The Fortunate Isles

by Lisa L. Hannett, Kirstyn McDermott (Introduction)

The Fortunate Isles collects fourteen tales of salt-crusted weirdness from the rugged, cold-clime harbour village of Barradoon...

Barradoon: the limit of worldly navigation; stronghold of sea-myths and ancient forces; a place of simmering tension and ruthless vengeance meted out by human and inhuman alike.

These densely wrought, boundlessly inventive stories form, in their totality, a singularly strange mosaic novel of sorts - ever twisting and writhing like a storm-charged ocean. Yet they are never out of the meticulous control of Lisa Hannett's masterly storytelling.

The table of contents is as follows:

Introduction by Kirstyn McDermott
Gutted
A Right Pretty Mate
Another Mouth
The Honey Stomach
The Escape
Out at the Shillingate Isles
A Tanglesmithed Tale
A Shot of Salt Water
The Widows Guild
Deep in the Drift, Spinning
Watersleeves
Shrithing Sandwards
Rewild
Ebbtide

250 pages, Hardcover

First published May 27, 2023

About the author

Lisa L. Hannett has had over 70 short stories appear in venues including Clarkesworld, Weird Tales, Apex, The Dark and Year’s Best anthologies in Australia, Canada and the US. She has won four Aurealis Awards, including Best Collection for her first book, Bluegrass Symphony, which was also nominated for a World Fantasy Award. Her first novel, Lament for the Afterlife, was published by CZP in 2015.

A new collection of short stories, Little Digs, is coming out in March 2020.

Reviews

[Chris Riley · Rating 2 out of 5]

I appreciated the author’s consistency of setting throughout this collection, and she did a good job with maintaining this. But her choice of prose was so loose, nebulous, and lacking in a grounded narrative that I had no idea whatsoever what was going on within these stories. In fact, to call these “stories” is a stretch, as they were more like a collection of well-written images and scenes that failed to come together to form a plot. It was akin to listening to a competent guitarist playing one cool riff after another, yet never getting to the point by playing a good song—and in this case, telling a good story. Right now, someone out there is saying that I didn’t get it, and that my literary ignorance missed the mark; and that may be true, so in that case, this might be the perfect collection for readers of such esteemed intellectual level. But it just didn’t work out well enough for me.

[Ian Mond]

I’ve been a fan of Lisa’s work since Bluegrass Symphony, which came out in 2011. Back then, I gave star ratings on Goodreads, and Bluegrass got an ecstatic five. I also slapped a fiver on Hannett’s mosaic novel Lament for the Afterlife. I still think about that book. There’s been nothing like it since it was published. Since then, Hannett has been busy with life and Vikings and while the selfish part of me would have liked to have seen a book published sooner,* I’m also aware that we’re privileged to have anything at all. The Fortunate Isles — a collection of stories set in and around the liminal seaside village of Barradoon — is worth waiting eight years for. The stories draw on Celtic and Norse myths that are not part of my cultural background but in the hands of Hannett, they come alive, resonate in unexpected ways. Hannett’s language, the way she portrays a simple image of women filleting fish, is both lyrical and visceral. The stories are told mainly from a female perspective, whether they be mermaids who sail the sea, harpies who circle the sky or drift-spinners who dabble with magic. It’s all beautiful, violent, tragic and redemptive, with imagery that stays with you, leeching into your dreams. The book is coming out from a small press, so I don’t know how available it will be. But if you can get yours hands on a copy, do so.

*Ooops. I missed Songs for Dark Seasons - a collection of stories set in the Bluegrass Symphony Universe - that came out in 2020. So it’s been three years between books, not eight. My bad.

[Leanbh Pearson · Rating 5 out of 5]

** I received an ARC for an honest review **

The Fortunate Isles is a series of short stories that capture the essence of the liminal world where sea meets shore. A series of dark tales of selkies, mermfolk, harpies, changelings, witches and Tricksters.

Some of my favourite stories were:

A Tanglesmithed Tale
Out at the Shillingate Isles
The Honey Stomach
Another Mouth
A Right Pretty Mate
Gutted
Ebbtide
Hannett writes with such vibrancy and passion that each tale is uniquely crafted and the characters are borne from the communities and sea and roughness of a life dependent on a tide that ebbs and flows.

Conclusion

Highly recommended read for fans of Kate Forsyth’s fairy tale collections, Kim Wilkins and Angela Slatter in their dark, gothic fantasy worlds. Hannett offers a spellbinding collection. A must read!

** This is my personal opinion and does not reflect any judging decisions **

[Priscilla · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars, rounded down.