Chris' Fish Place

                Not all the stories in this collection are stand-outs, and not all, thankfully, have to do with brides.  Datlow and Windling, however, should get a huge round of applause and much credit for bringing back the female beast and male looker instead of just staying to the whole typical Beauty and the Beast format.

                Stand out stories include:

                “Puma’s Daughter” by Tanith Lee.  This is a predictable yet quietly powerful story about acceptance and letting go.  I have always considered Lee’s short fiction (short stories and novellas) to be more powerful than her novels.  This is an example of why.

                Delia Sherman has a lovely poem, “The Selkie Speaks,” and it is quite magical.  The last poem in the collection “Rosina” by Nan Fry isn’t quite as magical, but it has a wonderful twist to the story.

                “Map of Seventeen” by Christopher Bazark is a beautiful and quiet coming of age story.

                “The Monkey Bride” by Midori Snyder is the one tale that follows source material very closely; there is earnestness about the story that makes up for the predictability.

                It is impossible to read “Piscah” without the recent reports about rape in India springing to mind.

                My favorite story in the collection is “Coyote and Valrosa” and not simply because there is a local collection to the story.  It is light hearted but also reminds one of Angela Carter.