Meigan builds a LiHugo and Locus award finalist short story! Free to read online here at Tor.com. Final review, first posted on FantasyLiterature.com:
Meigan builds a Little Free Library from a kit, paints and decorates it, sets it up in her front yard, and puts a bunch of her old books in it for neighbors and passers-by to trade and share. All goes well the first day, but on the second someone empties out the Little Free Library box completely. Meigan is rather miffed, but shrugs it off and leaves a handwritten note to them in the box to next time please take just one or two books, or leave a book in return. Rather than books, the unknown person starts leaving unusual presents for Meigan in the box in exchange for the books they take. Then one day Meigan puts a copy of Defending Your Castle in the box, and things start to get really odd.
“Little Free Library” is heartwarming and whimsical, with a bittersweet note. If you’re partial to stories about library and books and the ways they can affect lives, this is an enjoyable tale. It’s set in our world, but with a hint of magic in the wings, just waiting to come onto the main stage.
This short story has one of those open-ended conclusions that really leaves the reader wondering what will happen next, but it’s not clear if Naomi Kritzer has a follow-up story in mind or that’s just the way the story ends. The latter is where I tend to think she’s going to land, but I’d be happy to be proved wrong. In any case it’s fun to imagine what might occur next. I have a few thoughts … ...more
The motto of the Librarians: RETRIEVE. RETURN. SURVIVE.
3.5 stars. I love library-based fantasy, so I couldn't resist this Scott Lynch (author of The LThe motto of the Librarians: RETRIEVE. RETURN. SURVIVE.
3.5 stars. I love library-based fantasy, so I couldn't resist this Scott Lynch (author of The Lies of Locke Lamora) novella about a group of students at a magic school taking their final exam for their fifth year. The exam consists solely of returning a magical book to the proper shelf in the school's library. That's it. Of course, it's a particularly dangerous library. Apparently that's what happens when you store vast numbers of magic-infused grimoires in one place.
"This place was orderly once. Pure, sane geometries. But after the collection was installed the change began. By the time the old librarians tried to do something, it was too late. Individual books are happy to come and go, but when they tried to remove large numbers at once, the library got angry."
"What happened?" said Casimir.
"Suffice it to say that in the thousand years since, it has been our strictest policy to never, ever make the library angry again."
So Casimir, his roommate Laszlo, Yvette, and Lev (a large lizard mage student) are escorted by a couple of librarians through the library to return four books to their shelves, and try not to get killed by magical books and creatures living in the stacks. There's a reason librarians wear armor.
It's a bit of a one-joke novella, but the adventure is interesting, and Scott Lynch throws out some humorous lines that will ring true to book lovers.
A book without a spine or covers is like an unquiet spirit without mortal form. Whatever's left of it holds itself together out of sheer resentment, roaming without purpose, lashing out at whatever crosses its path.
"Some books get ideas every now and then," said Master Molnar. "Twenty or thirty years in the remedial reserve usually restores their spirit of cooperation. We're not so foolish as to expect our books to be well-behaved when they're at home. All we require is that they come and go from the proper shelf with a bit of dignity."...more
99c Kindle sale, April 3, 2019. HELP!! Should I bite? My friends' reviews are either 5 stars or meh. Looks like a YMMV (your mileage may vary) book. B99c Kindle sale, April 3, 2019. HELP!! Should I bite? My friends' reviews are either 5 stars or meh. Looks like a YMMV (your mileage may vary) book. But LIBRARY fantasy!
ETA: I convinced myself to take a chance and went ahead and paid my dollar for the Kindle sale. :) I read the first chapter and, yeah, it looks pretty YA, but I think I might enjoy this. ...more
My previously-posted review for the excellent (and Hugo award-winning) story "A Witch’s Guide to Escape: A Practical Compendium of Portal Fantasies" iMy previously-posted review for the excellent (and Hugo award-winning) story "A Witch’s Guide to Escape: A Practical Compendium of Portal Fantasies" in this issue has disappeared because GR librarians are messing around with the short story listings again. So I'm reposting it here, along with a review for "Ghost Marriage" by P. Djeli Clark, from the same issue of Apex (RIP). Review first posted on Fantasy Literature.
5 easy and enthusiastic stars for "A Witch’s Guide to Escape: A Practical Compendium of Portal Fantasies": Our narrator is both a librarian and a witch (all good librarians are, she claims), and one of her joys is giving library patrons the book they “need most.” So when the black teenager with the red backpack comes into the Maysville Public Library, located somewhere in the deep South, and latches onto a portal fantasy, she breathes him in and can tell he’s deeply, howlingly yearning for a way to escape this world and never come back.
God save me from the yearners. The insatiable, the inconsolable, the ones who chafe and claw against the edges of the world. No book can save them.
(That’s a lie. There are Books potent enough to save any mortal soul: books of witchery, augury, alchemy; books with wand-wood in their spines and moon-dust on their pages; books older than stones and wily as dragons. We give people the books they need most, except when we don’t.)
So she feeds him a series of magical fantasies, knowing that’s not enough to truly help him. He needs a book that’s not just about magic, but a book that is magic. But sharing those types of books with library patrons is strictly forbidden.
I loved the librarian/witch narrator’s voice and dry sense of humor. The details in this story are delicious. I have a major soft spot for library-themed fantasy, and Alix E. Harrow’s love for books and reading shines through in this imaginative tale, where books jostle on the shelves to try to attract the attention of readers, and a book that is returned with “the flashlight-smell of 3:00 a.m. on its final chapter [is] unbearably smug about it.” At the same time, you also feel the heartbreak and hopelessness this teenager feels in the foster care system.
My favorite of the Hugo and Nebula nominated short stories. Don't miss it!
3.5 stars for "Ghost Marriage" by P. Djeli Clark, an African fantasy. Ayen, a widowed girl from the Djeng tribe, is wandering across the barren plains alone. After her husband Malith's death, the families agreed she would still belong to him in a "ghost marriage," given to his brother Yar (who already has three wives), but with any children born to her to be deemed of Malith's lineage. But things go wrong - very wrong - and now Ayen is traveling in search of the Blood Woman, a sorceress who she hopes can dissolve the ghost marriage. But this turns out to be problematic, for entirely unsuspected reasons. It's a richly imagined and atmospheric story, though it's not as unique and didn't pull me in as much as the other Clark stories I've read (one of which, The Secret Lives of the Nine Negro Teeth of George Washington, just won the 2019 Nebula award, and I highly recommend it). Full review to come....more
I love library-based stories, and this is a pretty good one. It's free online at Tor.com. Review first posted on Fantasy Literature:
Thomas Hardy appliI love library-based stories, and this is a pretty good one. It's free online at Tor.com. Review first posted on Fantasy Literature:
Thomas Hardy applies for a job at the Library, a magical place that contains all of the books and literary works that have been lost over the years. The Librarian takes him on, with reservations: he’s interested only in incurious boys who aren’t particularly bright, don’t use multisyllabic words or think complicated thoughts, and have no real interest in literature as such.
Tom hides from the Librarian both his intelligence and his secret reasons for wanting to work at the Library. But the talking rats that infest the Library and address Tom with odd, single-word statements (“Borborygmus!” “Anopisthograph!” “Sardoodledom!”) seem to have an inkling that he is more than he seems to be. Then there’s the flamboyant man named Jean Genet who shows up at one of the Library employees’ parties; he’s interested in Tom sexually ― and perhaps for more reasons than that.
The plot of “The Library of Lost Things” is a bit on the slight side, but the story is very cleverly told. The Library setting is fascinating, with all of its literature that has been lost to humanity (the story includes several references to actual lost works), even though it’s a dispiriting place as well, governed by a mean-spirited librarian. The single-word interchanges between Tom and the rats had my fingers busy looking up obscure words with Google’s search feature, especially as it gradually became apparent that these little-known words add meaning to the story. If you read this one, pay attention to those words!
Content note: This story has a gay main character and romance, very mildly explicit, and some adult language....more
I read "The Library of Babel," one of Jorge Luis Borges’ most famous stories, as part of the Ficciones collection. “The Library of Babel” posits a uniI read "The Library of Babel," one of Jorge Luis Borges’ most famous stories, as part of the Ficciones collection. “The Library of Babel” posits a universe in the form of a library made out of connected hexagonal rooms, each room filled with books and the barest necessities for life. Each book contains 410 pages, with 40 lines of 80 letters each. There are 25 letters and punctuation marks in the alphabet. The Library contains every possible combination of those letters. Most of the books are complete gibberish, of course, but like the Infinite Monkey Theorem says, if you have enough monkeys banging away on typewriters for long enough (i.e., infinite time and infinite monkeys), eventually they’ll write Hamlet.
But life for the people dwelling in this library is profoundly frustrating, even depressing, since only a vanishingly small percentage of the books make any sense at all. Borges explores the ways that people might react to this, with several nods to religion and philosophy. There's not any real plot to this story; it feels more like an essay or an intellectual exercise ("How would people react if...").
Mathematicians have had a field day with this book’s concept, figuring out how many books such a library would contain. Per Wikipedia’s article on this story, there would be far more books in this library (1.956 x 10 to the 1,834,097th power) than there are thought to be atoms in the observable universe (10 to the 80th power). It's mind-boggling.
But this story is not so much about the numbers, as about what it would be like to live in this intriguing but highly frustrating world.
When the forward-looking library board votes to close the old Carnegie Library and replace it with aFinal review, first posted on Fantasy Literature:
When the forward-looking library board votes to close the old Carnegie Library and replace it with a modern one, its seven librarians decide not to leave. They buy some supplies and quietly lock the door of the library behind them, the woods close in around them, and soon everyone forgets about the old library … except the person who still had a book that was long overdue. The book is left on the library’s doorstep in a wicker basket, along with a baby and a note:
This is overdue. Quite a bit, I’m afraid. I apologize. We moved to Topeka when I was very small, and Mother accidentally packed it up with the linens. I have traveled a long way to return it, and I know the fine must be large, but I have no money. As it is a book of fairy tales, I thought payment of a first–born child would be acceptable. I always loved the library. I’m sure she’ll be happy there.
That was the first time this story made me laugh, but not the last, as the child is raised in the library by seven “feral librarians” and, a little bit, by the library itself, which occasionally gifts the growing girl with a stuffed animal, or hides her when she’s in trouble and doesn’t want to be find.
The ending felt just a tad predictable, but that’s my only complaint. This is a quietly delightful story filled with details that will enchant anyone who loves libraries and classic books, especially if you’ve ever had daydreams about hiding away in the library stacks and making a home there.
In this alternate history type of fantasy, the Library of Alexandria was never destroyed, which ended up affecting the world profoundly. But - surprisIn this alternate history type of fantasy, the Library of Alexandria was never destroyed, which ended up affecting the world profoundly. But - surprisingly - not necessarily in ways that are good. The world has developed in a very different direction, scientifically and politically, and the Library keeps a stranglehold over the ownership of books, forbidding private ownership of hard copies on pain of death (ereaders are fine, but the Library monitors the content) and ruthlessly destroying the printing press each time it is invented. It's basically Amazon, in control and run amok.
This is an intriguing and somewhat dark fantasy. Full review to come....more
Great comfort read if you like romance-oriented fantasy. Plus a library! This fantasy world (or more specifically, this country in this fantasy world)Great comfort read if you like romance-oriented fantasy. Plus a library! This fantasy world (or more specifically, this country in this fantasy world) has kind of a Victorian era vibe to it, with just a little magic.
2016 update: I'm bumping this up to 5 stars on reread. This is one of my favorite fantasy romances; I keep pulling it back open again every few months. It just hits all the right buttons for me, and for that it gets all the stars.
Servant of the Crown is a steampunk-flavored young adult romantic fantasy by Melissa McShane, published in July 2015. It's set in a well-imagined Victorian-era type of world where magic plays a lesser and socially suspect role. Alison, the young Countess of Waxwold, is summoned from her city to be a lady-in-waiting to the Dowager Consort of the kingdom for six months. This seems like a prison sentence to Alison, who enjoys her work in the budding printing industry and as a theater patroness, has no taste for court or social games, and no inclination to "sit around in an uncomfortable dress and keep the former Consort company" for half a year. But the royal summons from the queen cannot be gainsaid, so Alison grits her teeth and heads to the capital city of Aurilien, consoling herself with the thought that at least she’ll have access to the famous royal library with its vast collection of rare books.
Trouble begins when the Dowager gives her son, Prince Anthony North, a well-intentioned suggestion to dance with Alison at the first ball she attends. North is drop-dead good-looking and knows it, and during their dance makes a rather drunken indecent suggestion to Alison. He picked the wrong girl. Alison, who has a very sour taste in her mouth from prior romances where she found the men wanted her only for her title, wealth and/or looks, immediately slaps him across the face and storms off. Unfortunately for both Alison and North, this causes a minor sensation, and Queen Zara, the Prince’s older sister, orders the two of them to go on public dates once a week until the scandal dies down.
So far Servant of the Crown reads like a straight fantasy romance, although it has more well-developed and complex characters than usual. But when the main characters’ choices and natures lead to a crisis halfway through, it is followed by some surprising but logical turns in the plot that lead the reader down some unexpected pathways. These developments raise this novel above the typical romance and make it well worth recommending to readers who enjoy reading romances that are more thoughtfully written.
Early-technology "Devices" like printing presses and lights are powered by the magical battery-like "motive forces," giving the steampunk feel to this world, which fits in well with the Victorian-type social atmosphere. The vast royal library is almost a character in itself, with unexpected literary treasures hidden in neglected shelves. It becomes the linchpin in a political battle for power between the Queen and the powerful group scholars who have been running the library and other governmental agencies, with Alison and her assistants caught in the crossfire.
This is a fairly light but thoughtful fantasy novel that combines a clean romance with some compelling political intrigue and royal court maneuvering. I’ve read many self-published novels in the last few years, but Melissa McShane’s fantasies are complex, layered and well written, making her one of the very few self-published authors whose works I would unreservedly recommend to other readers.
P.S. There's also a bonus short story at the end about Queen Zara, who is a secondary but important character in the novel. It throws a major curve ball at the reader. I'll be really interested in future stories about this world!
********** Initial reaction: This was a fun read, a nice mix of light fantasy and a more-thoughtful-than-usual romance. It's hard to go wrong with a heroine who loves the theater and books, and a medieval-ish library!
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It's a fun read that hit a lot of the right romance-loving buttons for me, but this book also contains a lot of political intrigue and royal court maneuvering, which I also love, along with a great saving-the-royal-library plot and some amazing-sounding books that I wish were really part of my world and in my own personal library. The romance content is pretty much clean: not squeaky clean, but I'd feel okay giving this to my 17 year old daughter. And I probably will. :)
I received a free copy of this book from the author for review. Thanks!...more
Tadiana ✩Night Owl☽
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