Borderland: Between the Elflands and the World is a Place Where Magic Runs Amok

Even though this book is a slim volume, and contains only four short stories, it serves as an excellent introduction to the shared world of Bordertown created by Terri Windling and Mark Alan Arnold. I’ve previously read many of the later volumes set in the magical town which straddles the border between the normal world and the recently-returned faerieland (the small print run of this early urban fantasy book makes it tricky to find at the public library), so I was delighted to finally get a chance to read the originating stories after picking up the book on a recent trip through Calgary.

Of all of the four stories contained in this book, the first story is the one which I like the least. Not that it’s an uninteresting story or show more poorly written, but more so because it’s more predictable and expected within the fantasy (and urban fantasy) genre. The opening scene sees our protagonist, a guitar player of famous repute (apparently reformed from his bad rock & roll ways), playing his guitar on a lonely mountaintop close to the border between Bordertown and Faerieland and creating/controlling magical shapes in the air through his music. From the get-go it was obvious that this kind of skill is one which is tenuous at best and dangerous at its worst, so I was completely unsurprised when the central conflict of the story occurred when his long-time girlfriend leaves him (for being lazy essentially, another wtf moment) and he goes to the mountain again, this time creating a monster of the magical shapes that has a will only for devouring the person who has wronged him. Then he has to confront the monster and defeat it with his own music, therefore emerging from the conflict a changed man and ready to contribute to the well-being of his relationship. Exciting though it may be, this storyline has been done a million times, so I expected better from the likes of Bordertown!

The second story in the collection was one that I felt was really part of a much bigger tale. The story shares perspective between Gray (a human who is cursed to shape-change into a cat) and Wicker (an elf who was born and raised in Bordertown and makes her way as a tempestuous singer), who essentially spend the story circling unknowingly around each other before Gray’s secret is discovered and the two agree to try to cross into the Faerielands together. I’m not sure if their story is continued in the later Bordertown anthologies, but I sure hope that it is, because it sounds rather interesting. Then again, if they cross into Faerie, chances are that story wouldn’t be part of the Bordertown tales since it’s not actually set in Bordertown...

I was delighted to find that my favourite author, Charles de Lint, had contributed to the origins of Bordertown with a climactic story that introduces readers to the “halfie” (half elf, half human) population of Bordertown, Stick & his dancing ferret Lubin (residents of the Bordertown museum and all-around badasses with golden hearts), and the Horn Dance (the only positively motivated gang in Bordertown). All three of these subjects come up many times in later Bordertown collections, so the discovery that de Lint had played a hand in their creation is one of which I am exceedingly proud. It’s not surprising that de Lint tackled these types of characters and conflicts in Bordertown, since his other novels often deal with themes of prejudice, social justice, and mythic traditions based around music, and doing so here sets the tone for many of the larger social forces within Bordertown. The town straddles the border between the known and unknown, relying on a unique mix of magic and technology to survive, and blending a myriad of cultures to create probably the most cosmopolitan (and potentially problematic) social situation ever created - and de Lint is certainly a master of setting up and working within these unique boundaries (or lack thereof).

The final story in the book treads the realms of an expected fairytale - a human having to rescue a man (in this case an elfin lord) from the high lady of faerie - but Ellen Kushner puts a decidedly Bordertown spin on the tale. Instead of the rescue being in the name of true love (or even “right”) as it generally is in the original tales, the challenge is falsely set by some meddling elves from Faerieland as a means of dividing the human and elvin political factions in Bordertown who they deem to be growing too close. Bordertown has a myriad of gangs (elfin, human, and mixed) and social groups who are common plot devices and characters in the stories, so Kushner’s brief foray into more traditional politics within Bordertown makes for an interesting tale. I don’t recall any other stories which centre on this group of people, and I can’t blame most authors from steering clear of a topic that could easily make a Bordertown story quite mundane (politics are old hat, especially traditional ones), but that doesn’t detract from Kushner’s story. show less

Four stories by four different authors, all set in the same shared universe: a seedy borderland between the ordinary human world and an inexplicably returned fairy realm. The stories are all decent and readable enough, although I didn't find any of them particularly memorable or compelling. And unfortunately the setting, while it has a certain amount of potential, never feels terribly well fleshed out and, at least in this collection, never really rises above the level of vaguely interesting gimmick.

I have no idea what the actual genesis of this shared world is, but I can't help imagining a group of fantasy authors getting drunk together somewhere when one of them suddenly comes out with, "You know what would be awesome? Rock and roll show more elves!" At which point they spend the rest of the night discussing how you could go about building a setting that would let you have lots of rock and roll elves. And then someone still thought it was a good idea in the morning and talked the rest into participating. The thing is, I strongly suspect that "rock and roll elves" is one of those ideas that really needs to be done absolutely brilliantly or not at all. I seem to remember Emma Bull doing it surprisingly effectively in War for the Oaks, so it is possible, but whatever that book had, this one somehow lacks.

I also think that part of the problem is that the elves here are just not alien enough. They're not even as much so as your generic Tolkien-clone elves. Mostly, they're just normal people with pointed ears and random magical abilities. show less

Eighties mythic urban fantasy that, almost more than War of the Oaks, sets the tone for the rest of the genre. The prose is merely serviceable, the characters likable but uncomplicated, but the aesthetic of Celtic punk rock, elf/human gang warfare, and glamorous urban decay absolutely succeeds. You can understand why this series inspired its own new wave/nerd subculture back in the eighties.

The first three stories are very much cut of the same cloth, but Kushner's last story is a welcome surprise, depicting teenage angst and moral ambivalence with an emotional rawness that the previous stories lack.

The Bordertown series is where urban fantasy started to change and grow. This is I believe the first book and is a fascinating read because all the authors have a slightly different idea of what Bordertown will end up being. Every story is amazing from the first one that reads more like a post-apocalyptic scenario to the later ones where Bordertown becomes a clearer place. If you enjoy the urban fantasy of today, go find these books.