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A review by mackle13
Troll's-Eye View: A Book of Villainous Tales by Ellen Datlow
3.0
Are the villains of the fairy tales we all know and love really as bad as they seem? How would things appear to be from their perspective?
That's the question that this short story and poem collection seeks to answer - with varying degrees of success.
Overall I liked the stories well enough, but none of them really wowed me. It was an entertaining diversion, but I suppose I was something more than you could glean from a short story collection.
That said, some of the ones I liked the best were:
Wizard's Apprentice - Delia Sherman (ode to misanthropy)
Up the Down Beanstalk: A Wife Remembers - Peter S. Beagle
The Boy Who Cried Wolf - Holly Black (interesting variant, and had a touch of the macabre)
Castle Othello - Nancy Farmer (an interesting blending of Othello and Bluebeard)
Observing the Formalities - Neil Gaiman (the only poem in the collection I liked, and it may be my bias in liking the 'bad fairy' of Sleeping Beauty)
The Cinderella Game - Kelly Link (which was the only one which managed to be sort of disturbing, which I think I was expecting more of)
Honorable mentions go to:
A Delicate Architecture - Catherine M. Valente (the story was interesting but just a touch too out there and motivations were weird)
and
Molly - Midori Snyder (The story was ok but the giants too stupid and Molly a bit too nasty)
So it didn't quite live up to expectations, but, as I said, a decent enough way to pass some time and, as evidenced by the fact that I read it in a few hours, it's a quick read.
That's the question that this short story and poem collection seeks to answer - with varying degrees of success.
Overall I liked the stories well enough, but none of them really wowed me. It was an entertaining diversion, but I suppose I was something more than you could glean from a short story collection.
That said, some of the ones I liked the best were:
Wizard's Apprentice - Delia Sherman (ode to misanthropy)
Up the Down Beanstalk: A Wife Remembers - Peter S. Beagle
The Boy Who Cried Wolf - Holly Black (interesting variant, and had a touch of the macabre)
Castle Othello - Nancy Farmer (an interesting blending of Othello and Bluebeard)
Observing the Formalities - Neil Gaiman (the only poem in the collection I liked, and it may be my bias in liking the 'bad fairy' of Sleeping Beauty)
The Cinderella Game - Kelly Link (which was the only one which managed to be sort of disturbing, which I think I was expecting more of)
Honorable mentions go to:
A Delicate Architecture - Catherine M. Valente (the story was interesting but just a touch too out there and motivations were weird)
and
Molly - Midori Snyder (The story was ok but the giants too stupid and Molly a bit too nasty)
So it didn't quite live up to expectations, but, as I said, a decent enough way to pass some time and, as evidenced by the fact that I read it in a few hours, it's a quick read.