Winner of the World Fantasy Award: New twists on classic fairy tales from Neil Gaiman, Patricia Briggs, Robin McKinley, CaitlÃn R. Kiernan, and more. Long ago, when we were children, our dreams were inspired by the fairy tales we heard at our mothersâ and grandmothersâ kneesâstories of princesses and princes and witches and wondrous enchantments, by the Brothers Grimm and Hans Christian Andersen, and from the pages of 1001 Arabian Nights. But, as World Fantasy Awardâwinning editors Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling remind us, these stories were often tamed and sanitized versions. The originals were frequently darkerâand in Silver Birch, Blood Moon, they turn darker still. Twenty-one modern Grimms and Andersensâmasterful storytellers including Neil Gaiman, Nancy Kress, and Tanith Leeânow reinvent beloved bedtime stories for our time. The Sea Witch gets her say, relating the story of âThe Little Mermaidâ from her own point of view. âThumbelinaâ becomes a tale of creeping horror, while a delightfully naughty spin is put on âThe Emperorâs New Clothes.â Author CaitlÃn R. Kiernan transports Snow White to a dark, gritty, industrial urban setting, and Patricia Briggs details âThe Priceâ of dealing with a royal and unrepentantly evil Rumpelstiltskin. Rich, provocative, and unabashedly adult, each of these tales is a modern treasure, reminding us that wishes have consequences and not all genies have our best interests at heart.
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