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A review by formtruthregret
Mad Hatters and March Hares by Ellen Datlow
3.0
I picked this one up largely because I love Alice's Adventures in Wonderland & Through the Looking Glass. I also love reading riffs on the originals. So, a short story featuring some of my favorite authors that's devoted to exactly that? I could not resist.
Rather than go through every story, I'm just going to talk about the ones I liked. Overall there were several entries that I though were great, some I thought were good, and a whole bunch of "eh" ones. I'm just going to discuss my highlights. Anything I don't mention can be considered an "eh" in my book.
"My Own Invention" by Delia Sherman
I really liked seeing the white knight from his own POV. Sherman does an excellent job of pulling off the knight's weirdness while also making him exceedingly likable. I also liked how Sherman used the tropes of Alice in Wonderland to let someone work through issues of identity (while the White Knight looks on in befuddlement, naturally!)
"Lily-White and the Thief of Lesser Night" by C.S.E. Cooney
An absolutely fantastic entry that convincingly builds on the Wonderland of the books and populates it with interesting characters, places, and ideas. This one doesn't shy away from the violence of Wonderland without crossing into grimdark or horror territory, which I liked too.
"Mercury" by Priya Sharma
This one's a weird one. (Probably I did it a disservice by reading it in bits and pieces, rather than all at once.) I liked the idea of it a lot, though, and thinking back on it I can see where Sharma threaded in the looming presence of Wonderland. I love the idea of Wonderland as a real place and a real escape. It was an interesting take on the idea of Wonderland.
"Some Kind of Wonderland" by Richard Bowes
Out of all of the stories this one feels the most grounded away from Wonderland and is all about people interacting with Carroll's books as a story. It feels like a snapshot of a very specific time and place, seen using Wonderland as a frame. I actually wish the (very light) fantastic element hadn't been present: I think it would have worked just fine, even better, without it. Somewhat unexpectedly, it's one of my favorites.
"In Memory of a Summer's Day" by Matthew Kressel
The idea of Wonderland being turned into a tourist attraction is an eerie one and I was ready for some excellent horror. And, to be fair, Kressel depicts a Wonderland that is beautiful and also quite terrible, capricious on its whims and cruel to its visitors, who pay too much to see a commodified version of a place that by its nature defies logic and order and don't even remember suffering for it. The reveal about Alice didn't really work for me. Great concept, though.
"Worrity, Worrity" by Andy Duncan
This is an odd duck in the collection in that it's the only one that focuses on, much less mentions, John Tenniel, original illustrator of the books. Duncan does a great job of building up the creeping horror of Tenniel's visions of wasps, how they start off relatively innocuous and just loom and loom. The little interludes describing illustrations are the perfect touch.
"The Queen of Hats" by Ysabeau S. Wilce
This one was an interesting attempt to riff on the originals by building a whole new adventure in the style of Carroll's books. Wilce nails the tone, but some of her creations didn't seem to be quite in the style of the Wonderland I'm familiar with. On the other hand, I loved the conceit of comparing Wonderland to the theater backstage. A very fun take on the theme.
"A Comfort, One Way" by Genevieve Valentine
This one was a deeply sad take on Wonderland, exploring the lives of Wonderland's inhabitants. I don't know where this trope that "Alice" isn't so much as a person as a recurring role that forces everyone to act out her adventure time and again came from, but I love it. (It's also a core idea of Are You Alice? written by Ai Ninomiya and illustrated by Ikumi Katagiri, one of my favorite manga series). Valentine's take on the idea focuses on the "Mary Anns", the girls who get stuck in Wonderland, and on how the recurring Alice adventures wreak havoc on Wonderland's inhabitants.
"The Flame After the Candle" by Catherynne M. Valente
Valente is one of those authors who does an amazing job of pulling off the tone and feeling of Wonderland without exactly copying or mimicking elements of the original. I love that her Wonderland reflects and is informed by a different era of the world. (I wonder what a modern Wonderland would look like in her hands?). The non-Wonderland bits were also beautifully written, if less my thing, largely because I've never read Peter Pan and have no special attachment to any iteration of that story. Still, if Alice and Peter meeting each other post-adventures sounds like your thing, you are in luck, because that is what happens here.
Overall, most of the stories fell into the "just okay" category. The ones I really loved were the ones that either really explored the nature of Wonderland, either as a place in and of itself or in relation to the world. But there were also some more unique takes on the idea that I liked very much. I like anthologies in theory because I'm always trying to figure out the art of the short story -- I'm terrible at endings in my own writing -- but I sometimes wonder if it's worth the cost of admission when multi-author anthologies tend to be very hit and/or miss with me. Still, as an introduction to several new authors, this one was a great success. I definitely intend to look into what else C.S.E. Cooney, Priya Sharma, and Ysabeau S. Wilce have written.
Rather than go through every story, I'm just going to talk about the ones I liked. Overall there were several entries that I though were great, some I thought were good, and a whole bunch of "eh" ones. I'm just going to discuss my highlights. Anything I don't mention can be considered an "eh" in my book.
"My Own Invention" by Delia Sherman
I really liked seeing the white knight from his own POV. Sherman does an excellent job of pulling off the knight's weirdness while also making him exceedingly likable. I also liked how Sherman used the tropes of Alice in Wonderland to let someone work through issues of identity (while the White Knight looks on in befuddlement, naturally!)
"Lily-White and the Thief of Lesser Night" by C.S.E. Cooney
An absolutely fantastic entry that convincingly builds on the Wonderland of the books and populates it with interesting characters, places, and ideas. This one doesn't shy away from the violence of Wonderland without crossing into grimdark or horror territory, which I liked too.
"Mercury" by Priya Sharma
This one's a weird one. (Probably I did it a disservice by reading it in bits and pieces, rather than all at once.) I liked the idea of it a lot, though, and thinking back on it I can see where Sharma threaded in the looming presence of Wonderland. I love the idea of Wonderland as a real place and a real escape. It was an interesting take on the idea of Wonderland.
"Some Kind of Wonderland" by Richard Bowes
Out of all of the stories this one feels the most grounded away from Wonderland and is all about people interacting with Carroll's books as a story. It feels like a snapshot of a very specific time and place, seen using Wonderland as a frame. I actually wish the (very light) fantastic element hadn't been present: I think it would have worked just fine, even better, without it. Somewhat unexpectedly, it's one of my favorites.
"In Memory of a Summer's Day" by Matthew Kressel
The idea of Wonderland being turned into a tourist attraction is an eerie one and I was ready for some excellent horror. And, to be fair, Kressel depicts a Wonderland that is beautiful and also quite terrible, capricious on its whims and cruel to its visitors, who pay too much to see a commodified version of a place that by its nature defies logic and order and don't even remember suffering for it. The reveal about Alice didn't really work for me. Great concept, though.
"Worrity, Worrity" by Andy Duncan
This is an odd duck in the collection in that it's the only one that focuses on, much less mentions, John Tenniel, original illustrator of the books. Duncan does a great job of building up the creeping horror of Tenniel's visions of wasps, how they start off relatively innocuous and just loom and loom. The little interludes describing illustrations are the perfect touch.
"The Queen of Hats" by Ysabeau S. Wilce
This one was an interesting attempt to riff on the originals by building a whole new adventure in the style of Carroll's books. Wilce nails the tone, but some of her creations didn't seem to be quite in the style of the Wonderland I'm familiar with. On the other hand, I loved the conceit of comparing Wonderland to the theater backstage. A very fun take on the theme.
"A Comfort, One Way" by Genevieve Valentine
This one was a deeply sad take on Wonderland, exploring the lives of Wonderland's inhabitants. I don't know where this trope that "Alice" isn't so much as a person as a recurring role that forces everyone to act out her adventure time and again came from, but I love it. (It's also a core idea of Are You Alice? written by Ai Ninomiya and illustrated by Ikumi Katagiri, one of my favorite manga series). Valentine's take on the idea focuses on the "Mary Anns", the girls who get stuck in Wonderland, and on how the recurring Alice adventures wreak havoc on Wonderland's inhabitants.
"The Flame After the Candle" by Catherynne M. Valente
Valente is one of those authors who does an amazing job of pulling off the tone and feeling of Wonderland without exactly copying or mimicking elements of the original. I love that her Wonderland reflects and is informed by a different era of the world. (I wonder what a modern Wonderland would look like in her hands?). The non-Wonderland bits were also beautifully written, if less my thing, largely because I've never read Peter Pan and have no special attachment to any iteration of that story. Still, if Alice and Peter meeting each other post-adventures sounds like your thing, you are in luck, because that is what happens here.
Overall, most of the stories fell into the "just okay" category. The ones I really loved were the ones that either really explored the nature of Wonderland, either as a place in and of itself or in relation to the world. But there were also some more unique takes on the idea that I liked very much. I like anthologies in theory because I'm always trying to figure out the art of the short story -- I'm terrible at endings in my own writing -- but I sometimes wonder if it's worth the cost of admission when multi-author anthologies tend to be very hit and/or miss with me. Still, as an introduction to several new authors, this one was a great success. I definitely intend to look into what else C.S.E. Cooney, Priya Sharma, and Ysabeau S. Wilce have written.