Faery!

by Terri Windling (Editor)

1 • A Troll and Two Roses • Patricia A. McKillip
13 • The Thirteenth Fey • Jane Yolen
25 • Lullaby for a Changeling • (1976) • Nicholas Stuart Gray
43 • Brat • (1941) • Theodore Sturgeon
61 • Wild Garlic • William F. Wu
79 • The Stranger • (1978) • Shulamith Oppenheim
85 • Spirit Places • Keith Taylor
99 • The Box of All Possibility • Z. Greenstaff
109 • The Seekers of Dreams • (1963) • Felix Marti-Ibanez
127 • Bridge • Steven R. Boyett
139 • Crowley and the Leprechaun • Gregory Frost
151 • The Antrim Hills • (1976) • Mildred Downey Broxon
173 • The Snow Fairy • M. Lucie Chin
215 • The Five Black Swans • (1973) • Sylvia Townsend Warner
223 • Thomas the Rhymer • poem by Anonymous
227 • Prince Shadowbow • Sheri S. Tepper
239 • The Erlking • (1977) • Angela Carter
247 • The Elphin Knight • poem by Anonymous
251 • Rhian and Garanhir • (1979) • Lin Carter [as Grail Undwin]
257 • The Woodcutter's Daughter • Alison Uttley
271 • The Famous Flower of Serving Men • poem by Anonymous
275 • Touk's House • Robin McKinley
299 • The Boy Who Dreamed of Tir na n-Og • (1979) • Michael M. McNamara

Genres: Fantasy, Anthologies, Short Stories, Fiction, Science Fiction Fantasy, Fairies, Magic

308 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1985

About the author

Terri Windling is an American editor, artist, essayist, and the author of books for both children and adults. Windling has won nine World Fantasy Awards, the Mythopoeic Award, the Bram Stoker Award, and her anthology The Armless Maiden, a fiction collection for adult survivors of child abuse, appeared on the shortlist for the James Tiptree, Jr. Award. She was also honored with SFWA's Soltice Award in 2010, a lifetime achievement award for "significant contributions to the speculative fiction field as a writer, editor, artist, educator, and mentor". Windling's work has been translated into French, German, Spanish, Italian, Czech, Lithuanian, Turkish, Russian, Japanese, and Korean.

In the American publishing field, Windling is one of the primary creative forces behind the mythic fiction resurgence that began in the early 1980s—first through her work as an innovative editor for the Ace and Tor Books fantasy lines; secondly as the creator of the Fairy Tales series of novels (featuring reinterpretations of classic fairy tale themes by Jane Yolen, Steven Brust, Pamela Dean, Patricia C. Wrede, Charles de Lint, and others); and thirdly as the editor of over thirty anthologies of magical fiction. She is also recognized as one of the founders of the urban fantasy genre, having published and promoted the first novels of Charles de Lint, Emma Bull, and other pioneers of the form.

With Ellen Datlow, Windling edited 16 volumes of The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror (1986–2003), an anthology series that reached beyond the boundaries of genre fantasy to incorporate magic realism, surrealism, poetry, and other forms of magical literature. Datlow and Windling also edited the Snow White, Blood Red series of literary fairy tales for adult readers, as well as many anthologies of myth & fairy tale inspired fiction for younger readers (such as The Green Man, The Faery Reel, and The Wolf at the Door). Windling also created and edited the Borderland series for teenage readers.

As an author, Windling's fiction includes The Wood Wife (winner of the Mythopoeic Award for Novel of the Year) and several children's books: The Raven Queen, The Changeling, A Midsummer Night's Faery Tale, The Winter Child, and The Faeries of Spring Cottage. Her essays on myth, folklore, magical literature and art have been widely published in newsstand magazines, academic journals, art books, and anthologies. She was a contributor to The Oxford Companion to Fairy Tales, edited by Jack Zipes.

As an artist, Windling specializes in work inspired by myth, folklore, and fairy tales. Her art has been exhibited across the US, as well as in the UK and France.

Windling is the founder of the Endicott Studio, an organization dedicated to myth-inspired arts, and co-editor (with Midori Snyder) of The Journal of Mythic Arts. She also sits on the board of the Mythic Imagination Institute. A former New Yorker, Windling spend many years in Tucson, Arizona, and now lives in Devon, England. She is married to dramatist Howard Gayton, co-director of the Ophaboom Theatre Company.

Reviews

[Danielle The Book Huntress · Rating 3 out of 5]

Overall, I was a bit disappointed with this collection. Some of the stories didn't work for me. Yet, there are some gems in here that make this book a keeper, just for those stories. The standout tales in this collection were:

A Troll and Two Roses by Patricia A. McKillip
The Thirteenth Fey by Jane Yolen
Lullaby for a Changeling by Nicholas Stuart Gray
Brat by Theodore Sturgeon (Simply hilarious look at changelings! Must read more Sturgeon!)
Wild Garlic by William F. Wu (Chinese-American protagonist, chilling ghost story with foxwomen)
The Stranger by Shulamith Oppenheim
The Box of All Possibility by Z. Greenstaff
Rhian and Garanhir by Grail Undwin
The Woodcutter's Daughter by Alison Uttley (my favorite. Very like some of my all-time beloved fairy tale reads).
Touk's House by Robin McKinley (another fairy tale-great read)
The Boy Who Dreamed of Tir Na N-Og by Michael M. McNamara

I did not like these at all:
Spirit Places by Keith Taylor (it was really boring)
The Five Black Swans by Sylvia Townsend Warner (it seemed pointless)

Sad And Confounding But Well-Written
The Erlking by Angela Carter

Bizarre Yet Interesting
Prince Shadowbow by Sheri S. Tepper

Good But Too Slow-Moving
The Snow Fairy by M. Lucie Chin (I loved the Chinese Folklore aspects)

Indifferent About
The Seekers of Dreams by Felix Marti-Ibanez
Bride by Steven R. Boyett
Crowley and the Leprechaun by Gregory Frost
The Antrim Hills by Mildred Downey Broxon (Rather bleak. It captured the cold nature of the Fae very well)

It also had poetry but some reason, the poetry didn't really mesh well with the prose to me.

I'm glad I read this collection but I hope that I find the next faery anthologies in my tbr pile to be more interesting and moving than this one.

[Heidi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not a huge short story fan but I’ve kept this volume for decades because it’s got some gems by classic authors in it.

[Brittany · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some were better than others. So as a collection I gave it 4 stars.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ My absolute favorite was Touk's House, but I love everything by Robin McKinley, so I wasn't surprised.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️I also loved:
A Troll and Two Roses
The Thirteenth Fey
Lullaby for a Changeling
The Stranger
The Box of all Possibility
The Elphin Knight(Poem)
The Woodcutter's Daughter
The Famous Flower of Serving Men(Poem)
The Boy Who Dreamed of Tir Na N-og

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️I liked but didn't love:
Wild Garlic
Bridge
The Antrim Hills
Prince Shadowbow
Rhian and Garanhir

⭐️⭐️⭐️I was unimpressed by:
Spirit Places
The Seeker of Dreams(Which I almost DNFed)
Crowley and the Leprechaun
Thomas the Rhymer(Poem)
The Erlking

⭐️⭐️I hated:
Brat(Which I almost DNFed as well)
The Five Black Swans

I DNFed:
The Snow Fairy(after 3 pages, so have no idea if it was good or not. It just made my head swim with the long, clunky sentences and dozens of names that I couldn't keep straight)

[Alyssa Grady · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was attracted to this short story collection given it was edited by Terri Windling, included a few authors I recognized, and that beautiful blue cover! My favorite stories were: A Troll and Two Roses; The Stranger; The Box of All Possibility; The Seekers of Dreams; Prince Shadowbow; and The Erlking.

[jack · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved it

[Poetreehugger · Rating 3 out of 5]

An uneven collection.

[Jennifer Heise · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lullaby for a changling, wild garlic, the Woodcutter's daughter, the Erlking, the Snow Fairy, Spirit Places, all very good. 13th Fey, Troll & Two roses, Touk's House, I read and relished in other books by their authors. I liked the variety of traditions used, though some were probably mishandled culturally.

[H.S. Gilchrist · Rating 5 out of 5]

I remembered this book thirty years after I first read it as a teenager--I hunted a used copy down and re-read the stories, and they were just as good as I remembered. I love fey storylines and this work captured them so perfectly.

[Paul · Rating 3 out of 5]

7/10

Solid collection which is worth the read.

[Keith Miller]

Faery! (Ace Science Fiction) (1985)