ellen_datlow

Here are three new reviews From The Tomb of Dark Delights


The Nebula Awards Showcase 2009

Troll's Eye View

Twists of the Tale

The money shot is: "I’d be very surprised if this isn’t one of the very best young adult fantasy books published this year."

Here's the whole review by Don D'Ammassa at Fantasy Review

Not if You Were the Last Short Story on Earth

"An Unwelcome Guest," Garth Nix, Troll's Eye View - a snarky black comedy version of Rapunzel, from the point of view of a long-suffering witch and her cynical cat.

"A Delicate Architecture," Catherynne M. Valente, Troll's Eye View - a beautiful, cruel origin story for one of the most iconic villains of fairy tale tradition - I won't say who, because it would spoil the story experience! But this is one of those lovely precise-prose stories in which every sentence is a pleasure to read.

"The Cinderella Game," Kelly Link, Troll's Eye View - a creeping horror piece that explores some of the more disturbing elements of the Cinderella-stepsister dynamic through a modern boy-Cinderella and the very disturbing little girl he is now related to by marriage. The story is borderline speculative, and yet belongs irrevocably to the genre.

Poe and Troll's Eye View and Inferno

I've just finished my contribution to the next mind meld. (not telling the subject--sticking out tongue).

Crawling slowly towards the homestretch of my Best Horror of the Year #1 (I've contracted for 10 stories so far); and finally finished the bio/intros for Darkness: Two Decades of Modern Horror. Now I have to tear my hair out as I attempt to write a coherent preface/intro to the whole book.

Watched Pieces of April from 2003, with Katie Holmes as the problem child attempting Thanksgiving dinner for her family, made up of Oliver Platt and Patricia Clarkson, the latter amazing as the mother dying of cancer (nominated for the Oscar in Supporting category. Was robbed by Renée Zellweger for Cold Mountain. In fact, everyone I saw was better than Zellweger that year --I didn't see Holly Hunter in Thirteen ). Alison Pill plays the younger sister and looks very young.

And four episodes of Carnivale's plus the first episode of Pushing Daisies--I'd seen a couple of shows later in the second season and was given the whole first season for my birthday.

This afternoon I went to a street fair on 23rd street (sucky as usual) and The Garage--where I picked up a couple of interesting tintypes and some pretty antique buttons.

Finally, Bookslut in Training, Colleen Mondor just reviewed Poe on Bookslut

You'll have to scroll down to see it--it's just a kind of "welcome" to my new regular column "The Last Ten Books I've Read" which will actually only include books I've read and liked!
Cemetery Dance

Well, not really. I was visiting my sister in Connecticut for the weekend.

And while I was away, I heard news that the Guardian did a brief but positive review of Poe


Also, an interview/profile of me by John Joseph Adams about Poe that has been posted on: SCI FI Wire

Gary Wolfe liked the book a lot and says so in a lengthy and detailed review in the January issue of Locus:
A few nice quotes:
"There are no cheap knock-offs or ersatz sequels among these nineteen fine stories—no “Roderick Usher Meets Cthulhu” or M. Dupin pursuing Hannibal Lecter—but it’s easy to see how in the hands of a lesser editor or lesser contributors this could have been a bad idea. And it would also be a bad idea to approach each of these stories simply with an eye to guessing which of Poe’s works inspired it (though each author provides a brief explanatory afterword); for one thing, the stories stand perfectly well on their own, and for another, a fair number are based on poems or fragments that you’re not likely to recognize anyway."

****much more in between (you'll have to buy Locus to see it)

"Lucius Shepard’s weirdly titled but elegantly written novella “Kirikh’quru Korkundor” is set in an abandoned Andean village where researchers find themselves inexplicably possessed by sexual mania. It sounds exploitative, but Shepherd’s characteristically brilliant writing and acute portrayals of the mutually manipulative characters at its center make it one of the strongest pieces in the book. And, like some of the other best stories here, like the Rickert or the Cadigan or the Royle or the Charnas—it reminds you of the seductive power of Poe’s sometimes maddeningly perverse aesthetic while letting you forget that Poe is lurking there at all."

and from from Blog Critics Magazine 1/4/09 Richard Marcus ends with:
"The nineteen stories commissioned by Ellen Datlow for the collection Poe are works of mystery and imagination that not only do justice to the author they celebrate, but are fine stories in their own right. Datlow has once again shown an uncanny talent for approaching just the right writers for the task at hand, as not one disappoints."

Interesting analysis in Mondor's ongoing review of The Del Rey Book of SF & Fantasy
"The Goosle"

This evening I and a bunch of friends attended Robert Lloyd Parry's marvelous performance of two M.R. James's stories: Oh, Whistle... if you're living in or New York City and are in town over the next few weeks I urge you to see it. The setting is intimate--a 30 person theater on the upper west side. You feel as if you're in James's living room on a wintry night. Highly recommended.

And...
Tim Lieder gave The Del Rey Book of SF& Fantasy a very nice review at The Pedestal