Thornhedge
by T. Kingfisher
I have written about some of Kingfisher’s works in the past including Wizard’s Guide to Defensive Baking and What Moves the Dead. Her work tends to be in the fantasy and horror genre. Much like Defensive Baking, this novella takes a new spin at the fairytale genre, in this case Sleeping Beauty with what felt to me like a bit of the frog prince in the mix. Instead of focusing on “the princess” in the tower it follows the adventures of Toadling, a changeling, who fills in for the fairies in bequeathing what could be a gift or curse. Kingfisher says in her endnote that she was inspired by the idea of why someone feel the need to surround the tower with such a substantial barrier. I liked where that reasoning lead her in Thornhedge. I also liked that she brought in more fairies from folk stories and some historical details for her piece; the knight in this story is a Muslim. At just over a hundred words, this novella is a quick read filled with both whimsy and menace; it manages to be both contemporary as well as hearkening back to the darker magic of Grimm Brother’s original collected tales. I received an early copy of the story from Netgalley and the publisher in order to provide an honest review.
The Dragon Waiting
by John M. Ford
From Alternate Fairytales we move to Alternate History. The Dragon Waiting was originally subtitled, “a masque of history” which is a fitting description since behind the novel lurks some of the history of the British crown, with both some slight spins on the general facts but also stirs in supernatural details like sorcery and vampirism. A lot of our recent book discussion picks for our Science Fiction and Fantasy Book Discussion at the library had been new works such as Paradox Hotel and Siren Queen, but for July we went with this classic novel from 1983 by John M. Ford, which won a World Fantasy Award for Best Novel in 1984. The novel, along with much of Ford’s work, was in copyright limbo for years, which was only recently resolved. Neil Gaiman, a favorite author of mine, had written a glowing review of the work and he and others compared it positively to Game of Thrones, another book discussion pick, so I had high expectations going into the work. The group overall felt though the original characters were intriguing, to truly enjoy the story, a knowledge of the actual historic events the book was drawing from was necessary. We have two upcoming book discussions in September for the Science Fiction Book Discussion Group, one on Saturday, September 2 and another on Thursday, September 28.
Written by:
Aimee Harris
Information and Digital Services Manager
Hoboken Library Staff Picks 