DNF Review – Black Thorn, White Rose by Ellen Datlow, Terri Windling (3/5 stars)

Reading Level: Adult
Genre: Fantasy/Anthology
Length: 400 pages
Publisher: Prime
Release Date: October 1, 1995
ISBN-13: 978-0380771295
Stand Alone or Series: Stand Alone
Source: Swapped through Paperbackswap.com
Rating: 3/5 stars

“A second collection by the editors of Snow White, Blood Red provides eighteen more fairy tales that are told with mature themes and includes Roger Zelazny’s version of “Godfather Death” and Peter Straub’s “Cinderella.” Reprint.”

I don’t know why I get anthologies, I don’t really like reading or reviewing them. However, this was one of fairy tales and I thought I would give it a shot. I finally stopped reading it about 150 pages in and decided to set it aside. There are a couple decent stories in here but the majority were very mediocre. I was finding a lot of other things to do aside from read this book.

You can see below for the short reviews from the stories that I got through. Again, these really wasn’t anything in here I loved in the first 150 pages or so. The strongest stories in the first half of the book were “Stronger Than Time” by Patricia C. Wrede, “Somnus’s Fair Maid” by Anne Downer, and “The Brown Bear of Norway” by Isabel Cole.

Overall I thought this was a fairly weak collection of fairy tale inspired stories and wouldn’t recommend.

“Words Like Pale Stones” by Nancy Kress (3/5 stars)
This was a version of Rumpelstiltskin. It was okay, had some darkness to it and a bit of a twist. In this version the woman wants Rumplestiltskin to take her child away.

“Stronger Than Time” by Patricia C. Wrede (4/5 stars)
A prince asks for a woodman’s help in breaching Sleeping Beauty’s castle. When they find the princess the woodcutter finds the prince is not what he seems to be. This was a decent story and very sweet.

“Somnus’s Fair Maid” by Ann Downer (4/5 stars)
I liked this one. It was a retelling of Sleeping Beauty done in Regency style. It was a fun story with an interesting twist. I struggled a bit with all the characters introduced in such a short story and the story jumped around quite a bit. However, overall I liked it.

“The Frog King, or Iron Henry” by Daniel Quinn (3/5 stars)
This was a very short story about a Prince who forgot he was a frog. Very repetitive and didn’t really like it much.

“Near-Beauty” by M.E. Beckett (3/5 stars)
A sci-fi “Princess and the Frog” sort of retelling. This time the princess falls for the frog. The story was a bit abrupt and was okay but not great.

“Ogre” by Michael Kandel (2/5 stars)
I wasn’t a fan of this one. It’s an off the wall story about a bunch of actors and one of them is an ogre. Didn’t really see the point of this one and could have left it.

“Can’t Catch Me” by Michael Cadnum (3/5 stars)
This was a story about a gingerman fleeing an oven, it was somewhat humorous but very short. I thought it was okay.

“Journeybread Recipe” by Lawrence Schimel (4/5 stars)
This was a clever little poem about how to make Journeybread. I liked the visualization and some of the cleverness in here.

“The Brown Bear of Norway” by Isabel Cole (4/5 stars)
This was a folktale style story set in the modern day world about a girl who is penpals with a bear in Norway. They fall in love and she eventually goes to find him only to find him changed. This is a well written and sweet story with good imagery.

This book goes towards the following reading challenges:
– Goodreads Reading Challenge
– Mount TBR Reading Challenge