If any of Delia Sherman's work should be remembered, it should be for The Porcelain Dove , a novel of intoxicating beauty. She has contributed short fiction to such anthologies as Bending the Landscape and Ruby Slippers, Golden Tears . The Essential Bordertown is the seventh book in the Borderland Series , and the third or fourth collection of short stories in the group. In Bordertown, magic works, sometimes.
Technology works, sometimes.
Any vaguely ritualistic activity, like cooking, has predictable results, sometimes. People behave the way you'd expect, sometimes. And the stories that are told about this place are great, sometimes. Actually, there are many good stories in this book, and in the series as a whole. There are also new voices in the crowd, like Donn rd Sturgis who show good potential.