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innae's review against another edition
3.0
I bought this way back in 2004, and started reading it then...and got distracted by something else, so I stopped reading.
I am now re-starting it.
Mallificent by Nina Kiriki Hoffman - A bit of a twist on the Sleeping Beauty story...although it also has some Labyrinth mythology to it (i am not sure of the myth that started Labyrinth going though) -- I liked it quite a lot.
The Last Day of the Rest of Her Life by Russell Davis - one of my favorite Hans Christian Anderson tales -- The Little Match Girl -- this one follows along with the older tale, only told in today's world. Still sad, still good.
Jack and the B.S. by Tanya Huff - Yep, its Jack and the Beanstalk, sort of. I thought it was okay.
Panhandler by Alan Dean Foster - NICE...a Peter Pan tale told in this world, I liked it lots.
Trading Fours with the Moldy Figs by Jean Rabe - has several wolves that you will recognize. I thought it was an okay story, nothing too spectacular.
Signs are Hazy, Ask Again Later by Fiona Patton - I don't know what story this retold, but I did enjoy it for the most part. Not one of my favorites of the book though.
Overall, an okay collection of short stories, none of them blew me away, but none of them were stinkers either -- I stopped keeping track of the stories, so this is going to have to end it.
I am now re-starting it.
Mallificent by Nina Kiriki Hoffman - A bit of a twist on the Sleeping Beauty story...although it also has some Labyrinth mythology to it (i am not sure of the myth that started Labyrinth going though) -- I liked it quite a lot.
The Last Day of the Rest of Her Life by Russell Davis - one of my favorite Hans Christian Anderson tales -- The Little Match Girl -- this one follows along with the older tale, only told in today's world. Still sad, still good.
Jack and the B.S. by Tanya Huff - Yep, its Jack and the Beanstalk, sort of. I thought it was okay.
Panhandler by Alan Dean Foster - NICE...a Peter Pan tale told in this world, I liked it lots.
Trading Fours with the Moldy Figs by Jean Rabe - has several wolves that you will recognize. I thought it was an okay story, nothing too spectacular.
Signs are Hazy, Ask Again Later by Fiona Patton - I don't know what story this retold, but I did enjoy it for the most part. Not one of my favorites of the book though.
Overall, an okay collection of short stories, none of them blew me away, but none of them were stinkers either -- I stopped keeping track of the stories, so this is going to have to end it.
kikiandarrowsfishshelf's review against another edition
2.0
Most of the stories in the book are okay. My favorite, however, wasMichelle West's retelling of Beauty and the Beast with a good dose of O. Henry. But overall, the collection was disappointing. The stories were either too predictable or too boring. West's one was very good, so go to the library and read that one.
wealhtheow's review against another edition
1.0
Some of the worst short stories I've read in a long, long time. Trite, cliched, badly told...ugh. I finally gave up after Russel Davis's "The Last Day of the Rest of her Life." It is a retelling of The Little Matchseller in which the main character is a young girl named Angel, who runs away from her abusive father (who is addicted to "matchsticks," a new drug that look like their namesake but give dreams of happier times). Of course she tries the matchsticks, and of course she freezes to death. "The girl's face, blue and frozen--and should it have been that small?--was marked with faded bruises, but her expression was almost angelic. A faint smile showed on her lips." Her dad finds her, is all, "oh noes! what have I done!" and goes inside and shoots himself. The passing policeman who witnesses all this says to himself, "Whatever troubles they'd had were over and they'd gone to their final home. Maybe it was as close to a fresh start as anyone ever really got." Seriously, a fifteen year old gawth chick could have written this with more style. SO BAD.
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