BLACK THORN, WHITE ROSE

The third installment in a popular series presents contemporary retellings of such fairy tales as "Hansel and Gretel," "Beauty and the Beast," and "The Little Match Girl" by such authors as Joyce Carol Oates, Gahan Wilson, and Jane Yolen. 10,000 first printing.

Datlow and Windling, winners of a World Fantasy Award for their annual Year's Best Fantasy & Horror, score again with this third entry in their provocative volumes of original, updated fairy tales for adults. The collection, which gathers many impressive names from the field of dark fantasy, also contains introductory essays and extensive suggested reading lists. Highlights include Tanith Lee's "The Beast," a disturbing but all too believable vision of psychopathy and art, and a rather different take on art's worth in an even more unsettling story by Garry Kilworth ("Masterpiece"). Joyce Carol Oates offers an exceptionally surrealistic version of the Sleeping Beauty myth, while Roberta Lannes contributes an exceedingly amusing variation on "The Shoemaker and the Elves." The late John Brunner is represented by a masterful fable that employs Chinese myth, an evil emperor and all-powerful dragons, and Nancy Collins creates a wonderfully folksy atmosphere with her Kentucky-set yarn about fear and common sense. Though the collection skews slightly toward tales of damsels in distress imperiled by evil males (it's notable that only six of the 22 stories are by men), it triumphantly concludes with Delia Sherman's uplifting fable about redemption, nobility and friendship. Like its predecessors, Snow White, Blood Red and Black Thorn, White Rose, this anthology is a must for those who believe that "once upon a time" means now.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

In this editorial team's third anthology of original short fantasies based on traditional fairy tales, the writing is consistently of very high quality. Indeed, so high that it constitutes justification for the book all by itself. Readers should skip the introduction, though, in which Datlow and Windling grind their pet axes, and be aware that the stories are best read in small doses, for literate though they are, far too many of them struggle to make old tales fit the procrustean beds of modern psychology. The stories that avoid this, most notably Nancy Collins' "Billy Fearless," are substantially more readable. But the whole volume still will reward connoisseurs of superior literary fantasy prepared to slog through psychobabble and political agendas. Roland Green

From Roberta Lanne's upscale retelling of "The Shoemaker and the Elves," in which an ambitious cockroach lends his entrepreneurial talents to a Manhattan tailor ("Roach in Loafers"), to Ellen Steiber's moody tribute to Japanese folklore ("The Fox Wife"), the 22 original stories and poems in this collection bring a modern twist to classic and sometimes obscure fairy tales. Like its predecessors Black Thorn, White Rose (AvoNova: Morrow, 1994) and Snow White, Blood Red (Morrow, 1992), this volume explores new interpretations of old themes. It offers a fresh look at tales no longer for children only. Suitable for most libraries' fantasy or short story collections.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.