I have become addicted to old radio mysteries and horror stories, and pod casts have brought all of that joy back to me. I became fascinated with them when I first saw George Lucas and Steve Spielberg’s movie, Radioland Murders. Now when I hear these podcasts, I imagine all of the sound effects guys, the writers trying to finish up the scripts, and the actors performing in front of those tall retro microphones. I subscribe to several, but the following ones are my favorites.
Radio Detective Story Hour – The host for this podcast is just wonderful. Each episode introduces a detective series, and the host gives a wonderfully researched background of the show. He sometimes includes guest speakers and some previously taped interviews. I like this one because you get a deeper understanding of the history of the series he presents.
Tales of Horror – This series podcasts old radio shows like The Weird Circle, The Mysterious Traveler, and other shorts similar to the old Night Gallery and Twilight Zones of Rod Serling.
Suspense! – This podcast is replaying the old radio show, Suspense! It’s another one if those 30 minute horror anthologies, and the stories are pretty good.
Old Time Radio – This is a new group of podcasts that plays mysteries, detectives, thriller, and sci-fi. I have five of them in my podcast list, and each of them have a great mix of stories. I wish there was a little bit less intro to each episode, but that’s because eit is a bit commercial heavy at the front.
There are several podcasts out there full of old radio shows, but these casts post regularly and the quality of the shows is good. Usually you can count on the radio shows having decent sound, and of course, the commercials and political ads are a great way to look back into the past. It’s funny to hear how much women characters have changed over the years. Even when the women are main characters, such as Candy Matson, she still works to keep a few minks in her wardrobe, and of course, on the side, smash evildoers and help people.
Rating: 5 Purrs for a history lesson that’s entertaining, especially down on the waterfront of San Francisco, wearing a slick hat and hunting the evildoer
Wednesday, May 30, 2007
Wednesday, May 23, 2007
Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning
I can hardly believe I rented Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning. I liked the remake, and I liked the original, so I thought I would give this one a try. After all, it has Jordana Brewster in it, and I’ve liked her since The Faculty. Ugh. It wasn’t much to speak of, and brought nothing new to anything.
In TCM: TB, we see that the Hewitt family is in trouble. The meatpacking plant where they and Leatherface worked is closing down. The family faces starvation, and since they are obviously backwoods hicks with several screws loose, they follow right along when the head of the family kills off the sheriff of the town and serves him up as dinner. A trend is born, more or less, and old Leatherface gets to keep on doing what he is doing. This time, the first time, he gets to do it to a couple of brothers and their girlfriends on their last trip before shipping off to Vietnam. The four are appropriately pretty and very, very 70’s. Blood and guts follows, and madness ensues.
Diora Baird does a better job than I expected, since all I have seen her in before was some bit parts in movies and a Playboy photo spread. She does bring a bit more to the part than just a pretty face. She is terrified and stupefied in just the right moments. Jordana Brewster also does a good job being the plucky heroine who preservers and tries to kick butt. R. Lee Ermey is the nutso head of the family, but pretty much plays the same part he always plays: the loud, mean, crazy leader. Leatherface is just one big old lunk hauling around a chainsaw. He isn’t scary; he’s just sad and deformed.
I really hate the trend I have seen lately in horror films. There’s little plot and mostly just guts. There was no reason for this film except to show a bunch of people getting gutted and tortured. Now, I am not opposed to blood and guts. Giallo films are chocked full of it. Jason chops people in half all of the time. Honestly, I really don’t know why I disliked this movie so much. Maybe I am just tired of rampant blood and torture; maybe it’s just that there was no excuse for this movie anyway. Or maybe it was the fact that I am very, very tired of Texas always being the place where people are portrayed as backwards hicks who breed with their families, raise deformed serial killers, and scream crazy religious crap to terrorize sexy teenagers. Regardless, this movie was a waste of time, and for me to say that, you know it’s got to be bad.
Rating: 3 Hisses, for all the crazy backwards Texans and chainsaws up the gut and 1 Purr for Jordana Brewster and Diora Baird for playing sexy 70’s chickies and rising above the ickiness of this movie
In TCM: TB, we see that the Hewitt family is in trouble. The meatpacking plant where they and Leatherface worked is closing down. The family faces starvation, and since they are obviously backwoods hicks with several screws loose, they follow right along when the head of the family kills off the sheriff of the town and serves him up as dinner. A trend is born, more or less, and old Leatherface gets to keep on doing what he is doing. This time, the first time, he gets to do it to a couple of brothers and their girlfriends on their last trip before shipping off to Vietnam. The four are appropriately pretty and very, very 70’s. Blood and guts follows, and madness ensues.
Diora Baird does a better job than I expected, since all I have seen her in before was some bit parts in movies and a Playboy photo spread. She does bring a bit more to the part than just a pretty face. She is terrified and stupefied in just the right moments. Jordana Brewster also does a good job being the plucky heroine who preservers and tries to kick butt. R. Lee Ermey is the nutso head of the family, but pretty much plays the same part he always plays: the loud, mean, crazy leader. Leatherface is just one big old lunk hauling around a chainsaw. He isn’t scary; he’s just sad and deformed.
I really hate the trend I have seen lately in horror films. There’s little plot and mostly just guts. There was no reason for this film except to show a bunch of people getting gutted and tortured. Now, I am not opposed to blood and guts. Giallo films are chocked full of it. Jason chops people in half all of the time. Honestly, I really don’t know why I disliked this movie so much. Maybe I am just tired of rampant blood and torture; maybe it’s just that there was no excuse for this movie anyway. Or maybe it was the fact that I am very, very tired of Texas always being the place where people are portrayed as backwards hicks who breed with their families, raise deformed serial killers, and scream crazy religious crap to terrorize sexy teenagers. Regardless, this movie was a waste of time, and for me to say that, you know it’s got to be bad.
Rating: 3 Hisses, for all the crazy backwards Texans and chainsaws up the gut and 1 Purr for Jordana Brewster and Diora Baird for playing sexy 70’s chickies and rising above the ickiness of this movie
Tuesday, May 22, 2007
Starship Troopers by Robert Heinlein
I have had a copy of Robert Heinlein’s Starship Troopers ever since I saw the movie version by Paul Veerhoven. I liked the movie version; I found it just over the top enough to be entertaining, despite the little “commercial” snippets separating the chapters. I am not a huge fan of sci-fi or fantasy novels, but Heinlein is one of the masters, so I thought I would finally give Starship Troopers a chance.
Starship Troopers is a novel about a futuristic military state. I can see why it was labeled “controversial” on the cover, because it pokes holes in just about every tenet our society has grown to hold dear. Johnnie Rico is a soft, not so smart guy from Terran. His parents are rich and he has never really had to struggle for much of anything. In his world, to be a citizen, you have to be a veteran, and on a whim, our Johnnie signs up for a term in the military. He gets assigned to Mobile Infantry, and it’s the roughest thing he has ever done in his whole life. Boot Camp is brutal, but he ends up being more of an adult than he ever expected, and when Terran goes to war against the Bugs, he is shipped out to battle. Here is where he proves himself.
There is a whole lot description of the future gadgets, strategies, and the basic truths of the futuristic world, much like a softer version of For Us, the Living. I wish there had been more female characters; I felt like I was reading Lord of the Rings again. Carmen has a few paragraphs, but the military, for the most part, was male. Johnnie was just not an interesting enough character for me to really care about. He was too much of a “go team” sort of guy, and one who even though he supports his military, never really seems to question why he is there. Of course, that might have been part of the point.
What I found most interesting about Starship Troopers has less to do with the book and more in comparison to Ender’s Game, another futuristic military novel I read just last year. How these two authors look at the future of war and the security of our world both turn back and critique how we are functioning now, and both end up raking holes in so many of the basic “truths," especially now. Both books have children being turned into warriors; both question the validity of war. But, and maybe it’s just me, I got more of a “go military” vibe from Starship Troopers. It seems to present a value in controlled violence, a need for children to be disciplined, and a need for things like corporal punishment and the death penalty.
Starship Troopers was an all right book. I’m just not sure I would recommend it to anyone who wasn’t already a big fan of Heinlein’s work. I’m discovering that I am not.
Rating: 3 Purrs
Starship Troopers is a novel about a futuristic military state. I can see why it was labeled “controversial” on the cover, because it pokes holes in just about every tenet our society has grown to hold dear. Johnnie Rico is a soft, not so smart guy from Terran. His parents are rich and he has never really had to struggle for much of anything. In his world, to be a citizen, you have to be a veteran, and on a whim, our Johnnie signs up for a term in the military. He gets assigned to Mobile Infantry, and it’s the roughest thing he has ever done in his whole life. Boot Camp is brutal, but he ends up being more of an adult than he ever expected, and when Terran goes to war against the Bugs, he is shipped out to battle. Here is where he proves himself.
There is a whole lot description of the future gadgets, strategies, and the basic truths of the futuristic world, much like a softer version of For Us, the Living. I wish there had been more female characters; I felt like I was reading Lord of the Rings again. Carmen has a few paragraphs, but the military, for the most part, was male. Johnnie was just not an interesting enough character for me to really care about. He was too much of a “go team” sort of guy, and one who even though he supports his military, never really seems to question why he is there. Of course, that might have been part of the point.
What I found most interesting about Starship Troopers has less to do with the book and more in comparison to Ender’s Game, another futuristic military novel I read just last year. How these two authors look at the future of war and the security of our world both turn back and critique how we are functioning now, and both end up raking holes in so many of the basic “truths," especially now. Both books have children being turned into warriors; both question the validity of war. But, and maybe it’s just me, I got more of a “go military” vibe from Starship Troopers. It seems to present a value in controlled violence, a need for children to be disciplined, and a need for things like corporal punishment and the death penalty.
Starship Troopers was an all right book. I’m just not sure I would recommend it to anyone who wasn’t already a big fan of Heinlein’s work. I’m discovering that I am not.
Rating: 3 Purrs
Wednesday, May 16, 2007
The Brief History of the Dead by Kevin Brockmeier
Finding The Brief History of the Dead was a complete stroke of luck. The cover image intrigued me, so I ordered it from my book club. (If you like a variety of surprising and intriguing books, you should check out Quality Paperback Books.) What I found inside was intriguing, a tale of death and life, a fable of relationships and memories.
The whole book is based on a belief held in some African societies: once you die, you still live in the memories of those left behind on earth. These recently passed, if they can be called to mind or talked about in stories, are living-dead. Once the last person on earth who knew them dies, they pass on to the truly dead. Brockmeier takes this belief and creates a place where people come after death, a city of the dead. Many people live and work there like they did in life. They rejoin their families, they continue on as though they were living. One day, people start disappearing at a rapid rate, and the city itself looks to be shrinking. Luka Sims, newspaperman, is determined to find out what is going on with the city and where the people are disappearing to. What is going on in the world of the living that is causing so many to die, and of those, so many of the dead to disappear?
The whole story is like a richly woven fabric of characters and inter-connectivity. There is a complexity to the tale that you wouldn’t expect from something so simply written. After about half way through the book I figured out the “surprise” twist, but it didn’t diminish how much I liked the book at all. In fact, I loved the way every player down to the random teenager in the street were connected. It's a nice thought.
The ideas and lessons in this book found me at a time when I needed them most. I had recently lost my aunt to a very difficult fight with cancer and the story Kevin Brockmeier told in The Brief History of the Dead was a poignant one for me. While that was the case for me, I think it would have been just as amazing had I read it at any other time. The idea, the color, the underlying truth of the story is truly universal. Not only that, it is told without any kind of syrupy Oprah Book Club nonsense, so never did I feel like my heartstrings were being pulled in any artificial way. I can’t wait to see what else Kevin Brockmeier has to offer.
Rating: 5 Purrs for a quirky tale told with great care. It’s not often you find a book about death that makes you feel good too.
The whole book is based on a belief held in some African societies: once you die, you still live in the memories of those left behind on earth. These recently passed, if they can be called to mind or talked about in stories, are living-dead. Once the last person on earth who knew them dies, they pass on to the truly dead. Brockmeier takes this belief and creates a place where people come after death, a city of the dead. Many people live and work there like they did in life. They rejoin their families, they continue on as though they were living. One day, people start disappearing at a rapid rate, and the city itself looks to be shrinking. Luka Sims, newspaperman, is determined to find out what is going on with the city and where the people are disappearing to. What is going on in the world of the living that is causing so many to die, and of those, so many of the dead to disappear?
The whole story is like a richly woven fabric of characters and inter-connectivity. There is a complexity to the tale that you wouldn’t expect from something so simply written. After about half way through the book I figured out the “surprise” twist, but it didn’t diminish how much I liked the book at all. In fact, I loved the way every player down to the random teenager in the street were connected. It's a nice thought.
The ideas and lessons in this book found me at a time when I needed them most. I had recently lost my aunt to a very difficult fight with cancer and the story Kevin Brockmeier told in The Brief History of the Dead was a poignant one for me. While that was the case for me, I think it would have been just as amazing had I read it at any other time. The idea, the color, the underlying truth of the story is truly universal. Not only that, it is told without any kind of syrupy Oprah Book Club nonsense, so never did I feel like my heartstrings were being pulled in any artificial way. I can’t wait to see what else Kevin Brockmeier has to offer.
Rating: 5 Purrs for a quirky tale told with great care. It’s not often you find a book about death that makes you feel good too.
Tuesday, May 15, 2007
Recent Aquisitions to the Library
I am way behind on keeping track of the new additions to my library, but here are some of the more recent purchases:
- See No Evil - Mia Farrow thriller from way back.
- Demons, Demons 2 - Argento produced zombie demon movies.
- Night of the Comet - My very favorite movie of all time.
- Endless Night - An Agatha Christie mystery with a grown up Haley Mills.
- Stardust by Neil Gaiman
- The Beautiful Cigar Girl: Mary Rogers, Edgar Allan Poe, and the Invention of Murder by Daniel Stashower
- The Monk by Matthew Lewis
- American Elf Volume 1 by James Kochalka
- The Poe Shadow by Matthew Pearl
- Destination Morgue! by James Ellroy
- The Interpretation of Murder by Jed Rubenfeld
- The Meaning of Night: A Confession by Michael Cox
- Fluke by Christopher Moore
- Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach
- The Father of Forensics: The Groundbreaking Cases of Sir Bernard Spilsbury, and the Beginnings of Modern CSI by Colin Evans
Silent Hill
I have never played the game Silent Hill, so I can’t really compare the movie to the game outside of what I have read from other’s comments. I do know that I liked Silent Hill much better the second time around on DVD than I did the first viewing in the theater.
Rose and Christopher have a daughter, Sharon, who has terrible nightmares and sleepwalks. While she sleeps, she shouts "Silent Hill," and Rose, determined to figure out what is going on, takes Sharon on a trip to find the deserted town. On the way, a lady cop Cybil, (Laurie Holden – X-Files! Woot!) follows her into town, and Sharon disappears. Game on! Rose must track down Sharon, and in doing so, solve the mystery of why Silent Hill is haunted by really cool creepy crawlies.
On first viewing, I didn’t like the game feel to the movie, but I loved the creepy creatures and the story, so I thought I would give it another try on DVD. I loved it the second time around. Everything meshed for me then. The playing levels, the actors, the Silent Hill dimension versus the real world all came together just perfectly. Even the added on feel of Sean Bean’s scenes didn’t bother me all that much. My favorite creepies – Pyramid Head and his buggies, closely followed by the creepy janitor guy.
I thought Alice Kridge cast as the crazy religious nut was perfect, but not very inventive. She does have a way, though, of just freaking you the hell out. She has this way of enlarging her pupils to where her eyes seem black and she seems so certain. Overall, the religious nuts as the center of the story are a pretty regular turn of horror events, but as I understand it, it’s the heart of the Silent Hill games, so it doesn’t turn me off. The end was a whiz-bang. From Cybil meeting the flames (ick!) to Rose bringing in the dark, to little Sharon being turned (or is she…) it’s a great end to a very creepy horror/game movie.
If you like creepy, but not necessarily want to see a bunch of gore, and don’t mind a bit of crazy religious nuts sprinkled on top, check out Silent Hill. I can’t wait to see what Christophe Gans comes up with next; he definitely has a great eye for horror movies with substance.
Rating: 4 ½ Purrs, with extra nuts and buggies on top
Rose and Christopher have a daughter, Sharon, who has terrible nightmares and sleepwalks. While she sleeps, she shouts "Silent Hill," and Rose, determined to figure out what is going on, takes Sharon on a trip to find the deserted town. On the way, a lady cop Cybil, (Laurie Holden – X-Files! Woot!) follows her into town, and Sharon disappears. Game on! Rose must track down Sharon, and in doing so, solve the mystery of why Silent Hill is haunted by really cool creepy crawlies.
On first viewing, I didn’t like the game feel to the movie, but I loved the creepy creatures and the story, so I thought I would give it another try on DVD. I loved it the second time around. Everything meshed for me then. The playing levels, the actors, the Silent Hill dimension versus the real world all came together just perfectly. Even the added on feel of Sean Bean’s scenes didn’t bother me all that much. My favorite creepies – Pyramid Head and his buggies, closely followed by the creepy janitor guy.
I thought Alice Kridge cast as the crazy religious nut was perfect, but not very inventive. She does have a way, though, of just freaking you the hell out. She has this way of enlarging her pupils to where her eyes seem black and she seems so certain. Overall, the religious nuts as the center of the story are a pretty regular turn of horror events, but as I understand it, it’s the heart of the Silent Hill games, so it doesn’t turn me off. The end was a whiz-bang. From Cybil meeting the flames (ick!) to Rose bringing in the dark, to little Sharon being turned (or is she…) it’s a great end to a very creepy horror/game movie.
If you like creepy, but not necessarily want to see a bunch of gore, and don’t mind a bit of crazy religious nuts sprinkled on top, check out Silent Hill. I can’t wait to see what Christophe Gans comes up with next; he definitely has a great eye for horror movies with substance.
Rating: 4 ½ Purrs, with extra nuts and buggies on top
Thursday, May 10, 2007
The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson
The Haunting of Hill House is a classic horror story, no getting around it. Shirley Jackson is a true master of taking something that seems everyday and turn it into a vision that stays in your dreams. I read this book a while ago, and even though I knew the twists and turns, it still kept me reading and taut with tension.
If you don’t know the story, it’s a step above your run of the mill haunted house story. Hill House has a long history, and the villagers nearby won’t stay there at night, and most won’t approach it in the day. Dr. Montague wants to figure out why there are bumps in the night at Hill House, so he invites some people who have had some sort of psychic experiences to come and stay at the house for the summer, to help him record any unusual happenings. Eleanor, or Nell, has cared for her mother for years and now, for the first time, is out on her own. She’s your typical wallflower and is very unsure of her place in the world. Theo is vivacious, self-centered, artistic; she is used to being the center of attention. Luke is there because he will one day inherit Hill House. You could describe him as a liar and a rake. These strangers are brought together and different petty jealousies erupt. Is it the house playing tricks on them? Are the loud noises and cold spots they feel a true haunting or their imaginations?
The Haunting of Hill House is tightly written, full of suspense. The characters are well built. The haunting scenes are tense and while you read them you are on edge with the characters. It doesn’t surprise me that Stephen King, among many other writers, cite Shirley Jackson as an influence. I recently read We Have Always Lived in the Castle, another of her novels, and it was almost as good as this. I now have a mission to hunt her other work down.
Rating: 5 Purrs for haunted house perfection
If you don’t know the story, it’s a step above your run of the mill haunted house story. Hill House has a long history, and the villagers nearby won’t stay there at night, and most won’t approach it in the day. Dr. Montague wants to figure out why there are bumps in the night at Hill House, so he invites some people who have had some sort of psychic experiences to come and stay at the house for the summer, to help him record any unusual happenings. Eleanor, or Nell, has cared for her mother for years and now, for the first time, is out on her own. She’s your typical wallflower and is very unsure of her place in the world. Theo is vivacious, self-centered, artistic; she is used to being the center of attention. Luke is there because he will one day inherit Hill House. You could describe him as a liar and a rake. These strangers are brought together and different petty jealousies erupt. Is it the house playing tricks on them? Are the loud noises and cold spots they feel a true haunting or their imaginations?
The Haunting of Hill House is tightly written, full of suspense. The characters are well built. The haunting scenes are tense and while you read them you are on edge with the characters. It doesn’t surprise me that Stephen King, among many other writers, cite Shirley Jackson as an influence. I recently read We Have Always Lived in the Castle, another of her novels, and it was almost as good as this. I now have a mission to hunt her other work down.
Rating: 5 Purrs for haunted house perfection
Tuesday, May 08, 2007
The Changeling
I rented The Changeling ages ago, and when I saw it on Amazon for 5 bucks, I snatched up the DVD to add to my collection. This movie made me jump even though it was the second viewing and I already knew the story. The Changeling must be one of the best haunted house movies I have ever seen.
George C Scott is John Russell, a composer who has just lost his wife and child in a car wreck. He moves to Seattle and into an old house owned by the historical society. As he settles in to the house, he starts hearing strange noises. He spends time digging through the house and discovers an old room filled with children’s toys. Since he identifies with the lost ghost child as a substitute for his lost daughter, he then decides to solve the mystery of the house. Creepiness ensues, noises and furniture moves, and he digs deep into the mystery with a séance and a sidekick, Claire (Trish Van Devere, Scott’s real life wife).
I love the atmosphere in this movie. The house is huge and full of opportunities for scariness. The somber Seattle weather makes for a beautiful color palette. The story of the lost child and a lost birthright isn’t groundbreaking, but it is well written and well paced. George C. Scott is just excellent, as usual. He plays the grieving father and the curious intellectual with aplomb.
If you like haunted house movies, especially ones with a good mystery at the heart of it, you should definitely check out The Changeling. It’s definitely one of the better ones out there.
Rating: 5 Purrs for that first loud noise that made me jump out of my seat and the scene at the end with the wheelchair – wow!
George C Scott is John Russell, a composer who has just lost his wife and child in a car wreck. He moves to Seattle and into an old house owned by the historical society. As he settles in to the house, he starts hearing strange noises. He spends time digging through the house and discovers an old room filled with children’s toys. Since he identifies with the lost ghost child as a substitute for his lost daughter, he then decides to solve the mystery of the house. Creepiness ensues, noises and furniture moves, and he digs deep into the mystery with a séance and a sidekick, Claire (Trish Van Devere, Scott’s real life wife).
I love the atmosphere in this movie. The house is huge and full of opportunities for scariness. The somber Seattle weather makes for a beautiful color palette. The story of the lost child and a lost birthright isn’t groundbreaking, but it is well written and well paced. George C. Scott is just excellent, as usual. He plays the grieving father and the curious intellectual with aplomb.
If you like haunted house movies, especially ones with a good mystery at the heart of it, you should definitely check out The Changeling. It’s definitely one of the better ones out there.
Rating: 5 Purrs for that first loud noise that made me jump out of my seat and the scene at the end with the wheelchair – wow!
Thursday, May 03, 2007
The Door in the Hedge by Robin McKinley
Robin McKinley is one of my most favorite authors ever. She’s had me at The Hero and the Crown, and she hasn’t let me go since. I love the way she tells a story, and I think at this point I have read everything she has written.
The Door in the Hedge is a collection of four fairy tales, two reinterpretations of old tales and two new tales. In the first tale, called The Stolen Princess, is quite lovely in tone. In the kingdom that borders Fairyland, children are sometimes stolen from their beds, never to return. The Queen’s sister was one of those children, and now, her daughter is spirited away. Only this time, things will be different. In The Princess and the Frog, McKinley reinterprets the traditional fairytale of the princess losing her golden ball in a pond, only to promise a frog a kiss for returning it. McKinley’s version has a bit more meat to it, and this time around, the Princess isn’t passively accepting her fate. In The Hunting of the Hind, McKinley borrows from many tales I have read in my favorite fairy tale collection, the Andrew Lang fairy books. There is a golden hind who drives those who hunt her mad. The Princess’s brother hunted her, and now he is dying. The Princess decides to seek the Golden Hind and break the spell. In the final tale, The Twelve Dancing Princesses, McKinley doesn’t change much of the original story, except she fleshes out the hero and makes him a soldier who finally learns why he fought for his King.
I liked this small collection of fairy tales. McKinley has written similar reinterpretations in almost all of her works, with her greatest being the creation of Aerin the Dragon Killer and the world of Damar. If you like fantasy with a light feminist twist, you should read her more robust stories, Deerskin, the Outlaws of Sherwood, and Spindle’s End. If you have read her before and liked what you read, you should check out her collections of short stories. The Door in the Hedge was finally reprinted, and The Knot in the Grain has some Damar related stories.
Rating: 4 Purrs
The Door in the Hedge is a collection of four fairy tales, two reinterpretations of old tales and two new tales. In the first tale, called The Stolen Princess, is quite lovely in tone. In the kingdom that borders Fairyland, children are sometimes stolen from their beds, never to return. The Queen’s sister was one of those children, and now, her daughter is spirited away. Only this time, things will be different. In The Princess and the Frog, McKinley reinterprets the traditional fairytale of the princess losing her golden ball in a pond, only to promise a frog a kiss for returning it. McKinley’s version has a bit more meat to it, and this time around, the Princess isn’t passively accepting her fate. In The Hunting of the Hind, McKinley borrows from many tales I have read in my favorite fairy tale collection, the Andrew Lang fairy books. There is a golden hind who drives those who hunt her mad. The Princess’s brother hunted her, and now he is dying. The Princess decides to seek the Golden Hind and break the spell. In the final tale, The Twelve Dancing Princesses, McKinley doesn’t change much of the original story, except she fleshes out the hero and makes him a soldier who finally learns why he fought for his King.
I liked this small collection of fairy tales. McKinley has written similar reinterpretations in almost all of her works, with her greatest being the creation of Aerin the Dragon Killer and the world of Damar. If you like fantasy with a light feminist twist, you should read her more robust stories, Deerskin, the Outlaws of Sherwood, and Spindle’s End. If you have read her before and liked what you read, you should check out her collections of short stories. The Door in the Hedge was finally reprinted, and The Knot in the Grain has some Damar related stories.
Rating: 4 Purrs
I'm still here, but I'm watching my TIVO.
I know, I know. I have been lazy. Blame it on Chiller, my lovely new horror channel on DirecTV. They have Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Freddy's Nightmares, Friday the 13th The Series, and The Night Gallery for cris'sakes. How am I suppossed to do anything else?
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