Upon a Once Time

by N.A. Sulway, Mike Morgan, Rebecca E. Treasure

Fairy tales and folk tales, originally passed down orally through generations, are a fundamental part of our shared world culture.

They are a way to interpret - through magic and monsters, princesses and paupers, queens and quests - lessons on morality and society. They show a once upon a time world of simple archetypes in fantastical situations.

This book gathers twenty-one authors who have brought new focus to fairy tales by combining two well known stories with a literary genre of their choice.

Upon a Once Time contains the following tales re-imagined: The Arthurian Cycle, The Bad Wife, Beauty and the Beast, The Boy Who Drew Cats, The Brown Bear of Norway, Caliph Stork, Cinderella, Diamonds and Toads, The Girl Who Trod on a Loaf, The Goblin Spider, The Golem of Prague, Iron John, The Little Mermaid, Little Red Riding Hood, Math Fab Mathonwy, Momotaro, The Nightingale, Petrosinella, The Pied Piper of Hamelin, Pwyll Pendefig Dyfed, The Red Shoes, Rumpelstiltskin, Rusalka Tales, Schneewittchen, The Selkie Bride, Sleeping Beauty, The Swineherd, Taketori Monogatari, Thousandfurs, Tom Thumb, The Twelve Months, The Valiant Little Tailor, Vasilisa the Beautiful, Vasilisa the Wise, The Waters of Life, The Well of the World’s End, The Wild Swans, and The Woodcutter’s Daughter.

List of stories:

Six Rusalki - NA Sulway
The Waters At The End Of The Worlds - Mike Morgan
Little Tom’s Reality - Rebecca E. Treasure
Diamonds, Toads, And… Pumpkins? - Melissa Mead
The Rabbi’s Daughter And The Golem - Alex Langer
Abigail Washington And The Angelic Organ Of Far Khitan - Joshua Gage
Strings That Ought To Be Pondered, Even In Urgent Times - M. Regan
Lady Of The Slake - Suri Parmar
Red Boots Blues - Cat Rambo
Taketori Momogatari - Evan Dicken
Two Of Our Kind - Anna Martino
Currants To The Sea - Taryn Haas
Cloak Of Bearskin - Anna Madden
Sunshine Noir For Synthetic Lovers - Lin Darrow
The Candlewood Trail - Dennis Mombauer
Gell Who Makes - Kit Falbo
Mutability - Maya Chhabra
The Pilot - C.J. Dotson
A Dark Path Through The Forest Of Stars - Jude Reid
The Forest Magic Protects Its Own - Jamie Lackey
Where The Earth Meets The Sea And The Sea Meets The Sky - Brent Baldwin

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

232 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 2020

Reviews

[Rosh ~catching up slowly~ · Rating 5 out of 5]

The description of this book on NetGalley says:
"This book gathers twenty-one authors who have brought new focus to fairy tales by combining two well known stories with a literary genre of their choice."

When you read this, your mind starts expecting a Neil Gaiman-esque fictional + fantastical bonanza. And the book does deliver to a great extent.

The fairy tales used for this anthology range from the popular ones such as Beauty and the Beast, The Pied Piper and Little Red Riding Hood to totally unheard ones (unheard at least by me! 🤭) such as The Arthurian Cycle and The Caliph Stork. But whether I was aware of the original fairy tale or not didn't affect my comprehension, nor did it impair my enjoyment.

Unlike what you would assume, not every tale here is a fantasy fairy world retelling. You have a wonderful mix of science fiction, dark fantasy, humour, horror, steampunk, cyberpunk... The stories take a unique approach to the traditional fairy tales and in most cases, they leave you stunned with their unusual spin on the original.

Almost every story in the anthology is a pleasure to the senses! Of the 21 stories in the collection, I thoroughly enjoyed 16. Some of my absolute favourites were 'Six Rusalki', 'Little Tom's Reality', 'Strings That Ought to be Pondered Even in Urgent Times', 'Taketori Momogatari', 'Gell Who Makes', and 'A Dark Path Through the Forest of Stars'. But I do wish the writers would rethink some of the story titles; they are quite a mouthful!

Overall, this is a really interesting, eclectic collection and would be a great choice for all SFF lovers.

I received an advance review copy of the book for free from NetGalley, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.




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[rebecca | velvet opus · Rating 4 out of 5]

This anthology is magical. These stories, which combine two or more fairytales or folktales reimagined in a different genre or retold from a new point of view (think Little Red Riding Hood in space or a futuristic, genderfluid take on The Little Mermaid), are diverse, imaginative and beautiful. The collection is wonderfully curated and the cherry on the cake is that gorgeous, original artwork on the cover. I'd love a physical copy of this to cherish and share with friends, one day.

Thank you to the publisher for a review copy via Netgalley!

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November 23, 2020
I love a good fairy-tale and this compilation includes twenty-one authors re-imagining fairy tales and folk tales from The Little Mermaid to Beauty and the Beast. Thanks to the publisher for a review copy! RTC.

[Maya Chhabra]

I have a short story in this beautiful anthology! Check out "Mutability" and all the other cool stories.

[Miranda · Rating 5 out of 5]

Received a complimentary e-arc for review this in no shaped or formed opinions for me. My review is of my own accord.

Fairytales, what about them even as adults pulls us to them. They aren’t always wrapped in these weaved and fairy dusted beings.
I absolutely loved that each of these were fresh new and from different voices and cultures that made each one just as if not even better for each one that we go through. I’ll definitely be adding this one in physical copy form to add to my never ending shelves of tales that I’ll want to collect and revisit from time to time.

[Fernanda Ceballos · Rating 4 out of 5]

Many thanks to NetGalley for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest, unbiased opinion.

I want to start by appreciating the beautiful cover of this compound of short stories, it was what drew my attention at first! Its so gorgeous

Now with that being said, Im a sucker for retellings so ofcourse I was interested in this anthology that not only promised Neil Gaimanesque stories and dark vibes but it actually delivered.


The fairy tales used for this anthology range from the popular ones such as Beauty and the Beast, The Pied Piper and Little Red Riding Hood to some not as populat like The Caliph Stork.

The most interesting part of this compendium is that not every tale here is set in fantasy fairy world, there is a vast range from fantasy to steampunk to horror in here.So basically there is every flavor you can think of allowing the authors to take a unique approach to these stories.

I ended up loving every entry, but the standouts to me were definitely:
- "The Rabbi's Daughter and the Golem" - Alex Langer. (Fantasy) A beauty and the Beast + THe golem myth that in a few pages tells a lot.

-"Two of Our Kind" - Anna Martino (Historical Biography) A retellikng tha waves Cinderella and The valiant little tailor together in the most interesting way. A kin to a biography we discovered what happens to Cinderella after the big wedding and how things do not always are as they seem.
ADORED this particular one.

-"The Forest Magic Protects Its Own" -Jamie Lackey. A retelling of Rumpelstiltskin set in Appalachia from author Jamie Lackey

Overall, this is a really interesting, eclectic collection of retellings that I very much enjoyed and would be a great choice for all SFF lovers.

[Westveil Books · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was granted complimentary access to Upon a Once Time via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you to whoever approved my request and please accept my apology for taking so long to get to it. My thoughts are my own and my review is honest.

Upon a Once Time is a captivating collection of fairytale retelling flavoured short stories from cultures around the world. I'm a simple reviewer. I hear fairytale retelling and I say take my money! (And even better, no money was required in this case.)

I absolutely love how inventive and completely different these retellings are. The twists, updates, setting changes, etc. chosen for these stories really haven't been done before, and it's fantastic! I want to look up more work by every single author who contributed to this collection.

Of course this collection does fail me in the one major way anthologies always fail me, and that's just the fact that none of these stories are long enough! Well written short stories always leave me wanting more, and I'm never ready for these to end.

Do you like short fantasy? Fairytale retellings? Read this collection!

[Whisper19 · Rating 2 out of 5]

Thanks to NetGalley and Air and Nothingness Press for the ARC

I don't mind fairy tale retellings in general, but I didn't like this one.
It was just too muddled up for me. The fact that they combined multiple tales in one story was bad enough, but then you add multiply styles/genres, and all you get is a story that doesn’t know what it wants to be when it grows up.
There are two or three that are good, or at least better than the rest. The golem retelling and the Cinderella retelling are not bad. The golem is combined with the beauty and the beast story, with the rabbi’s daughter teaching golem how to be a human, and the Cinderella being a “what happens after the happily ever after” story. I liked those. But again, these suffered from an ailment that is typical for poor short stories – it was incomplete. I felt that if the authors of these stories had been given more room to work, the stories would have been better.
All in all, a muddle and a mess. Not a book for me, I’m sorry to say.
Two stars because there were some pearls among the rest of it.

[Elle · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love fairy tales and folklore. Retellings are right up my alley. This collection did not disappoint. There are a lot of talented writers who came together in this book and the compilation as a whole was quite fun to read. Short story collections are difficult to find where there is a sort of "flow" from start to end, but this one moved very well. I found myself excited to start each subsequent story.

This was just a wonderful piece of escapism. There is a mix of light and dark, but things are balanced so that the whole book doesn't feel like a black hole. All of the stories were highly creative and wound around a theme of fantasy/sci-fi. There were combinations of various tales and folklore that I found quite interesting to pair and I loved that there were some lesser known tales thrown into the mix with several cultures being represented. The writing was very atmospheric in most cases and a lot of the stories felt like they could easily have been expanded into something bigger. This is the challenge with short stories. The endings are often ambiguous or leave more to be explored. Though this certainly existed within these stories, the majority of them still felt natural as standalone pieces.

Most of the individual stories fell in the 4-5 star range for me. There were a couple that weren't my speed, but these still would've landed pretty solidly in the 3-star range. They all had good writing and the pieces I didn't enjoy as much would likely get higher ratings for those who enjoy their specific subgenres.

This was a really fun read for me and a good reminder that modern short story collections can really be fantastic hidden gems.

* Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. *

[Stormy's Book Nest · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm always a sucker for fairy tale retellings, especially ones that go against expectations. This collection delivered everything I wanted and then some! Opening with a dark tale of vengeance of six rusalki sisters, I knew this was going to be my kind of anthology. The second entry telling of space-hopping sentient worms was definitely a departure from anything I'd read before, and by the end I was fully invested. One entry ("Taketori Momogatari") was so bizarre I couldn't tell if it was told earnestly or meant to be a fully humorous commentary on society, but that weirdness and sheer "wtf??"-ness was still completely delightful.

I ended up loving every entry, but the standouts to me were definitely "The Rabbi's Daughter and the Golem" (in just a few short pages Alex Langer encapsulated so many elements from the philosophical question of "what makes us human", the original Beauty and the Beast tale, and Jewish culture and tradition while delivering an utterly charming and wonderful tale of acceptance and love), "The Forest Magic Protects Its Own" (a retelling of Rumpelstiltskin set in Appalachia from author Jamie Lackey, whose novella "The Forest God" I am also very much in love with), and the final story "Where the Earth Meets the Sky and the Sea Meets the Sky", which is actually a combination of stories that I won't spoil, just know that it's so fluffy and sweet I ended it filled with warm fuzzies.

[Andrea · Rating 3 out of 5]

I saw "fairy tale retelling" and came running. In Upon a Once Time we find 21 short tales (loosely) based on existing fairy tales, some of which we all know, like Cinderella, Beauty and the Beast, or the Little Mermaid, and others which were totally unheard of for me.

It was a quick, entertaining read but nothing too special. Maybe because the stories were so short I didn't really have time to get fully invested in them. I still enjoyed reading them anyways.

I very much appreciated that the stories covered completely different genders and the authors created something entirely different from the tales they based their stories on. Getting into specific stories, I loved the social commentary and critique in "Taketori Momogatari" or how "A Dark Path Through the Forest of Stars" takes Sleeping Beauty and Little Red Riding Hood, throws them into outer space and still makes it work.

I must say my favorites were (in order of appearance):
-Six Rusalki
-The Rabbi's Daughter and the Golem
-Taketori Momogatari
-A Dark Path Through the Forest of Stars
-The Forest Magic Protects Its Own
-Where the Earth Meets the Sea and the Sea Meets the Sky


A big thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for the e-ARC in exchange of an honest and voluntary review.

[Rowena Andrews · Rating 4 out of 5]

Firstly, I have to say that I love the cover for Upon a Once Time and it is what first caught my attention, and I am so glad that it did because I loved this anthology. I've been dipping my toes more and more into retellings this year, and I've found it a bit of a gamble, but this anthology was certainly a win. I loved the sheer variety of approaches and genres in these tales, as well as the wonderful diversity, and while I had some stories that I enjoyed more than others, every story in this collection stands out. It was a delight to see the nuggets of familiar fairy tales turn into something new, and I would highly recommend this collection.

[Gizella Caicedo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cada cuento era una experiencia fascinante que me lograba sorprender.

Aunque están basados en los cuentos de toda la infancia. La manera en que cada autor los retoma y logran crear algo creativo y hermoso es algo que me sorprendió.

Ame con locura el cuento de Morgana.

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Each story was a fascinating experience that managed to surprise me.

Although they are based on the stories of all childhood. The way each author takes them up and manages to create something creative and beautiful is something that surprised me.

I loved the tale of Morgana madly.

[Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

Even though fantasy is not my go-to genre, I do dabble, and I'm glad I did here (although all of the stories may not fall into that category). Readers are bound not to like all of the stories, but many of them are quite good. All are pretty imaginative. A good collection overall.

Thanks very much for the review copy!!

[Siavahda · Rating 3 out of 5]

Anthologies are always risky propositions, in my experience, but I rolled the dice on this one almost solely on the basis of that stunning cover. It didn’t hurt that I loved – still love – the concept of crossbreeding fairytales! So I was pretty hopeful when I opened it up.

And I’m not sorry I did, because there are some real gems here. But overall, I would rate this book as…meh.

THE GREATS
Six Rusalki by Na Sulway – this was a mash-up of the Pied Piper of Hamlin and the myth of the rusalka, which is a usually-female water-spirit from Slavic folklore. This was probably my favourite story in the entire collection, with really stunning prose and a brilliant premise. It even exceeded the brief by working in a bunch of other stories as well; Excalibur shows up, as do wishing wells and what’s clearly meant as an inspiration for the Frog Prince story. It’s about women’s rage and the worldbuilding for rusalka culture is just exquisite. I’m definitely going to be looking up more of Sulway’s work!

The Waters at the End of the Worlds by Mike Morgan – a mash-up of the Well of the World’s End and the Waters of Life, but sci-fi. The youngest of seven alien princes has to try to find the water that will make his emperor-father immortal, and it was really clever and sneaky. I loved the twist ending, which felt very in line with how dark and gory the older versions of fairytales tend to be.

Strings That Ought to be Pondered, Even in Urgent Times by M. Regan – Goblin Spider + Petrosinella (aka, Rapunzel) and possibly the only story that picked Horror as its genre. I loved this one, its nice to see monster princesses, even if I felt very sorry for the poor prince!

Taketori Momogatari by Evan Dicken – okay, actually, THIS might be the best story in the whole collection; all the characters are apps and other digital creations, they live in a server-kingdom, and the monsters are worms and viruses and things. And in this setting, a woman sends three suitors off to complete quests, and ends up completing them herself. Really clever, really fun, and I would love a novel set in this universe!

Sunshine Noir for Synthetic Lovers by Lin Darrow – this was a solarpunk story with really brilliant worldbuilding, where gender is determined by whether you’re more Synthetic or more Organic (people being made up of both at this point). I do think it failed the brief, really, in that it barely touched on the Donkeyskin story it was supposed to use as part of the mash-up, but I loved it so much I don’t really care.

Mutability by Maya Chhabra – really wonderful premise of mixing the Welsh legend of Blodeuwedd with the Caliph Stork, and I think Chhabra pulled it off really well. There were one or two weaker spots, but overall I’d love to see this premise given a full novel to play in. I do think it would probably be less delightful to a reader who didn’t know about Blodeuwedd previously, but I loved it.

Where the Earth Meets the Sea and the Sea Meets the Sky by Brent Baldwin – this was the perfect story to end the book on, and it’s basically a perfect story, featuring a selkie woman who falls in love with the man who bakes her scones. It’s sweet, and clever, and wonderfully subverts the usual selkie wife stories, as well as giving a very lovely ending to another old story you’re likely to already know very well.

THE OKAYS
Little Tom’s Reality by Rebecca E. Treasure – I didn’t find this one super interesting; Tom Thumb is a boy who’s never been outside because his family live on a planet that’s still undergoing terra-forming. It wasn’t bad, it just wasn’t amazing.

Diamonds, Toads, and…Pumpkins? by Melissa Mead – this one really disappointed me, because I love the Diamonds and Toads story and intensely disliked how lame this short story was, but it’s not actually bad. It’s just…the tone is weirdly casual, and even with the little bit of meta it wasn’t very interesting. It was meant to be Humor + Fantasy, but it really didn’t pull off being any kind of funny.

The Rabbi’s Daughter and the Golem by Alex Langer – amazing premise (beauty and the beast, but golems) that the story itself just didn’t live up to. I think this would have done better as a novella; it felt rushed and squashed, like Langer didn’t have enough space to do it justice.

Abigail Washington and the Angelic Organ of Far Khitan by Joshua Gage – this was one of the few stories where I wasn’t familiar with the works that were being mashed up (I know The Nightingale, but I’ve never heard of Iron John), and maybe it would have made sense if I did? But as it was…it really didn’t make sense. The actual writing was quite pretty, but it felt like a moralising fable and the ending was just strange.

Lady of the Slake by Suri Parmar – this could have been amazing, but it couldn’t quite live up to its premise of the Lady of the Lake falling in love with a spoiled princess. But it did have a marvelous first line: “I knew at first sight that she would stop at nothing for her happy ending.”

Two of Our Kind by Ann Martino – this one had an interesting format, being told in the form of a biography including letters between the characters; the king of one country, and Cinderella post-ball. My biggest issue was that, not knowing the story of the Valiant Little Tailor, I didn’t get how the king and Cinderella had all these shared experiences, so the story didn’t stand on its own too well.

The Pilot by CJ Dotson – the only reason this isn’t among the Greats is because the beginning was so clunky and forced. Once the story shifted to being told via journal entries and ‘vox box’ recordings, it really shone – a brilliant inventor helps her brother woo a woman, but ends up falling for her herself.

A Dark Path Through the Forest of Stars by Jude Reid – a pretty clever mash-up of Little Red Riding Hood with Sleeping Beauty, it was just shy of getting listed with the Greats. Here, Red is working on a ship that takes the rich and fabulous to newly terraformed worlds, but has to deal with an unexpected wolf. The ending delighted me.

THE AWFULS
Red Boots Blues by Cat Rambo – the writing was pretty, but I had no clue whatsoever wtf was going on. I don’t know the story of The Girl Who Trod on a Loaf, which is half of the mash-up for this one, but still, I don’t think I should need to for your story to make sense. The ending came out of nowhere. Honestly, this one actively annoyed me.

Currants to the Sea by Taryn Haas – this started out really beautifully, but dissolved into absolute nonsense, and not even a F/F ending could save it for me. Housewife leaves her terrible husband and gets adopted by the Sea King??? Or maybe is his long-lost daughter??? It’s not at all clear, and it’s even less clear how she can help the adventurer with her impossible tasks. Really disappointing, because it started so well.

Cloak of Bearskin by Anna Madden – nothing made sense, nothing was explained, things happened at total random, I have no idea how this was accepted for publication.

The Candlewood Trail by Dennis Mombauer – this one was even worse. Again, I had absolutely no idea wtf was going on, except that maybe they were in space? And the ending was…I have no idea what that was. Somehow the mc got the better of the Corporation that owned her even though…they screwed her over??? I have no idea. This was incredibly frustrating to read, and the stupid priest’s Gnomic utterances didn’t help.

Gell Who Makes by Kit Falbo – I don’t like being actively mean, but my 14yo sister writes much, much better than this. And granted, she’s gifted, but my point of how the hell did this get published still stands. Swapping between tenses, not knowing when to break a paragraph, clunky writing, basic punctuation rules completely broken (and not for deliberate effect) – urgh. This was probably the worst story in the whole book.

The Forest Magic Protests Its Own by Jamie Lackey – okay, probably no one else would call this Awful, because on its own, this is a really beautiful little story about a carpenter’s daughter and a faun who fall in love and end up together despite everything. BUT. If you have read The Faun and the Woodcutter’s Daughter, which is one of many stories written by Barbara Leonie Picard and published in the 1960s rather than, say, something like Snow White which is centuries old and we’ll never know who made it up – if you’ve read the original, then you’ll know that Lackey sticks to it practically word for word, with just a little extra detail about the young woman’s human suitor. So this enraged me because it’s not a mash-up, it’s almost a perfect copy of Picard’s story.

*

And after all of that? I would like to mention that Upon a Once Time is a stupid title that makes no sense at all. Twice Upon a Time was right there. Right there!

In conclusion, there were some gems, plenty of okay stories, and some really bad duds (but I guess, on the whole, not many). I wouldn’t say it lives up to its cover, and the ebook formatting was so bad I hope the paperback is better, but it’s not a total trainwreck. I think quite a few people would enjoy it, if you’re a fan of retold fairytales.

Just don’t give Jamie Lackey any credit for The Forest Magic Protests Its Own by Jamie Lackey, because the story wasn’t nearly different enough from the original to be considered Lackey’s own creation.

[Annie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Originally published on my blog: Nonstop Reader.

Upon a Once Time is a very well curated anthology of fairy tale retellings, blendings, reinterpretations, and mash-ups. Released 1st Nov 2020, it's 232 pages and available in paperback format.
One reason I prefer collections and anthologies is that short fiction is really challenging. It's spare and the author doesn't have a wealth of wordage to develop characters or the plotting. Well written short fiction is a delight. I also love collections because if one story doesn't really grab me, there's another story just a few pages away. These 21 stories were a mixed bag; there were some standouts, a few middle-of-the-road, and only one I wasn't engaged enough to finish. I read it more or less cover to cover, which is unusual with me for anthologies; I generally hop around.

I picked up this title because of my familiarity with some of the contributors. I was surprised to find that the stories which really engaged me and kept me enthralled were from the authors with whom I hadn't developed a previous reading relationship. It's always wonderful to find authors to follow, and for this reason alone, this was a useful reading pick.

A short search online leads me to believe that these are all previously unpublished stories. The publisher and other reviewers have provided better précis than I could. I will say that a couple of the high points of this collection for me, personally, were ones which I saw panned by other reviewers. The stories run the gamut from light fantasy, through fantasy realism, as well as horror. The base source material for the stories is taken from a wide variety of countries and cultures.

The art by Serena Malyon is absolutely sublime - what a delight!

It's an entertaining and worthwhile collection. I'm fascinated (and happy) to find that it was at least partially a kickstarter project. I have admittedly been worried about the future of indie publishing given the current world situation and knowing that really top shelf fiction can successfully be crowdsourced is reassuring.

Four strong stars, several 4.5 - 5 star stories here.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.

[Ruby · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thank you to NetGalley and Air and Nothingness press for this e-arc in exchange for an honest review

Upon A Once Time edited by Todd Sanders

3/5 stars (spoiler free review)

Anthologies have never particularly interested me, so going into this book, I was nervous. But I can safely say that I was surprised at how much I enjoyed this book and I also found myself intrigued by it.

Upon A Once time is a collection of fairy tale re-imaginings written by 25 different authors. Each story takes on a new and interesting perspective for each re-telling; with an interesting mix of settings, styles, and interpretations spread throughout the anthology. There is a little bit of something in here for everyone.
Overall, I liked this anthology. I though that it was creative and diverse in the way each author presented the stories. However, I also thought that each story lacked depth. I think that the stories could have been fleshed out just a bit more to explain what is happening in each story. Traditionally in fairy tales, we discover “the moral of the story” or some piece of commonsense wisdom that the tale is meant to convey. In many of the stories included in this anthology, this important part of the traditional fairytale was either missing or so twisted and misshapen that the “moral of the story” was almost unrecognizable. Along with that, I struggled with identifying which retelling went with which story. This effected my ability to accurately identify the “moral of the story”.

This collection of stories falls more into the grim, dark fantasy re-telling subcategory that a strict fairy tale retelling. So, I would recommend this anthology to anyone who enjoys grim dark stories and to anyone who likes fairy tale retellings. However, I would suggest that people who are sensitive to gore in any form take caution before reading this anthology.

[G · Rating 5 out of 5]

Funded and backed the project on Kickstarter.

The rewriting of folk tales and fairy tales is quite imaginative. For this anthology to not only include the rewriting of tales and selection of new genres, but combination of different rewritten tales, it is quite a worthwhile read. The tales contained in the anthology are imaginative and full of heart. Some of the genres selected veer away from the traditional fantasy based setting of fairy tales and pushes instead into the area of science fiction; the sci-fi coded tales combine the newer genre with the traditional fantastical elements of the original to create a magical new tale. For lovers of classic tales and those familiar with the classic tales listed for each work in the anthology, it is delightful to discover how each author combined and borrowed from the selected fairy and folk tales. Each tale is new and imaginative. An absolute delight and treasure to find queer/LGBTQIA+ themes, characters, and authors as I was reading. Can't recommend this highly enough. Also can't wait to read the second anthology.

[Ami · Rating 4 out of 5]

**Thank you to Netgalley for providing me with a free e-book in exchange for an honest review**
"Upon a Once Time" is an SFF anthology featuring 21 fairy-tale retellings by different authors.
The first thing I noticed about this book, the more and more I read, was how diverse it is, both in characters and in authors. There are multiple sapphic stories and non-binary authors, which I greatly appreciated. Apart from that, the stories are fun and weird, and they contain many genres such as sci-fi, fantasy, steampunk, horror, comedy, and solarpunk, which I hadn't heard of before but loved.
Of course, there are some weaker stories, but they're rare and don't make the book any less enjoyable.
My final rating is o 4/5 stars.

[Suzanne · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was excited to read this book, as I do love fairytales and folktales. This book did not disappoint. Each author's voice was unique. I appreciated that before each story there was a page stating which tales the story was based on and what genre it was written in. I was surprised to see not just fantasy, but sci-fi, steampunk, cyberpunk, and even an Appalachian folk take. Each take was crafted with love, but my absolute favorites were:
The Rabbi's Daughter and the Golem by Alex Langer(retelling of Beauty and the Beast and The Golem of Prague), Mutability by Maya Chhabra (retelling of Caliph Stork and Blodeuwedd), The Forest Magic Protects its Own by Jamie Lackey(retelling of Rumpelstiltskin and The Faun and the Woodcutter's Daughter), and Six Rusalki by N.A. Sulway.

[CR · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved everything about this collection of stories! The gorgeous cover grabbed my attention. From the moment I finished the first of the reimagined tales I knew I would love this book! I love how they’re not all your typical happy ever after sand they’re dark and twisted in some cases. Some of them even reminded me of the old Grimm’s fairytales with how dark they were. I felt that all of the stories were brilliant.

[Elliot J Harper · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just finished this anthology I thoroughly enjoyed it! There’s some incredibly innovative mashups of fairytales in here, and it even introduced me to a few new sub-genres. I highly recommend this collection.

[Jim Andrew Clark · Rating 5 out of 5]

This wonderful collection of retold fairy tales is a near perfect anthology. Many of these tales were from familiar sources while a few were new to me. All of them are very well written. One of the best anthologies I’ve ever read from an equally great publisher.

[Kat M · Rating 5 out of 5]

this was a great anthology, each story works well together and the book has a great flow. All the stories flow together and there wasn't any weak one in this anthology.

[Tom M. · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting collection of fairytales retold for modern and future times curated by Todd Sanders.

Looking forward to the sequel.

[Els Devrieze · Rating 3 out of 5]

If I could I would rate two and a half, simply because some of the stories where outright fantastic and others where very very boring. But I’m a positive person so I rounded up 😊

[Andrea Blythe · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fantastic anthology.

[Cynthiaj · Rating 4 out of 5]

Like most any collection, some I really liked, some I didn't care for. The former more than the latter hence the four stars.