Shetterly, Will Books

Elsewhere

Will Shetterly

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 14 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Height of my Teenage Years 5 out of 5 stars.
5 of 5 people found this review helpful.

I still remember seeing this book on the shelf of my high school library. I picked it out, read the back, checked it out of the library, and took it home. The very moment I opened this book I knew it would be great, and it was. After I took it back to the library I didn't see it till today. I feel like I have found and old friend. Definatly a good read for ANYONE who enjoys a good fantasy about elves, humans, magic, street life and how they all collide.

Well it's no shakespeare but... 4 out of 5 stars.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful.

...I thoroughly enjoyed the book. Maybe it's my enjoyment of teen angst that did it. Shatterly made a pretty cool kid here, tough big mouth, little body...I did occasionaly get the feeling that the whole angry teenager(grr) thing was a bit over the top but there wasn't much that stuck out sorely (besides -some- character interactions)

The end was little problematic. Be warned, the ending seems to have been written with the sequel Never Never in mind. I ended to book with the feeling that there was never a plot, just this place called the Bordertown and this kid called Ron who's learning about it as I am.

That was good enough for me though. The world and the people were fantastic enough that I ignored the disregard for linear tale. Overall, it's just a fun read.

Editorial Review:

When Ron runs away, he ends up in Bordertown, a grim city that lies between the real world and the world of faerie, a place where elf and human gangs stalk the streets side by side, and where magic works better than technology. If the city doesn't kill him, it just may teach him what it is to be human.

Dogland

Will Shetterly

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 8 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

A rich, complex, thought-provoking look at race relations. 5 out of 5 stars.
15 of 15 people found this review helpful.

An avid reader, I can nonetheless say this is the most rewarding book I've read in quite some time. From the book jacket description, I expected a simple tale about a family establishing a tourist attraction. What I got, however, was an enormously rich and complex look at race relations in the American South at the beginning of the 1960s. The narrator, an adult retelling events perceived as a child, presents the story in a magical way that is innocent and yet wise. The rest of the ensemble are as skillfully drawn; no character is entirely black or white (in terms of character or race), rendering them believable and thought-provoking. It's not every day one finds an author with the ability to develop such characters.

Issues are introduced by events that are conveyed in just enough detail to make you put the book down for a while and consider them. Add to that a hint of fantasy and supernatural, and you're left with a book that leads your mind beyond the boundaries of its covers. As I read the last page, my first instinct was to turn the book over and begin reading it again.

Editorial Review:

The Nix family has arrived.

And Latchahie County will never be the same.

In an effort at improving his family's lot, the Nixes have moved to rural Florida to open Dogland: a combination zoo, restaurant and motel. But it isn't long before Nix and his clan of eccentric supporters run afoul of unsympathetic locals.

The problem? Luke Nix has hired Ethorne Hawkins.

Hawkins is black. And it's 1959.

Nevernever

Will Shetterly

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 11 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

Very good 4 out of 5 stars.
3 of 4 people found this review helpful.

Extremely good book in my opinion. Well written and interesting, I actually read the whole book in one sitting. A must read for anyone who wishes they could just run away from this rotting world into another one thats just cooler. Very good in all.

I loved the book Elsewhere but this one just ends so [badly] 1 out of 5 stars.
2 of 6 people found this review helpful.

This book [smells]! I was so excited to get the follow up to Elsewhere, which I loved, I was so disapointed when I read this one. It's writen in a totally different style, the story is terrible. I mean I had to make sure the book was writen by the same writer. Don't read it, just read Elsewhere and make up in your own mind what happens to the charecters (because trust me your ideas will be better then this book!).

never never 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

Found to be a never ending story in which my heart has sunk and swollowed wishing and hoping that it will soon come forth along my ever lasting love to this book and others taking the time to make it last. As i read it wolfboy makes me fall in love with him over and over again makeing me jump around the turns and cry at the deaths and spells in this book.It was only one thing that made my heart jump and yet you must read this book on your own after reading elsewhere.

Editorial Review:

Growing up is hard to do . . . especially if, like Ron, you've been cursed (blessed?) and changed into a half wolf/half human. But though he may look strange, there is nothing weird about his loyalty to his newfound friends, or in his attempts to stay true to himself in the deadly, shifting world of Bordertown.

The Gospel of the Knife

Will Shetterly

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 3 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Christopher Nix is 14 years old, and it’s 1969. His life is a turbulent echo of the times as he discovers sex, drugs and rock ‘n roll in the heart of Florida.  But into this struggle between the young long-haired hippie and the rednecks who’d just as soon kill him comes a strange offer that will completely change his life. The Nix family is contacted by a mysterious benefactor who wants to send Chris to an exclusive private school, no expense spared. Mr. Jay Dumont claims that Chris’s grandfather saved his life during WWI, and though Grandpa Uvdall is dead, the debt remains to be paid.  But as Chris will discover, there is a great deal more to it than that. He will have to accept and understand the Powers that have surrounded his family all his life, and learn to use his own magical gifts, if he is to survive Dumont’s plan. As he did with Dogland, Will Shetterly has used a deceptively simple tale to explore some very deep issues. The Gospel of the Knife explores questions of faith and responsibility, and the always complex relationship between man and God and the world. 

Bordertown: A Chronicle of the Borderlands

Mark Alan Arnold

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 1 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

GREAT READ!!!!!!!!!!!! 5 out of 5 stars.
4 of 4 people found this review helpful.

The first book in the bordertown series I read was a travliers guide. I was hooked after that. This book is a great urban fantasy. I makes me want to run away and just be young and care free.The introduction by Farrel Din is perfect, He is a character I alaways want to know more about. Little glimpes of his charater in other books is like torture. Danceland is like a slice of pie with the charaters Tick-Tick and Orient, for the whole pie read Finder. Demon is about an elf brat who turnes the lead charater,Laura, into a demon. He underestimates her will and strength through the entire story. Exil is kinda about Dez who is so nieve but is strong enough to take care for herself and follow where her heart leads her. Mockery is one of the best stories in the borderlands. Its about a young painter and even younger love. If you ever had a crush in school you will love this story.

Festival Week (Liavek Book 5)

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 2 Average rating: 3.0 of 5

Liavek - The Players of Luck 3 out of 5 stars.
5 of 7 people found this review helpful.

This is the second of five books based in the city of Liavek -- home of wizards and magic. The only problem with getting involved with this series is the books are difficult to find. I hunt for them on auctions and in libraries. They are great short stories.

second in the series 3 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

This is the 2nd book in the series begun with Liavek. I'm not really sure why I like this anthology series less well than the similar Thieves' World series. Though as I look back, I didn't like all of that series, either.

I'm wondering if perhaps the way I've been reading these recent two Liavek books has something to do with my lukewarm feelings about them. It's how I always (for the past couple of years, anyway) read anthologies and omnibuses (correct, btw--I looked it up here). I read them one story or novella or novel at a time, with another book in between. It keeps the stories from blurring into each other and allows me to experience each one individually. It works very well in most cases, but I'm beginning to suspect it might not be best for this type of fantasy anthology.

My biggest problem with most of the stories in this anthology--even the ones I liked--was the language/wording/tone/names--that flavor of writing that a lot of fantasy books have. It got to the point with a couple of the stories that I started wondering if they were written in a deliberately obscure fashion, trying to trip up unworthy readers the way a certain kind of teacher will write tests, not to see if students understand the material, but to try to trick them. Perhaps if I read the stories all in a row instead of with breaks in between, the transition to the fantasy-style wouldn't be so difficult, and I'd enjoy them more. The next one I read, I'll try it that way.

* "A Happy Birthday" by Will Shetterly. A small child foils an attempt to kill The Magician. This one has recurring characters, and was clever, but the multitude of names at the beginning was confusing.

* "Before the Paint Is Dry" by Kara Dalkey. This was one of my favorites. For one thing, it was different. A mural is commissioned for the Council Chamber, that, when completed, will contain a magic spell making the council members' minds susceptible to despair. It's up to recurring character and art critic to fix it.

* "The Rat's Alley Shuffle" by Charles DeLint is a good example of a story that was confusing. Too many names, and ambiguous genders (not a problem, except when the names were replaced with pronouns, then I couldn't figure out who was doing what). There was also an unexplained departure from the established worldbuilding. Wizards in Liavek have to reinvest their luck every year on their birthdays, during the hours of their birth. But the plot of this story had someone inviting a group of wizards to a card game on their birthdays so he could bind their luck in the deck of cards. It was a clever story, but it didn't make sense within the established rules.

* "Two Houses in Saltigos" by Pamela Dean. Another story that starts by confusing me with way too many names. It's a sequel of sorts to her story in the previous anthology, with the suicide order. It takes place in a theater, and the multitude of gender-ambiguous names (I'm wondering if this is a requirement) was even more confusing, because the actors seemed to take roles regardless of gender. I'm not harping on this, really, it's vastly more a matter of clarity rather than gender-identity. In any case, it seems deliberate in this story, which is about a love-tangle between several people for whom gender is irrelevant. It's one of the longer stories in the book, and it did become much clearer about halfway through, but if I weren't so stubborn, I'd have stopped reading after the first few pages.

* "Rikiki and the Wizard" by Patricia C. Wrede. Once again, she writes about the god Rikiki, but this time it's an extremely short story--a fairy tale, about a wizard who offered his daughter's hand in marriage to whichever god would make him so rich and famous that he would never be forgotten. It's written in fairy-tale style, as is the conclusion. Very cute story.

* "Dry Well" by Nathan A. Bucklin. The convergence of a musician-by-default; His Scarlet Eminence, the regent; a shipwreck; magic; history; and the strange workings of fate. It's a convoluted story, but complete and satisfying. Another of my favorites.

* "Choice of the Black Goddess" by Gene Wolfe. This has another shipwreck. A floundering ship lands on an island where a theater troupe has shipwrecked. Several people have gone missing, and they end up playing a deadly game of shah (which sounds like chess, but with fewer pieces). Even when it was finished, I wasn't quite sure what had happened.

* "The Ballad of the Quick Levars" by Jane Yolen. This is a poem, followed by a few paragraphs of explanation. Seems more like an entry in an encyclopedia on Liavek than a story.

* "Pot Luck" by Megan Lindholm. Pot boil is a common delicacy in Liavek--it involves a stew that's kept continuously over the fire, and every day additional ingredients are added. (sounds much like the way I ate when I was a poor student) One inn is particularly famous for its pot boil, until one day, the owner comes in and it reeks. The solution to this mystery was fairly obvious, but it was a fun, and relatively un-confusing story.

* "Show of Faith" by Gregory Frost. A thief, while trying to steal grain with which to make alcohol, ends up with a magic artifact that allows one to speak with the dead. I didn't quite buy the ending.

* "An Act of Trust" by Steven Brust. This was just confusing. It takes place before/after/during the previous story, explaining some details, contradicting others.

* "Ishu's Gift" by Charles R. Saunders is subtitled "an Ombayan Folktale," and that describes it quite well. It's like Ombaya's version of the story of the Garden of Eden.

* "A Cup of Worrynot Tea" by John M. Ford. Another confusing story. Worrynot tea is the Liavekans' birth control. The story starts out sounding like a matchmaking attempt, then about halfway through, it changes, and there are forged messages, a battle, some possible jealousy, and the question of whether or not to reinvest ones luck, and then it just ends.

* "The Well-Made Plan" by Emma Bull. The title is ironic, because the plan in question goes completely awry, and noble wizard Koseth wakes up to find himself in the body of young wizard Silvertop, and his body, presumably housing Silvertop, has been kidnapped. It's a fun story, one of the better ones of the anthology.

Spells of Binding (Liavek bk4)

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Wizard's Row (Liavek bk3)

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Life On The Border (Borderlands)

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 3 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

A highly enjoyable fantasy trip. 5 out of 5 stars.
3 of 4 people found this review helpful.

Described as "where Elfland meets rock and roll", this is part of a collection of stories based on the idea of what if the world of magic, fantasy and elves returned to our world. The border is a place where the Elflands and the world meet; where neither magic nor technology reigns supreme. These 9 short stories introduce new characters and expand on some of the old favorites from the bordertown series. They are all very light reads, the kind of book you tote around for reading while you wait. You must have this book if you are a fan of Terri Windling's creation, the Borderlands.

It Ain't Your Father's Fantasy Rags 5 out of 5 stars.
3 of 4 people found this review helpful.

I have just finished this book for the third time and I still find it to be as fascinating and engaging as I did when I first read it in Junior High School, and again in High School. I am now 26 and though it may be a bit simple to read at this age, it still makes me feel the same as before. Fantasy readers are romantics at heart and so is this book. Underneath its somewhat common subject matter like magical elves and hollywood runaways are universal themes of angst, lonliness, rebelion, and needless to say, love. Does this sound familiar to those of us who were once teenagers? "Alison Gross" still gets me everytime. Honestly, my tag for the longest time has been "Skydeki", which is a half-bite off of one of the Rainbow Godesses in the short story of Alison Gross. Whenever people ask what it means I start on a diatribe about my love for this book, and all of its other great shorts. Please read this book if you're a teenager who enjoys fantasy writings. Even if you're 50, so long as you can remember a time when shirking your responsibilities and running away seemed like a great idea.

Double Feature

Emma Bull, Will Shetterly

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 3 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Liavek re-visited 4 out of 5 stars.
31 of 33 people found this review helpful.

If you liked the Liavek series, you'll like this book. If you are a fan on Ms. Bull's other books such as War for the Oaks, or Finder, you might like this book, but you might not. I enjoyed the short story format that this book was published in, because I can pick it up and put it down again. I liked the mixed bag of stories, some were very good, some were mediocre, but there is enough variey to have something for everyone. I am a fan of the 'Borderland/ Finder' and 'Elsewhere' books by Ms. Bull & Mr. Shetterly, and so was a little disappointed that most of the stories were not in that genre, but in spite of my disappointment I really did get caught up in the individual short stories and thououghly enjoyed them. Both authors have a gift with words that can paint their pictures in your imagination, and leave you wondering about the characters long after you've finished their particular story.

Editorial Review:

This trade paperback reprint of the Boskone 31 Book contains 13 pieces of fiction, non-fiction, and poetry plus brief biographies and bibligoraphies of each author and an introduction by Patrick & Teresa Nielsen Hayden. Cover Art by Nick Jainschigg.