Book Review: The Stepsister Scheme by Jim C. Hines

I like a good fairytale mashup, and this one is very good. Hines goes back and draws on the Grimm version of the fairy tales, complete with the stepsisters cutting off parts of their feet to fit the shoe and the birds attacking at the wedding, and updates and blends them together to tell a new tale of intrigue and romance.

Cinderella has already won her prince. She is ready for a happy ending, and the marriage is happy. Adjusting to palace life, however, is proving challenging; she keeps having to repress the urge to clean things and having people remind her that she is supposed to be the one in charge is difficult. Then her stepsisters kidnap her husband and smuggle him over the border to fairyland. Now, she has to team up with Talia (Sleeping Beauty) and Snow (White) to get him back, battling magic, trolls, evil shadows, and political schemes along the way. She has to learn how to be in charge, how to handle a sword, and, hardest of all, when to be nice and when to go for the kill.

I picked up The Stepsister Scheme because I liked the title, and it proved a good call. The book is like its title: A little offbeat and fun. It's got some spy stuff, some neat fairy tale twists, some spunky princesses, a prince worth rescuing, and a complicated and interesting fairyland.

I've read the "innocent expecting a happily ever after learns its not that easy" before, and it's not my favorite plot, but there is enough else going on here to keep things new. Also, while Danielle has to learn to be a little more cynical, she helps Talia learn to be a little less so, so there's some balance there. Do be aware that, though I persist in describing this book as "fun" that doesn't mean it doesn't go some dark places. The story of Snow and her mother, in particular, is quite nasty and there are parallels there with Cinderella's stepmother. Hines is using the early Grimm stories as the basis for his tales and, as many people lately have been saying, these were not always "nice" or "pretty" in their details.

Verdict: Not up there on the "must hand it to everyone I know" level, but certainly on the "I want to read the sequels" list.


Other Reviews
Fantasy Book Critic
The Mad Hatter's Bookshelf and Book Review
The Good, the Bad, and the Unread

Links
Jim C. Hines' web page
@jimchines on Twitter

The Stepsister Scheme on Amazon.

Princesses Behaving Badly by Linda Rodriguez McRobbie

Princesses Behaving Badly: Real Stories from History Without the Fairy-Tale Endingsby Linda Rodriguez McRobbie is just what the title promises: A collection of short chapters about historical princesses who were not exemplary, at least not by "princess" standards. Some of them spied, most lied, some fought, some got what they wanted, some did not. It's a diverse collection as well, covering a wide range of places and times, moving out of the traditional all-European mold to include princesses from almost every continent.

McRobbie manages to pack a lot of information into short chapters, covering most of the princesses lives from birth to death with enough detail to make these women live. The writing is lively, and McRobbie's enthusiasm is catching.

I was amused and surprised to find myself occasionally shocked by the inclusion of some characters or details. "But these are hardly exemplary people!" I would find myself exclaiming "I wouldn't want my daughter reading about this!" And that, of course, is the point. These are princesses behaving badly. They're real people offering the kind of range of behaviors and options I have been known to complain are not offered to female characters in books and movies. Then I noticed that McRobbie's attitude was often similarly ambivalent. There were chapters where she would revel in the princess's "badness," sometimes pointing out that she had out-schemed male schemers, but there were also chapters where she would defend the princess in question, pointing out that, well, maybe she'd been wicked or evil, but that she was a loyal sister, or a loving wife. It is an interesting conundrum: Is one obligated to forget a person's domestic virtues because of political vices? Or visa versa? Does it make a difference that the person was female?

My personal favorite chapters were the first two: Warriors and Usurpers. These were princesses who had real power, some of them, like Hatshepsut and Wu Zetian (whom I had never heard of prior to this), over sizeable kingdoms for measurable amounts of time. The fake princesses were also a delight even though, as McRobbie makes clear, things did not always go well for them. The princesses who got locked away for their troubles were, while real and an important part of the book, much more sobering to read about.

Overall, Princesses Behaving Badly is an impressive survey of places, peoples, and personalities, and a good starting point for further research, should one wish it. McRobbie has included a biography of her sources that would also make a good springboard for further reading.

Disclosure: Review copy provided by the publisher. A positive review was not specified and all views expressed are my own

Publication Details
Publisher: Quirk Books
Expected publication: November 19th 2013
ISBN 1594746443 (ISBN13: 9781594746444)

Book Review: Fairest Vol. 2 The Hidden Kingdom by Bill Willingham (author), Lauren Beukes (Author), and Inaki Miranda (Illustrations)

Fairest: The Hidden Kingdom wasn't for me. I can't really say it was a bad book. I think, probably, for what it was, it was a good book, but despite wildly loving the Fables series and thoroughly enjoying Fairest Vol. 1, I found this not my cup of tea. There will be some spoilers in the following, though I will try not to touch on major plot and turning points.

Fairest: The Hidden Kingdom is Rapunzel's story which, like most Fables tales draws from and exaggerates elements of the traditional tales. It seems that, after being kicked out of the tower by the witch, who was none other than Frau Tottenkinder, Rapunzel gave birth to twins with the help of a kindly elderly woman who told her they were stillborn and took the bodies away. She is sure they are alive and that the woman was Frau Tottenkinder, and she spend years looking for them, eventually ending up in the Hidden Kingdom (the Fables version of Japan) shortly before the Adversary invaded.

Now, in present day Fabletown, she is attacked by a flurry of origami cranes with the words "your children" on them. She immediately bargains for help with hair control and heads out to modern Japan in search of the twins. She takes her friend and barber, Joel, with her. She also takes Jack who proceeds to be his egotistical, oversexed, unreliable self through the rest of the book. Yes, I know he's a trickster and that's what tricksters do and are; that doesn't mean I have to like this particular incarnation of the Trickster type.

in any case, the story switches between the three time periods: Rapunzel's life just after being kicked out of her tower, her life in the Hidden Kingdom, and her present-day hunt for her children and attempts to navigate alliances old and new alliances in the unstable Fabletown communities of Japan.

It's not so much that Fairest breaks the Fables mold as that it takes it and pushes its darker side, hard. There's dark and then there's "Dropped down a well and trapped under a pile of your friends' corpses as they decay." There's "weird and a little twisted" and there's "eating your own hair to survive and then coughing up deadly, angry bezoars who devour everyone around." The humor that marked the other tales was largely absent as was most of the warmth.

Too, I found neither love story present particularly compelling. Snow and Bigby have me on their side all the way. Ali and the Snow Queen had me laughing and hoping. Rapunzel and the kitsune? Not so much. As a sexual indulgence I could more or less believe it, as a love that lasts through the centuries and survives multiple perceived and actual betrayals? No. By the end of the story, I did not particularly care for either partner, and was definitely rooting for Puntz to put the past behind her. The other story should have been more compelling; Joel actually is likable, but the ultimate pairing didn't really have the kind of emotional resonance I want.

The art, also, seemed to be more of more: More crowds, more creatures, more scenes, more sex, more fighting. Like the story, it wasn't bad precisely, it just wasn't to my taste.

Read it? What did you think? Got a review I should link to? Let me know, here in the comments or by clicking the "Contact Me" link up there.

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Book Review: Fairest. Vol. 1 Wide Awake by Bill Willingham (Author) and Phil Jimenez (Illustrator)

Yes, I'm in love with this series!

Fairest: Wide Awake is another spinoff from the main series, but it's by Willingham himself, so it has the balance of fun and seriousness that the tale does so well, plus a good stiff dose of the multi-layered fairytale play: Ali Baba, the Snow Queen, and Sleeping Beauty are main players, and then there's a bottle imp.

It's a spinoff, but it is more closely tied to the main stories than some. I really, really, really don't recommend reading it until you're at least past Volume 16 of the main series, not if you don't want some more spoilers. In fact, if you haven't gotten that far and you do mind spoilers, you should probably just accept that Fairest Vol. 1 is awesome and skip the rest of the review, because there are going to be a couple of spoilers for Fables.

What's Fairest about?

It goes back to battle tactics in Fables. Remember how Sleeping Beauty's curse put everyone around her to sleep? The Fables used this against their enemy, taking her to a major city and having her prick her finger. She thus put an entire enemy city to sleep and was left there to keep them from waking. Later, soldiers were instructed to move and guard her carefully. The problem? There were two beautiful maidens found asleep in the city. Both were collected and left in the center of a camp. Now, a resourceful thief, Ali Baba, has found a bottle imp who leads him to the princesses. He wakes both. One is Sleeping Beauty, one is not. There could be true love ahead. There could be death.

The bottle imp really steals the show here. Oh, the thief and princesses are great, but the bottle imp is the one using his wits and words to shape the tale and he's fantastic. I love the fact that he really wants to be mischievous and cause trouble, but his orders mean he can't--at least, not mostly. This is also the first retelling of "The Snow Queen" I've ever liked.

Also, there is a really heart-breaking "Beauty and the Beast" story at the end. The volume would be worth it just for that.

I don't really recommend this for people who haven't been reading the main series; it will make you want to read the rest, and you'll go into the book with some major plot elements spoiled, but if you like the series, but are unsure about spinoffs, don't wait any longer. Pick it up!

Other Reviews
The Adventures of Cecelia Bedelia
Book Banter
Fyrefly's Book Blog

Links of Interest
Fairest: Wide Awake on Amazon.
Bill Willihngham's website
@BillWillingham on Twitter
Phil Jimenez website

Book Review: Cinderella vol. 2 Fables are Forever by Chris Roberson (Author) and Shawn McManus (Illustrator)

Oh dear.

As I may have mentioned once or twice, I absolutely love the main Fables series, so of course I'm running out to pick up all the other books around it. Fables are Forever is something of a disappointment, even though it works with spy-Cinderella, whom I love, and has fun with genres and characters, which I also love.

Cinderella has to face off with "the Silver Slipper," an assassin foe from her past. Having this super-assassin turn out to be Dorothy Gale was clever, but other than that, there's really not much substance to the book. Dorothy and Cinderella try to kill each other several times over the years and in many different countries. There's no character development for either, and thus no real reason to like or dislike Cinderella any more than I already did. Dorothy is so one-dimensional that her evilness is more a matter of form than anything else.

There's some shallow discussion of the difference between a mercenary and a patriot, and who is more justified in which despicable actions, but it doesn't really go anywhere. It's not a case of either woman developing doubts, or of letting the reader explore the issue, it's just what a pair of spies chat about while they fight.

The art was...eh. I mean, it's not entirely out of character for Cindy to traipse around in the snow in a bikini, but surely even Fables get cold? Shouldn't she be blue and shivering, not svelte and appealing?

So, overall, this was a disappointment. I mean, it's not that it's especially ghastly, it just has a really, really high bar to reach, and it settles for being decidedly average.

Other Reviews
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Links of Interest
Chris Roberson's home page.

Book Review: Fables: Werewoles of the Heartlands by Bill Wilingham (Author), Craig Hamilton (Illustrator), Jim Fern (Illustrator)

This is outside of the Fables main plot, for the most part, and I'm glad this is far from the first Fables book I picked up. I love the series in general (see the understatement there? See?) but this one--eh.

Bigby is looking for a new home for the Fables, traveling through the Midwest. Along the way, he stops at a town full of werewolves, and they both want to worship him and to kill him. There's a certain amount of backstory here and hints that it will tie into the main story later, but on its own, it's a fairly generic fight story. Honestly, it reminded me of Wolverine in his more incomprehensible honorable modes than anything else, and Bigby usually doesn't (No dead girlfriends, for one thing). It's just lots of fighting and "you're not worthy to be a wolf"-ing, and some explosions, and the undoing of a rather good short story included elsewhere.

There's some plotting and counter-plotting going on in the town itself, but all the fighting ends up rendering everyone's plans moot, and I knew too little about any of the characters to really care which side came out on top anyway.

This is a shame because under ordinary circumstances Bigby is one of my favorite characters, and I was super-excited about the book that featured him. I was hoping for more detective work, as in Legends in Exile, or more of his history, perhaps.

Willinham does include an essay about his real visit to the real Story City at the end, and I enjoyed that. Verdict? Check this one out from the library, read the essay, and politely return the book. Then read, or reread, the Fables proper.

Other Reviews
Fyrefly's Book Blog
Other Reviews found through the book blog search engine
Did I miss a link I should include? Let me know and I'll add it!

Links of Interest
Bill Willihngham's website
@BillWillingham on Twitter.

Book Review Fables: The Great Fables Crossover by by Bill Willingham (Author), Matthew Sturges (Author), Russ Braun (Illustrator), José Marzán Jr. (Illustrator), Mark Buckingham (Illustrator), Andrew Pepoy (Illustrator)

The Great Fables Crossover is getting its own min-review because it's something of an oddity. I loved Fables, and I was devouring them as quickly as I could, but then I hit volume 13 and was thrown back.

You see, it mostly departs from an ongoing, rather urgent arc in Fables, to tell its own story. It's clear from bits and pieces here and there that the big tale is still continuing, but now there's another danger: Someone is trying to rewrite the world and in this case, that is entirely literal. If Kevin Thorne gets over his writer's block and decides what revisions he wants to make, the world we know will become an entirely different place. Jack discovers the danger and comes back to warn the Fables who set out to stop him, despite the way Thorne keeps writing difficulties for them.

This is a crossover with Jack of Fables, which I have yet to read. In many ways, I think it's more of a Jack story than a Fables tale. The good news is, I enjoyed the humor in the Jack of Fables Books. There is a visit by all of the genres incarnated as characters to offer the would-be reviser advice, and they're great. Fantasy, especially, is a wispy, elvish sort who keeps wanting everything turned into an epic while science fiction proposes manly battles. So: I will have a new series to follow, and that is good.

The bad news: The Great Fables Crossover comes smack in the middle of the battle with the Dark One and diverts everything onto a completely different path. I read it while saying "But what's happening with the Dark One? What are they going to do?" and the like. I suspect that for me, and for any beginning Fables reader, it will be better on the second read, and maybe after I've read the Jack of Fables series and learned more about the Literals.

Really, if you're plowing through the books for the first time, you may want to set this aside to read while you're waiting for Fables 19 to come out.

It does get bonus points, though, for having a fantastic fighter whose place of power is the library. YES!

My review of the Fables series as a whole is here.

Reviews
Fyrefly Books
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Got a review I should include? Drop me a line and let me know!

Links of Interest

The Great Fables Crossover on Amazon.

Book Review: Fables by Bill Willingham

First, a confession: I lied up there in the title.

This is not a review. It's a rave, or perhaps a gush.

I fell head over heals in love with the series with volume one, Legends in Exile and proceeded to scramble through the books as fast as I could get my hands on them, with no pauses for rational thought, review, or evaluation₍₁₎.

I'm not being even remotely, slightly, or at all objective when I tell you: Don't make my mistake and leave these on the shelves for a rainy day sometime. Read them.

Read them all.

Now.

Oh, and try to make sure you have at least the first few volumes on hand when you start, so you don't have to wait between books, ok?

The basic premise is that the Fables, characters familiar to us from fairy tales, legends, myths, and novels from around the world, have had to flee their various worlds. Their foe, known for several books only as the Adversary, has driven them out, leaving only a small refuge in ours. As a result, characters who normally would be enemies or have nothing to do with one another, have had to find a way to live with one another in our world, and to hide themselves from us: Whatever they look like, they are all immortal (but not invulnerable) and often magical, and they can't risk us ordinary mortals, or mundanes, discovering them. They also want their Homeland(s) back, somehow, some day, and there are a number of magical threats other than the Adversary to trouble them.

I took a few notes on Legends in Exile, which is noir, fairy tale, and fantasy all mixed together. Rose Red, Snow White's sister, has been murdered, and the sheriff, the Big Bad Wolf, has to find the killer. Willingham knows how to use the various tropes he calls on well and has made the modern-day embodiments of famous fairy tale characters into strong characters I can root for. It's a fantastic mystery with unexpected turns, plenty of humor, some darkness, and a great resolution. It's also a fantastic opening for a series that never after that sticks to a single genre.


Different Fables volumes tackle, legend, fairy tale, spy story. They tell tales of survival, of revenge, of new beginnings, of unexpected endings, of triumphant love, and failed love, and friendship, loyalty, and betrayal, and pardon. Fair warning: They can be sweet, and they are often funny, but they can also be sad. While he doesn't have George R. R. Martin's legendary bloodthirstiness, Willingham is quite ruthless about character deaths. There are some real blows in the series.

As far as I can tell, each volume accomplishes that difficult feat of being readable as a stand-alone (I confess, I actually read volume 8, Wolves first) and as part of an arc. And then, the overall story accomplishes an even more difficult feat: It finishes out one arc and starts another while still going strong, and then moves forward to still another, without forgetting the consequences of prior acts. Am I addicted? Oh yes, I'm hopelessly, haplessly, and wonderfully addicted.

Part of the fun is the way Willingham plays with the details: The Beast's curse, for example, waxes and wanes for much of the series. If he and Beauty are having a good day, he's a handsome prince. If they're arguing, he gets more beastly looking. The Big Bad Wolf is the wolf of Red Riding Hood fame. He's also the wolf who huffed and puffed and blew the little pigs' house down, and how and why he came by that power is another tale entirely, one told through several different volumes.

I can't gush enough about the series' general awesomeness. My only real complaint is that now I'll have to wait until volume 19, and then probably through 20. Oh well. I guess I can reread them in the meantime, perhaps a little more slowly so as to savor them (Who am I kidding? It'll be at least a couple more reads before "slow" even starts to be an option).

--
(1)Ok, one pause. The Great Fables Crossover is getting its own, separate review later this week; it's a crossover and that makes it--odd.

Reviews
Fyrefly reviewed them properly, one at a time.
If you have written one or know one I should include, let me know and I will add the link.

Links of Interest
Bill Willihngham's website
@BillWillingham on Twitter.

The Books on Amazon--which also gives you a list of the volumes in order
That said: Visit your local library! Seriously. Libraries are awesome.

Fables: Legends in Exile
Fables: Animal Farm
Fables: Storybook Love
Fables: March of the Wooden Soldiers
Fables: The Mean Seasons
Fables: Homelands
Fables: Arabian Nights (and Days)
Fables: Wolves
Sons of Empire
Fables: The Good Prince
Fables: War and Pieces
Fables: The Dark Ages
The Great Fables Crossover
Fables: Witches
Fables: Rose Red
Fables: Super Team
Fables: Inherit the Wind
Cubs in Toyland
Fables 19 coming out in December 2013