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Title: A Series of Ordinary Adventure
Author: Stevie Carroll
Genre: Fantasy short story anthology
Thingummies: 3.5
Synopsis: An anthology of fantasy stories about ordinary people (many of them self-identifying as queer) coming into contact with the extraordinary.
Thoughts: The first story in this anthology I found to be disappointingly pointless. Fortunately, later stories improved.
"Hawks and Dragon" features a woman who, for no apparent reason, discovers she can transform herself into a time traveling hawk and then rescues a dragon. Honestly, it doesn't make a great deal of sense--things happen for no particular reason, she adapts to world-shattering information without a second thought or question for the implications, and there's no real character arc to speak of. Why hawks? Why dragons? Why care?
But after that first story, which nearly made me give up on the book, the rest drastically improve. For example, "The Woman Who Hatched a Fairy's Egg" is an incredibly sweet story about an artist trying to rebuild her life after it is destroyed by grief. "Mr. Singh Confronts the Minotaur" is not so different from some other stories I've recently read, but the protagonist and her new friend are sufficiently endearing and the humor has enough gentle warmth that I did not particularly care and thoroughly enjoyed the tale. "Seven For the Devil" is the stereotypical story of the musician who is offered a choice by the devil and discovers that the terms are far more horrific than he had initially realized. A lesser story would have ended on that awful irony. This one instead uses it as a jumping off point to explore how one copes with the consequences of such a decision.
The characters are for the most part decent and likable people, who are portrayed convincingly through small details. Many of them also happen to be some variety of queer, which is dealt with in a matter-of-fact way as backstory but not driving motivation. This character happens to be female and straight and a ghost, that one happens to be male and gay and terribly shy, a third is transexual and grieving for a partner and not entirely sure where she wants to go from here. While almost everyone is English, they're of varying ethnic backgrounds as well. And none of it's a big deal. It's nice, and something I'd love to see more of.
There's a lot of promise here, but several of the stories (most especially that first one) show a lack of discipline--short stories give you so little room to maneuver in, every detail has to count. And in many of these, the pacing is more like a novel, where there's time for minor digressions. But even in a novel, each description, each incident, each exchange needs to move forward either the plot or a character's arc. And these could do with a little more of that direction and tightness. But I look forward to seeing what else Carroll has to say.
Author: Stevie Carroll
Genre: Fantasy short story anthology
Thingummies: 3.5
Synopsis: An anthology of fantasy stories about ordinary people (many of them self-identifying as queer) coming into contact with the extraordinary.
Thoughts: The first story in this anthology I found to be disappointingly pointless. Fortunately, later stories improved.
"Hawks and Dragon" features a woman who, for no apparent reason, discovers she can transform herself into a time traveling hawk and then rescues a dragon. Honestly, it doesn't make a great deal of sense--things happen for no particular reason, she adapts to world-shattering information without a second thought or question for the implications, and there's no real character arc to speak of. Why hawks? Why dragons? Why care?
But after that first story, which nearly made me give up on the book, the rest drastically improve. For example, "The Woman Who Hatched a Fairy's Egg" is an incredibly sweet story about an artist trying to rebuild her life after it is destroyed by grief. "Mr. Singh Confronts the Minotaur" is not so different from some other stories I've recently read, but the protagonist and her new friend are sufficiently endearing and the humor has enough gentle warmth that I did not particularly care and thoroughly enjoyed the tale. "Seven For the Devil" is the stereotypical story of the musician who is offered a choice by the devil and discovers that the terms are far more horrific than he had initially realized. A lesser story would have ended on that awful irony. This one instead uses it as a jumping off point to explore how one copes with the consequences of such a decision.
The characters are for the most part decent and likable people, who are portrayed convincingly through small details. Many of them also happen to be some variety of queer, which is dealt with in a matter-of-fact way as backstory but not driving motivation. This character happens to be female and straight and a ghost, that one happens to be male and gay and terribly shy, a third is transexual and grieving for a partner and not entirely sure where she wants to go from here. While almost everyone is English, they're of varying ethnic backgrounds as well. And none of it's a big deal. It's nice, and something I'd love to see more of.
There's a lot of promise here, but several of the stories (most especially that first one) show a lack of discipline--short stories give you so little room to maneuver in, every detail has to count. And in many of these, the pacing is more like a novel, where there's time for minor digressions. But even in a novel, each description, each incident, each exchange needs to move forward either the plot or a character's arc. And these could do with a little more of that direction and tightness. But I look forward to seeing what else Carroll has to say.
