Sword and Sorceress XXI

Marion Zimmer Bradley started the series, but she's dead now, so Diana L. Paxson edited this one.

Usually I have trouble reading anthologies straight through; the constant ending of stories and the need to meet a new set of circumstances and characters makes it rough to go straight from one story to the next. For some reason, I found this anthology easier in that respect than many others: either the editor did a marvelous job of selecting stories that fit together thematically and otherwise, or the ideas and worldbuilding are bland and don't require any great effort to adjust to: perhaps it's nothing I haven't seen before...

Since I am inclined to check out further works by some of the authors in here, I'd like to think it's the first, but there is some truth to the claim that readers want to read what they're familiar with.

Some of these stories ended sadly, and some were horrifying ("Red Caramae" blatantly so, "Oulu" more subtly). They are almost all set in historical or pseudo-historical milieus, many of them vague. (Admittedly, it's hard to describe an entire world in 15 pages or less.) The resolutions were often very sudden or seemingly too simplistic. Others made me want to check out further works by the author ("Kazhe's Blade", "Necessity and The Mother", "Step By Step", "Favor of the Goddess", possibly "Rose in Winter", "Ursa", and "Journey's End").

Conclusion: Good place to look for new authors if the particular type of story you like happens to involve women and the supernatural in a non-modern setting. (The magic involved was often very different and wasn't always due to the agency of the protagonist.)

Water: Tales of Elemental Spirits

By Robin McKinley and Peter Dickinson.

This is an anthology of six stories, three by McKinley and three by Dickinson. Five of them have what I would call happy endings; one of them is ambivalent.

"Mermaid Song." I love the image of the helpless one being helped.

"The Sea-King's Son." Romeo and Juliet where one breathes air and the other...

"Sea Serpent." This is the ambivalent one; I'm not sure I understand the point of it, or really appreciate it.

"Water Horse." This one is also odd, but not quite as bad.

"Kraken." A creature of cold and darkness that isn't what you would think.

"A Pool in the Desert." A story of Damar, this one plants the Homeland straight in the late 20th century. (They watch TV and have computers!) It maybe doesn't make perfect sense and "King Tor the Just and Powerful" gets a little tired after a while, but it's cute like almost everything by McKinley.

All in all, a fairly good collection, I think. Once again, not real deep, but quite satisfactory as entertainment. I should have checked it out sooner, perhaps.

Urchins, While Swimming

This is a short story by Catherynne M. Valente. You can read it online for free.

I don't have much to say about it: there is a little sex, but the story is mostly wonderful and melancholy and spooky all at the same time. It has an atmosphere excellently supported by the little details: "I wash my hands more than anyone on my ward", the dream, her job as opposed to her identity...

Go read it!

P.S. This story was brought to my attention when the author mentioned it was up for an award which the public gets to vote for. Here is the poll, which includes links to the other stories, I believe, and also the author's post, for those interested.