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A review by misterjay
Welcome to Bordertown by Tim Pratt, Jane Yolen, Catherynne M. Valente, Christopher Barzak, Cassandra Campbell, Cory Doctorow, Annette Curtis Klause, Dylan Meconis, Will Shetterly, Holly Black, Janni Lee Simner, Cassandra Clare, Delia Sherman, Steven Brust, MacLeod Andrews, Patricia A. McKillip, Dounya El-Mohtar, Charles de Lint, Ellen Kushner, Ellen Kushner, Amal El-Mohtar, Neil Gaiman, Nalo Hopkinson, Sara Ryan, Terri Windling, Emma Bull, Alaya Dawn Johnson
4.0
My aunt gave me a copy of "Elsewhere" when I was a young teenager and I read it three or four times, savoring every word and description of the border and Bordertown. I scoured her bookshelves and the local library and the secondhand bookstores looking for the original anthologies that had been published a few years prior to my discovering them. Once I found them, I inhaled them as quickly and as deeply as I had the novels.
All of which is to say I was beyond pleased when I learned that there was going to be a new anthology.
Now, having read the new anthology once, and skimmed back through it a half-dozen times looking for favorite passages and lines, I'm just as happy and as sated and as desperate for more border stories as I was twenty-some years ago.
Particular standouts for me were "Ours is the Prettiest" by Nalo Hopkinson, "A Tangle of Green Men" by Charles de Lint, and, of course, "The Sages of Elsewhere" by Will Shetterly.
"Ours is the Prettiest" is just a superbly atmospheric story; the language of the story, its twists and odd turnings and odder accents provide a welcome dash of spices to the standard Bordertown tale. The story itself is vivid and memorable, but the language is what really got to me.
"A Tangle of Green Men" is the best sort of heartbroken story. Sparse and atmospheric at the same time, a sense of longing and hope permeates the piece and it lingers in the mind well after the book is closed.
And then, of course, of course, of course, there's "The Sages of Elsewhere." Because it's a Wolfboy story and it's always great to see an old friend doing so well.
All of which is to say I was beyond pleased when I learned that there was going to be a new anthology.
Now, having read the new anthology once, and skimmed back through it a half-dozen times looking for favorite passages and lines, I'm just as happy and as sated and as desperate for more border stories as I was twenty-some years ago.
Particular standouts for me were "Ours is the Prettiest" by Nalo Hopkinson, "A Tangle of Green Men" by Charles de Lint, and, of course, "The Sages of Elsewhere" by Will Shetterly.
"Ours is the Prettiest" is just a superbly atmospheric story; the language of the story, its twists and odd turnings and odder accents provide a welcome dash of spices to the standard Bordertown tale. The story itself is vivid and memorable, but the language is what really got to me.
"A Tangle of Green Men" is the best sort of heartbroken story. Sparse and atmospheric at the same time, a sense of longing and hope permeates the piece and it lingers in the mind well after the book is closed.
And then, of course, of course, of course, there's "The Sages of Elsewhere." Because it's a Wolfboy story and it's always great to see an old friend doing so well.