SF/F Anthology Review: Robots vs Fairies, featuring John Scalzi, Ken Liu, Seanan McGuire, Max Gladstone, and many more (Edited by Navah Wolfe and Dominik Parisien): https://t.co/XluIPONYfy Short Review: 9 out of 10 (1/3)
— garik16 (@garik16) March 6, 2018
Short Review (cont): An anthology of really well known (for good reason) SciFi/Fantasy authors telling stories involving Fairies/Fae and/or Robots has a few really great stories and very few misses. Well worth the read if you're looking for short fiction (2/3)
— garik16 (@garik16) March 6, 2018
I've read a number of anthologies over the past few months, though in general I've only reviewed newer anthologies on this blog. Anthologies are by definition very hit or miss, which makes recommending them tricky - how do you recommend a book that has a few fantastic stories yet also a few stinkers?
Robots vs Fairies avoids this problem by having an incredibly high ratio of Hits to Misses. As the title suggests, each story deals with either Robots or Fairies of some sort - with many stories featuring both groups (the final story is about a literal deathmatch between captured members of both groups). In a cute touch, each story is followed by a little blurb from the story's author about whether they're on "Team Robot" or "Team Fairy." The authors involved in this project are drawn from some of the most notable names in SFF today - John Scalzi, Max Gladstone, Ken Liu, Seanan McGuire, Mary Robinette Kowal, etc etc - and the work shows it.
More after the Jump:
The stories contained within this anthology are as follows:
Build me a Wonderland by Seanan McGuire - A story featuring a bunch of fae in hiding as technical engineers for a fairy amusement park and their attempt to hide their magical creature brethren as part of the park in the face of an outside "efficiency expert"
Quality Time by Ken Liu - A story of an engineer and a Silicon Valley corporation who tries to construct better and better robots to take over human tasks only to find that the work of doing some such tasks is its own reward.
Murdered Under the Moon by Tim Pratt - The story of a human librarian of a Fae library who is forced to try and save the library (and her fae lover) when the library's owner is enchanted.
The Blue Fairy's Manifesto by Annalee Newitz - The story of a toy constructing robot "liberated" by another robot's implementation of a virus as it tries to determine what is right to do with its new freedom, and whether it has the right to give that new freedom to others.
Bread and Milk and Salt by Sarah Gailey - The story of a Fae who becomes obsessed with a human boy only to become trapped when the boy is more devious, and interested in automata, than she could have suspected.
Ironheart by Jonathan Mayberry - The story of a veteran with a robot heart that is rejecting him and causing his farming family to near financial ruin as he struggles to find a cause for living, with the robot farmers also falling into disarray.
Just Another Love Song by Kat Howard - The story of a Banshee who finds a guy seems immune to her wail....and that other fae have started to disappear from the area.
Sound and Fury by Mary Robinette Kowal - The story of an engineer forced to help deploy a giant robot to an alien planet for diplomatic reasons, only to have to take control of that robot when an emergency strikes.
The Bookcase Expedition by Jeffrey Ford - The story of a man watching a group of miniature fairies explore and climb a bookcase in order to mount a daring rescue.
Work Shadow/Shadow Work by Madeline Ashby - The story of a robot assistant to an old woman thought to be a witch of some kind, with perhaps real influence amongst magical folk...
Second to the Left and Straight On by Jim C Hines - A subversion of Peter Pan - a story of a woman trying to get back children from the spell of Tinker Bell, who has stolen them from loving parents.
The Buried Giant by Lavie Tidbar - The story of a real boy from a town where everything else is automata as he attempts to find reality elsewhere in the world.
Three Robots Experience Objects by John Scalzi - Robots try and figure out the purpose of objects left behind by the extinct human race and crack wise about them.
Ostentation of Peacocks by Delilah S. Dawson/Lila Bowen - A story in Bower/Dawson's "Shadow" series ("Wake of Vultures") where series heroine Nettie Lonesome faces off against a posse of Fae.
All the Time We've Left to Spend by Alyssa Wong - The story of a woman visiting robots in a skeevy hotel imprinted with the memories of dead celebrities - specifically a Japanese idol group, as she tries to comes to grips with her past.
Adriftica by Maria Dahvana Headley - A story of a rock and roll journalist whose marriage to a special woman is falling apart as the world falls apart as he finds and tours with a new band that is oddly....magical.
To a Cloven Pine by Max Gladstone - The story of a few sentient autonoma in a space ship with selves drawn from magical inspirations as they flee from a techno Witch.
A Fall Counts Anywhere by Catherynne M. Valente - A Royal Rumble between capture Fae and Robots, narrated by victors of previous rumbles
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Yeah that's a lot of stories, and most are excellent, and they range from being totally fun (Three Robots, A Fall Counts Anywhere, Murdered Under the Moon) to philosophical (The Blue Fairy's Manifesto) to dark (Bread and Milk and Salt) to everywhere in between. Bread and Milk and Salt was probably my favorite story of the collection, but Ken Liu's Quality Time and Alyssa Wong's "All the Time We've Left to Spend" are also excellent on the darker side of things. On the lighter side, John Scalzi's short little dittie was pretty funny, A Fall Counts Anywhere was so over the top as to be spectacular, and a few of the other stories were also quite solid.
Really, the only one of these stories that I felt was a total miss was The Bookcase Expedition which to me seemed like it didn't really get the idea of the anthology except in a superficial sense. All of the other stories, even if I'm not quite sure I loved them (like Mayberry, Headley or Tidbar's stories) fit quite well with the theme of the anthology and I didn't feel like I wasted on time on them, which is all you can ask for in an anthology. And again, the highlights are many - several of these are probably Nebula/Hugo worthy for next year (the anthology was published the first week of January and so won't be eligible till next year).
In short, this is a SFF Anthology well worth your time and I wholly recommend it if you enjoy the form.
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