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.

The Ocean at the End of the Lane

Available from Audible.com

Author: Neil Gaiman

Reader: Neil Gaiman

Short Review: An excellent new dark fantasy for adults, read by the author.

Long Review: It’s probably obvious to any regular BooksForEars reader that Jeanne and I are fans of Gaiman’s work. I waited on pins and needles for this book’s release. When I learned that Gaiman would read the audio version I was particularly excited. I adore the professional readers who narrated American Gods and Anansi Boys, but there’s a special depth that a talented author can add when they read their own work. I have a bias in this direction–I’m a poet and storyteller, and if I had my druthers, I’d deliver all of my pieces directly from my mouth to my audience’s ears.

This is Gaiman’s first novel aimed at adults for several years. The story opens as the speaker returns to his childhood home for a funeral and recounts a series of events that occurred in his childhood. As ever, Gaiman is focused on mythology, and the speaker which he explores through the speaker’s interactions with his neighbors, the Hempstocks. While most of Gaiman’s stories tend towards the dark, this novel is awash in threats to the speaker and his family, and the tone is less optimistic than it tends to be in his books for children.

Gaiman is an excellent reader, as ever. His pacing and diction are lovely, and he has a unique understanding of the tone of the novel. Because the speaker in the novel is never named, Gaiman’s narration makes it feel as if the story is auto-biographical. That adds a certain frisson for a fan like me. I look forward to reading it again, on paper and as an audiobook.

Short Review: A fantastic picaresque novel about a man traveling throughout the US, working for and with American Gods. It’s expertly read by one of the most respected narrators in the business.

Long Review: Jeanne and I regularly joke about the need for more negative reviews on this site. This review won’t help to moderate our reviews one jot.

I love this novel so much on paper that I was slow to choose it to listen to. I loved Anansi Boys as much as Jeanne did, but knew that I wouldn’t have Lenny Henry as a reader this time around. I know many people who are fans of Guidall’s narration, but I wasn’t wild about his reading of Heaney’s translation of Beowulf, so I was a bit hesitant to hear his version of one of my favorite books. But then I was staring down a long, intricate project that I knew would require a good long audiobook to keep me going, and in stepped Guidall.

He did a fantastic job with this novel. His reading is well paced, his variations in accent and tone for different characters is consistent and strong, and he obviously enjoyed the book. His smokey natural voice is particularly suited to many of the characters in the novel, but particularly Wednesday and Shadow. My only complaint is that Guidall mispronounces the names of a number of Gods who show up in the novel. I know not everyone will catch the errors, but they set my teeth on edge.

The novel itself is one that I think everyone should read. It appeals particularly to mythology buffs like me, but I think other people enjoy it for a hundred different reasons. It’s a good Road novel, and it’s a mystery. It touches on prison, and family, and marriage and love, heroism and bravery, grifters, sensuality, small towns and cities, trust and betrayal, sacrifice and belief. Finally, it’s a winter novel that passes over the holidays but isn’t about them–that’s exactly the antidote I need at this time of year. I’m tempted to hit the back button and listen to the whole thing again right now.

American Gods

Author: Neil Gaiman
Reader: Neil Gaiman
Available from Audible.com

Short Review: One of my favorite urban fantasies, read expertly by the author.

Long Review: I think it’s very brave for authors to narrate their own audiobooks. Many authors try it and fail. Gaiman, however, is consistently good as a reader. His pacing is wonderful, his diction is good, he obviously understands the emotions and pacing of the story, but is better able than most non-actors to get that meaning across to the listener. This audiobook reminded me of just how much I’d enjoyed Gaiman’s narration of both Fragile Things and The Graveyard Book. I’d like to think his daughter grew up with the best bedtime stories in the world. This book seems to argue that she did.

The story follows Richard Mayhew, a young Scottish businessman living in London and preparing to marry his controlling, posh girlfriend Jessica. Richard decides to assist an injured young woman he finds on the street, and who appears to be homeless. And then everything goes haywire. Door, the young woman, turns out to be from “London Below,” a world heretofore unknown to Richard. Villains come looking for Door, who narrowly escapes with Richard’s assistance, and he assumes all will return to normal once Door is safely away. However, Richard becomes inexplicably invisible to the London where he lives, and inadvertently departs for a quest, attempting to help Door and himself, working with and against a number of interesting characters in London Below. One task and one danger follows another, and we watch Richard grow from a clueless office drone into a real hero, in the classical sense of the world.

Part of the reason I appreciate Gaiman’s books so much is that I’m such a fan of mythology in general and Joseph Campbell in particular. Gaiman clearly understands, and likes to play with, the hero cycle Campbell elucidates in The Hero with a Thousand Faces. Richard, as a modern man, was unprepared for the tests and adventures awaiting him, so his transformation into a hero baffles him. He’s likable though, and layered, as are most of Gaiman’s characters. His villains in this book are excellent as well–terrifying and powerful, and seemingly undefeatable. He questions modern priorities and relationships, the careers available to most people and how they differ from the things we dream for ourselves. I always come away from Gaiman’s books reassessing how I spend my days, and whether I’m allowing the mundane to usurp the time and space I like to save for wonder.

Audio sample available online.

Short review: One of my favorite humorous novels, expertly read by Martin Jarvis. I’m sure I’ll listen to this book over and over again.

Long review: I have a deep and abiding love for this novel. I’ve read it on paper a number of times, and was happy to find an audio version of it. I’m an unabashed fan of both authors, and find works like this one feel particularly suited to audiobook format, since it is such a storyteller’s story. It’s funny and silly, but also examines important questions about belief and ethics. It’s peopled by interesting, charismatic characters who are wonderful to listen to. And, as is vital to a work like this, the authors know the source material they’re playing with.

In short, the angel Aziraphale and the demon Crowley become unlikely friends way back in the way back, and both end up being posted on Earth in the UK in our modern world, expected to do their work to support their sides in the great ongoing war between heaven and hell. The two fall in love with their lives on Earth, and decide that perhaps the apocalypse wouldn’t be all that great for them and maybe should be prevented. They set out to track down the Anti-Christ, an 11 year old boy unaware of his true parentage, and try to prevent his rise. As the story progresses, we learn of Agnes Nutter, Witch and her descendant Anathema Device, witch-hunters, the Four Horsemen, some interesting kids, and a number of other kooks wandering around this Gaiman/Pratchett universe of the book. I won’t say more, because I can’t say any of it as well as they did.

Author: Neil Gaiman

Reader: Neil Gaiman

Short Review: A stunning story beautifully read by the author. Coraline’s boredom leads her to a place just beyond our reality. What at first seems just odd and fun becomes creepy and worth escape, but only by delicate inches. Gaiman’s voice lulls and tantalizes. He is just so good at painting images with the combination of words and his own voice.

Long Review: This audio book painted such a vivid picture for me that I haven’t been able to force myself to see the movie. Yes. You read that right – I am an incredible Coraline fan who has not yet seen the (by all reports) stunning 3D masterpiece of a movie.

This otherworldly story transported me first to the land of childhood boredom filled, as it so often was, with distracted grownups with poor suggestions for self entertainment. After I was almost as restless as Coraline, I was pulled into a parallel world full of oddity and people and creatures who were not quite as one might expect. Initially Coraline is pleased by all the new diversions and entertainments, but it soon becomes quite clear that this is not a place she wants to remain and that returning to her boring home and inattentive parents is easier said than done. To add to the challenge, there are others to rescue and plenty of roadblocks in her path.

Between the beautifully crafted story and Gaiman’s talented reading, Coraline falls solidly into the “I don’t want to stop listening” category of audio books.

What age is this book appropriate for? There are a lot of very creepy bits to this story. Some listings I have seen claim that it is for ages 8 and up… others pitch it a few years older. I expect it really depends on the child in question. Does he or she like creepy? Or are they prone to nightmares?

If you would like to get a feel for this recording, the opening minutes of Coraline are available for your listening pleasure. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did. If you have seen the movie and loved it I suspect that this audio book could give you a way to extend your Coraline joy.

And no, I still don’t want to see the movie. I think I will just stay home and listen to Mr. Gaiman’s voice reading Coraline to me again instead.

Coraline

 Author: Neil Gaiman

 Reader: Neil Gaiman

 Short Review: Neil Gaiman reads his Newbery Medal winning book beautifully. His nod to Kipling’s The Jungle Book is just scary enough, intriguing, inventive, well-written, enchanting . . . it’s downright wonderful. I loved Bod, Silas, Scarlett, Liza, Miss Lupescu, and the rest of the graveyard’s denizens and rooted for them throughout the story. I miss them. I’ll return to this book again and recommend it to adults and kids.

Long Review: I’m a fan of Gaiman’s, and I am always intrigued by critically-acclaimed young adult fantasy, so I had to listen to this book. I was hopeful, but also worried. Some of the best books I’ve ever read were those I read when I was 10 or 12. I return to those books and keep tabs on books written for older kids, hoping to find more books to cherish and to foist on my growing nieces and nephews. But many things we’re supposed to love just fall flat for me. I’m not that impressed by some of the most beloved YA books, and some of the ones I did love then show me all of their holes when I pick them up now. This one, however, makes the good list. It’s rich enough for adults, appropriate for older kids, and enchanting for both.

Firstly, Gaiman is good at holding back. So many authors hand you all of the keys right at the beginning of the journey, and then you don’t have much to puzzle through and have less reason to keep going. Gaiman fights the urge to make sure he has told us everything there is to tell, so we keep reading, trying to line up our questions with possible answers, paying close attention to every little clue, wondering whether a character will return or a path will reappear. He refers to fascinating historical events and invents wondrous rituals and characters and communities, but he doesn’t give you so much information that any become boring. Neither does he condescend to his readers. I hate it when writers assume that kids can’t handle any frightening truths about life and death. In fact, kids see as much if not more terror and sadness as adults, and most of them don’t like being coddled. Gaiman doesn’t condescend to his readers or to the children who feature in his books.

Gaiman also happens to write strong female characters well. I wish I didn’t need to congratulate authors for doing that, but it still isn’t a given. Gaiman is a father to two daughters as well as the son whose childhood visits to a graveyard inspired this book. I think his relationship with his girls and the women in his life help him write girls and women well. That ability is particularly important for children’s and YA writers because so many boys are still hesitant to read books with female protagonists. Here, a boy is at the center of the story, but he’s surrounded by smart, heroic, strong, loving women and he cares for and respects them as much as he does Silas. It warms the cockles of my heart, that does.

Gaiman’s mythos is rooted firmly in the old greats. We see glimpses of well-researched historical fact, notice a figure from Grimm here and and an allusion to the Odyssey there. But from those roots, he takes us in very interesting directions. I love how he recasts traditional villains in new ways, making us wonder how evil some of the things we’ve had nightmares about really are. He takes the trope of fractured fairy tales a step further than many of his contemporaries. Gaiman doesn’t bother to argue with Grimm about who really understands monsters—he just plain rewrites the story in his way. It works.

I am impressed by Gaiman’s reading. I thought he did a great job with Fragile Things, and, if anything, he has gotten better. Gaiman has a nice voice, a good sense of character separation, paces himself well, and uses clear diction even when he is reading in different, heavier accents.

My only complaint is that a sequel isn’t available yet. I want to see more from this world, and I hope to see it soon.

The Graveyard Book

 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

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

Anansi Boys

Short Review: Funny, dark, whimsical, captivating and carried to your ear via the melodic and varied voices of the incredible Lenny Henry. One of those audio books that will make you find excuses to listen to just one more chapter.

Long Review: This is one of those magic tales that I think I might have struggled with reading on paper. The fact that I found it first on audio is a tale of luck in itself. Lenny Henry was the magic ingredient I needed to pull me into the heart of this tale. He delivers the story with its requisite wide range of accents – all of which ring true and made the story live more for me than it would have on the page.

Neil Gaiman has created a fabulous assortment of people (and those who are more than people). He has spun the tale of an average Joe who thinks he isn’t anyone special. We get to go along for the ride as he discovers his true and amazing self. It is a tale of finding your way and discovering the magic that is hidden from most of the people in the world.

Anansi Boys