What do you think?
Rate this book
Last Summer at Mars Hill
This is Elizabeth Hand's long-awaited collection of short stories, centered around her Nebula and World Fantasy Award-winning novella The Last Summer at Mars Hill. There are 12 pieces in all here, ranging from those first published in places like Interzone and Pulphouse to a two-page poem taken from the pages of Asimov's. Although many readers may be familiar with Hand's longer works, such as Glimmering or Waking the Moon, here she shows that she's a master of short fiction as well. Her stylish prose and keen insights make for some wonderful stories. --Craig E. Engler
Contents:
Last Summer at Mars Hill (1994)
The Erl-King (1993)
Justice (1993)
Dionysus Dendrites (1993) poem
The Have-Nots (1992)
In the Month of Athyr (1992)
Engels Unaware (1992)
The Bacchae (1991)
Snow on Sugar Mountain (1991)
On the Town Route (1989)
The Boy in the Tree (1989)
Prince of Flowers (1988)
Contents:
Last Summer at Mars Hill (1994)
The Erl-King (1993)
Justice (1993)
Dionysus Dendrites (1993) poem
The Have-Nots (1992)
In the Month of Athyr (1992)
Engels Unaware (1992)
The Bacchae (1991)
Snow on Sugar Mountain (1991)
On the Town Route (1989)
The Boy in the Tree (1989)
Prince of Flowers (1988)
324 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1998
38 people are currently reading
480 people want to read
About the author
Elizabeth Hand
186 books1,317 followersA New York Times notable and multiple award– winning author, Elizabeth Hand has written seven novels, including the cult classic Waking the Moon, and short-story collections. She is a longtime contributor to numerous publications, including the Washington Post Book World and the Village Voice Literary Supplement. She and her two children divide their time between the coast of Maine and North London.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 31 reviews
April 6, 2020
LAST SUMMER AT MARS HILL, by Elizabeth Hand, is a collection of 12 tales of various sub-genres. While the subject matter ranged widely from a "special" location, legends, mythological lore, horror, fantasy, and even a bit of comedy thrown in with the storytelling, the one thing they have in common was the surreal feeling I got after reading each. Even in a more "modern day" setting, such as "On the Town Route", I felt as if I were being transported to another location entirely, watching things play out.
These stories have bite.
Although the themes varied, the strength of the writing and tone of the tales all came out as authoritative and concrete--even the most whimsical of them.
Personal favorites of mine included:
"On the Town Route": This one was so poignant that once I finished reading it, I immediately read it again just to stay in the story a little longer.
"Snow on Sugar Mountain": Part legend/part fantasy, this story was incredible from page one! "You could fly with something like that . . . You could fly again."
"The Have-Nots": Comically told story of an series of events that lead you to think more about the supernatural and fate. ". . . There are two kinds of people in this world, the Haves and the Have-Nots . . . "
"The Erl King": This tale of two young girls and the mysterious man who lives next to their rented cottage was FULL of surprises.
"Last Summer at Mars Hill": The title story, and my absolute favorite of them all. This one had amazing prose, characters, . . . just about everything. A story where reality meets fantasy and hope becomes something more . . . tangible. ". . . keeping on, whether or not we want to, in a world where hope sometimes seems like another diminishing natural resource."
Overall, a fantastic collection with unique ideas and great writing.
Highly recommended.
These stories have bite.
Although the themes varied, the strength of the writing and tone of the tales all came out as authoritative and concrete--even the most whimsical of them.
Personal favorites of mine included:
"On the Town Route": This one was so poignant that once I finished reading it, I immediately read it again just to stay in the story a little longer.
"Snow on Sugar Mountain": Part legend/part fantasy, this story was incredible from page one! "You could fly with something like that . . . You could fly again."
"The Have-Nots": Comically told story of an series of events that lead you to think more about the supernatural and fate. ". . . There are two kinds of people in this world, the Haves and the Have-Nots . . . "
"The Erl King": This tale of two young girls and the mysterious man who lives next to their rented cottage was FULL of surprises.
"Last Summer at Mars Hill": The title story, and my absolute favorite of them all. This one had amazing prose, characters, . . . just about everything. A story where reality meets fantasy and hope becomes something more . . . tangible. ". . . keeping on, whether or not we want to, in a world where hope sometimes seems like another diminishing natural resource."
Overall, a fantastic collection with unique ideas and great writing.
Highly recommended.
June 16, 2012
I've read several of Elizabeth Hand's novels, and have always felt that they were nearly perfect... except that something always happens (like a big, supernatural blowout climax) to screw it up. The one exception, for me, before reading this, was her story:"The Maiden Flight of McCauley’s Bellerophon" (which you can read on her website: http://www.elizabethhand.com/bellerop...). Excellent story. Maybe I just like Hand's short fiction better, because this book was nearly 100% excellent.
Last Summer At Mars Hill
A teen girl has always spent her summers with her mother at a Maine spiritualist colony inhabited by eccentrics and aging hippies. However, there's a real reason why 'believers' have congregated at Mars Hill. The story effectively and sensitively deals with the human struggle against mortality and our ambiguous feelings about death.
The Erl King
Meshes myths of Faerie with the 1960's legends of selling your soul for rock & roll... the sins of the fathers are visited upon the next generation. Spooky,horrific, poetic.
Justice
The 'avenging feminist' aspect of this was a bit much for me. However, just on the level of it being a tale of Circe incarnated in the modern day, it was good. However, it didn't need to all be spelled out in the end. We got it, already.
Dionysus Dendrites
a poem.
The Have-Nots
My least favorite piece in the book, but that's just my personal preferences. I don't tend to like the 'one-sided conversation' narrative device, and I'm not intrigued by the myth of Elvis, dead, undead, or otherwise.
In The Month Of Athyr
I loved this science-fiction story. However, well before the end, I said, "Hmm... this is very much like Connie Willis' 'All My Darling Daughters.'" At the end, Hand states that she was inspired to write this by that very story. You've got a dystopian scenario where a religious cult has convinced everyone to reject their natural gender and separate. Genetically engineered bird-women have been created for sexual gratification. Ethical wrong-nesses pile one on top of the other.
Engels Unaware
A nicely understated tale of Satan and apocalypse in an office block...
The Bacchae
Not so long ago, I read an anthology entitled 'Wild Women.' (http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/11...) It was a nice concept, but many of the stories didn't really fit into the concept. This story, on the other hand, would have fit in perfectly. Horrific, ambiguous, but somehow liberating...
Snow On Sugar Mountain
Ancient Native American shapeshifting magic and a dying, underappreciated astronaut. Two things you might not expect to find together. It works remarkably well, in this wistful, touching, bittersweet story.
On the Town Route
A girl drives out with her maybe-boyfriend on his ice-cream truck route. She sees him give out free ice cream to the backwoods folk, and is struck by their abject poverty. But he says she just doesn't understand. The myth of Demeter and Persephone weaves in... Not my favorite of the collection, but it's quite good.
The Boy in the Tree
Truly creepy tale where autistic children are somehow modified and used for empathic therapy... except that this therapy seems to have a better-than-average result of driving the subject to suicide. Deeply weird, very disturbing, about the abuses of power... and the myths that run through our subconscious.
Prince of Flowers
Straight-up horror story about a woman doing inventory at a natural history museum, who happens to be a bit of a kleptomaniac. But she steals some artifacts she really shouldn't have...
Last Summer At Mars Hill
A teen girl has always spent her summers with her mother at a Maine spiritualist colony inhabited by eccentrics and aging hippies. However, there's a real reason why 'believers' have congregated at Mars Hill. The story effectively and sensitively deals with the human struggle against mortality and our ambiguous feelings about death.
The Erl King
Meshes myths of Faerie with the 1960's legends of selling your soul for rock & roll... the sins of the fathers are visited upon the next generation. Spooky,horrific, poetic.
Justice
The 'avenging feminist' aspect of this was a bit much for me. However, just on the level of it being a tale of Circe incarnated in the modern day, it was good. However, it didn't need to all be spelled out in the end. We got it, already.
Dionysus Dendrites
a poem.
The Have-Nots
My least favorite piece in the book, but that's just my personal preferences. I don't tend to like the 'one-sided conversation' narrative device, and I'm not intrigued by the myth of Elvis, dead, undead, or otherwise.
In The Month Of Athyr
I loved this science-fiction story. However, well before the end, I said, "Hmm... this is very much like Connie Willis' 'All My Darling Daughters.'" At the end, Hand states that she was inspired to write this by that very story. You've got a dystopian scenario where a religious cult has convinced everyone to reject their natural gender and separate. Genetically engineered bird-women have been created for sexual gratification. Ethical wrong-nesses pile one on top of the other.
Engels Unaware
A nicely understated tale of Satan and apocalypse in an office block...
The Bacchae
Not so long ago, I read an anthology entitled 'Wild Women.' (http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/11...) It was a nice concept, but many of the stories didn't really fit into the concept. This story, on the other hand, would have fit in perfectly. Horrific, ambiguous, but somehow liberating...
Snow On Sugar Mountain
Ancient Native American shapeshifting magic and a dying, underappreciated astronaut. Two things you might not expect to find together. It works remarkably well, in this wistful, touching, bittersweet story.
On the Town Route
A girl drives out with her maybe-boyfriend on his ice-cream truck route. She sees him give out free ice cream to the backwoods folk, and is struck by their abject poverty. But he says she just doesn't understand. The myth of Demeter and Persephone weaves in... Not my favorite of the collection, but it's quite good.
The Boy in the Tree
Truly creepy tale where autistic children are somehow modified and used for empathic therapy... except that this therapy seems to have a better-than-average result of driving the subject to suicide. Deeply weird, very disturbing, about the abuses of power... and the myths that run through our subconscious.
Prince of Flowers
Straight-up horror story about a woman doing inventory at a natural history museum, who happens to be a bit of a kleptomaniac. But she steals some artifacts she really shouldn't have...
October 7, 2021
I liked this collection of (long) short stories from Elizabeth Hand. Many of these are from early on in her career, and there's some cool stuff in here about our world with fantastical/horror elements and a bit of scifi, including things that she would build later novel-length works from. Hand does a great job with the uncanny and the sense that there's something out there just brushing up against what we can see.
My favourite story was about a boy who had lost both his parents, and the only thing he had left was an amulet that allowed him to transform into an animal, and his collision with a dying astronaut who was slated to be on a cancelled moon landing mission. It was weird, deeply human, and kinda shivery. I also quite liked one that started as a down-at-heels journalist investigating a brutal murder, and ended up as Greek myth.
Hand's work does seem to be kind of hit or miss for me, and I admit the first two stories (both about something supernatural intruding on our world) didn't really work for me, and the short story that later became her novel Winterlong wasn't my favourite either. But the rest mostly worked for me, and when they worked, they really worked.
My favourite story was about a boy who had lost both his parents, and the only thing he had left was an amulet that allowed him to transform into an animal, and his collision with a dying astronaut who was slated to be on a cancelled moon landing mission. It was weird, deeply human, and kinda shivery. I also quite liked one that started as a down-at-heels journalist investigating a brutal murder, and ended up as Greek myth.
Hand's work does seem to be kind of hit or miss for me, and I admit the first two stories (both about something supernatural intruding on our world) didn't really work for me, and the short story that later became her novel Winterlong wasn't my favourite either. But the rest mostly worked for me, and when they worked, they really worked.
June 25, 2013
I received an electronic version of this book from the publishers through Net Galley. It is an upcoming reissue of Elizabeth Hand's first short story collection in eBook format.
I know Hand's name and writing almost solely from her book review column in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. Prior to this I had only read one short story of hers, and I can't say I remember anything of it. I guess her first short story collection is a good place to start, and I hope now that I'll see more of her fiction in the magazines I subscribe to. It would be curious to see how similar or different her writing is now to this.
The story from which this book takes its title is the first and my personal favorite of the bunch. It is also one of the brighter and more uplifting pieces here, though that is by no means why I enjoyed it most. But that opening story seems to best capture the best of Hand's ability, to tell a captivating story that explores archetypical human themes and emotions in rich, poetic language. She does this without fearing or hesitating to enter into heavy, traumatic, and emotionally crippling directions. In this first story, and in some of the others that follow, Hand manages to do this all with supreme subtlety, and for that I find the first story the most successful and resonant with readers.
At other times, however, her stories deal with traumatic and heavy themes with unforgiving brutality. This honesty has made some of the stories unpalatable to editors, and even it seems unpopular with some readers. Even those that get darkest, though, it is hard to ignore their absolute beauty and the elegance of her prose. Dark or light, horror or fantasy, or even science fiction - her stories are all magical. Suffused with close ties to history and mythology they have that classical feel of the fairy tale, but made modern, feminist, and given a personal twist born from Hand's own unfortunate experiences of psychological and physical trauma.
Even though I loved the writing throughout, some of the stories just failed to capture my interest on the emotional or plot level. And (as is the case with one story that she explains being written while working in a particularly bad office job) Hand sometimes writes in obvious emotional reaction to some experience in her own life, so transparently that it becomes too little about the characters, and more like a personal venting of the author's that feel the need to hear, thereby taking you of the story.
Each story is followed by an all-too-brief note from Hand related to the story, and the close of the book includes personal photos and captions and biographical/bibliographical information. On the whole it worked as an effective introduction to Hand for me, and I'm intrigued to see what her later work - short or novel-length showed for her growth.
I know Hand's name and writing almost solely from her book review column in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. Prior to this I had only read one short story of hers, and I can't say I remember anything of it. I guess her first short story collection is a good place to start, and I hope now that I'll see more of her fiction in the magazines I subscribe to. It would be curious to see how similar or different her writing is now to this.
The story from which this book takes its title is the first and my personal favorite of the bunch. It is also one of the brighter and more uplifting pieces here, though that is by no means why I enjoyed it most. But that opening story seems to best capture the best of Hand's ability, to tell a captivating story that explores archetypical human themes and emotions in rich, poetic language. She does this without fearing or hesitating to enter into heavy, traumatic, and emotionally crippling directions. In this first story, and in some of the others that follow, Hand manages to do this all with supreme subtlety, and for that I find the first story the most successful and resonant with readers.
At other times, however, her stories deal with traumatic and heavy themes with unforgiving brutality. This honesty has made some of the stories unpalatable to editors, and even it seems unpopular with some readers. Even those that get darkest, though, it is hard to ignore their absolute beauty and the elegance of her prose. Dark or light, horror or fantasy, or even science fiction - her stories are all magical. Suffused with close ties to history and mythology they have that classical feel of the fairy tale, but made modern, feminist, and given a personal twist born from Hand's own unfortunate experiences of psychological and physical trauma.
Even though I loved the writing throughout, some of the stories just failed to capture my interest on the emotional or plot level. And (as is the case with one story that she explains being written while working in a particularly bad office job) Hand sometimes writes in obvious emotional reaction to some experience in her own life, so transparently that it becomes too little about the characters, and more like a personal venting of the author's that feel the need to hear, thereby taking you of the story.
Each story is followed by an all-too-brief note from Hand related to the story, and the close of the book includes personal photos and captions and biographical/bibliographical information. On the whole it worked as an effective introduction to Hand for me, and I'm intrigued to see what her later work - short or novel-length showed for her growth.
August 4, 2008
Elizabeth Hand's short stories are devastating combinations of beauty and ugliness. They're mostly modern-day fantasy, but in terms of content and mood actually feel a lot closer to horror - but in a way that's only slightly repulsive.
They're also of reasonable literary quality (solid plot structure! good themes!), so I'd recommend checking them out even if you can't tolerate standard fantasy (like if you hate elves with cars).
They're also of reasonable literary quality (solid plot structure! good themes!), so I'd recommend checking them out even if you can't tolerate standard fantasy (like if you hate elves with cars).
July 4, 2013
Elizabeth Hand is a writer of speculative fiction and horror. This collection of short stories first appeared in 1998 and has just been issued as an ebook. The story that gives its name to the collection won the 1995 Nebula Award and the World Fantasy Award.
When is speculative fiction magic realism? It seems to me that especially in short stories the boundaries can very definitely overlap. This is partly because the brevity of short stories makes it easier to start in reality than in a constructed world. There are a number of stories in the collection for which a strong case can be made that they are magic realism.
My two favourites were Last Summer at Mars Hill and Snow on Sugar Mountain.
The wonderful Last Summer at Mars Hill is set in a spiritualist retreat in Maine. The characters and their alternative beliefs are recognizable, as they try to deal with their feelings about their mortality. The magic element is used brilliantly to look at those feelings in a totally different perspective.
In Snow on Sugar Mountain a teenage boy who has inherited from his mother an amulet that allows him to shapeshift meets with a dying former astronaut. The story follows the growing relationship between the old man and the boy. It has one of the best opening lines I have ever read: When Andrew was seven, his mother turned into a fox.
The Have-Nots is a tale of a woman deprived of her new-born child but given a cadillac by Elvis. It is narrated by a cosmetics saleswoman to a customer, which at times got wearisome, but nevertheless is engaging with a magical twist in the tail.
Engels Unaware focuses on a down-at-heel (literally) temporary secretary working in a financial investment house at the height of a financial boom. The arrival of brother and sister Graedig and Avaratia Engel sets in train financial Armageddon.
As you might have observed, my favourites in the collection tend to be the stories with the more optimistic endings. But Elizabeth Hand is known for her horror and some of the stories are distinctly dark. The Bacchae was even voted the "most hated" story by Interzone readers in 1991! The Erl King is a take on the fairytale and Goethe's poem, and reflects the bleakness of the originals. Hand's work has been described as having heart and also sharp little teeth, which I think is an excellent description of this collection.
Elizabeth Hand is obviously much inspired by Greek myths - Justice is inspired by Circe, On The Town Route by the Persephone story (with a bit of Pied Piper of Hamelin thrown in), then there is the Bacchae...One of the pluses with this collection is that after each story we get the author's notes on its creation and influences. These make for fascinating reading.
The weakest story, to my mind, is the Prince of Flowers. The story of a malevolent puppet is not original. It is interesting though to consider why puppets in literature (and film) are so often stereotyped, but that would take up a whole post. Nevertheless it, like all the stories in this collection, is beautifully written. Hand is a wonderful writer - every word is chosen for its contribution, building strong images and stories. I may not be a fan of the horror genre, but I am delighted that the publisher offered me this book to review.
This book was given to me, via Netgalley, by the publisher in return for a fair review.
This review first appeared on http://magic-realism-books.blogspot.com
When is speculative fiction magic realism? It seems to me that especially in short stories the boundaries can very definitely overlap. This is partly because the brevity of short stories makes it easier to start in reality than in a constructed world. There are a number of stories in the collection for which a strong case can be made that they are magic realism.
My two favourites were Last Summer at Mars Hill and Snow on Sugar Mountain.
The wonderful Last Summer at Mars Hill is set in a spiritualist retreat in Maine. The characters and their alternative beliefs are recognizable, as they try to deal with their feelings about their mortality. The magic element is used brilliantly to look at those feelings in a totally different perspective.
In Snow on Sugar Mountain a teenage boy who has inherited from his mother an amulet that allows him to shapeshift meets with a dying former astronaut. The story follows the growing relationship between the old man and the boy. It has one of the best opening lines I have ever read: When Andrew was seven, his mother turned into a fox.
The Have-Nots is a tale of a woman deprived of her new-born child but given a cadillac by Elvis. It is narrated by a cosmetics saleswoman to a customer, which at times got wearisome, but nevertheless is engaging with a magical twist in the tail.
Engels Unaware focuses on a down-at-heel (literally) temporary secretary working in a financial investment house at the height of a financial boom. The arrival of brother and sister Graedig and Avaratia Engel sets in train financial Armageddon.
As you might have observed, my favourites in the collection tend to be the stories with the more optimistic endings. But Elizabeth Hand is known for her horror and some of the stories are distinctly dark. The Bacchae was even voted the "most hated" story by Interzone readers in 1991! The Erl King is a take on the fairytale and Goethe's poem, and reflects the bleakness of the originals. Hand's work has been described as having heart and also sharp little teeth, which I think is an excellent description of this collection.
Elizabeth Hand is obviously much inspired by Greek myths - Justice is inspired by Circe, On The Town Route by the Persephone story (with a bit of Pied Piper of Hamelin thrown in), then there is the Bacchae...One of the pluses with this collection is that after each story we get the author's notes on its creation and influences. These make for fascinating reading.
The weakest story, to my mind, is the Prince of Flowers. The story of a malevolent puppet is not original. It is interesting though to consider why puppets in literature (and film) are so often stereotyped, but that would take up a whole post. Nevertheless it, like all the stories in this collection, is beautifully written. Hand is a wonderful writer - every word is chosen for its contribution, building strong images and stories. I may not be a fan of the horror genre, but I am delighted that the publisher offered me this book to review.
This book was given to me, via Netgalley, by the publisher in return for a fair review.
This review first appeared on http://magic-realism-books.blogspot.com
February 5, 2016
Do you recall my kind of glowing review of Stephen Jones's A BOOK OF HORRORS from last October? No, go ahead and check it out. I'll wait.
Now, remember that last story on the faves list? "Near Zenor" by Elizabeth Hand? Well that story led me on a search for Elizabeth Hand's backlist titles. One of the books on my must have list was LAST SUMMER AT MARS HILL. This collection, originally released in 1998 was Hand's first collection released and the title novella earned her a Nebula and a World Fantasy Award. Pretty impressive stuff! And while there are certainly some of the old physical copies floating around, I've yet to come across one. Fortunately, the folks over at Open Road Media have recently released this collection and more of Hand's backlist as well in e format.
LAST SUMMER AT MARS HILL is kind of the perfect example of why I love anthologies so much. Before reading A BOOK OF HORRORS, I wasn't at all familiar with Hand's work. Since falling in love with "Near Zenor," though, I found myself really seeking out more of her work. And while I'm looking forward to reading some of her novels, Last Summer gives me a chance to read more of her short fiction, like the one that drew me to her in the first place.
Last Summer includes:
Last Summer at Mars Hill (novella)
"The Erl King"
"Justice"
"Dionysus Dendrites"
"The Have-Nots"
"In the Month of Athyr"
"Engels Unaware"
"The Bacchae"
"Snow on Sugar Mountain"
"On the Town Route"
"The Boy on the Tree"
"Prince of Flowers"
Hand's tales are haunting both in tone and content. The very real setting combined with a fairy tale esque style is something I'm particularly fond of (I do find myself drawn to these kinds of stories quite often - see my post on Gaiman's OCEAN AT THE END OF THE LANE).
"Last Summer at Mars Hill" in particular is very couched in the here and now. The set up is a bit of a family vacation but with undertones of something not quite right. It isn't until the story begins to progress that you learn exactly what's off about this trip and the relationship between the central mother and daughter characters. And then you get the supernatural twist. Really it was quite enjoyable and a wonderful progression.
"The Erl King" was a particular favorite of mine thanks to the horrific twist the story took. (Horror roots and all that!)
"Justice" and "The Bacchae" 'cause, well. Yeah. Given some of the things going on in the world, I connected a bit with these.
"Engels Unaware" I heart this story. I did work as a temp for a little while and that might be why I liked it so much, but it's just a darn good tale!
All in all, a fabulous collection and one I'm so glad is available again for new fans (like me!).
Now, remember that last story on the faves list? "Near Zenor" by Elizabeth Hand? Well that story led me on a search for Elizabeth Hand's backlist titles. One of the books on my must have list was LAST SUMMER AT MARS HILL. This collection, originally released in 1998 was Hand's first collection released and the title novella earned her a Nebula and a World Fantasy Award. Pretty impressive stuff! And while there are certainly some of the old physical copies floating around, I've yet to come across one. Fortunately, the folks over at Open Road Media have recently released this collection and more of Hand's backlist as well in e format.
LAST SUMMER AT MARS HILL is kind of the perfect example of why I love anthologies so much. Before reading A BOOK OF HORRORS, I wasn't at all familiar with Hand's work. Since falling in love with "Near Zenor," though, I found myself really seeking out more of her work. And while I'm looking forward to reading some of her novels, Last Summer gives me a chance to read more of her short fiction, like the one that drew me to her in the first place.
Last Summer includes:
Last Summer at Mars Hill (novella)
"The Erl King"
"Justice"
"Dionysus Dendrites"
"The Have-Nots"
"In the Month of Athyr"
"Engels Unaware"
"The Bacchae"
"Snow on Sugar Mountain"
"On the Town Route"
"The Boy on the Tree"
"Prince of Flowers"
Hand's tales are haunting both in tone and content. The very real setting combined with a fairy tale esque style is something I'm particularly fond of (I do find myself drawn to these kinds of stories quite often - see my post on Gaiman's OCEAN AT THE END OF THE LANE).
"Last Summer at Mars Hill" in particular is very couched in the here and now. The set up is a bit of a family vacation but with undertones of something not quite right. It isn't until the story begins to progress that you learn exactly what's off about this trip and the relationship between the central mother and daughter characters. And then you get the supernatural twist. Really it was quite enjoyable and a wonderful progression.
"The Erl King" was a particular favorite of mine thanks to the horrific twist the story took. (Horror roots and all that!)
"Justice" and "The Bacchae" 'cause, well. Yeah. Given some of the things going on in the world, I connected a bit with these.
"Engels Unaware" I heart this story. I did work as a temp for a little while and that might be why I liked it so much, but it's just a darn good tale!
All in all, a fabulous collection and one I'm so glad is available again for new fans (like me!).
September 28, 2012
My first encounter with Elizabeth Hand's writing was her novel Waking the Moon. I didn't really like it, but I was sort of angry about not liking it... It's like all of the elements of the novel are things that I usually enjoy, so it was a huge let down when the end product actually repulsed me.
I also tried reading another novel of Hand's, Black Light, and hated it. I guess what happens is that Hand's writing includes themes that I like, but the stories she turns out end up being more disturbing than anything, and not in a good way. Her horror lacks a certain something, and instead of being stimulating it just winds up being plain disgusting.
That being said about her two novels that I have read, this collection of short stories was more of a mixed bag. Some of them disgusted me in the same way the novels did, while others were okay but overall kind of unimpressive. In the end I think there was only one story I can say that I actually liked, and that was "Snow on Sugar Mountain." I did enjoy that story quite a bit.
The rest of the stories generally contained bits and pieces I liked, but also elements that really turned me off. So only 2 stars for this book.
I also tried reading another novel of Hand's, Black Light, and hated it. I guess what happens is that Hand's writing includes themes that I like, but the stories she turns out end up being more disturbing than anything, and not in a good way. Her horror lacks a certain something, and instead of being stimulating it just winds up being plain disgusting.
That being said about her two novels that I have read, this collection of short stories was more of a mixed bag. Some of them disgusted me in the same way the novels did, while others were okay but overall kind of unimpressive. In the end I think there was only one story I can say that I actually liked, and that was "Snow on Sugar Mountain." I did enjoy that story quite a bit.
The rest of the stories generally contained bits and pieces I liked, but also elements that really turned me off. So only 2 stars for this book.
February 3, 2023
I discovered Elizabeth Hand's work through her excellent novella, "Wylding Hall". "Last Summer at Mars Hill" is an excellent collection of horror (with a little dystopic science fiction and the occasional fantasy mixed in). Hand's work is notable for her evocative prose (in one scence, she describes small boys and girls as "grinning and dirty as if freshly pulled from a garden") and for her nuance in mood/atmosphere and character development as horror, or at least, the fantastic, slowly builds in the background. Thematically, her stories often deal with (emotionally) distant or absent parents (her main characters are often young adults), and the ambiguity that their children can feel toward them. Bits and pieces of Greek myth sometimes influence her stories in surprising ways. A few of her stories are angry and political ("The Bacchae" reverses gender roles to horrific effect as women turn murderous; "Engels Unaware" turns Greed and Avarice into literal demons), but still effective (if lacking in her usual subtlety). My favorite story for sheer enjoyment was the last one in the volume, and (per the author's notes) her first published. "Prince of Flowers" is a straightforward but delightfully creepy Tales From The Crypt-esque story of a klepto museum archivist who discovers and purloins a mysterious Balinese puppet, much to her eventual regret.
dipped-in
December 22, 2019This was Elizabeth Hand’s debut collection of short stories. ‘Last Summer at Mars Hill’ and ‘The Erl-King’ are very much of a piece: ostensibly contemporary stories with whimsical commune-like settings and traces of magic. ‘Justice’, a dark tale of revenge, was my favourite of the stories I read. ‘In the Month of Athyr’ is an uncomfortable and disturbing story about a boy becoming fascinated with a ‘geneslave’, set in a space settlement. ‘Engels Unaware’ is a heavy-handed swipe at bankers/yuppie culture. Generally speaking, the tone was too heavily fantasy-flavoured for me; I originally intended to read the whole book, but too many of the stories felt like hard work. Go for
Errantry
instead.
April 8, 2013
The title story is the one that introduced me to Elizabeth Hand nearly 20 years ago, but somehow I've never managed to read this entire collection. Now that I have, I know I shouldn't have waited so long. The ones I had read previously such as "Engels Unaware" and "Prince of Flowers" are as disturbing as ever. The ones new to me, such as "Justice" will ensure this collection gets handed around to friends.
January 1, 2020
This is a first for me, since writing reviews for GoodReads, that I have rated an anthology the full 5-stars.
I had already decided the rating would stand even if the individual ratings averaged 4-stars. Why?
Despite less than stellar editing throughout this collection, Hand's writing is gorgeous. Her imagery is masterful and she is clearly extremely intelligent. I enjoyed the snippets included after each piece detailing her inspiration for the stories and I admire how blatantly autobiographical some of the stories are. The first two stories are reminiscent of her novella Wylding Hall, which I also loved, but my favorites here are The Have-Nots, Snow on Sugar Mountain, and On the Town Route. The voices in these three are especially superb.
Contents and ratings as follows:
Last Summer at Mars Hill 5
The Erl-King 5
Justice 4.5
Dionysus Dendrites 4
The Have-Nots 5
In the Month of Athyr 4.5
Engels Unaware 5
The Bacchae 3.5
Snow on Sugar Mountain 5
On the Town Route 5
The Boy In the Tree 4.5
Prince of Flowers 4.5
I had already decided the rating would stand even if the individual ratings averaged 4-stars. Why?
Despite less than stellar editing throughout this collection, Hand's writing is gorgeous. Her imagery is masterful and she is clearly extremely intelligent. I enjoyed the snippets included after each piece detailing her inspiration for the stories and I admire how blatantly autobiographical some of the stories are. The first two stories are reminiscent of her novella Wylding Hall, which I also loved, but my favorites here are The Have-Nots, Snow on Sugar Mountain, and On the Town Route. The voices in these three are especially superb.
Contents and ratings as follows:
Last Summer at Mars Hill 5
The Erl-King 5
Justice 4.5
Dionysus Dendrites 4
The Have-Nots 5
In the Month of Athyr 4.5
Engels Unaware 5
The Bacchae 3.5
Snow on Sugar Mountain 5
On the Town Route 5
The Boy In the Tree 4.5
Prince of Flowers 4.5
September 30, 2023
This 1998 collection showcases Hand's early stories, where she was developing her craft. The afterwords tell that many of them have autobiographical elements in them, which is not rare for a budding author.
They all have hallmarks of the strangeness and affects that Hand is known for. Her descriptions of scene and nature build an atmosphere that is essential to the feel of the story. While these stories are set in the most mundane of circumstances, they carry an exotic strangeness that foreshadows her brilliant later work.
While the title story won a couple of awards in the mid-1990s, her work really started excelling in the 2000s. Her collections “Bibliomancy” and “Saffron and Brimstone” contain many of these stories. Her novellas “Illyria” and “Wylding Hall” are exceptional. She has won the Shirley Jackson award three times, including for “Wylding Hall”, which my guess would be the story that convinced the Jackson estate to allow Hand to write the first authorized story based on “The Haunting of Hill House”. As of this writing, Hand's novel “A Haunting on the Hill” will be published on October 3.
They all have hallmarks of the strangeness and affects that Hand is known for. Her descriptions of scene and nature build an atmosphere that is essential to the feel of the story. While these stories are set in the most mundane of circumstances, they carry an exotic strangeness that foreshadows her brilliant later work.
While the title story won a couple of awards in the mid-1990s, her work really started excelling in the 2000s. Her collections “Bibliomancy” and “Saffron and Brimstone” contain many of these stories. Her novellas “Illyria” and “Wylding Hall” are exceptional. She has won the Shirley Jackson award three times, including for “Wylding Hall”, which my guess would be the story that convinced the Jackson estate to allow Hand to write the first authorized story based on “The Haunting of Hill House”. As of this writing, Hand's novel “A Haunting on the Hill” will be published on October 3.
September 14, 2017
Several really good and a couple of great stories in this collection. The Boy in the Tree was my favorite - made me want to reread Winterlong, the novel that introduced me to Elizabeth Hand when I stumbled across it years ago. But there were others that I really enjoyed and I love her writing style. Some of the stories have elements that are a little dated, but I think they hold up well (although in the case of Engels Unaware my enjoyment may be enhanced by having also worked as an office temp). I did not like Snow on Sugar Mountain's use of "Native American artifact provides magical powers" as a device to tell the story. The story was strong other than that and didn't need that piece of cultural appropriation.
August 5, 2017
Hand excels at wistful beauty and at including the surreal / supernatural in a way that feels grounded and realistic. The title story is the strongest in the collection, a meditation on terminal illness and lost youth in a spiritualist community with actual spirits, but all of them are strong.
I have concerns about the penultimate story, which has a little too much 'Autistic People are emotionless and spoooooky' dehumanizing for my taste and probably should have stuck with its main theme of being a futuristic remix of Machen's The Great God Pan, but it doesn't sour the whole book for me. YMMV.
I have concerns about the penultimate story, which has a little too much 'Autistic People are emotionless and spoooooky' dehumanizing for my taste and probably should have stuck with its main theme of being a futuristic remix of Machen's The Great God Pan, but it doesn't sour the whole book for me. YMMV.
February 11, 2020
This book is a collection of short stories/novellas, with one poem added to the mix. The stories range from splashes of magical realism ranging into a twist of horror, going from fantasy to science fiction. As always, her characters are unique and her stories unusual and intriguing with a wide range of settings and times. An additional highlight to each is a brief note relating to the creation of the story by the author.
August 13, 2021
I enjoyed most of these stories. I think there was one I gave up on? Otherwise they were intriguing and each one was really different from the rest, which I appreciated. I don't always love the endings of her stories--I wish she ended things with more of a bang than a whimper. But I do like her writing a lot.
February 20, 2024
For me, this was a rare thing
Every story in this collection is a gem. It's so rare that this is the case, that it really moved me. The collection is weird: sometimes horror, sometimes touching. All worth reading.
Every story in this collection is a gem. It's so rare that this is the case, that it really moved me. The collection is weird: sometimes horror, sometimes touching. All worth reading.
June 16, 2024
I skipped about a third of the stories. Pure fantasy really isn't for me. But I really liked the rest!
My favorites were "Prince of Flowers, "The Bacchae", "Last Summer on Mars Hill", and "The Erl-King".
My favorites were "Prince of Flowers, "The Bacchae", "Last Summer on Mars Hill", and "The Erl-King".
August 5, 2023
Favorites: title story, The Erl-King, Snow on Sugar Mountain, The Have-Nots, Engels Unaware, On the Town Route.
April 30, 2024
I was really hoping this would get better as it continued, but I was disappointed. I loved "Wylding Hall" and was looking for more by this author, but these stories all seem underdeveloped.
October 5, 2021
An amazing collection of sci-fi/horror! Some are macabre with Lovecraft elements, some are erotic & whimsical, some poignant & otherworldly, & some are dire & apocalyptic. All have their charm & attraction even though the topic & subject may be very offputting. Written in a stylistic prose that is challenging in a James Tiptree Jr or Gene Wolf manner, these stories are not for the meek or those with a short attention span. Recommended are The Bacchae, The Boy In The Tree, & Prince Of Flowers.
December 25, 2013
About half the stories in this volume have an overt Agenda (capital letter intended) and most of those Agendas I just didn't agree with - which makes it really difficult to enjoy them.
Sure, at first it might SOUND satisfying to have a female reporter who avenges female domestic violence victims. And I got the feeling I was supposed to agree with the the premise even if I didn't agree with the details... But once I pictured someone as vile and biased as Nancy Grace as the reporter in question, it lost what little charm it had for me.
One is even apparently the precursor to Winterlong which I've had on my TBR for awhile. And given how little I liked that one as well, it doesn't bode well for the trilogy.
I didn't even really enjoy the final two stories -- which are most similar in style to Waking the Moon which I really liked. I might have to revisit just those two stories someday to see if I like them better when they're not accompanied by stories with an Agenda to put me in a bad mood.
Sure, at first it might SOUND satisfying to have a female reporter who avenges female domestic violence victims. And I got the feeling I was supposed to agree with the the premise even if I didn't agree with the details... But once I pictured someone as vile and biased as Nancy Grace as the reporter in question, it lost what little charm it had for me.
One is even apparently the precursor to Winterlong which I've had on my TBR for awhile. And given how little I liked that one as well, it doesn't bode well for the trilogy.
I didn't even really enjoy the final two stories -- which are most similar in style to Waking the Moon which I really liked. I might have to revisit just those two stories someday to see if I like them better when they're not accompanied by stories with an Agenda to put me in a bad mood.
February 7, 2017
I read Hand's "Wylding Hall" last and loved it. It was modern horror, a terrifying tale told as a kind of oral history, but it was also a very classic gothic tale, with a grand hall, missing persons, secrets, and the paranormal permeating it all.
This short story collection has all of that, with even more mythology and discombobulating, earthy horror. A burnout reporter witnesses a goddess's justice. A famous musician who sold his soul reaps his rewards. An artist collective pleads for help from otherworldly beings. A boy struggles with the reality of his society. A woman in an ice cream truck sees something truly disturbing on a dark, dark road.
Weird stories. Sharp stories. Fantastic stories. I loved it.
This short story collection has all of that, with even more mythology and discombobulating, earthy horror. A burnout reporter witnesses a goddess's justice. A famous musician who sold his soul reaps his rewards. An artist collective pleads for help from otherworldly beings. A boy struggles with the reality of his society. A woman in an ice cream truck sees something truly disturbing on a dark, dark road.
Weird stories. Sharp stories. Fantastic stories. I loved it.
October 10, 2017
Elizabeth Hand is a wonderful writer in general and "Last Summer at Mars Hill" is a good fantasy story. It is set in the "Mars Hill Spiritual Community" in Maine. Two teenagers, a boy and a girl, have been coming there for years, each with one parent, the boy's father and the girl's mother. Now both parents are ill. Can (and will) the Light Children, glowing beings who keep appearing at Mars Hill, help?
May 30, 2013
The majority of these stories are as excellent as they day they were written. The others are weaker. On balance this is an excellent way of exploring the work of a young author destined to hit the big time.
http://opionator.wordpress.com/2013/0...
http://opionator.wordpress.com/2013/0...
October 4, 2010
Outstanding short stories. Liked the author's notes at the end.
April 26, 2019
I never get enough Liz Hand
And the title story is one of my two favorite short stories she's published. The other isn't in the book; it's called The Least Trumps.
And the title story is one of my two favorite short stories she's published. The other isn't in the book; it's called The Least Trumps.
September 12, 2015
I enjoyed this collection--it's Liz Hand, c'mon--but my favorite collection from her remains Saffron and Brimstone.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 31 reviews