Product Description
La Ribera, hogar de carteristas y prostitutas, es el barrio bajo de una ciudad sin nombre dominada por el Consejo de los Lores. Allí acuden los aristócratas de incógnito, abandonando sus suntuosas mansiones en la Colina, para contratar a los implacables espadachines que se baten por ellos en duelos, una forma sofisticada de asesinato legal que sirve tanto para satisfacer el orgullo herido como para eliminar a un oponente político. Richard de Vier, que no puede desenvainar su espada sin derramar sangre, es el mejor espadachín de su época, y sus servicios son muy cotizados entre los poderosos. Pero al negarse a aceptar el encargo de un noble influyente, se convierte en objeto de sus intrigas, lo que amenaza con poner un súbito final a su brillante carrera. ... Read more

Product Description
An exploration of the benefits of a fantasy life for victims of childhood abuse combines the works of such author as Charles de Lint, Jane Yolen, and Steven Gould with essays on the transforming powers of fairy tales. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (8)

Amazing
These are retold fairy tales, but not the funny ones. Still, by exploring the tragedy, warmth, and soulfulness of these tales, deeply talented authors delve into the soul and try to find comfort int hese new flavors of fairy tales.

Fairy tales are not just for children
This anthology is one of the most emotionally wrenching and satisfying collections of stories that I've read-not just from fantasy authors, but from anyone.Dealing with the darker aspects of childhood, including abuse and alienation, the stories and poetry are full of depth and transformation; magic, despair, and ultimately hope.Some exceptional stories are "The Armless Maiden" by Midori Snyder, "The Juniper Tree" by Peter Straub, "The Lion and the Lark" by Patricia McKillip, "The Lily and the Weaver's Heart" by Nancy Etchemendy, "In the House of My Enemy" by Charles De Lint, and "In the Night Country" by Ellen Steiber.The poems are all beautiful.This book is definitely on my desert island list.

Dead-serious fairy tales
I love adult fairy tales, but it seems that all too often, writers pump up the sex and violence to render the tales "adult", rather than more deeply exploring the human emotional dramas in the stories. Maybe that's why I love _The Armless Maiden_. The tales and poems here do include sex and violence, yes, but at their heart is the triumph of the human spirit.

If we look carefully at fairy tales, many of them are actually about what we would now call child abuse. Cinderella was neglected. Handel and Gretel were abandoned. Donkeyskin suffered incest. And there are so many more. And in most of the stories, the protagonist rises above the situation somehow--in the old versions, usually by gaining fortune and position. In the stories in _The Armless Maiden_, the triumph is more often psychological. I read once--I think it was in a book by Marina Warner--that the essential theme of the fairy tale is transformation. In these stories, we see victims transformed into survivors.

These are serious fairy tales for our times, and I recommend the book both to abuse survivors and to those who did not suffer abuse (trust me, everyone knows someone who did). My personal favorite contributions are Emma Bull's poem about Cinderella's stepsister regretting the friendship they never had, and Ellen Kushner's "Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep", the story of a young girl in the custody of a cold-hearted guardian, and haunted by the ghost of the woman's unhappy daughter.

Why is this book out of print?
This is a short review.

Actually, this is not a review atall, although I should say it, shortly and to the point: The ArmlessMaiden is a gorgeous anthology, one of the best I've ever read.

This is just a message to people who might stumble upon it in a bookstore or library.

The message is: read it.

You will not be disappointed.

Essential for everyone, but especially survivors of abuse.
This book has a myriad of short stories, poems, & essays about survivors of child abuse. They are all worked around fairy-tale themes but not Disneyified: no handsome prince comes to rescue a child; instead, thesechildren escape through their own courage & perseverance. An AMAZINGbook. A shame it is out of print--but I've seen copies used & inremainder bins at bookstores so do yourself a favor & keep looking!This book will make you shudder, weep, cringe, but ultimately leaves youw/a feeling of hope. All the pieces are good, but standouts include TerriWindling's, Charles De Lint's, Ellen Steiber's, & Munro Sickafoose's.Another wonderful aspect is that Windling ignores genre boundaries &hence you see authors such as Sharon Olds & Anne Sexton represented aswell. Highly recommended! ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Bordertown:A Chronicle of the Borderlands
I read this book when it was new.I was twelve, and I loved it so much I never forgot it.Unfortunately, it was lost while moving, and I couldn't find another copy.I'm over thirty now, and I wondered if it was only good because I read it so young, or if it really was as good as I remember.It is every bit as good now as then, and well worth the price I paid for it.Now I'm trying to find more books in this series.

The story is basic modern fantasy.Where the Realm of Faerie and the World meet lies Bordertown.Magic is unpredictable there, and so is technology.Rock'n'roll has a power all its own.The local werewolf is friendly, but the people are not.It's a delightfully escapist mish-mash which has not lost its appeal in 24 years.

GREAT READ!!!!!!!!!!!!
The first book in the bordertown series I read was a travliers guide. I was hooked after that. This book is a great urban fantasy. I makes me want to run away and just be young and care free.The introduction by Farrel Din is perfect, He is a character I alaways want to know more about. Little glimpes of his charater in other books is like torture. Danceland is like a slice of pie with the charaters Tick-Tick and Orient, for the whole pie read Finder. Demon is about an elf brat who turnes the lead charater,Laura, into a demon. He underestimates her will and strength through the entire story. Exil is kinda about Dez who is so nieve but is strong enough to take care for herself and follow where her heart leads her. Mockery is one of the best stories in the borderlands. Its about a young painter and even younger love. If you ever had a crush in school you will love this story. ... Read more

Product Description
This acclaimed series, winner of numerous World Fantasy Awards, continues its tradition of excellence with scores of short stories from such writers as Michael Bishop, Edward Byrant, Angela Carter, Terry Lamsley, Gabriel Garcia Marquex, A.R. Morlan, Robert Silverberg, Michael Swanwick, Jane Yolen and many others. Supplementing the stories are the editors' invaluable overviews of the year in fantastic fiction, Edward Bryant's witty roundup of the year's fantasy films, and a long list of Honorable Mentions -- all of which adds up to an invaluable reference source, and a font of fabulous reading.
Amazon.com Review
The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror annuals are always atreat; read this one and The Year's Best ScienceFiction Sixteenth Annual Collection edited by Gardner Dozoisand you'll have a fairly complete overview of speculative fiction from1998 as well as hours of great reading.

Datlow and Windling,renowned for crossing genre boundaries, gather stories and poems frommainstream magazines, literary journals, and Internet zines. There arevampires, a Lovecraft homage, enchanted birds and animals,shapeshifters, adult fairy tales, ghosts, and even a hunted muse. Thebest are Byatt's sensuous, enchanting "Cold"--about an ice princesswho marries a glass-blowing desert prince--and Straub's novella,"Mr. Clubb and Mr. Cuff" (which won the Stokeraward for Best Long Fiction in 1999), a black comedy of revengegone awry. The reference material includes each editor's review of theyear's best novels, collections and anthologies, magazines, relatednonfiction, children's books, and art. There's also a roundup of1998's film, television, and dramatic offerings by Ed Bryant, a briefessay on comics by Seth Johnson, and obituaries by James Frenkel.

It's an invaluable source of introductions to authors you might nototherwise try, plus thought-provoking observations on fantasy in allits guises. You may not get to a convention this year, but if you'veread Datlow and Windling, you'll know what a good one islike. --Nona Vero ... Read more

Customer Reviews (10)

A mix of diamonds and duds
I was really impressed with some of the fiction in this book. I really loved the stories Travels with the Snow Queen and Quiting Loup. I also loved Twa Corbies. But some were a little bit to be desired. I really thought that the whole feminist fairy tale theme was a little bit hard to swallow and a tad annoying but overall a good read.

Some Great Stories Make Up For the MANY Duds....
This is actually one of the better "Years Best" that I've read so far. Again, I skimmed right past Windling & Datlow's Summations- They go on waaayyyy too long, as usual. Also as usual, Fantasy Editor Terri Windling monopolizes the bulk of the book with her choices. Horror Editor Ellen Datlow does get some payback, though: One of her choices, Peter Straub's "Mr. Clubb and Mr. Cuff", runs in excess of 50 pages. The titular duo is memorable, but the story goes on too long, and the style it's written in is difficult to stick with. The end is worth it, though.

The book opens with Kelly Link's "Travels With the Snow Queen" which I couldn't even finish; I hated it. Link appears again towards the end of the book with "The Specialist's Hat", an absolutely chilling ghost story with a drop-dead scary ending. I couldn't move on to the next story until the next day, because I was turning Link's story over in my mind all night. It was absolutely one of the spookiest stories I've ever read. Sara Douglass offers up the REAL secret behind those Gargoyles on Church roofs in "The Evil Within", a far-fetched but fun Horror tale, and Lisa Goldstein's "The Fantasma of Q____" is an interesting victorian tale with an neat twist at the end. Stephen King's contribution is pretty good; Not his best, but the end makes it worthwhile. One of the book's better tales is Terry Lamsley's "Suburban Blight", where an abandoned building hides a terrifying secret. "Inside the Cackle Factory", by Dennis Etchison, tells us just what happens to all of those washed-up stars we never see on TV anymore. John Kessel's "Every Angel is Terrifying" is a realistic story of escaped killers that takes a mildly fantastic twist at the end; It's extremely well-written, and creepy as hell. As always, there's a Dracula story (Sort of)- It's Mark W. Tiedmann's "Psyche", and it's a keeper. Drac himself is only peripherally involved, but his influence permeates the entire story. Jane Yolen, Norman Partridge, and Michael Blumlein all contribute interesting stories as well. I couldn't get through Christopher Harman's "Jackdaw Jack"- It was just awful. There's another Charles De Lint Newford story, which is excellent as usual, and Terry Dowling's story, "Jenny Come To Play" is just a nasty read; Although they're nothing alike, it has the same feel as "The Silence of the Lambs". And as usual, Terri Windling monopolizes the end of the book with dud stories that I can't get through. Windling tends to favor feminist fantasy stories that are all too much alike; I was actually offended by Carol Ann Duffy's ode to man-hating, "Mrs. Beast"; The less I say about this trash the better. If a man had written such an anti-female story, he'd be finished.

As I said, there are some GREAT stories here, but they're outweighed by the duds, and when one of these stories are bad, they're BAD. I'll read the other two volumes of "Year's Best" that I own, but I'll pass on buying new ones. Windling & Datlow's selections leave a lot to be desired, and I wish they would get a little more daring.....

The current pulse of nonrealistic fiction.
In their twelfth annual survey, Datlow and Windling have assembled a rewarding collection of genre (and extra-genre) fiction from English language sources of all kinds from 1998, with a little poetry thrown in as well.In a format based on Dozois's science fiction anthologies, Datlow and Windling's series has become an annual "event" for lovers of nonrealistic short fiction.The editors are open to just about anything and everything, as long as it has significant fantasy or horror elements, but they are more likely to reprint material by women writers, or about female characters.As far as biases go, that's not a bad one to have: some of the best fantasists working today are women.

The editors look at mainstream magazines like "The New Yorker" and "Ms." -- both of which had strong stories chosen for this book. From "The New Yorker" they selected Stephen King's "That Feeling, You Can Only Say What It Is in French," which in 20 tightly-written pages gives the reader the entire life of a woman who may be getting precognitive flashes about the crash of the plane she and her husband are on, or who may simply be fantasizing the crash as a death wish.I knew this woman completely by the end of the story (whose title refers to déjà vu).The "Ms." story was Lisa Goldstein's "The Phantasma of Q-----," with a moment of magic realism passing so quickly it's hard to catch.It is a strength of this series that it covers work in mainstream, genre and academic/small press sources.

A number of British and Australian magazines, anthologies and collections provide selections, with two superior tales well worth reading.The best thing in the book (and saved for last) is the superb modern fairy tale by A. S. Byatt, "Cold" -- sitting in a warm library, I was shivering at the frozen world depicted.A beautifully textured story, the best I've read in several years.It came from Byatt's collection, "Fire and Ice."Christopher Harman's "Jackdaw Jack" (from Ghosts and Scholars, a UK little magazine) is the best shocker in the anthology.Its pieces fall into place like a well-wrought jigsaw, and the end left me numb.

Among the other stories is an unclassifiable gem by Ray Vukcevich, "By the Time We Get to Uranus" (from the anthology, Imagination Fully Dilated). In the story's surreal world, a person's body slowly develops an astronaut's suit from the feet up, and eventually the person floats off into space.When this happens to a man's wife, he's concerned that his suit isn't developing as fast as hers, as they can't leave together. A metaphor for what separates the sexes these days, the story works and then some.

The stories I detailed here are my favorites, but others will find others they like as much or better.Some motifs of the book are hispanic magic realism, foreign fantasy in translation, and stories that are just very strange.I'm not a fast reader, and this long book took me a year and a half to finish.The extensive prefaces (in roman numerals) run over 100 pages before you even get to "page 1."Windling first documents fantasy for 1998; Datlow then does the same for horror, after which we get essays on the media, comics and obituaries for 1998.The prefaces are meant to be references more than essays, and I do use them as a reference, but they are slow going just to read (and some of the info is duplicated by approaching the genres separately).The shortlist of "honorable mention" stories at the end is also useful as a reference.

All in all, a class act by two dedicated anthologists who deeply care about the state of the contemporary nonrealistic story.

Year's Best Fantasy and Horror, Fifth Annual
Standout stories here are Holdstock and Kilworth's chilling "The Ragthorn", Cherryh's "Gwydion and the Dragon" and McGrath's gruesome "The Smell". Also worth mentioning are stories by Koja and Kushner, among others. There's the usual useful overview of the industry, and the usual stock of cutesy (De Lint) and nonsensical stories and bad free verse, but this edition contains more truly good work than many of the others.

An outstanding entry in an excellent series
I am working my way back through all of the Datlow/Windling annuals, and although I love all of them, this collection is definitely outshines some of its colleagues (such as the third edition, which is the least thrilling of the ones I have read so far).Many of the stories will cling to your memory, and the scope of genres is commendable.The editors have found works form many different countries and languages and brought them all together into a very good volume.My favorite entries include "The Ragthorn" a truly frightening story about scholarship, information and resurrection; "Our Lady of the Harbour" Charles de Lint's Newford version of the little Mermaid; "Call Home" a truly scary story about a little girl and the man who doesn't molest her; "At the End of the Day" a disturbing and surreal narrative about endings; "The Poisoned Story" an upside down retelling of Cinderella in Puerto Rico by my compatriot Rosario Ferre; "The Peony Lantern" a Japanese ghost story and "The Witch of Wilton Falls" about human monsters and adapting to unusual circumstances. If you have read other Datlow/Windling anthologies and you want to buy other ones, get this one first.If you have never read these anthologies, this is a great place to start. ... Read more

Product Description
Last Drink Bird Head is a variation on a surrealist writing game: we gave the phrase to over 70 writers and asked them Who or what is Last Drink Bird Head? The results run the gamut from the hilarious to the terrifying, with each writer bringing their signature style and voice to the enterprise.All proceeds on Last Drink go to ProLiteracy.org.WHAT IS PROLITERACY?Help promote worldwide literacy through the ProLiteracy organization. ProLiteracy champions the power of literacy to improve the lives of adults and their families, communities, and societies. We envision a world in which everyone can read, write, compute, and use technology to lead healthy, productive, and fulfilling lives. For more information, visit ProLiteracy.org.Contributors:Daniel Abraham, Michael Arnzen, Steve Aylett, KJ Bishop, Michael Bishop, Desirina Boskovich, Keith Brooke, Jesse Bullington, Richard Butner, Catherine Cheek, Matthew Cheney, Michael Cisco, Gio Clairval, Alan M. Clark, Brendan Connell, Paul Di Filippo, Stephen R. Donaldson, Rikki Ducornet, Clare Dudman, Hal Duncan, Scott Eagle, Brian Evenson, Eliot Fintushel, Jeffrey Ford, Richard Gehr, Felix Gilman, Jon Courtney Grimwood, Rhys Hughes, Paul Jessup, Antony Johnston, John Kaiine, Henry Kaiser, Caitlin R. Kiernan, Tessa Kum, Ellen Kushner, Jay Lake, Tanith Lee, Stina Leicht, Therese Littleton, Beth Adele Long, Dustin Long, Nick Mamatas, JM McDermott, Sarah Monette, Kari OConnor, Ben Peek, Holly Phillips, Louis Phillips, Tim Pratt, Cat Rambo, Mark Rich, Bruce Holland Rogers, Nicholas Royle, G Eric Schaller, Ekaterina Sedia, Ramsey Shehadeh, Peter Straub, Victoria Strauss, Michael Swanwick, Mark Swartz, Alan Swirsky, Rachel Swirsky, Sonya Taaffe, Justin Taylor, Steve Rasnic Tem, Jeffrey Thomas, Scott Thomas, John Urbancik, Genevieve Valentine, Kim Westwood, Leslie What, Andrew Steiger White, Conrad Williams, Liz Williams, Neil Williamson, Caleb Wilson, Gene Wolfe, Jonathan Wood, Marly Youmans, and Catherine Zeidler ... Read more

Product Description
Choose Your Own Adventure books have been enjoyed by children for years. The interaction with the plot and the unpredictable turns and twists capture a child's interest and spark his imagination. What happens next in the story? It all depends on the choices you make. How does the story end? Only you can find out! And the best part is that you can keep reading and rereading until have had not one but many incredibly daring experiences! ... Read more

Product Description
Titles and numbers in set: The Cave of Time (#1); Journey Under the Sea (#2); Space and Beyond (#4); The Forbidden Castle (#14); House of Danger (#15); Hyperspace (#21); Ghost Hunter (#52); The Enchanted Kingdom (#56); Secret of the Ninja (#66); Terror in Australia (#81); Silver Wings (#123) ... Read more