What do you think?
Rate this book
Queen Victoria’s Book of Spells: An Anthology of Gaslamp Fantasy
“Gaslamp Fantasy,” or historical fantasy set in a magical version of the nineteenth century, has long been popular with readers and writers alike. A number of wonderful fantasy novels, including Stardust by Neil Gaiman, Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke, and The Prestige by Christopher Priest, owe their inspiration to works by nineteenth-century writers ranging from Jane Austen, the Brontës, and George Meredith to Charles Dickens, Anthony Trollope, and William Morris. And, of course, the entire steampunk genre and subculture owes more than a little to literature inspired by this period.
Queen Victoria’s Book of Spells is an anthology for everyone who loves these works of neo-Victorian fiction, and wishes to explore the wide variety of ways that modern fantasists are using nineteenth-century settings, characters, and themes. These approaches stretch from steampunk fiction to the Austen-and-Trollope inspired works that some critics call Fantasy of Manners, all of which fit under the larger umbrella of Gaslamp Fantasy. The result is eighteen stories by experts from the fantasy, horror, mainstream, and young adult fields, including both bestselling writers and exciting new talents such as Elizabeth Bear, James Blaylock, Jeffrey Ford, Ellen Kushner, Tanith Lee, Gregory Maguire, Delia Sherman, and Catherynne M. Valente, who present a bewitching vision of a nineteenth century invested (or cursed!) with magic.
The Line-up:
“Queen Victoria’s Book of Spells” by Delia Sherman
“The Fairy Enterprise” by Jeffrey Ford
“From the Catalogue of the Pavilion of the Uncanny and Marvelous, Scheduled for Premiere at the Great Exhibition (Before the Fire)” by Genevieve Valentine
“The Memory Book” by Maureen McHugh
“La Reine D’Enfer” by Kathe Koja
“Briar Rose” by Elizabeth Wein
“The Governess” by Elizabeth Bear
“Smithfield” by James P. Blaylock
“The Unwanted Women of Surrey” by Kaaron Warren
“Charged” by Leanna Renee Hieber
“Mr. Splitfoot” by Dale Bailey
“Phosphorus” by Veronica Schanoes
“We Without Us Were Shadows” by Catherynne M. Valente
“The Vital Importance of the Superficial” by Ellen Kushner and Caroline Stevermer
“The Jewel in the Toad Queen’s Crown” by Jane Yolen
“A Few Twigs He Left Behind” by Gregory Maguire
“Their Monstrous Minds” by Tanith Lee
“Estella Saves the Village” by Theodora Goss
Queen Victoria’s Book of Spells is an anthology for everyone who loves these works of neo-Victorian fiction, and wishes to explore the wide variety of ways that modern fantasists are using nineteenth-century settings, characters, and themes. These approaches stretch from steampunk fiction to the Austen-and-Trollope inspired works that some critics call Fantasy of Manners, all of which fit under the larger umbrella of Gaslamp Fantasy. The result is eighteen stories by experts from the fantasy, horror, mainstream, and young adult fields, including both bestselling writers and exciting new talents such as Elizabeth Bear, James Blaylock, Jeffrey Ford, Ellen Kushner, Tanith Lee, Gregory Maguire, Delia Sherman, and Catherynne M. Valente, who present a bewitching vision of a nineteenth century invested (or cursed!) with magic.
The Line-up:
“Queen Victoria’s Book of Spells” by Delia Sherman
“The Fairy Enterprise” by Jeffrey Ford
“From the Catalogue of the Pavilion of the Uncanny and Marvelous, Scheduled for Premiere at the Great Exhibition (Before the Fire)” by Genevieve Valentine
“The Memory Book” by Maureen McHugh
“La Reine D’Enfer” by Kathe Koja
“Briar Rose” by Elizabeth Wein
“The Governess” by Elizabeth Bear
“Smithfield” by James P. Blaylock
“The Unwanted Women of Surrey” by Kaaron Warren
“Charged” by Leanna Renee Hieber
“Mr. Splitfoot” by Dale Bailey
“Phosphorus” by Veronica Schanoes
“We Without Us Were Shadows” by Catherynne M. Valente
“The Vital Importance of the Superficial” by Ellen Kushner and Caroline Stevermer
“The Jewel in the Toad Queen’s Crown” by Jane Yolen
“A Few Twigs He Left Behind” by Gregory Maguire
“Their Monstrous Minds” by Tanith Lee
“Estella Saves the Village” by Theodora Goss
352 pages, Hardcover
First published March 19, 2013
107 people are currently reading
4026 people want to read
About the author
Ellen Datlow
276 books1,875 followersEllen Datlow has been editing science fiction, fantasy, and horror short fiction for forty years as fiction editor of OMNI Magazine and editor of Event Horizon and SCIFICTION. She currently acquires short stories and novellas for Tor.com. In addition, she has edited about one hundred science fiction, fantasy, and horror anthologies, including the annual The Best Horror of the Year series, The Doll Collection, Mad Hatters and March Hares, The Devil and the Deep: Horror Stories of the Sea, Echoes: The Saga Anthology of Ghost Stories, Edited By, and Final Cuts: New Tales of Hollywood Horror and Other Spectacles.
She's won multiple World Fantasy Awards, Locus Awards, Hugo Awards, Bram Stoker Awards, International Horror Guild Awards, Shirley Jackson Awards, and the 2012 Il Posto Nero Black Spot Award for Excellence as Best Foreign Editor. Datlow was named recipient of the 2007 Karl Edward Wagner Award, given at the British Fantasy Convention for "outstanding contribution to the genre," was honored with the Life Achievement Award by the Horror Writers Association, in acknowledgment of superior achievement over an entire career, and honored with the World Fantasy Life Achievement Award at the 2014 World Fantasy Convention.
She's won multiple World Fantasy Awards, Locus Awards, Hugo Awards, Bram Stoker Awards, International Horror Guild Awards, Shirley Jackson Awards, and the 2012 Il Posto Nero Black Spot Award for Excellence as Best Foreign Editor. Datlow was named recipient of the 2007 Karl Edward Wagner Award, given at the British Fantasy Convention for "outstanding contribution to the genre," was honored with the Life Achievement Award by the Horror Writers Association, in acknowledgment of superior achievement over an entire career, and honored with the World Fantasy Life Achievement Award at the 2014 World Fantasy Convention.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 280 reviews
July 2, 2013
DNF-- I slogged through the intro and the first 10 stories, and then realized that I was regarding it as more a chore to be completed than a book to be enjoyed, and put it down. This REALLY didn't measure up to expectations, IMO. Datlow and Windling are master anthologists, but I was gravely disappointed in this offering. Frankly, I wished I COULD have kept going, because (on flipping through) some of my favorite authors have stories near the end of the book (really, what I SHOULD have done was just skip to them directly at the start, but I don't believe that anthologies are slapped together randomly, and I thought I'd WANT to read it all. And by that time I felt differently, the book had pretty much sucked out all my will to continue.)
The stories seemed to capture the stereotypical dreariness of the Victorian period, with none of the magic (except of the nastiest kind-- it's a little disturbing how many of the stories were revenge tales, like "The Unwanted Women of Surrey," or fey karma for a thoroughly unlikable main character, like "The Fairy Enterprise"). Some just lacked sufficient plot to engage my interest, like "Smithfield." Delia Sherman's "Queen Victoria's Book of Spells" was the most intriguing of the stories I read, and even that one was more than a little sordid.
It's not that I need my fantasy to be full of rainbows and sparkleponies-- gaslamp, to me, is supposed to bring a sense of *wonder* to the period. This collection just seems to underline the depersonalization and casual cruelties of the Industrial Age. I have to wonder what the anthologists were seeking here, because I *know* that both they and the individual authors were capable of better than this.
The stories seemed to capture the stereotypical dreariness of the Victorian period, with none of the magic (except of the nastiest kind-- it's a little disturbing how many of the stories were revenge tales, like "The Unwanted Women of Surrey," or fey karma for a thoroughly unlikable main character, like "The Fairy Enterprise"). Some just lacked sufficient plot to engage my interest, like "Smithfield." Delia Sherman's "Queen Victoria's Book of Spells" was the most intriguing of the stories I read, and even that one was more than a little sordid.
It's not that I need my fantasy to be full of rainbows and sparkleponies-- gaslamp, to me, is supposed to bring a sense of *wonder* to the period. This collection just seems to underline the depersonalization and casual cruelties of the Industrial Age. I have to wonder what the anthologists were seeking here, because I *know* that both they and the individual authors were capable of better than this.
June 29, 2018
It's very unfortunate timing that I'm rating this right after Ellen Datlow won the 2018 Locus Award for best Editor; it's incredibly well deserved, she's introduced me to some of my favourite authors, and I love her collections almost without exception. This is just a blip, so if you're new to her this is definitely not a representative review!
Unfortunately this was a case of reader meets book that is absolutely not for her. Luckily it was a buddy-read with Lena and Holly from Spells, Space & Screams - thank you ladies, you kept me going!
The majority of stories are equipped with something recognisably Victorian, be it setting, writing style or characters, plus an unlikeable protagonist. Seriously, 80%ish of these stories follow people that are just completely terrible - not in the wonderfully villainous or devious way, but just banal and grimly awful.
HOWEVER - there are some stories that balanced this out into earning a second star. Elizabeth Bear brings her usual brilliance to the collection with The Governess; The Vital Importance of the Superficial, a joint work from Ellen Kushner and Caroline Stevermer was absolutely charming, quirky, and built a complete world, romance and story in a very short amount of time. The Unwanted Women of Surrey by Kaaron Warren showed just what women can achieve when they band together towards a common goal, and Estella Saves the Village by Theodora Goss will be loved by anyone who ever wished they could open a foster home for all the mistreated characters they wanted to somehow save.
Again, if you aren't familiar with Ellen Datlow's work, don't let this put you off (unless you have a thing for Victorian tales and unlikeable protagonists, in which case GOOD NEWS).
Unfortunately this was a case of reader meets book that is absolutely not for her. Luckily it was a buddy-read with Lena and Holly from Spells, Space & Screams - thank you ladies, you kept me going!
The majority of stories are equipped with something recognisably Victorian, be it setting, writing style or characters, plus an unlikeable protagonist. Seriously, 80%ish of these stories follow people that are just completely terrible - not in the wonderfully villainous or devious way, but just banal and grimly awful.
HOWEVER - there are some stories that balanced this out into earning a second star. Elizabeth Bear brings her usual brilliance to the collection with The Governess; The Vital Importance of the Superficial, a joint work from Ellen Kushner and Caroline Stevermer was absolutely charming, quirky, and built a complete world, romance and story in a very short amount of time. The Unwanted Women of Surrey by Kaaron Warren showed just what women can achieve when they band together towards a common goal, and Estella Saves the Village by Theodora Goss will be loved by anyone who ever wished they could open a foster home for all the mistreated characters they wanted to somehow save.
Again, if you aren't familiar with Ellen Datlow's work, don't let this put you off (unless you have a thing for Victorian tales and unlikeable protagonists, in which case GOOD NEWS).
August 11, 2016
With a few exceptions (aren't there always?) a very solid collection of Victorian-set fantasy.
August 23, 2018
The Unwanted Women of Surrey by Kaaron Warren ★★★★★
This was the best story by far! A vicious supernatural story of madness, murder, and social chasms that is layered in meaning.
Estella Saves the Village by Theodora Goss ★★★★☆
This is Goss dabbling in Victorian literature, feminism, mystery, and happy endings. The germ of something that would become her Athena Club series.
The Memory Book by Maureen McHugh ★★★★☆
"Underneath the tintype she wrote Mine."
A hard angry young woman uses British Voodoo to change her life. I thought this was going to end much meaner than it did, after all the English make a sport of social climbing.
Mr. Splitfoot by Dale Bailey ★★★★☆
“Many nights I stood over my own dear husband’s bed, clutching a knife in my hand, my whole body wracked with the effort of turning Mr. Splitfoot away.”
A story about the spiritualist Fox sisters and the price they may have been paying for their gifts.
Their Monstrous Minds by Tanith Lee ★★★★☆
Oh my, I did enjoy this parallel English version of Frankenstein.
Don’t jump on me, Shelley’s version takes place in Italy, Germany, and Switzerland.
The Governess by Elizabeth Bear ★★★★☆
“When a man is dead...what’s to stop you?”
Well now, that was a good selkie horror story. It would have been five stars if Annabelle had let go.
Phosphorus by Veronica Schanoes ★★★☆☆
A rough sad reminded of the terrible conditions endured by lower class Victorians. Phossy jaw, death by jaw rot caused by white phosphorus, was not something I was familiar with. Banned in the UK in 1906 it sadly took until 1911 for the same wisdom to hit the land of the free and home of the capitalist.
https://mobile.nytimes.com/1911/04/14...
The Jewel in the Toad Queen’s Crown by Jane Yolen ★★★☆☆
An odd story about Queen Victoria and her favorite Prime Minister; the man who made her Empress of India. Apparently, Kabbalah was involved.
The Fairy Enterprise by Jeffrey Ford ★★★☆☆
"The appearance of industry yet the manufacturing of nothing."
Sounds Russian doesn’t it? Its actually better than the original idea - slavery.
This is the story of a wealthy industrialist who decided to sell fairies and got what he deserved! He was an unpleasant POV.
A Few Twigs He Left Behind by Gregory Maguire ★★★☆☆
An exaggerated, and even satirical, sequel to The Christmas Carol.
Queen Victoria’s Book of Spells by Delia Sherman ★★☆☆☆
Have you ever wanted to read a magical revisionist history that makes Queen Victoria look like Donald Trump?
Because I didn’t.
From the Catalogue of the Pavilion of the Uncanny and Marvelous, Scheduled for Premiere at the Great Exhibition (Before the Fire) by Genevieve Valentine ★★☆☆☆
Oh dear I am NOT a fan of the epistolary style.
For the Briar Rose by Elizabeth Wein ★★☆☆☆
This was a delicate story about a woman who only finds fulfillment through becoming a mother.
It’s abloom with the soft discrete prose that reduces passionate fucking in the woods to a “swooning afternoon.” There’s a tasteful drop of magical realism in this tea rose of women’s fiction that could not hold my attention.
I was painfully bored. This took me two hours to push through. Gah!
Smithfield by James P. Blaylock ★★☆☆☆
Magical photographic overlay that took place as electricity hit England. There’s not much in the way of story, just “Hey, this weird thing happened to my film while I was in London.”
Charged by Leanna Renee Hieber ★★☆☆☆
“My first memory is of being struck by lightening. It was exquisite.”
That started off well. Alas, the MC was a dislikable character. Not even an antihero, just a creepy power hungry weirdo that was drawn to Manhattan. What a shock, lol.
La Reine d’Enfer by Kathe Koja ★☆☆☆☆
Unpleasant in every way, from the barely understandable language to the subject matter.
We Without Us Were Shadows by Catherynne M. Valente DNF
Valente is hit and miss for me. This story, not five pages in, my eyes glazed over reading about kids playing with toys.
The Vital Importance of the Superficial by Ellen Kushner & Caroline Stevermer DNF
Not a fan of epistolary writing.
The 16/18 stories I read averaged exactly 3 Stars.
May 22, 2013
I made the mistake of thinking this was a steampunk anthology; it’s not. It’s Gaslamp Fantasy; fantasy stories set in the Victorian era with magic included. Here you will no find brass goggles or airship pirates. But it was a happy mistake, because I enjoyed this book very much.
Victoria reigned for a very long time, so there is variety of events, inventions, real people, and movements to choose from when writing in the era. A couple of the stories are actually about Victoria; the title story is, if you know about the relationship between Victoria and Prince Albert, heartbreaking as well as a warning to be careful what you wish for when working magic. I loved ‘For Briar Rose’ simply because it involved Edward Burne-Jones and William and Jane Morris; the pre-Raphaelite artistic movement is simply my favorite ever. In other stories, the Bronte family, Frankenstein, Scrooge and the Crachit family show up. There is true horror- one story features one of the women who worked in the match factories who developed the terrible ‘Phossy jaw’ where the phosphate from the matches eats away the jaw bones. And ‘The Fairy Enterprise’ wherein an amoral industrial decides to take advantage of gullible society and ends up getting what he deserves made is a dark story, but made me laugh.
It’s a very solid anthology; while there were, of course, a couple of stories I didn’t like, they are all good and well written and I’m glad I read them.
Victoria reigned for a very long time, so there is variety of events, inventions, real people, and movements to choose from when writing in the era. A couple of the stories are actually about Victoria; the title story is, if you know about the relationship between Victoria and Prince Albert, heartbreaking as well as a warning to be careful what you wish for when working magic. I loved ‘For Briar Rose’ simply because it involved Edward Burne-Jones and William and Jane Morris; the pre-Raphaelite artistic movement is simply my favorite ever. In other stories, the Bronte family, Frankenstein, Scrooge and the Crachit family show up. There is true horror- one story features one of the women who worked in the match factories who developed the terrible ‘Phossy jaw’ where the phosphate from the matches eats away the jaw bones. And ‘The Fairy Enterprise’ wherein an amoral industrial decides to take advantage of gullible society and ends up getting what he deserves made is a dark story, but made me laugh.
It’s a very solid anthology; while there were, of course, a couple of stories I didn’t like, they are all good and well written and I’m glad I read them.
January 29, 2020
It kills me to have to rate this book so low, because I truly expected to love these stories. Gaslamp fantasy sounded like something that was tailored specifically to my interests in magic and Victorian England, but sadly most of the stories in this collection were dry, boring, or utterly unimaginative; I truly struggled to get through most of them. There are only two stories in here that I can actually say I liked, and even those would not make it to any favorites list.
"Queen Victoria's Book of Spells" by Delia Sherman: 2.5/5 (This was fine. Kind of repetitive, kind of pointless, but with an interesting ending.)
"The Fairy Enterprise" by Jeffrey Ford: 3/5 (The main character was intriguing in that he was so despicable; the ending teetered on horror which salvaged the story for me.)
"From the Catalogue of the Pavilion..." by Genevieve Valentine: 2.5/3 (This mixes the reality of London's Great Exhibition with a fiction of a Pavilion for the Marvelous and the Strange, showcasing freaks from around the world. It's an interesting idea, but I wasn't a fan of the execution: the story is told in letters and article snippets and ultimately felt very bland.)
"The Memory Book" by Maureen McHugh: 3.5/5 (This has a really sinister vibe. I didn't connect with it and I wanted to understand a little bit more of what exactly what going on, but I liked the undercurrent of dread running throughout.)
"La Reine d'Enfer" by Kathe Koja: 2.5/5 (Intriguing idea, but I wasn't really clear on what the magical element was supposed to be. I also found the stylized writing incredibly annoying and unnecessary.)
"For the Briar Rose" by Elizabeth Gatland: 1/5 (So. Freaking. Boring. I skimmed the last four pages because I just could not get through it.)
"The Governess" by Elizabeth Bear: 3.5/4 (An unsettling story that slowly builds up tension and dread. But I wanted more of it! More reflection! More emotion! More character work! But it was enjoyable.)
"Smithfield" by James Blaylock: 1/5 (I have no clue what this was about because my eyes immediately glazed over when I started reading it. I barely skimmed it.)
"The Unwanted Women of Surrey" by Kaaron Warren: 2.5/5 (This is a deeply unpleasant story about women who are cast off by their families and who...I think...start murdering people in the hopes of attaining freedom? Or something? They're seemingly haunted by the spectre of the Grey Ladies? It was all really confusing, and I was never convinced by anything the characters did.)
"Charged" by Leanna Renee Hieber: 2/5 (The writing was good and the concept intriguing - a boy struck by lightning who gains powers and is fascinated by Edison and electricity - but the execution was a bore.)
"Mr. Splitfoot" by Dale Bailey: 4/5 (Finally, a story I actually enjoyed! This is a reimagining of the Fox sisters' lives wherein they are possessed by Mr. Splitfoot, a spirit that has resulted in their fame and riches but also compels them to horrific acts. Utterly chilling.)
"Phosphorus" by Veronica Schanoes: 4/5 (Wow, this was good. In this, a working class Irish woman with phossy jaw resorts to witchery in order to live long enough to see the matchwomen's strike through. This story highlights a ton of the horrors of the Victorian era: the struggles of the working class, the body horror inherent in something like phossy jaw, England's horrific and unconscionable treatment of the Irish during the potato famine. It also illustrates the rise of unions and solidarity of the working class, all told in a second-person story with the conceit of hindsight. It's very odd but very compelling and utterly disturbing. Oh, the horrors of capitalism.)
"We Without Us Were Shadows" by Catherynne M Valente: 1.5/5 (Apparently this is about the Bronte siblings going off into some imaginary world having to do with their toy soldiers. I don't know, because I barely read it, because I was bored. I will say, however, that the writing was spectacular, as Valente's writing always is: lush and lovely and, in this case, very Victorian.)
"The Vital Importance of the Superficial" by Ellen Kushner and Caroline Stevermer: 3.5/5 (Fun, cheeky letters exchanged between a man and a woman about an object he forgot at her father's house, in this alternate version of England where people train in magic. I liked the writing, but this is a story that could and should easily be a novel, and I don't think the epistolary format suits it; I liked it in the beginning, but it required suspension of disbelief as the plot went on.)
"The Jewel in the Toad Queen's Crown" by Jane Yolen: 1/5 (This was boring and pointless and unpleasant.)
"A Few Twigs He Left Behind" by Gregory Maguire: 1/5 (I barely read this. My eyes glazed over.)
"Their Monstrous Minds" by Tanith Lee: 1/5 (The writing was way, way, way too stylized and overwrought. I ended up skimming.)
"Estella Saves the Village" by Theodora Goss: 2.5/5 (Fine, I guess? It takes an overdone concept and presents it in a very dry way.)
"Queen Victoria's Book of Spells" by Delia Sherman: 2.5/5 (This was fine. Kind of repetitive, kind of pointless, but with an interesting ending.)
"The Fairy Enterprise" by Jeffrey Ford: 3/5 (The main character was intriguing in that he was so despicable; the ending teetered on horror which salvaged the story for me.)
"From the Catalogue of the Pavilion..." by Genevieve Valentine: 2.5/3 (This mixes the reality of London's Great Exhibition with a fiction of a Pavilion for the Marvelous and the Strange, showcasing freaks from around the world. It's an interesting idea, but I wasn't a fan of the execution: the story is told in letters and article snippets and ultimately felt very bland.)
"The Memory Book" by Maureen McHugh: 3.5/5 (This has a really sinister vibe. I didn't connect with it and I wanted to understand a little bit more of what exactly what going on, but I liked the undercurrent of dread running throughout.)
"La Reine d'Enfer" by Kathe Koja: 2.5/5 (Intriguing idea, but I wasn't really clear on what the magical element was supposed to be. I also found the stylized writing incredibly annoying and unnecessary.)
"For the Briar Rose" by Elizabeth Gatland: 1/5 (So. Freaking. Boring. I skimmed the last four pages because I just could not get through it.)
"The Governess" by Elizabeth Bear: 3.5/4 (An unsettling story that slowly builds up tension and dread. But I wanted more of it! More reflection! More emotion! More character work! But it was enjoyable.)
"Smithfield" by James Blaylock: 1/5 (I have no clue what this was about because my eyes immediately glazed over when I started reading it. I barely skimmed it.)
"The Unwanted Women of Surrey" by Kaaron Warren: 2.5/5 (This is a deeply unpleasant story about women who are cast off by their families and who...I think...start murdering people in the hopes of attaining freedom? Or something? They're seemingly haunted by the spectre of the Grey Ladies? It was all really confusing, and I was never convinced by anything the characters did.)
"Charged" by Leanna Renee Hieber: 2/5 (The writing was good and the concept intriguing - a boy struck by lightning who gains powers and is fascinated by Edison and electricity - but the execution was a bore.)
"Mr. Splitfoot" by Dale Bailey: 4/5 (Finally, a story I actually enjoyed! This is a reimagining of the Fox sisters' lives wherein they are possessed by Mr. Splitfoot, a spirit that has resulted in their fame and riches but also compels them to horrific acts. Utterly chilling.)
"Phosphorus" by Veronica Schanoes: 4/5 (Wow, this was good. In this, a working class Irish woman with phossy jaw resorts to witchery in order to live long enough to see the matchwomen's strike through. This story highlights a ton of the horrors of the Victorian era: the struggles of the working class, the body horror inherent in something like phossy jaw, England's horrific and unconscionable treatment of the Irish during the potato famine. It also illustrates the rise of unions and solidarity of the working class, all told in a second-person story with the conceit of hindsight. It's very odd but very compelling and utterly disturbing. Oh, the horrors of capitalism.)
"We Without Us Were Shadows" by Catherynne M Valente: 1.5/5 (Apparently this is about the Bronte siblings going off into some imaginary world having to do with their toy soldiers. I don't know, because I barely read it, because I was bored. I will say, however, that the writing was spectacular, as Valente's writing always is: lush and lovely and, in this case, very Victorian.)
"The Vital Importance of the Superficial" by Ellen Kushner and Caroline Stevermer: 3.5/5 (Fun, cheeky letters exchanged between a man and a woman about an object he forgot at her father's house, in this alternate version of England where people train in magic. I liked the writing, but this is a story that could and should easily be a novel, and I don't think the epistolary format suits it; I liked it in the beginning, but it required suspension of disbelief as the plot went on.)
"The Jewel in the Toad Queen's Crown" by Jane Yolen: 1/5 (This was boring and pointless and unpleasant.)
"A Few Twigs He Left Behind" by Gregory Maguire: 1/5 (I barely read this. My eyes glazed over.)
"Their Monstrous Minds" by Tanith Lee: 1/5 (The writing was way, way, way too stylized and overwrought. I ended up skimming.)
"Estella Saves the Village" by Theodora Goss: 2.5/5 (Fine, I guess? It takes an overdone concept and presents it in a very dry way.)
April 16, 2014
A pretty solid collection of fantasy stories, linked by their connection to Queen Victoria's reign. I think my favorites were the creepy stories by McHugh and Koja, the rousing "Phosphorus," and the hopeful "Estella Saves the Village."
"Queen Victoria's Book of Spells" by Delia Sherman. A magician-historian looks under the simple cantrips and magical recipes in a book and finds a young Victoria's diary. It reveals , and the historian (who has been harassed as a woman and as a commoner) is torn whether to reveal the late queen's secret. I wish there was more to the historian, and more to Victoria's secret diary, because as it is there isn't much to this story.
"The Fairy Enterprise" by Jeffrey Ford. A pitiless industrialist tries to build a factory that creates fairies, but instead he himself becomes the fairy factory. Basically a recounting of random, surreal, and disgusting events happening to a terrible man. Not enjoyable.
"From the Catalogue of the Uncanny and the Marvellous" by Genevieve Valentine. Through excerpts from fictional and real historical documents, describes the contents and destruction by fire of an exhibit in the Great Exhibition of supernatural beings and objects. I wish there was more characterization or story here.
"The Memory Book" by Maureen McHugh. Laura Anne is a new governness, and she finds her charges rather a handful. So she does what she always does when troubled: she scrapbooks. There's a wonderful commitment to this story, and the creeping sense of dread and terror.
"La Reine D'Enfer" by Kathe Koja. An urchin with a talent for memorization becomes an actor, and in so doing not only rids himself of his pimp, but finds a dark power for his own. Great character voice and historical details.
"For the Briar Rose" by Elizabeth Wein. Margaret, only daughter of Edward-Burne Jones, is at the cusp of becoming a wife and then mother while her father paints his famed Briar Rose series. This felt confused and unfocused, even though the symbolism was blindingly obvious.
"The Governess" by Elizabeth Bear. A governess in a troubled household. I liked the way the parents' influence on their children was portrayed, although I thought .
"Smithfield" by James Blaylock. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle does some photography in a town while the gas lamps are being replaced with electricity. Pointless and dry. I thought the long-winded style of the story was a good mimic of Doyle's, until I read the afterward, which was two-and-a-half pages when most authors contented themselves with a sentence or two.
"The Unwanted Women of Surrey" by Kaaron Warren. A house of women who are a bit too mad or unwanted by their families live in peace until a new lady arrives and spreads the word of the Grey Ladies. By hastening the deaths of others, the women can serve the Grey Ladies and gain free will. I liked the way Annie's soul was described: "twisted, dark, pockmarked...it puddled, like a rat liquefying." But otherwise, I think the narrator was too ill-defined (why was she in the house? why did she believe Annie and go along with the dreadful poisonings?), and the author put a few too many infodumps of their research. It read like Warren had done a little reading into Victorian medicine and history and then stuffed several random things that they found exciting into the story.
"Charged" by Leanna Renee Hieber. The narrator is struck by lightning as a boy, and ever after is fascinated by electricity. More, he can control and conduct it. Unfortunately for the world, this superpowered man of the new electric age is amoral and mad as a hatter. Intriguing.
"Mr.Splitfoot" by Dale Bailey. In her old age, Maggie Fox thinks about her time as a celebrated Spiritualist. She renounced her talents as mere fraud, but in her own mind she allows herself to acknowledge the awful truth--that she and her sister really could commune with spirits, and they were terrifying. The descriptions of the spirits and the near-possession are chilling, and I liked the twist this gave the Fox sisters.
"Phosphorus" by Veronica Schanoes. A matchwoman in Ireland does dark magic in order to live long enough to see a strike end and a union formed. This is a disturbing but very necessary story to include in a gaslamp/steampunk anthology--from the author's afterword: "It's easy to forget how the people who indulged in afternoon tea rituals, admired clockwork-powered inventions, and wore shapely and beautiful corsets and bustles profited from the death and suffering of others every time they lit a candle."
"We Without Us Were Shadows" by Catherynne M Valente. As children, the four youngest Brontes visit a world in which their imaginings have form and substance. I think at times Valente gets too caught up in description to maintain the story, but the idea is solid and has some of the charm and danger of Narnia or Oz.
"The Vital Importance of the Superficial" by Ellen Kushner and Caroline Stevermer. A gentleman leaves a magical object behind after a salon, and peremptorily demands it back. He is answered by an equally pert letter, and through the course of correspondence a dastardly magician is foiled, a lady saved, and a romance begun. Stevermer wrote a very similar series of book with another author (the Sorcery&Cecilia series with Patricia Wrede), and in both instances the epistolary style works for only a short time. Soon, it becomes unbelievable that the neighboring narrators are communicating only in letters. "We will come together just as soon as Father has his breakfast and I have tidied the crumbs out of his beard," writes Charlotte, seemingly desperate to see her lost brother and best friend again after their ordeals, and then instead of hastening to them writes a THREE PAGE letter. In the amount of time it takes her to write this letter, she could have visited, told them the whole tale, and come back home again! Too, Kushner&Stevermer clearly only developed the plot as they wrote each letter, so the backstory is a disorganized mess and the plot itself sadly anticlimactic. Also, the romance at the end feels unearned, despite the twenty pages of letters between Our Heroes. This needed tightening and editing to turn it from fun writing exercise between friends into a good story. Because there is charm and wit here, just buried.
"The Jewel in the Toad Queen's Crown" by Jane Yolen. Disraeli and Queen Victoria talk, and he uses Kabbalistic magic to add India to her empire. The writing is not subtle in its characterizations (if Victoria was likened to a young girl one more time I swear I'd have shut the book), nor is the plot clear.
"A Few Twigs He Left Behind" by Gregory Maguire. In his last decade of life, Scrooge was a reformed man. Not only did he spread his wealth to the impoverished of London, but he fell in love. Now his death has finally come upon him, his children watch his corpse to see if his late repentance was enough to save him from eternal wanderings. Great descriptions, and a narrative pov that felt similar to Dickens's without feeling derivative.
"Their Monstrous Minds" by Tanith Lee. A scientist strives to create a perfect man out of corpse-bits, and succeeds to perfection. Except that Horror in the nineteenth century style, with Lee's beautifully crafted prose.
"Estella Saves the Village" by Theodora Goss. Very cool story. Estella lives in a cozy little village with her guardian, Miss Havisham, but one day she sees little black specks on the pastor. Every day, the specks grow larger and spread throughout the village. A neat combination of imagination, horror, and sweetness.
"Queen Victoria's Book of Spells" by Delia Sherman. A magician-historian looks under the simple cantrips and magical recipes in a book and finds a young Victoria's diary. It reveals , and the historian (who has been harassed as a woman and as a commoner) is torn whether to reveal the late queen's secret. I wish there was more to the historian, and more to Victoria's secret diary, because as it is there isn't much to this story.
"The Fairy Enterprise" by Jeffrey Ford. A pitiless industrialist tries to build a factory that creates fairies, but instead he himself becomes the fairy factory. Basically a recounting of random, surreal, and disgusting events happening to a terrible man. Not enjoyable.
"From the Catalogue of the Uncanny and the Marvellous" by Genevieve Valentine. Through excerpts from fictional and real historical documents, describes the contents and destruction by fire of an exhibit in the Great Exhibition of supernatural beings and objects. I wish there was more characterization or story here.
"The Memory Book" by Maureen McHugh. Laura Anne is a new governness, and she finds her charges rather a handful. So she does what she always does when troubled: she scrapbooks. There's a wonderful commitment to this story, and the creeping sense of dread and terror.
"La Reine D'Enfer" by Kathe Koja. An urchin with a talent for memorization becomes an actor, and in so doing not only rids himself of his pimp, but finds a dark power for his own. Great character voice and historical details.
"For the Briar Rose" by Elizabeth Wein. Margaret, only daughter of Edward-Burne Jones, is at the cusp of becoming a wife and then mother while her father paints his famed Briar Rose series. This felt confused and unfocused, even though the symbolism was blindingly obvious.
"The Governess" by Elizabeth Bear. A governess in a troubled household. I liked the way the parents' influence on their children was portrayed, although I thought .
"Smithfield" by James Blaylock. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle does some photography in a town while the gas lamps are being replaced with electricity. Pointless and dry. I thought the long-winded style of the story was a good mimic of Doyle's, until I read the afterward, which was two-and-a-half pages when most authors contented themselves with a sentence or two.
"The Unwanted Women of Surrey" by Kaaron Warren. A house of women who are a bit too mad or unwanted by their families live in peace until a new lady arrives and spreads the word of the Grey Ladies. By hastening the deaths of others, the women can serve the Grey Ladies and gain free will. I liked the way Annie's soul was described: "twisted, dark, pockmarked...it puddled, like a rat liquefying." But otherwise, I think the narrator was too ill-defined (why was she in the house? why did she believe Annie and go along with the dreadful poisonings?), and the author put a few too many infodumps of their research. It read like Warren had done a little reading into Victorian medicine and history and then stuffed several random things that they found exciting into the story.
"Charged" by Leanna Renee Hieber. The narrator is struck by lightning as a boy, and ever after is fascinated by electricity. More, he can control and conduct it. Unfortunately for the world, this superpowered man of the new electric age is amoral and mad as a hatter. Intriguing.
"Mr.Splitfoot" by Dale Bailey. In her old age, Maggie Fox thinks about her time as a celebrated Spiritualist. She renounced her talents as mere fraud, but in her own mind she allows herself to acknowledge the awful truth--that she and her sister really could commune with spirits, and they were terrifying. The descriptions of the spirits and the near-possession are chilling, and I liked the twist this gave the Fox sisters.
"Phosphorus" by Veronica Schanoes. A matchwoman in Ireland does dark magic in order to live long enough to see a strike end and a union formed. This is a disturbing but very necessary story to include in a gaslamp/steampunk anthology--from the author's afterword: "It's easy to forget how the people who indulged in afternoon tea rituals, admired clockwork-powered inventions, and wore shapely and beautiful corsets and bustles profited from the death and suffering of others every time they lit a candle."
"We Without Us Were Shadows" by Catherynne M Valente. As children, the four youngest Brontes visit a world in which their imaginings have form and substance. I think at times Valente gets too caught up in description to maintain the story, but the idea is solid and has some of the charm and danger of Narnia or Oz.
"The Vital Importance of the Superficial" by Ellen Kushner and Caroline Stevermer. A gentleman leaves a magical object behind after a salon, and peremptorily demands it back. He is answered by an equally pert letter, and through the course of correspondence a dastardly magician is foiled, a lady saved, and a romance begun. Stevermer wrote a very similar series of book with another author (the Sorcery&Cecilia series with Patricia Wrede), and in both instances the epistolary style works for only a short time. Soon, it becomes unbelievable that the neighboring narrators are communicating only in letters. "We will come together just as soon as Father has his breakfast and I have tidied the crumbs out of his beard," writes Charlotte, seemingly desperate to see her lost brother and best friend again after their ordeals, and then instead of hastening to them writes a THREE PAGE letter. In the amount of time it takes her to write this letter, she could have visited, told them the whole tale, and come back home again! Too, Kushner&Stevermer clearly only developed the plot as they wrote each letter, so the backstory is a disorganized mess and the plot itself sadly anticlimactic. Also, the romance at the end feels unearned, despite the twenty pages of letters between Our Heroes. This needed tightening and editing to turn it from fun writing exercise between friends into a good story. Because there is charm and wit here, just buried.
"The Jewel in the Toad Queen's Crown" by Jane Yolen. Disraeli and Queen Victoria talk, and he uses Kabbalistic magic to add India to her empire. The writing is not subtle in its characterizations (if Victoria was likened to a young girl one more time I swear I'd have shut the book), nor is the plot clear.
"A Few Twigs He Left Behind" by Gregory Maguire. In his last decade of life, Scrooge was a reformed man. Not only did he spread his wealth to the impoverished of London, but he fell in love. Now his death has finally come upon him, his children watch his corpse to see if his late repentance was enough to save him from eternal wanderings. Great descriptions, and a narrative pov that felt similar to Dickens's without feeling derivative.
"Their Monstrous Minds" by Tanith Lee. A scientist strives to create a perfect man out of corpse-bits, and succeeds to perfection. Except that Horror in the nineteenth century style, with Lee's beautifully crafted prose.
"Estella Saves the Village" by Theodora Goss. Very cool story. Estella lives in a cozy little village with her guardian, Miss Havisham, but one day she sees little black specks on the pastor. Every day, the specks grow larger and spread throughout the village. A neat combination of imagination, horror, and sweetness.
June 17, 2016
According to Amazon, Gaslamp fantasy is "historical fantasy set in a magical version of the Nineteenth Century." While its first cousin Steampunk emphasizes mechanics, science and steam power, Gaslamp plays with magical possibilities. Check out my exposé of the genre on my website.
This anthology includes spinoffs of Dickens and references to real people of the Victorian era. Queen Vicki herself gets a cameo in at least two stories. One of her prime ministers, Benjamin Disraeli, stars in The Jewel in the Toad Queen's Crown while William Morris, textile designer, poet, translator and social activist, takes the stage in the story For the Briar Rose. This is definitely one of those books that whets your thirst for more information. I have a brand new fascination with both Morris and Disraeli and can't wait to see where these rabbit holes lead me!
I listened to the audio version of this book. It's one I wish I had read instead. Three of the stories are epistolary, which sometimes doesn't lend itself to audio. The performance by narrator Kelly Lintz was fine, but it's a book to dip into again and again. I will probably end up buying a physical copy for my shelves.
The list below includes what I felt were the standout stories:
Maguire's offering in particular left me hankering for more of his writing (which surprised me because Wicked (the book) was not a big winner with me). I will also seek out works by Delia Sherman and Ellen Kushner. Book one of the Tremontaine series has been ordered…
This anthology includes spinoffs of Dickens and references to real people of the Victorian era. Queen Vicki herself gets a cameo in at least two stories. One of her prime ministers, Benjamin Disraeli, stars in The Jewel in the Toad Queen's Crown while William Morris, textile designer, poet, translator and social activist, takes the stage in the story For the Briar Rose. This is definitely one of those books that whets your thirst for more information. I have a brand new fascination with both Morris and Disraeli and can't wait to see where these rabbit holes lead me!
I listened to the audio version of this book. It's one I wish I had read instead. Three of the stories are epistolary, which sometimes doesn't lend itself to audio. The performance by narrator Kelly Lintz was fine, but it's a book to dip into again and again. I will probably end up buying a physical copy for my shelves.
The list below includes what I felt were the standout stories:
Queen Victoria's Book of Spells
by Delia Sherman (Epistolary - entries in a young Victoria's diaries as she learns magic)Phosphorous
by Veronica Schanoes (Some very interesting social history here.)The Vital Importance of the Superficial
by Ellen Kushner and Caroline Stervener (Epistolary, and superbly done.)A Few Twigs He Left Behind
by Gregory Maguire (A fascinating epilogue of Scrooge)Maguire's offering in particular left me hankering for more of his writing (which surprised me because Wicked (the book) was not a big winner with me). I will also seek out works by Delia Sherman and Ellen Kushner. Book one of the Tremontaine series has been ordered…
June 17, 2013
The truth is I despise the values of the upper crust in the Victorian period who are often the only characters to be seen in Victorian novels, but I'm always up for rebel Victorians poking at its underbelly and I love inventive fantasy. When I saw a list of the authors, I thought there might be potential in this anthology.
The feminist story "The Unwanted Women of Surrey" by Kaaron Warren, who is completely new to me, was excellent. It's about women demonstrating that they have value and an important issue in 19th century medicine.
"Charged" by Lisa Renee Heiber about a boy struck by lightning was dark but very compelling. Some have claimed that Percy Bysshe Shelley really wrote Frankenstein. If he had, it might have been something like "Charged". Heiber is a poet of lightning in this story.
As in all anthologies, I found some stories lacking. Some never sparked any interest in me at all. Others seemed facile and lacking in depth. That's why the anthology as a whole gets three stars. But the stories I mentioned above were amazing.
The feminist story "The Unwanted Women of Surrey" by Kaaron Warren, who is completely new to me, was excellent. It's about women demonstrating that they have value and an important issue in 19th century medicine.
"Charged" by Lisa Renee Heiber about a boy struck by lightning was dark but very compelling. Some have claimed that Percy Bysshe Shelley really wrote Frankenstein. If he had, it might have been something like "Charged". Heiber is a poet of lightning in this story.
As in all anthologies, I found some stories lacking. Some never sparked any interest in me at all. Others seemed facile and lacking in depth. That's why the anthology as a whole gets three stars. But the stories I mentioned above were amazing.
June 30, 2017
I received this anthology at World Fantasy Con in 2014 and had it signed by editor Ellen Datlow. Though this was one of my favorite acquisitions there, it ended up buried in my to-read pile. What a shame, because wow, this book is a treasure. Not only does it capture the essence of gaslamp fantasy by showing the diversity of the subgenre, but the stories are GOOD. I had two stories that I didn't really connect with, but the others were above-average and full of wow. My absolute favorites wee "The Governess" by Elizabeth Bear, "Charged" by Leanna Renee Hieber, "Phosphorous" by Veronica Schanoes (which made me teary-eyed at the end).
November 28, 2023
There were two standout stories in this collection.
Phosphorus:. The fantasy element in this story plays a cameo role; it is 99% reality of the most depressing kind. This could easily be classified as a horror story.
For the Briar Rose: This story isn't sad, but sentimental and sweet, addressing family, love, and the insidious passage of time. Being a huge fan of William Morris and the Pre-Raphaelite painters, I was thrilled to meet them as characters in this story. Five stars for this one!
Phosphorus:. The fantasy element in this story plays a cameo role; it is 99% reality of the most depressing kind. This could easily be classified as a horror story.
For the Briar Rose: This story isn't sad, but sentimental and sweet, addressing family, love, and the insidious passage of time. Being a huge fan of William Morris and the Pre-Raphaelite painters, I was thrilled to meet them as characters in this story. Five stars for this one!
Read
January 23, 2022A divertissement, with some ups and downs (I don't like the Dark and I do like to laugh), and a pleasant way to get to know some new authors.
October 30, 2020
Loved: The memory book (creepy!), The governess, Estella saves the village.
Great premise, but the stories are uneven and while a few were lovely, most have failed to grip me. Bonus - learned about the existence of the gaslight fantasy genre!
Great premise, but the stories are uneven and while a few were lovely, most have failed to grip me. Bonus - learned about the existence of the gaslight fantasy genre!
July 12, 2014
2.5
The worst thing about anthologies is that their stories are almost always of uneven value. These are all well written stories. I liked some more than others of course. There were quite a few boring ones. They all have a few things in common though. Fantasy is the most prominent one. You'll see various levels of Victorian society interwoven with the fantastic, from the poor matchwomen with their phossy jaws to the queen herself.
The following are just personal notes (to remind me what they were about).
The worst thing about anthologies is that their stories are almost always of uneven value. These are all well written stories. I liked some more than others of course. There were quite a few boring ones. They all have a few things in common though. Fantasy is the most prominent one. You'll see various levels of Victorian society interwoven with the fantastic, from the poor matchwomen with their phossy jaws to the queen herself.
The following are just personal notes (to remind me what they were about).
June 26, 2013
Like all anthologies, this was difficult for me to rate because it was all over the map in terms of enjoyment for me.
Some standouts both good and bad:
I really liked Delia Sherman's titular "Queen Victoria's Book of Spells", which was both an interesting story and a magical world that I would enjoy reading more of.
"Phosphorus" made a deep impression on me as both an explicitly didactic story about Lucifer matches, "phossy jaw" and the match factory workers' strike and a creepy story about love, magic and sacrifice.
Cat Valente's story about the young Brontë siblings, "Without Us Were Shadows", is clever and bittersweet, and I especially like the relationship between Charlotte and Branwell.
"Estella Saves the Village" is a delightful story by Theodora Goss about rescuing beleaguered characters with a massive crossover fix-it fic that takes on an existence of its own.
I was super disappointed by Ellen Kushner and Caroline Stevermer's collaborative effort, "The Vital Importance of the Superficial". They wrote it by exchanging letters because Kushner was looking to break some writer's block, and I think it should have been rewritten after they figured out what it was going to be about or just stuck in a drawer as a writing exercise.
Elizabeth Wein's "For the Briar Rose" is exquisitely researched and footnoted, but basically nothing happens in it.
Geoffrey Maguire has written some of the most bizarre A Christmas Carol fanfiction I have ever encountered. Have you ever wondered what would happen if Scrooge had had children whom he neglected because he was too busy distributing charity? Probably not, and "A Few Twigs He Left Behind" is unlikely to increase your level of interest in the matter.
Some standouts both good and bad:
I really liked Delia Sherman's titular "Queen Victoria's Book of Spells", which was both an interesting story and a magical world that I would enjoy reading more of.
"Phosphorus" made a deep impression on me as both an explicitly didactic story about Lucifer matches, "phossy jaw" and the match factory workers' strike and a creepy story about love, magic and sacrifice.
Cat Valente's story about the young Brontë siblings, "Without Us Were Shadows", is clever and bittersweet, and I especially like the relationship between Charlotte and Branwell.
"Estella Saves the Village" is a delightful story by Theodora Goss about rescuing beleaguered characters with a massive crossover fix-it fic that takes on an existence of its own.
I was super disappointed by Ellen Kushner and Caroline Stevermer's collaborative effort, "The Vital Importance of the Superficial". They wrote it by exchanging letters because Kushner was looking to break some writer's block, and I think it should have been rewritten after they figured out what it was going to be about or just stuck in a drawer as a writing exercise.
Elizabeth Wein's "For the Briar Rose" is exquisitely researched and footnoted, but basically nothing happens in it.
Geoffrey Maguire has written some of the most bizarre A Christmas Carol fanfiction I have ever encountered. Have you ever wondered what would happen if Scrooge had had children whom he neglected because he was too busy distributing charity? Probably not, and "A Few Twigs He Left Behind" is unlikely to increase your level of interest in the matter.
May 10, 2013
I thoroughly enjoyed the introduction and the fact that there was a recommended reading list at the back of the book. I also found the inclusion of brief story notes from each individual author after their contribution quite clever. As always with anthologies though, mixed bag of actual tales.
Certain aforementioned author notes helped pinpoint where my dissatisfaction may stem from. I had an unconscious expectation of being able to plunge myself into an unending stream of escapism. But several of the stories focus less on the '... fiery, corseted heroines, the eccentric but brilliant inventors, the rakish and charming younger sons...' (p.222) and are instead rooted in the grim reality of the masses. Others feel like observational treaties of Victorian times, rather than being actual events set within the designated alternate reality. The mystical aspects become incidental, but not in a desired sense of providing an organic backdrop, subtly cementing the fantastical elements of the writing. Rather, the focus is shifted more solidly onto the historical and the magical becomes a neglected footnote.
Personal list of favourites:
-Queen Victoria's Book of Spells, Delia Sherman
-From the Catalogue of the Pavilion of the Uncanny and Marvellous, Scheduled for Premiere at the Great Exhibition (Before the Fire), Genevieve Valentine
-We Without Us Were Shadows, Catherynne M. Valente
-The Vital Importance of the Superficial, Ellen Kushner and Caroline Stevermer
-Their Monstrous Minds, Tanith Lee
-Estella Saves the Village, Theodora Goss
Certain aforementioned author notes helped pinpoint where my dissatisfaction may stem from. I had an unconscious expectation of being able to plunge myself into an unending stream of escapism. But several of the stories focus less on the '... fiery, corseted heroines, the eccentric but brilliant inventors, the rakish and charming younger sons...' (p.222) and are instead rooted in the grim reality of the masses. Others feel like observational treaties of Victorian times, rather than being actual events set within the designated alternate reality. The mystical aspects become incidental, but not in a desired sense of providing an organic backdrop, subtly cementing the fantastical elements of the writing. Rather, the focus is shifted more solidly onto the historical and the magical becomes a neglected footnote.
Personal list of favourites:
-Queen Victoria's Book of Spells, Delia Sherman
-From the Catalogue of the Pavilion of the Uncanny and Marvellous, Scheduled for Premiere at the Great Exhibition (Before the Fire), Genevieve Valentine
-We Without Us Were Shadows, Catherynne M. Valente
-The Vital Importance of the Superficial, Ellen Kushner and Caroline Stevermer
-Their Monstrous Minds, Tanith Lee
-Estella Saves the Village, Theodora Goss
July 23, 2013
Admittedly I bought this cheap for just a handful of its stories, knowing that the theme is not of much interest to me - so it's no surprise that I found most of the stories underwhelming, and skipped several. The standout is "Phosphorus" by Veronica Schanoes, a bitter, angry, sad story about the fatal illness poor working girls in match factories succumbed to, and the lengths one afflicted girl's grandmother is willing to go to let her see the end of the strike that'll take steps towards better conditions for the girls. Amidst so many stories about the hardships of upper class life for women (which, yes, it wasn't great, but...), "Phosphorus" is biting and important and excellent. I also enjoyed Genevieve Valentine's story of the people destined to be in an exhibit of the Uncanny and Marvellous at the Great Exhibition, while "La Reine d'Enfer" by Kathe Koja was a voice-full read and "The Unwanted Women of Surrey" by Kaaron Warren was pleasantly dark. I didn't enjoy "We Without Us Were Shadows" by Catherynne M Valente as much as I'd hoped, but it had its moments: the melancholy of lives' abrupt ends across multiple universes. Otherwise, I wasn't especially fond of this anthology, and could definitely have done with less casual racism in too-ready service of the period. (The subjects of the racism: nearly invisible, naturally.)
April 1, 2013
Thoroughly enjoyable anthology of neoVictorian fantasies. I was lucky enough to hear Leanne Renee Hieber, Genevieve Valentine, Ellen Kushner, Delia Sherman, and Veronica Schanoes read from their stories at the book release party -- all excellent, though very different. Other favorites included stories by Jeffrey Ford, Maureen McHugh, Elizabeth Gatland, and Jane Yolen. Theodora Goss' "Estella Saves the Village" hit a personally sour note for me - the girl who dreams of being a writer and grows up to be a professor of Victorian literature instead, as the current academic market means my chances of being a published writer someday are looking better than my chances of ever being a tenure-track professor of Victorian literature.
October 7, 2014
Really enjoyed the title story, Elizabeth Bear's tale, "Phosphorus", and "We Without Us Were Shadows". The rest I'm pretty well indifferent towards, but I REALLY liked those four.
It's odd how often people use the Victorian era to explore the ignorance and powerlessness of women, though. That was definitely a theme.
It's odd how often people use the Victorian era to explore the ignorance and powerlessness of women, though. That was definitely a theme.
November 7, 2022
I read this both physically and via the audio book. The narrator Kelly Lintz was fine, very good in some particular stories, imo. I believe this is going to be a very forgettable anthology for me (which is not unusual for me as I tend not to connect with anthologies) and because I have already forgotten some of the stories, but the stand out for me would be:
1. The Vital Importance of the Superficial by Ellen Kushner and Caroline Stevermer which was my absolute favorite, the only one I have given ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ and I have reread it immediately after I finished reading the book. I would love to see a this one made into a whole book!
2. The titular story of Queen Victoria's Book of Spells by Delia Sherman which I found fun and interesting
3. Phosphorus by Veronica Schanoes, which, while not for me due to its graphic imagery (which I don't believe was written to be gratuitous, but was a deliberate choice that had a purpose to the story), has certainly left an impact.
Here's also my thoughts and ratings of all of the stories, which I made while reading the book:
1. (and titular) Story - Queen Victoria's Book of Spells by Delia Sherman was interesting - ⭐⭐⭐
2. Story - The Fairy Enterprise by Jeffrey Ford I found to be quite disgusting and was not at all cozy, whimsical autumn vibes that I am looking for; also all of the characters were extremely unlikeable, seemingly by design, but, since I am a character driven reader, that only made me dislike the story more - ⭐⭐
3. Story - From the Catalogue of the Pavilion of the Uncanny and Marvelous, Scheduled for Premiere at the Great Exhibition (Before the Fire) by Genevieve Valentine I found to be quite a boring read; this is where I incorporated the audiobook to help me move along the stories which I wasn't enjoying as much - ⭐⭐⭐
4. Story - The Memory Book by Maureen McHugh I found to, once again, be filled to brim with unlikeable characters and I am not certain why that seems to be a trend - ⭐⭐
5. Story - La Reine D'Enfer by Kathe Koja was fine, tho I didn't notice any speculative element in the story - ⭐⭐⭐
6. Story - For the Briar Rose by Elizabeth Wein was also fine, although I found it a bit weird and I am not sure that I understood it, but that that probably because 1. I am not a mother and 2. because I am not familiar with the people that the author based her story on; also no speculative elements -⭐⭐⭐
7. Story - The Governess by Elizabeth Bear was also fine, although the last sentence of the story was quite chilling - ⭐⭐⭐
8. Story - Smithfield by James P. Blaylock I found to be quite boring - I finished it just a few days ago and I already barely remember what it was about. To be honest, the afterword about the story left a much larger impression on me than the story itself - even if my personal impression was that the author is one of those people that believe that past was better than the present or the future, that the past was better than the present or the future, which I am very much against. But at least it was passionate - ⭐⭐⭐
9. Story - The Unwanted Women of Surrey by Kaaron Warren was quite disturbing, but without much logic, imo - ⭐⭐⭐
10. Story - Charged by Leanna Renee Heiber was fine - ⭐⭐⭐
11. Story - Mr. Splitfoot by Dale Bailey I also found to be fine, but forgettable - ⭐⭐⭐
12. Story - Phosphorus by Veronica Schanoes was very hard to read for me, with its quite graphic descriptions, which, while definitely not something that I was looking for, certainly made an impact I believe the author intended - ⭐⭐⭐
13. Story - We Without Us Were Shadows by Catherine M. Valente was... hmm, well, knowing CMV's reputation for weird stories and writing style, I kinda expected something more quirky than a fantastical imagining of a day in the Bronte siblings childhood. Additionally, since I don't personally care about either the Bronte siblings or reimaginings or stories about books, I felt very meh about this one- ⭐⭐⭐
14. Story - The Vital Importance of the Superficial by Ellen Kushner and Caroline Stevermer I loved so much (despite its epistolary format to boot!!) that I reread it immediately after I finished the book!! It is absolutely my favorite one in this collection - it has 2 awesome female chars, 2 funny male chars, a parent who isn't useless and not one but 2 charming romance subplots - ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
15. Story - The Jewel in the Toad Queen's Crown by Jane Yolen - sigh, the same comment applies to this one as the one for the reimagining of the Bronte siblings - I just don't care about reimaginings nor the life of British Prime Ministers - ⭐⭐⭐
16. Story - A Few Twigs He Left Behind by Gregory Maguire - I feel that I am becoming a broken record - same as with reimagenings, I don't care about retellings either. And I am also not a fan of Christmas Carol - ⭐⭐⭐
17. Story - Their Monstrous Minds by Tanith Lee - oh, look, another retelling! Of Frankenstein this time! 🙄 - ⭐⭐⭐
18. Story - Estella Saves the Village by Theodora Goss - this was the story I looked forward to the most because I love her Athena Club stories so much. However, this was quite a distressing read for me and I believe that this story should come with a trigger warning for - ⭐⭐⭐
1. The Vital Importance of the Superficial by Ellen Kushner and Caroline Stevermer which was my absolute favorite, the only one I have given ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ and I have reread it immediately after I finished reading the book. I would love to see a this one made into a whole book!
2. The titular story of Queen Victoria's Book of Spells by Delia Sherman which I found fun and interesting
3. Phosphorus by Veronica Schanoes, which, while not for me due to its graphic imagery (which I don't believe was written to be gratuitous, but was a deliberate choice that had a purpose to the story), has certainly left an impact.
Here's also my thoughts and ratings of all of the stories, which I made while reading the book:
1. (and titular) Story - Queen Victoria's Book of Spells by Delia Sherman was interesting - ⭐⭐⭐
2. Story - The Fairy Enterprise by Jeffrey Ford I found to be quite disgusting and was not at all cozy, whimsical autumn vibes that I am looking for; also all of the characters were extremely unlikeable, seemingly by design, but, since I am a character driven reader, that only made me dislike the story more - ⭐⭐
3. Story - From the Catalogue of the Pavilion of the Uncanny and Marvelous, Scheduled for Premiere at the Great Exhibition (Before the Fire) by Genevieve Valentine I found to be quite a boring read; this is where I incorporated the audiobook to help me move along the stories which I wasn't enjoying as much - ⭐⭐⭐
4. Story - The Memory Book by Maureen McHugh I found to, once again, be filled to brim with unlikeable characters and I am not certain why that seems to be a trend - ⭐⭐
5. Story - La Reine D'Enfer by Kathe Koja was fine, tho I didn't notice any speculative element in the story - ⭐⭐⭐
6. Story - For the Briar Rose by Elizabeth Wein was also fine, although I found it a bit weird and I am not sure that I understood it, but that that probably because 1. I am not a mother and 2. because I am not familiar with the people that the author based her story on; also no speculative elements -⭐⭐⭐
7. Story - The Governess by Elizabeth Bear was also fine, although the last sentence of the story was quite chilling - ⭐⭐⭐
8. Story - Smithfield by James P. Blaylock I found to be quite boring - I finished it just a few days ago and I already barely remember what it was about. To be honest, the afterword about the story left a much larger impression on me than the story itself - even if my personal impression was that the author is one of those people that believe that past was better than the present or the future, that the past was better than the present or the future, which I am very much against. But at least it was passionate - ⭐⭐⭐
9. Story - The Unwanted Women of Surrey by Kaaron Warren was quite disturbing, but without much logic, imo - ⭐⭐⭐
10. Story - Charged by Leanna Renee Heiber was fine - ⭐⭐⭐
11. Story - Mr. Splitfoot by Dale Bailey I also found to be fine, but forgettable - ⭐⭐⭐
12. Story - Phosphorus by Veronica Schanoes was very hard to read for me, with its quite graphic descriptions, which, while definitely not something that I was looking for, certainly made an impact I believe the author intended - ⭐⭐⭐
13. Story - We Without Us Were Shadows by Catherine M. Valente was... hmm, well, knowing CMV's reputation for weird stories and writing style, I kinda expected something more quirky than a fantastical imagining of a day in the Bronte siblings childhood. Additionally, since I don't personally care about either the Bronte siblings or reimaginings or stories about books, I felt very meh about this one- ⭐⭐⭐
14. Story - The Vital Importance of the Superficial by Ellen Kushner and Caroline Stevermer I loved so much (despite its epistolary format to boot!!) that I reread it immediately after I finished the book!! It is absolutely my favorite one in this collection - it has 2 awesome female chars, 2 funny male chars, a parent who isn't useless and not one but 2 charming romance subplots - ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
15. Story - The Jewel in the Toad Queen's Crown by Jane Yolen - sigh, the same comment applies to this one as the one for the reimagining of the Bronte siblings - I just don't care about reimaginings nor the life of British Prime Ministers - ⭐⭐⭐
16. Story - A Few Twigs He Left Behind by Gregory Maguire - I feel that I am becoming a broken record - same as with reimagenings, I don't care about retellings either. And I am also not a fan of Christmas Carol - ⭐⭐⭐
17. Story - Their Monstrous Minds by Tanith Lee - oh, look, another retelling! Of Frankenstein this time! 🙄 - ⭐⭐⭐
18. Story - Estella Saves the Village by Theodora Goss - this was the story I looked forward to the most because I love her Athena Club stories so much. However, this was quite a distressing read for me and I believe that this story should come with a trigger warning for - ⭐⭐⭐
November 11, 2020
This is not my preferred genre, so my four-star rating speaks to the quality of the stories. And with this stellar lineup of authors, that quality is almost guaranteed. It was not an easy read, as the language is mostly in the ornate Victorian style, but that comes with the territory. In many of the stories, the magic is subtle; there are no wizardry schools, no faerie courts. A few veer into steampunk, but on the whole, they are more sedate than that. I think the title story, by Delia Sherman, was my favorite (and it also had more spells and potions that the others).
dnf
May 26, 2018The first story was interesting, but I didn't really like the direction it took. The second story I didn't enjoy at all so I just skimmed to find out the ending, which was less than inspiring.
I hate to give up on all the other authors in this anthology based on two stories, but I just really don't feel like reading this book anymore.
I hate to give up on all the other authors in this anthology based on two stories, but I just really don't feel like reading this book anymore.
February 25, 2019
Three stars because this is clearly meant to include something for everyone with a wide range of styles which meant there are some which I really enjoyed and I’ll reread and others where I found myself skipping through because the styles just aren’t my thing for example - fiction where each character is named after a famous Victorian character so you’re constantly pulled out of the world.
September 24, 2022
3'5*
As all short story compilations I didn't vibe with all of them. However, the majority of them were set in such an atmospheric Victorian time and space that I loved it. It is perfect for autumn/winter to read with a cup of tea and blanket.
My favourite short stories:
- Queen Victoria's Book of Spells
- The Governess
- Phosphorus
- The unwanted women of Surrey
- We without us were shadows
As all short story compilations I didn't vibe with all of them. However, the majority of them were set in such an atmospheric Victorian time and space that I loved it. It is perfect for autumn/winter to read with a cup of tea and blanket.
My favourite short stories:
- Queen Victoria's Book of Spells
- The Governess
- Phosphorus
- The unwanted women of Surrey
- We without us were shadows
November 18, 2019
A solid anthology. There was quite a bit of care with the stories selected and I liked that the authors were able to explain their work at the end.
February 28, 2017
Having slowly made my way through this anthology over the course of three (!) calendar years, I have confirmed to myself that I am truly a gaslamp fantasy fan; this is one of my sweet spots. Steampunk, though technically falling under the gaslamp label, is not so much my thing. Though I did end up quite liking the steampunk story in this volume, I still had a hard time getting into it.
Anyways... this was no exception to the rule of anthologies - a few duds are unavoidable, but overall it tipped to the side of a very good read. The introduction, in particular, went above and beyond my expectations for an anthology intro. It wasn't simply a meditation on the best qualities of this particular genre or a brief jog into nostalgia for the writer. Instead, it was a truly informative essay explicating the social and cultural context and influences of fantasy in the Victorian era.
As for the stories themselves, my standout favorites were "Queen Victoria's Book of Spells," "The Memory Book," "The Unwanted Women of Surrey," "Phosphorus," and "The Vital Importance of the Superficial." I also quite liked "From the Catalogue. . ." "Mr. Splifoot," and "Their Monstrous Minds." I have also now noticed that the majority of the authors featured were women, and I think that showed with the large number of engaging female protagonists in these stories - six of the above mentioned are female led.
Anyways... this was no exception to the rule of anthologies - a few duds are unavoidable, but overall it tipped to the side of a very good read. The introduction, in particular, went above and beyond my expectations for an anthology intro. It wasn't simply a meditation on the best qualities of this particular genre or a brief jog into nostalgia for the writer. Instead, it was a truly informative essay explicating the social and cultural context and influences of fantasy in the Victorian era.
As for the stories themselves, my standout favorites were "Queen Victoria's Book of Spells," "The Memory Book," "The Unwanted Women of Surrey," "Phosphorus," and "The Vital Importance of the Superficial." I also quite liked "From the Catalogue. . ." "Mr. Splifoot," and "Their Monstrous Minds." I have also now noticed that the majority of the authors featured were women, and I think that showed with the large number of engaging female protagonists in these stories - six of the above mentioned are female led.
February 28, 2022
I have a paper copy of this one – I bought it at BookOff last year, and I hope to finish it before December is over. <--- Me last year
It took me such a long time to finish.
1. Queen Victoria's Book of Spells by Delia Sherman is one of my favorites. A young researcher is tasked with deciphering the diary of the young Queen Victoria and finds some surprises there. I didn't care that much about the "biographical" angle of the story, but I loved how the life of the main character was affected by her discovery.
2. The Fairy Enterprise by Jeffrey Ford is a gruesome, slightly overwrought story about the nasty side of the Industrial Revolution. I did like the ending and the role of the fairies, but overall it was a little too much brutality for me.
3. From the Catalogue of the Pavilion of the Uncanny and Marvelous, Scheduled for Premiere at the Great Expedition (Before the Fire) by Genevieve Valentine is composed entirely of diary entries, pamphlets, newspaper articles, letters etc., and there's no clear story in it. I wanted to know more about the marvelous creatures and other things on display. Alas.
4. The Memory Book by Maureen McHugh – I really liked this. It's a story about a young girl who has powers that are a bit voodoo-like, and whose family is aware of that and afraid of her. I liked her (as a character) a lot; I think she is a good example of a MC that is unsympathetic yet fascinating.
5. La Reine d'Enfer by Kathe Koja – this story of a young male prostitute who tries to get out of a bad life situation, using his newly found acting skills and love of a good person, felt too familiar to me – I've read too many similar stories and I'm tired of them now. The writing voice and historical bits were good, I suppose, it just wasn't a story for me. (After I finished, I realized I'd read a novel by this author and absolutely despised it. I guess her work is just not for me in general.)
6. For the Briar Rose by Elizabeth Wein is about a handful of historical persons; the main character is the daughter of the artist Edward Burne-Jones. It was essentially a lovely description of the lives of Victorian artists and their families; lovely, but long and boring, and the fantasy part felt not quite organic, almost tacked on.
7. The Governess by Elizabeth Bear – I liked the atmosphere of dread and the social critique underneath, but I wasn't sure what the supernatural element was. Then I read the reviews and found out that it was a selkie story. It's a creature I wasn't familiar with at all, so it seems most of the story went well over my head.
8. Smithfield by James P. Blaylock – this was a rather monotonous (nearly autobiographical, as according to the Author's Note, the main character shares the admiration of "good old times" with the author) story about a photographer mourning the past, symbolized by gaslight, as the old area of Smithfield is about to be electrified. The idea of ghosts being afraid of electric light was somewhat interesting, but also irritating; maybe because the author seems to be drawing a very distinct line between the Past and the Present.
9. The Unwanted Women of Surrey by Kaaron Warren – it seems to be one of the best-received stories in the collection. A group of upper middle class women who have been deemed useless by their families (mostly husbands, of course) must live together in a house that is a cross between a prison and an asylum, away from the society. The story has The Handmaid's Tale vibes, but I found it too far-fetched to enjoy.
10. Charged by Leanna Renee Hieber – this is a story about an unpleasant young man fascinated with electricity and able to manipulate it, after he had been struck by lightning. It was okay, not very exciting or memorable.
11. Mr. Splitfoot by Dale Bailey – a decently executed second-person narrative about the Fox sisters who claimed to be able to communicate with ghosts; many years later one of them, Maggie, confessed to faking it all. In this story the sisters face a different sort of difficulty than simply scamming the public.
12. Phosphorus by Veronica Schanoes – this was one of my favorites. It's another second-person story about an Irish factory worker, suffering with "phossy jaw", a horrible disease common among those who had to handle white phosphorus, which was used to make so-called Lucifer matches. The story is short, but loaded with interesting themes and situations, and packs a good punch; it deals with a side of Victorian society that is often relegated to the background in gaslamp and steampunk fantasy (and in historical fiction in general). Unions, strikes, and magic were very well blended – I loved it all. It is very sad, though.
13. We Without Us Were Shadows by Catherynne M. Valente – this is a story about the young Brontës and their imaginary country. It was all right, just a bit boring.
14. The Vital Importance of the Superficial by Ellen Kushner and Caroline Stevenmer – an epistolary story about... a magical intrigue or some such, turned love story, I don't really remember much. I thought it was a little overlong and chaotic, and the Victorian language felt forced.
15. The Jewel in the Toad Queen's Crown by Jane Yolen – a very peculiar short story about the relationship of Benjamin Disraeli and Queen Victoria, in which Disraeli is a magic user. It was bizarre, but interesting and well written.
16. A Few Twigs He Left Behind by Gregory Maguire – this was about the later life of the main character of Dickens' The Christmas Carol. Which I hadn't read. I was very confused, not only as to the significance of certain characters, but also of the whole point of the story. Was Scrooge supposed to be a good guy here? A bad guy? How did his family feel? No idea. (This is another author whose work I've read and I'm not a fan of.)
17. Their Monstrous Minds by Tanith Lee – one of my favorites. A creepy take on the tale of Frankenstein & his creation, and why it went wrong. This was one of the few stories in the collection I read with genuine interest. I've heard good things about Tanith Lee but this was the first time I've read something of hers. Definitely going to read more. And I don't even like Frankenstein!
18. Estella Saves the Village by Theodora Goss – a cutesy story about the second lives of various characters from Victorian literature. A nice concept, but it felt a little flat for me.
All in all, I'm glad to have read this story collection, but I thought it was a bit monotonous and lacking diversity. Everything took place in the British Isles, there was only one story set abroad (partially), and nothing set in the colonies, in the time when the British Empire was at the peak of its glory – why? London, London, London, almost nothing else.
I'm not a massive fan of the Victorian period, but I do like the atmosphere and the dramatic potential of classism and colonialism combined with scientific progress and civil rights movement. This anthology did not live up to my expectations, though; most of the stories felt laborious, boring, and either mawkish or unsubtle. My favorites were the title story, The Memory Book, Phosphorus, and Their Monstrous Minds.
It took me such a long time to finish.
1. Queen Victoria's Book of Spells by Delia Sherman is one of my favorites. A young researcher is tasked with deciphering the diary of the young Queen Victoria and finds some surprises there. I didn't care that much about the "biographical" angle of the story, but I loved how the life of the main character was affected by her discovery.
2. The Fairy Enterprise by Jeffrey Ford is a gruesome, slightly overwrought story about the nasty side of the Industrial Revolution. I did like the ending and the role of the fairies, but overall it was a little too much brutality for me.
3. From the Catalogue of the Pavilion of the Uncanny and Marvelous, Scheduled for Premiere at the Great Expedition (Before the Fire) by Genevieve Valentine is composed entirely of diary entries, pamphlets, newspaper articles, letters etc., and there's no clear story in it. I wanted to know more about the marvelous creatures and other things on display. Alas.
4. The Memory Book by Maureen McHugh – I really liked this. It's a story about a young girl who has powers that are a bit voodoo-like, and whose family is aware of that and afraid of her. I liked her (as a character) a lot; I think she is a good example of a MC that is unsympathetic yet fascinating.
5. La Reine d'Enfer by Kathe Koja – this story of a young male prostitute who tries to get out of a bad life situation, using his newly found acting skills and love of a good person, felt too familiar to me – I've read too many similar stories and I'm tired of them now. The writing voice and historical bits were good, I suppose, it just wasn't a story for me. (After I finished, I realized I'd read a novel by this author and absolutely despised it. I guess her work is just not for me in general.)
6. For the Briar Rose by Elizabeth Wein is about a handful of historical persons; the main character is the daughter of the artist Edward Burne-Jones. It was essentially a lovely description of the lives of Victorian artists and their families; lovely, but long and boring, and the fantasy part felt not quite organic, almost tacked on.
7. The Governess by Elizabeth Bear – I liked the atmosphere of dread and the social critique underneath, but I wasn't sure what the supernatural element was. Then I read the reviews and found out that it was a selkie story. It's a creature I wasn't familiar with at all, so it seems most of the story went well over my head.
8. Smithfield by James P. Blaylock – this was a rather monotonous (nearly autobiographical, as according to the Author's Note, the main character shares the admiration of "good old times" with the author) story about a photographer mourning the past, symbolized by gaslight, as the old area of Smithfield is about to be electrified. The idea of ghosts being afraid of electric light was somewhat interesting, but also irritating; maybe because the author seems to be drawing a very distinct line between the Past and the Present.
9. The Unwanted Women of Surrey by Kaaron Warren – it seems to be one of the best-received stories in the collection. A group of upper middle class women who have been deemed useless by their families (mostly husbands, of course) must live together in a house that is a cross between a prison and an asylum, away from the society. The story has The Handmaid's Tale vibes, but I found it too far-fetched to enjoy.
10. Charged by Leanna Renee Hieber – this is a story about an unpleasant young man fascinated with electricity and able to manipulate it, after he had been struck by lightning. It was okay, not very exciting or memorable.
11. Mr. Splitfoot by Dale Bailey – a decently executed second-person narrative about the Fox sisters who claimed to be able to communicate with ghosts; many years later one of them, Maggie, confessed to faking it all. In this story the sisters face a different sort of difficulty than simply scamming the public.
12. Phosphorus by Veronica Schanoes – this was one of my favorites. It's another second-person story about an Irish factory worker, suffering with "phossy jaw", a horrible disease common among those who had to handle white phosphorus, which was used to make so-called Lucifer matches. The story is short, but loaded with interesting themes and situations, and packs a good punch; it deals with a side of Victorian society that is often relegated to the background in gaslamp and steampunk fantasy (and in historical fiction in general). Unions, strikes, and magic were very well blended – I loved it all. It is very sad, though.
13. We Without Us Were Shadows by Catherynne M. Valente – this is a story about the young Brontës and their imaginary country. It was all right, just a bit boring.
14. The Vital Importance of the Superficial by Ellen Kushner and Caroline Stevenmer – an epistolary story about... a magical intrigue or some such, turned love story, I don't really remember much. I thought it was a little overlong and chaotic, and the Victorian language felt forced.
15. The Jewel in the Toad Queen's Crown by Jane Yolen – a very peculiar short story about the relationship of Benjamin Disraeli and Queen Victoria, in which Disraeli is a magic user. It was bizarre, but interesting and well written.
16. A Few Twigs He Left Behind by Gregory Maguire – this was about the later life of the main character of Dickens' The Christmas Carol. Which I hadn't read. I was very confused, not only as to the significance of certain characters, but also of the whole point of the story. Was Scrooge supposed to be a good guy here? A bad guy? How did his family feel? No idea. (This is another author whose work I've read and I'm not a fan of.)
17. Their Monstrous Minds by Tanith Lee – one of my favorites. A creepy take on the tale of Frankenstein & his creation, and why it went wrong. This was one of the few stories in the collection I read with genuine interest. I've heard good things about Tanith Lee but this was the first time I've read something of hers. Definitely going to read more. And I don't even like Frankenstein!
18. Estella Saves the Village by Theodora Goss – a cutesy story about the second lives of various characters from Victorian literature. A nice concept, but it felt a little flat for me.
All in all, I'm glad to have read this story collection, but I thought it was a bit monotonous and lacking diversity. Everything took place in the British Isles, there was only one story set abroad (partially), and nothing set in the colonies, in the time when the British Empire was at the peak of its glory – why? London, London, London, almost nothing else.
I'm not a massive fan of the Victorian period, but I do like the atmosphere and the dramatic potential of classism and colonialism combined with scientific progress and civil rights movement. This anthology did not live up to my expectations, though; most of the stories felt laborious, boring, and either mawkish or unsubtle. My favorites were the title story, The Memory Book, Phosphorus, and Their Monstrous Minds.
October 15, 2013
I've had a mediocre run of luck with anthologies lately, and this one is no exception. Though the setting and subject matter appealed to me deeply, and quite a few of my favorite authors are included, there simply weren't enough standout entries in here to make the collection memorable.
The standout entries were, for me, "The Unwanted Women of Surrey," "Phosphorous," and my personal favorite "Charged," all of which can be found in the middle of the collection. "The Vital Importance of the Superficial," was another intriguing entry, but the passive narrative structure of a story told entirely in letters took some of the enjoyment out of it.
What surprised me was that the one thing I really didn't like about this series was one of the ideas I thought would be most appealing: the taking of a classic character or work or literature from that time period, and re-imagining it with a twist. There are alternate takes on Frankenstein, alternate takes on Ebeneezer Scrooge, the Bronte siblings, the Queen herself, and even a certain consulting detective. But all of these stories fell almost flat for me, for reasons I can't quite put my finger on.
I expected more from this collection...a series of stories to captivate and intrigue in a way reminiscent of the dramatically changing time in which they were set. In that respect, only "Charged" and "Phosphorous," which dealt with the innovation of electricity and the forgotten horrors of the industrial revolution, respectively, met those expectations. Instead, what I found were a series of stories that were quite tedious to read. There were many times I wanted to skip ahead to the next entry, more than I can recall in any other anthology I've read. I was quite frankly, bored with most of the stories. Perhaps some of this is my fault for having such high expectations...but given the contributors and how strong I know their storytelling skills can be, I am particularly disappointed.
The standout entries were, for me, "The Unwanted Women of Surrey," "Phosphorous," and my personal favorite "Charged," all of which can be found in the middle of the collection. "The Vital Importance of the Superficial," was another intriguing entry, but the passive narrative structure of a story told entirely in letters took some of the enjoyment out of it.
What surprised me was that the one thing I really didn't like about this series was one of the ideas I thought would be most appealing: the taking of a classic character or work or literature from that time period, and re-imagining it with a twist. There are alternate takes on Frankenstein, alternate takes on Ebeneezer Scrooge, the Bronte siblings, the Queen herself, and even a certain consulting detective. But all of these stories fell almost flat for me, for reasons I can't quite put my finger on.
I expected more from this collection...a series of stories to captivate and intrigue in a way reminiscent of the dramatically changing time in which they were set. In that respect, only "Charged" and "Phosphorous," which dealt with the innovation of electricity and the forgotten horrors of the industrial revolution, respectively, met those expectations. Instead, what I found were a series of stories that were quite tedious to read. There were many times I wanted to skip ahead to the next entry, more than I can recall in any other anthology I've read. I was quite frankly, bored with most of the stories. Perhaps some of this is my fault for having such high expectations...but given the contributors and how strong I know their storytelling skills can be, I am particularly disappointed.
January 1, 2014
I bought this book just to read the story by Leanna Renee Hieber, my favourite authour, but I read the whole book. It was very enjoyable, but some of the anthologies were a bit boring or annoying.
Judging it all up the book, in my opinion, was very enjoyable and addicting. Each story was unique and special, like a diamond. I recommend one should buy it.
Edit: I might as well add that there are some stories that would leave someone crying or wanting to cry, especially the stories:
Queen Victoria's Book of Spells: I was left upset and broken for a while/days.
Phosphorous: Chillingly beautiful. I actually cried deeply for this story. I was left feeling hollow, like a shell, and broken. But specially without words. I walked with no real reason.
We without Us were Shadows: Since I was at school I held back the tears, but. . . (Read below)
Estella saves the village: This story I did cry deeply at the end, for many reasons (not because it's the last story). The only thing that bugged me about the story and held back most of the tears was the ever so present reminder that in this story Sherlock Holmes is married to Irene Adler. Not that I hate her, but. . .
Or it might be that I'm a real crybaby and cry to anything with a hint of sentimentality. *Shrugs*
One story that I do want to point out is 'We without Us were Shadows' by Catherynne M. Valente. The story, though really good, one might want to do some background research on Queen Victoria and the Bronte family. Since I'm a Queen Victoria fanatic and appreciate the works of the Bronte family (except Wuthering Heights) I had much background knowledge to leave me almost engulfed in tears because of whats happens at the end of the book. I mean it's perfectly splendid not to know anything about these people, but I feel as if you'd only know half of the story. It's really a bittersweet ending.
Judging it all up the book, in my opinion, was very enjoyable and addicting. Each story was unique and special, like a diamond. I recommend one should buy it.
Edit: I might as well add that there are some stories that would leave someone crying or wanting to cry, especially the stories:
Queen Victoria's Book of Spells: I was left upset and broken for a while/days.
Phosphorous: Chillingly beautiful. I actually cried deeply for this story. I was left feeling hollow, like a shell, and broken. But specially without words. I walked with no real reason.
We without Us were Shadows: Since I was at school I held back the tears, but. . . (Read below)
Estella saves the village: This story I did cry deeply at the end, for many reasons (not because it's the last story). The only thing that bugged me about the story and held back most of the tears was the ever so present reminder that in this story Sherlock Holmes is married to Irene Adler. Not that I hate her, but. . .
Or it might be that I'm a real crybaby and cry to anything with a hint of sentimentality. *Shrugs*
One story that I do want to point out is 'We without Us were Shadows' by Catherynne M. Valente. The story, though really good, one might want to do some background research on Queen Victoria and the Bronte family. Since I'm a Queen Victoria fanatic and appreciate the works of the Bronte family (except Wuthering Heights) I had much background knowledge to leave me almost engulfed in tears because of whats happens at the end of the book. I mean it's perfectly splendid not to know anything about these people, but I feel as if you'd only know half of the story. It's really a bittersweet ending.
May 21, 2015
18 Gaslamp stories, about the supernatural, otherworldly, and fantastic in or concerning Victorian England. Collections like these are worth reading for Windling's introductions alone--they're lovingly crafted, insightful overviews from someone who's spent a lifetime studying fantasy fiction. Unfortunately, Queen Victoria's Book of Spells doesn't quite live up to that introduction: the intent is there, but the stories frequently fail to reflect contemporary fantasy elements (there's a remarkable lack of fairies!) and, while many touch on the industrial revolution, few use the fantastic both to express anxiety and seek escapism on account. Still, the overall quality is high and the collection is flawlessly edited. There's a good balance of grim historical accuracy (Schanoes's "Phosphorus," with its memorable descriptions of phossy jaw, was my collection favorite) lightened by fantasy of manners-touched frivolity (Kushner and Stevermer's epistolary "The Vital Importance of the Superficial" has a lovely voice); there's a few failures, but they're largely redeemed by their placement--like the irony of Blaylock's curmudgeonly "Smithfield" counterpointed by Hieber's much more complex "Charged." Datlow and Windling are practiced editors, and this is another successful collection--thematically strong, varied, above average in quality. Still, it only met and failed to exceed my expectations.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 280 reviews