Welcome to Bordertown: Special Edition: New Stories and Poems of the Borderlands

Edited by: Ellen Kushner and Holly Black
Readers: Holly Black, Ellen Kushner, MacLeod Andrews, Steven Brust, Neil Gaiman, Dounya El-Mohtar, Cassandra Campbell
Extras: Introduction by Terri Windling. There is now a Special Edition version available featuring a fully-produced track of the song “Run Back Across the Border” by Steven Brust, with the author himself on lead vocals,  and Neil Gaiman reading his own poem, “The Song of the Song.”

Short Review: A tantalizing collection of stories and poems from the city at the intersection of the elf and human worlds. We get stories featuring all kinds of characters including runaways, elves, humans, halfies, a bookstore owner, an entrepreneur, an artist, an astronomer, and more.

Long Review: If you are not familiar with Bordertown, this new anthology is a great introduction to the city on the border between the elf world and human world. In the mid 1980s, the Bordertown books paved the way for the popular urban fantasy genre many of us know and love today.

There is a lot to love here. The range of stories and poems was fairly balanced. Lots of points of view, lots of great readers. I warred with myself about posting this review before I even finished listening to all 15 discs, just so you all could know about it sooner – but I decided I wanted to get a sense of the full collection before posting my review.

The readers did a fabulous job across the board. I am often nervous when I see so many different readers for a collection like this, but I think they used the different voices to their advantage. They matched them well to the stories and poems.

One of the challenges of reviewing a collection of short stories is deciding if I am going to review each and every one of them. I have decided against it because I want you to have the joy of discovering them as you go, just as I did. I can tell you that I fell in love with Bordertown. It seemed obvious to me that the contributors to this collection love it too. There are a few stories here that I expect to stick with me for a long time.

The three introductions (one each by Terri Windling, Ellen Kushner, and Holly Black) were a treat. This collection was my introduction to Bordertown and I appreciated being given the perspective of the history of the world and earlier anthologies and novels set there.

I loved the way that the stories weave together, touching each other here and there. The landscape is the same, but from different points of view. The protagonist in story A might show up or just pass through story B.

I have to admit I am more of a fan of the stories than the poems, but maybe I should just say that I think that the stories spoil me with their rich details. I did NOT hear the special edition version, so I might have appreciated Steven Brust’s song more if I had heard it performed. (Wait, I just found a source for the song online: Steven Brust song “Run Back Across the Border” on Soundcloud!)

If you are still not sure, some of the stories are posted online or available via various podcasts. Check out the Welcome to Bordertown web page and scroll down to the bottom.

And if you do fall in love with it, there is a bunch of short stories and even novels which take place in this shared world. You can read more about the history of the Bordertown Series and see a full bibliography.

 Author: David Sedaris

 Reader: David Sedaris

 Short Review: Sedaris’ funny, self-deprecating, heart-breaking stories about moving to France with his partner Hugh, learning French, his family, and his own flaws and experiences. The author reads his own work in his distinctive voice, never flinching as he excoriates himself either in front of a live audience or alone in a studio. Sedaris is an amazing, brave writer and reader. I’ve listened to this particular book three or four times, and I know I’ll keep returning to it.

Long Review: I adore Sedaris’ stories. I learned of his work listening to his pieces on NPR’s This American Life. I’ve read several of his books on paper, but because I fell for this writer reading his own work, I truly prefer his audiobooks to their paper siblings.

There are a few real standouts in the book. My favorites are “Me Talk Pretty One Day,” a description of his traumatic time in a French class taught by a heartless misanthrope; “Jesus Shaves,” a recounting of his French class’ strange discussion about how holidays are celebrated in their home countries; “A Shiner Like a Diamond,” about his sister Amy’s habit of transforming herself into strange characters and how it tortures their father; “The Youth in Asia,” about the Sedaris family’s relationship to their pets; and “I’ll Eat What He’s Wearing,” about his father’s strange views on food and frugality.

Some listeners may be put off by some of Sedaris’ topics. He openly discusses some medical and dental issues that may gross out the delicate. He’s gay and out, and there are some people who still take offense at that for whatever reason, though I doubt they’d settle on Sedaris’ work for entertainment in the first place. And he openly discusses some very self-destructive drug use when he was a student. None of those things throw me, though. It’s his honesty that makes me love Sedaris’ work so much, and I have a deep-seated appreciation for people who describe their faults without hesitation.

 Short Review: A solid book of short stories read beautifully by the author.
 Long Review: I am a fan of Gaiman’s, so I was bound to pick this up eventually. Jeanne’s glowing review spurred me to pick it up at the library, and I was not disappointed in the least.

As is often the case, Gaiman’s publisher released this anthology of short stories not long after his novel Anansi Boys became such a huge hit. Sometimes those volumes of short stories, collected from periodicals hither and yon, are a waste of paper. Well, not this one. This is a solid collection of stories, as evidenced by the number of awards won by individual short stories in the anthology.

The Huge-Award winning “A Study in Emerald” is one of the standouts in the collection. I’m a Lovecraft fan and a Conan Doyle fan, so I was a bit wary of that story in particular. I didn’t see how the two could be blended. Well, of course, Gaiman did, and he melded the two giant’s universes gorgeously.

“October in the Chair” is another gem. It’s a story within a story, and the frame story in and of itself is one of the most enchanting things I’ve ever come across. I will never think of the months in the same way again. Gaiman built a new mythos and dropped it right into my head with a satisfying clink.

“Forbidden Brides of the Faceless Slaves in the Secret House of the Night of Dread Desire” is pithy and funny and good, and a great way to flip classic horror onto its head.

A few of the stories fell flat for me, but the best stories in the anthology were so intriguing that I know I’ll listen to at least those again and again. And the listening is truly enriched by Gaiman’s narration. Many authors have no business reading their work aloud–that’s not true of Gaiman. His voice is expressive, his timing is great, and his diction is beautiful. I’d actually like him to take work as an audiobook reader for other writers, but I don’t think that’s terribly likely. Instead, I’ll just cross my fingers and hope he narrates some more of his own work for future audiobooks.

Fragile Things

Brokeback Mountain

Author: Annie Proulx

Reader: Campbell Scott

Short Review: A ground-breaking story about the nature of love and sexuality, beautifully-read by one of my favorite audio book narrators.

Long Review: I’m guessing the plot of this story is no surprise to most. The film was a major success, of course, and the center of a great deal of controversy. But I hate that the jokes and the brouhaha tends to over-shadow the story itself.

Because the story is beautiful, and heartbreaking, and feels so very true. Annie Proulx describes landscapes and the particular culture of a time and a place like no one else. She also captures the emotions of reticent characters well, which is particularly important for these men in this period and place.

Annie Proulx’s short story garnered an O. Henry Award, helped Proulx make the Pulitzer short-list, and helped The New Yorker win the National Magazine Award for Fiction. Recording it as an audio book must have been an intimidating task. Thankfully, Campbell Scott was brought on board. The narrator of this audio book needs to be able to voice two conflicted, macho guys trying to fight stereotypes and realities of homosexuality in a sere landscape. Scott’s baritone is just right for the job, particularly when matched with his restraint, and his tendency to flatten his voice in moments of tension. His is the voice I will hear whenever I reread the story on paper.

This is one of the best audio books I’ve listened to, and I know I’ll listen to it again.

Brokeback Mountain is also available through both the Simply Audiobooks Rental Program and the Simply Audiobooks Dowload Club.

Short Review: An assortment of magical trips into assorted Gaiman worlds in the form of short stories and poem, all narrated by the gentle cadences of the authors voice.

Long Review: There are some authors who are not meant to read their own work. Neil Gaiman is definitively NOT one of those authors. I don’t recall which audio book of his included his description of the first time he did a reading of his own work – but it described how it was this amazing revelation for him. It just had never occurred that he might both be good at reading aloud and enjoy it.

Fragile Things is a delightful collection of short stories and poems. It also includes a lengthy introduction that explains the background to each story. I am one of those people who loves knowing the history of every story (or song or poem) that enters my life. I like to learn about the creative process. If you are like me in this, then you will love the introduction. If you want to skip straight to the stories – you can always just skip the intro.

As I find is often the case with short story collections, some of the stories spoke to me more than others. I think my favorite is ‘How to Talk to Girls At Parties’ which was nominated for the 2007 Hugo Award. Lucky for you the audio of this single story is posted on Mr. Gaiman’s website. If you have half hour to spare I recommend you listen to it right now!

Overall I really enjoyed this collection. My only slight frustration was hearing the introductions to ALL the stories at the start with no easy way to ‘flip back’ to scan them before I listened to each new story or poem as I might with the paper copy. But this is a very minor issue in comparison with the grand assortment of fanciful, otherworldly and (in some cases) disconcerting stories and poems provided for your listening pleasure.

Fragile Things