Sakura of DOOM

It's funny, I remember enjoying this anthology a great deal, but story-by-story, I think I only really liked two or three. But I really liked those. Also, even if I hadn't, it would have been worth it just for a McKinley story I hadn't read before.

I read James P. Blaylock's "Paper Dragons," Robert Westall's "The Big Rock Candy Mountain" and Patricia A. McKillip's "The Old Woman and the Storm" around when I first got home from Wiscon, which means that I now don't remember them at all. I vaguely remember liking the McKillip but not being blown away by it, but that's it.

I wasn't very impressed with Michael de Larrabeiti's "The Curse of Igamor," which felt a little too self-satisfied and smug, despite the humorous tone, and I downright disliked Joan D. Vinge's "Tam Lin" (I suspect this, coupled with my dislike of The Snow Queen, means I am probably not a Vinge fan). Her Jennet/Janet flounced and described her own looks to me and defied her father's wish for her to get married by going to the fair; basically, she reminded me of every "spunky" romance novel heroine ever.

Jane Yolen's "Evian Steel" was a somewhat more interesting than usual take on Excalibur and Avalon, but a) I've read it before in another collection and b) so sick of Arthurian legend! Also sick of Celtic mythology and Welsh mythology! Have read entirely too many!

And despite completely not getting God Stalk, I still liked Hodgell's "Stranger Blood," which is odd and disturbing and has a whole background and world that I continue to not understand.

I loved Peter Dickinson's "Flight," which was the only story in the book that didn't feel white. I can't exactly pinpoint why it didn't read as your standard Eurofantasy to me (though Westall and Blaylock's stories aren't Eurofantasy either, from the little I recall). Possibly it was the mention of the World Elephant. "Flight" isn't really a story, and I could not for the life of me keep track of the timeline or the general narrative, but I loved loved loved the tone and the world and all the fun little details Dickinson puts in for his narrator, a historian of that world.

I loved Robin McKinley's "The Stone Fey" as well, though I am now completely confused about Damar. The Damar of "The Stone Fey" and The Hero and the Crown both read like the same country, but they don't feel anything like the Damar of The Blue Sword. I'm thinking about this mostly after having a few discussions post-Wiscon on Damar and the White Savior trope and all. Because the Damar of "The Stone Fey" reads very much as Eurofantasy (the dog's name is Aerlich, for example).

Aside from that, I really liked that McKinley subverts the standard "human lured by supernatural lover" trope, and, like almost all her things, I love the sense of the every day, of details like that of sheep and doggy mannerisms and farming.