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Title: Essential Bordertown: A Traveller's Guide to the Edge of Faerie by Terri Windling, Delia Sherman ISBN: 0-312-86703-4 Publisher: Tor Books Pub. Date: 01 July, 1999 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.15 (13 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Different from other entries in the series, but equally good
Comment: Going by other reader reviews of this book, some fans of the series were disappointed by The Essential Bordertown--they felt the stories "just weren't the same" or something. Of course they weren't the same! It has a different character than other books in the series, but that's only to be expected from an anthology, and I enjoyed it immensely. One of its best features, to my mind, is the way "guidebook" excerpts are placed between the stories--for those unfamiliar with Bordertown, they provide excellent background material, and for fans, they're full of little jokes and references to familiar locations/people/events. They also make good transitions from one story to the next. The book contains 13 stories (how apropos) by Patricia A. McKillip, Midori Snyder, Delia Sherman, Donnard Sturgis, Ellen Kushner, Michael Korolenko, Elisabeth Kushner, Charles de Lint, Caroline Stevermer, Steven Brust, Ellen Steiber, Micole Sudberg, and Felicity Savage, of which four particularly struck me.
I loved Patricia A. McKillip's "Oak Hill" for many reasons, but one of them is that its protagonist reminded me of myself in junior high--a lonely girl with bad skin looking for magick. I particularly liked the fact that the girl has no terrible reason to come to Bordertown; she just wants something better--something more--than what she has. McKillip's prose is beautiful as ever, and the ending, though of course I won't give it away, is simple and powerful. "Dragon Child" by Midori Snyder is largely set in Dragontown, which has always been one of my favorite areas of Bordertown. Eli, half elvin and half human, escapes from his cruel elvin father to Bordertown, where he struggles to fully free himself from the aristrocratic father who has controlled him all his life. The story doesn't offer any easy answer to Eli's problems; it may be about a boy who blurs the border between the World and Faerie, but it's realistic.
"Changeling" by Elisabeth Kushner I admit I was already predisposed to like--young lesbians desperately trying to build a happy life for themselves have always had a special place in my heart. "Oak Hill" shows Bordertown as a place to run to; "Changeling," like "Dragon Child," shows it as a place to run away to. Selkie/Seal (neither her given name, of course; people who come to Bordertown frequently give themselves new names, in the hopes of new lives) is trying to find a place where her "difference" won't stand out, and comes to Bordertown--where it might not be easier, but it might also be better. The final member of my top four, Ellen Steiber's "Argentine," is about an elvin girl who didn't run anywhere--she was banished, her memory erased, to Bordertown, where she does what she seems to do best: steals. Argentine seeks out things that matter to people, and takes them, to feel the love they contain. But no thief's luck lasts forever, as the ghost of a dead man is only too happy to remind her when she takes his living lover's necklace. Steiber makes Argentine a sympathetic character, despite the things she does, and Roberto, already dead, is tragic. This story makes me cry almost every time I read it.
The Essential Bordertown definitely holds its own within the series, and I highly recommend it--and if you like it, you should try to find the others, although some are out of print and hard to get ahold of.
Rating: 5
Summary: Totally cool book
Comment: Well I read the two reviews below and then I read the book itself. I gotta vote along with Flagstaff Reader, not Chicago Reader, that this book is awesom and the best Border book yet. I think since Chicago Reader picked "Bordertown" and "Finder" as his/her personal favs of all the Borderland books then he/she is probably a big fan of Will Shetterly and Emma Bull's Borderland stories. Well, thats cool but Chicago Reader should realize that not all of us are. The Shetterly & Bull version of Bordertown is fine and fun but personally its a bit too "Miami Vice" for me (altho I thought "Elsewhere" was different and pretty cool) and its really nice to see the series move on past the 1980s and into the 1990s. I for one was really glad to see stories by Patricia McKillip, Midori Snyder and Ellen Kushner instead. Chicago Reader is mistaken if he/she thinks that "Bordertown" and "Finder" were the original Borderland books. Look at the older books in the series you'll see that the first book was called "Borderland" and Terri Windling, Mark Alan Arnold, Charles de Lint, Midori Snyder, Stephen Boyett and Ellen Kushner were the people who created the world of Bordertown. And then in the next book, called "Bordertown" ,Shetterly & Bull came into a world that had been created by other people and added some places and characters to it, and in the next book, "Life on the Border" Michael Koralenko, Craig Shaw Gardner, Cara Dalky joined up and all added their own nieghborhoods and characters to the town- which is what makes it so cool, there's plenty of room for everybody here! So all you Border Rats, don't be put off by Chicago Reader, this is a great book full of all the stuff we love best in Borderland! I agree with Flagstaff Reader that no matter what part of Bordertown you like best, whether it's De Lint's Dancing Ferret or Shetterly & Bull's Danceland or Midori Snyder's dojo or Ballamy Bach's Gray and Wicker, there is plenty of room for everybody, so come down to Soho and lets rock!
As for me I LOVE the Patricia A. McKillip story here the best and also the Elisabeth Kushner story about two gay girls, and lots of other stories besides. As a mixed race teenager, Black dad and White mom, I can REALLY relate to stories about kids from two races trying to fit in. And also I really like the fact that the books are even more "multicultural" now. My only complaint is that I want more more more. Ms. Windling and Ms. Sherman and Tor Books, please don't make us wait so long for the next one!!! And please bring this out in paperback so I can own my own copy since I can't keep this library copy forever.Thank you.
Rating: 5
Summary: Not a loser in the bunch
Comment: "Shared universe" collections are usually haphazard at best, but the essential Borderlands is brilliant all the way through. Some touching, some funny, all imaginatve, wild, and evocative of a place we all wish to be lost in. Elves, drugs, and rock and roll, with a very literate twist. No need to have read prior books, this one will sweep you up and carry you away. The only short story collection in my "best books" list.
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Title: Finder : A Novel of the Borderlands by Emma Bull ISBN: 0765347776 Publisher: Tor Teen Pub. Date: 13 July, 2003 List Price(USD): $6.99 |
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Title: Nevernever (Middle Ages Series) by Will Shetterly ISBN: 0812551516 Publisher: Tor Books Pub. Date: 01 October, 1995 List Price(USD): $4.99 |
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Title: War for the Oaks by Emma Bull ISBN: 0765300346 Publisher: Orb Books Pub. Date: 01 July, 2001 List Price(USD): $13.95 |
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Title: Borderland by Terri Windling, Mark Alan Arnold ISBN: 0451141725 Publisher: New Amer Library (Mm) Pub. Date: 01 May, 1986 List Price(USD): $2.95 |
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Title: Bordertown: A Chronicle of the Borderlands (Borderland, No 2) by Terri Windling, Mark A. Arnold ISBN: 0451145275 Publisher: New Amer Library Pub. Date: 01 October, 1986 List Price(USD): $2.95 |
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