condescendingly stupid "Mariposa" (which I hated, if you can't tell) is apparently directed at five-year-olds, while Garth Nix's awesome, bloody "Hope Chest" wouldn't be out of place in an adult horror collection. With the obvious exception of the Springer story, most of the stories ranged from middling-good (Sherwood Smith's "Beauty") to awesomely great (Nix). I was familiar with most of the authors (which included Lloyd Alexander, Emma Bull, (illustrator) Charles Vess, Diana Wynne Jones, and Patricia A. show more McKillip), but the anthology has spurred me to find further books by two unfamiliar authors. Megan Whalen Turner's "The Baby in the Night Deposit Box" manages to be funny and sweet without being cloying ("Mariposa," I am looking at you!), and Elizabeth E. Wein's "Chasing the Wind" is a charming story about a teenage girl's 1950 airplane flight across Africa. show less

Authors who have been published under the Firebird imprint are YA fantasy authors I either grew up reading or wish I'd grown up reading.

There's no theme to this collection, but a few trends became apparent as I read. One was of strong, female characters who don't need to get the guy at the end. This is a refreshing take on feminist fantasy, which often features strong female characters who still end up marrying their one true love at the end of a book or series. The first story in the anthology, Delia Sherman's "Cotillion," is a modern fairy tale, where at the end the guy says, "You saved me. I want to marry you," and the girl's response is, "I hardly know you." "Don't you love me?" he asks, and she answers, "I might. I just met you. I show more don't know." I was pleased and impressed. Similarly, the end of Sherwood Smith's tale, "Beauty," has her protagonist--who has learned more about being fair and just, and inner beauty, than about love--saying, "But I am not languishing at a window, or watching the northern road. Because I'll know he'll be back."

Another tale along those lines is "The Lady of the Ice Garden," a gorgeous retelling of "The Snow Queen." I loved the resetting of the story in the Heian Period of Japan; it was fitting in tone and imagery. And I appreciated Kara Dalkey's attempt to rejig the ending: instead of rescuing her childhood friend, the girl learns that the boy who hurt her is not worthy of her. I like where she's going with it, but it feels forced and abrupt in execution. A better feminist retelling of a classic story is Meredith Ann Pierce's "The Fall of Ys." (Michael Cadnum's "Medusa" is also a feminist retelling, but not nearly so well-done as Pierce's.)

Nancy Springer's "Mariposa" is a fun little tale about a young woman who has lost her soul--a quite common affliction, apparently. When she regains it, she realizes how unfulfilling her high-powered career and life were, and ditches her engagement ring (marking a relationship to another high-powered, soulless individual) with a "Lord in heaven! What was I thinking?" There are plenty of other stories in the anthology that are similarly fun and enjoyable, without having much depth: some I ate up like candy, while others didn't really impress me. There are simply too many stories, and I cannot touch upon them all!

Of course, they didn't all feature strong girls and women. Lloyd Alexander's "Max Mondrosch" was a surreal story of an everyman who can't find a job, which reminded me of the type of story I would try to write (and so I liked it quite a bit). "Little Dot," by Diana Wynn Jones, although containing some magical elements, was largely about a group of cats doing what cats do best: snubbing the woman who has taken their human's attention away from where it should be (which is doting on them). This is one of my favorites, as it perfectly depicts cats and their neuroticisms within the context of a fun good vs. evil story.

Perhaps my favorite of the collection was Megan Whalen Turner's "The Baby in the Night Deposit Box." It was simply a well-crafted little tale of a girl named Penny who grows up in the bank in which she was deposited as a baby, and there was much to laugh at throughout. The whole story was just charming, particularly the ending.

Aside from the stories, I really enjoyed the Author's Notes for each tale, which was a really neat addition. I think I most appreciated this for Garth Nix's "Hope Chest." I liked the story; it was another fun little story about an abandoned baby girl who grows into her destiny, but with Nix's familiar dark twist and tone. I just wasn't sure that I got it, or whether there was something I was supposed to 'get' from it. But Nix's author's note made it clear that he still had the same questions! show less

This is one of the better anthologies I've read. All anthologies are something of a mixed bag. The reader's taste very seldom meshes exactly with the editor's, or the editor has had to make some compromises along the way. Firebirds is substantially above average.

The book is helped, of course, by having some very big names in SFF - [a:Lloyd Alexander|8924|Lloyd Alexander|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1200328980p2/8924.jpg], [a:Patricia A. McKillip|25|Patricia A. McKillip|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1220752490p2/25.jpg], [a:Garth Nix|8347|Garth Nix|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1207583754p2/8347.jpg], to name a few. Aside from her first couple of books, I've never read anything by McKillip that wasn't terrific, and that's show more true here.

The value of anthologies is in introducing readers to new authors. Here, I read a story ("Beauty") by [a:Sherwood Smith|12350|Sherwood Smith|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1339177179p2/12350.jpg], an author I'd never heard of. I was struck by how well developed the world was for a short story. It turns out that's because it is a well developed world. But I nonetheless immediately went out and bought the related novel, [b:Crown Duel|21060|Crown Duel (Crown & Court #1-2)|Sherwood Smith|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1309213505s/21060.jpg|4398231]. I'll be looking up [a:Nancy Farmer|8360|Nancy Farmer|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1207168030p2/8360.jpg] as well. But this anthology also has some other surprises. "Max Mondrosch" was a startling departure from the Lloyd Alexander of the Chronicles of Prydain ([b:The Book of Three|24780|The Book of Three (The Chronicles of Prydain, #1)|Lloyd Alexander|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1317791689s/24780.jpg|1149593]), but no less good because of it.

The editor says she built the book around a graphic novel by [a:Emma Bull|22548|Emma Bull|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1220945364p2/22548.jpg] and [a:Charles Vess|10763|Charles Vess|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1273720560p2/10763.jpg], and I looked forward to it. I'm sorry to say that that story is by far the weakest in the book. Happily, almost all the other stories range from good to excellent.

In short, well worth picking up. show less

First of all, hats of to Sharyn November, who put together a great anthology that focused on the amazing stories these authors had to tell where the only theme was excellence. I'm seriously impressed, and will obtain Firebirds Rising and first opportunity. And speaking of the stories, let me rave about a few selections:

Cotillion - Well this story just reduced me to a puddle of squee. I loved Delia Sherman's prose ever since I read The Fall of the Kings several years ago, but never have I found it so accessible as in this story. It seemed a touch autobiographical, and her love of New York really comes through Celia's eyes. As does her love of the fantastic, and the merging is uniquely brilliant. I love the music, and the ballads, and the show more dancing task, and how she subverts the tale at the end. Because Cellia is a modern girl and smart enough to know that she doesn't know the guy to love him yet. On the whole, this story is absolutely brilliant, and I could think of no better opening to any anthology.

The Baby in the Night Deposit Box - I love the way this story interconnected - no character wasted, every detail exploited. And bunnies!

Beauty makes me want to read the rest of Sherwood Smith's work, as it exists in a world previously explored. I'm particularly taken with the concept of her villain. Mariposa by Nancy Springer is just a neat concept, and beautifully explored. I don't know why I've never heard of her before. The Fall of Ys by Meredith Ann Pierce was an excellent take on an old story, as was The Lady of the Ice Garden by Elizabeth E. Wein. Throughout the latter I kept screaming "The Snow Queen! It's the bloody Snow Queen set in Japan!"

There are stories that haunt in here. Max Mondrosch by Lloyd Alexander left me utterly depressed, but both Medusa by Michael Cadnum and Nancy Farmer's Remember Me were uplifting in their final message of hope (and the latter caused an epiphany that should have come much earlier). Hope Chest by Garth Nix really took me for a ride, and was one story that left many an unanswered question (though profound in the way that it ended where that story ended).

Byndley - McKillip is love. This tale is delighfully simple with deeper meaning and words unsaid. Multilayered and breathtaking. She seems to me a perfect author for this form - able to say so much in so few words.

The Black Fox - If I'm not mistaken, this also appears in Vess's The Book of Ballads, but it is nonetheless grand to see here. I love the snarky American, and the beautiful artwork, especially of the Horned Hunter. Even learning it's not an old ballad just enriches the material. show less

I try to pull from my TBR shelves when I go on trips, and this particular anthology has been languishing for a number of years thereupon. I found the quality of the stories to be consistently high throughout, not as uneven as anthologies often are. There are, of course, a couple of standouts, which include the Tam Lin variant "Cotillion" by Delia Sherman that my Tam Lin fan friends should certainly seek out, and Nancy Farmer's 'Remember Me'. I left this one on the train, and was gratified to see a young man make his way through my car clutching it triumphantly to his bosom within an hour of my dropping it off.

Bought a copy so I could reread. Have done so, and enjoyed just as much as expected/ hoped. Sad, now, though, as I must part with the book. Highly recommended, and certainly not just to teens.

More fairy tale than sword&sorcery. More beauty, romance (in both senses of the word), literary value. Evocative, provocative, poetic, resonant, oh yeah. Even a bit of humor, both happy and dark. This is a book I would have read a hundred times when I was in my teens and over the next decades.

Now, well, I have to admit I didn't find any new authors to add to my to-read lists. The writing and ideas that are so wonderful are perfect in a short story anthology, but I'm not inclined to read a whole novel or series by any of them. Except Turner--my son show more keeps pushing The Thief on me, and since it's a Newbery I will read it someday. show less

This is a nice little collection of fantasy if stories--especially good if you enjoy urban fantasy or retelling of fables and fairy stories. I'm not clear on why the title says Science Fiction as I didn't find any in here. That said, a good way to discover some future fantasy authors.