To Read & To Write

Oh Gods, jabber, Devil's Tail, damn. This book is the best I've read this year. Though -  I'd recommend "Perdido Street Station" to those who are already partial to fantasy, fairy-tales, and science fiction, because the entire novel is heavily steeped in those genre elements and it's an extremely strong brew; a thick and boasty blend, yet a sweet and tart mix of character-driven action, fast-paced at over seven-hundred pages that pulsate with anthropomorphic creatures, evil monsters, a brilliant and non-conforming scientist, beautifully winged-bug maidens, a seedy underworld, a corrupt bureaucracy, sentient A.I. robotrons, pretentious art-world snobs, a hellish brothel of indescribable, sinful creatures and so. much. more.  I'll begin with Isaac, the main character, our passionate scientist unaccepted by his fellows because, well, he's a bit *avant-garde* for his discipline. His thing: Crisis Theory. He's been working on it for some time, but ...

In this hilarious, enchanting, and moving collection of twenty fairy-tales, readers will traverse through backwater America, the Italian countryside, the moors of England, and still more places that may - or may not - really exist. Featuring storytellers such as Susanna Clarke, who was still just working on her popular novel Johnathan Strange & Mr. Norrell , well-known fantasy writers such as Neil Gaiman, and unlikely fairy-tale authors such as Joyce Carol Oates, this book will delight all those interested in the less explainable aspects of humanity with a renewed appreciation for contemporary creative writing, particularly in the realm of the supernatural and, strikingly, traditional genre that we have come to name fairy-tales.  While now a more ubiquitous pattern in storytelling, Black Heart, Ivory Bones  gives a sense of freshness to the idea of old and new worlds combined; one running rampant with magic and the historical past, and the other filled with the an...

Tanith Lee’s “White As Snow” is a disturbing and powerful book that infuses mythology, specifically the Demeter and Persephone story, into the Snow White fairy-tale. However, you do not need to be familiar with the Snow White tale (which you probably already are) or the Greek myth to understand and enjoy this book. It is hard for me to say that I *loved* this book; there is so much sorrow within it as well as horror, but I did love it, because I felt a strong sympathy for the two main characters, Arpazia and Coira. I also enjoyed reading the structure and intricacy of the plot. The Walt Disney version’s main elements are still here, but they are altered, magnified, and made profound. The mirror plays a more abstract role in “White As Snow”; there is much to say about what it symbolizes (vanity? fear? wonder?). The story is unabashedly serious in tone, starting off with a fourteen-year-old Princess’s rape in the woods, after her father’s (the King’s) kingdom is sacked by another bru...