Scan barcode
avsdhpn's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.25
yabetsy's review against another edition
4.0
Original stories written to celebrate the imprint at Penguin Putnam re-releasing works by well-known fantasy authors, including Lloyd Alexander, Nancy Springer and Garth Nix. Several different kinds of storytelling will only whet readers appetites for more. From Delia Sherman's version of an urban fairy midnight ball, to Garth Nix's fantastic Old West fantasy shoot-out, to Sherwood Smith’s “Beauty", which has a princess wondering what happens when someone doesn’t get their full allotment of Beauty. Do they get sympathy? Her gorgeous older brother just tells her to stay away from mirrors… This collection literally has something for every teen, including the opportunity to lead them to more books. This remains one of my favorite collections, years after its release.
aemkea's review against another edition
4.0
Gaaaah, I love these Firebird anthologies!!!!
They are so good, and SO MUCH FUN to read!
They are so good, and SO MUCH FUN to read!
juliana_aldous's review against another edition
4.0
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.
shanyreader's review against another edition
5.0
I mean...SCIENCEFICTION/FANTASY...it's a collection of short stories, and really--all of them were good. None of them were complete misses but almost all of them brought out the true spirit of both these genres. They were fun to read once you got into them, and the book as a whole was a successfull collection of these amazing stories.
yourbelovedissy's review against another edition
adventurous
inspiring
lighthearted
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? N/A
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
4.0
ne0the0ne's review against another edition
Read The Baby in the Night Deposit Box by Megan Whalen Turner to teens.
metaphorosis's review against another edition
4.0
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 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.
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 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.
acidsunshinee's review against another edition
4.0
I really loved this anthology. I started reading it because of Garth Nix and just kept going. I found a few new favorite authors from the shorts contained within.
choirqueer's review against another edition
3.0
This one was all right! The talking cat story was memorable. The others were a mixed bag. I had sort of imagined that I was picking up a book that would be an interesting sampler of authors whose longer works I'd then want to go check out, and I didn't get a lot of that from this anthology. But for the most part I had a good time reading.