Artwork was beautiful.Read:Introduction, Bill Willingham. I'm a big fan of his Fable series, and was really looking forward to what he had to say about fairy tales and such, but his introduction I have to say is one of the worst that I've ever read. It consists of four short paragraphs, where he even admits that he's no good with writing introductions; then why was he picked? His story, that he had after his irritatingly short introduction, was pretty good. But I would have liked it a lot better...

For the most part I really enjoyed this collection. My Favorites wereThe Price- Patricia BriggsBlood and Waster- Alethea KnotisThe Rose in 12 Petals- Theodora GossLike a Red Red Rose - Susan WadeThe Rose Garden - Michelle WestThe rest of the Stories that I liked wereThe Troll Bridge- Neil GaimanThe Night Market- Holly BlackThe Return of the Dark Children- Rober CooverThe Root of the Matter- Gregory FrostMy Life as a Bird - Charles De LintThe Little Magic Shop - Bruce SterlingThe Red Path - Jim C...

I have always loved fairy tales, mythology, folklore and legends. I loved the magic of it all. When I was in college, I took several fairy tale and folklore classes. (Yes, those classes exist.) We studied all different varieties of the classic fairy tales. We would write papers, analyzing each one and comparing it to different cultures. We also read several revisionist tales. I fell in love with those too. Gregory Maguire, author of Wicked:The Life and Times of The Wicked Witch of the West becam...

ebook.thanks dave, for the book recommend. i loved this anthology, it was amazing...better than amazing.perhaps because i love fantasy and fairy tales so much, i approached this book with more gusto than most...but i'm so glad i did. i couldn't put it down. i loooved it.a few of my favorite stories i'd like to comment on:Susanna Clarke - "Mr Simonelli or the Fairy Widower" -- i am a huge fan of Clarke’s writing. I think she has an amazing way of writing a magical story with intensity and intrigu...

Happily Ever After is a pretty hefty tome. It's a short story anthology edited by John Klima and featuring authors such as Gregory Maguire, Susanna Clarke, Patricia Briggs, and Charles de Lint. The short stories are retellings, interpretations and variations on classic fairy and folk tales.On to the stars,Selection: The vast majority of these stories are well told and well picked. Unfortunately, a couple of them fall extraordinarily flat. The great thing about anthologies, though, is that it's o...

This collection of fairy-tale-inspired stories has a disturbing preoccupation with the sexual victimization of girls and very young women. Obviously that thread runs under the surface of fairy tales, too -- but in fairy tales, girls survive, using such tools as seemed plausible in the times the tales were told; it would have been nice to see the girls in the modern retellings do the same. Kelly Link's "The Faerie Handbag" and Susanna Clarke's "Mr. Simonelli or the Fairy Widower" are quite nice,

For an anthology with so many big names in it, the quality of the stories included is average for the most part, and some are mediocre. There was none for me that could be called outstanding, thought I did like The Rose Garden by Michelle West, which was the one story a notch above the rest and that I'd rate 3.5 stars.

Fairy Tales Retold is the unofficial subtitle on the cover. I borrowed this book to read the Neil Gaiman and Patricia Briggs stories. I felt like I had to read the rest also to see if I could find a new author. I was only fond of a few. The anthology doesn't feel edited at all. It seems as if Klima just took whatever was sent in and put it in no particular order. Some of these should have probably been rejected. Book is too long with so-so stories. It also wasn't proofread. I may want to check o...

Well that took freakin' forever. There are some really wonderful stories in here but a lot of surprisingly pedestrian ones. Not bad necessarily but kinda...unmemorable. I really liked the one sci-fi spin on Puss in Boots, which really created a whole living breathing world in just a few pages and also managed to still stay recognizably Puss in Boots. It wasn't horrible but it was effortful to get through and that is a really bad sign. I guess I was spoiled after Datlow's Tails of Wonder and Imag...

Overall, I found this anthology disappointing. The ratio of stories I didn't like or was indifferent about was higher than the ones I liked or loved. I really, really hated the Peter Straub story. I don't usually have that severe a negative reaction to stories/books, but this is one of them. On the other hand, I loved the Patricia Briggs and Michelle West stories. In between were some clever and enjoyable stories mixed in with the ones I disliked. I could probably come up with a very exact ratin...

There is something about short story collections that cause me to read at a snails pace. I suppose I think of them as mini books (should I?) which I consume and then must rest afterward; when I don't really need to, especially when the beginning, middle, climax and ending take up fewer than 20 pages. Short stories are in that grey area of literature, for me, that also houses the shorter novellas and poetry - not for the length, or not explained away so easily. In many of these stories, I found w...

As with any anthology, there's good parts and bad parts, but I like the idea of it. I just don't have the patience to sort through it right now so I cherry-picked some authors and stories that I really wanted to read. Unfortunately, two of the stories by authors I enjoy (Susanna Clarke and Neil Gaiman) were previously published, which means I'd already read them.But I did read a really cool re-telling of Little Red Riding Hood set in the 1920s ("And In Their Glad Rags" by Genevieve Valentine), a...

Just like all short story books, some stories stand out more than others.The one I was happiest about was Charles de Lint's. It made me miss his Newford novels (it feels like it's been entirely too long since a new one has come out), and the character's writings on religion were so spot on.Michelle West's 'The Rose Garden' was a nice play on the 'Beauty and the Beast' tale. I liked the Harry Potter references. :)There were a number of stories that I had read before and a few that just really did...

favorites so far:Mr. Simonelli My Life as a Bird (now I have to check out Charles de Lint's Newford tales)The Night Market (LOVED the ending, so so much)Blood & Water (really dark take on the Little Mermaid)

Eeeeeuuuuggghh. This is an anthology consisting of 34 short retellings of fairy tales. One of which, I was actually quite fond of (the first one), and the rest were all somewhere between awful, awfully boring, less than okay, and there were a few, very few, that were really not that bad, but not great. The one that I did quite like was "The Seven Stage a Comeback" by Gregory Maguire. Obviously a retelling of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. The story starts out after Snow White has left the dwa

Perusing the fantasy section at my local bookstore, I saw this book and let out a fangirl squee that had people across the store staring. Gregory Maguire? Neil Gaiman? Garth Nix?!?! If Terry Pratchett had been in here I would have died of nerdgasm. I haven't read this book all the way through (it's a collection and not really meant to be read like that) but I've read several stories I've loved, and many more that were pretty great. The stories are in turns hilarious and haunting, and it's overal...

3.5 starsSome of the stories were really awesome. Most were just good, not awesome. 1-2, I might have hated.Now about the theme, I loved the take on various fairy tales esp when same story got more than 1 treatment. However I do not think it's really young adult as my library has it coded. Some are quite dark with more sexual content, and not to mention child abuse.Most stories here are previously published, so you might have read them before.However overall a good enough reading

All of your favorite fairy tail writers in one place. This is a stunning collection of stories that just happens to featured some of my favorite authors. How was I supposed to resist? The introduction alone is worth the money. Why you ask? Because the intro itself is a fairy tale detailing the reason for this anthology's existence. Besides, where else can you find Neil Gaimen, Holly Black, and Charles De Lint all in one place.

On the surface, this book was right up my alley. I love fairly tales and modern retellings. However, the stories in this book are more style than substance. Sure the writing is technically excellent, but the characters have no life to them. Fairy tales should first and foremost grab you on an emotional level; these are way too cerebral for me.

As it is with so many anthologies, there is good, enjoyable, bad and those oh-so-special "Where is the bleach so I can get this story out of my mind?" stories. This was an "adult" fairytale anthology and it most certainly is not all about the HEA ending. Most of them are dark and depressing, with an unwelcome and heavy dose of sexually explicit content. Sexual sin and encounters were a staple of classic fairytales but they never felt the need to graphically detail those encounters. *shudders*Tru...