by Alison Lurie (1993)
Most people think of fairy tales as having been created anonymously and almost magically long ago, and later discovered and recorded by scholars such as the Brothers Grimm. In fact original fairy tales are still being written. Over the last century and a half many well-known authors have used the characters and settings and themes of traditional tales such as 'Cinderella', 'Hansel and Gretel', and 'Beauty and the Beast' to produce new and characteristic works of wonder and enchantment. The Oxford Book of Modern Fairy Tales brings together forty of the best of these stories by British and American writers from John Ruskin and Nathaniel Hawthorne to I.B. Singer and Angela Carter. These tales are full of princes and princesses, witches and dragons and talking animals, magic objects, evil spells, and unexpected endings. Some of their authors, like John Ruskin and Oscar Wilde, use the form to point a social or spiritual moral; others such as Jeanne Desy and Richard Kennedy, turn the traditional stories inside out to extraordinary effect. James Thurber, Bernard Malamud, and Donald Barthelme, among many others, bring the characters and plots of the traditional fairy tale into the contemporary world to make satiric comments on modern life. The literary skill, wit, and sophistication of these stories appeal to an adult audience, even though some of them were originally written for children. They include light-hearted comic fairy stories like Charles Dickens's 'The Magic Fishbone' and L.F. Baum's 'The Queen of Quok', thoughtful and often moving tales like Lord Dunsany's 'The Kith of the Elf Folk' and Philip K. Dick's 'The King of the Elves', and profoundly disturbing ones like Lucy Lane Clifford's 'The New Mother', and Ursula Le Guin's 'The Wife's Story'. Together they prove that the fairy tale is not only one of the most popular and enduring forms, but a significant and continually developing part of literature.
art by Makoto Haruno
Ken and his rival Kaoruko discover a crystal that seems to prover her father isn't crazy, but Leo has other plans for the crystal and desperately wants to get his hands on it. The duel for the crystal eventually releases the Golden Soul Figure, but it may not be enough to stop the forces of Darkness.
Michael Krieger
In this captivating work of nonfiction, Mike Krieger succeeds brilliantly in his "attempt to capture the essence of this dying age, of this disappearing way of life and of the South Pacific's cultures, subcultures, and extraordinary people who all reflect an epoch on the verge of extinction." He takes readers on a wonderful fantasy-expedition from old tramp freighters to dugout canoes, over erupting volcanoes and through remote tropical rainforests to reach his isolated subjects. His openness as a traveller and journalistic skills combine to create a detailed collage of true stories, memorable for their vivid historical and natural contexts. Warmly accommodating a wide variety of island customs and mores, Krieger grounds every fact in vital human experience. He explores two Melanesian and two Polynesian countries where islanders still live according to old traditions. Krieger is the only living person to interview members of different cannibal tribes and to discuss with them the subject of cannibalism. He tells of a tribe whose name in translation means "I Will Kill You," and of a powerful ex-minister whose tyrannical control of a remote island evokes images from Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness. In beautifully clear prose, Krieger describes missionaries, cannibals, sorcerers, politicians, and princes - all with wonder and enthusiasm. With painterly discipline and design he chooses moments from his boat rides, jungle treks, and adventures with the people of the South Sea Islands, presenting a picture as intriguing in its particulars as in its overall effect.
Marion Zimmer Bradley
From the author of the acclaimed "The Mists of Avalon" comes the first in a series of omnibus volumes of her bestselling Darkover series. Included in this volume are the two most powerful and important novels in this groundbreaking saga.
Shweta Taneja
From back cover: Lord Vishnu comes to Earth in his eighth avatar - Krishna, the defender of dharma. Since his birth, Krishna has to fight evil in the form of monsters, demons, and ogres. But as he grows up, he observes that the real struggle of good against evil pits him not against shape-shifting monsters, but kings, princes, and brave warriors. Will Krishna be able to triumph over the darkness of greed and arrogance that has taken over the land? Wil he be able to restore peace and dharma?