Rags & Bones: New Twists on Timeless Tales
Editors Marr and Pratt asked 10 other writers to join them in creating short stories based on classics that had influenced their writing. With a stellar cast of popular and critically acclaimed authors (besides Marr and Pratt, there’s Neil Gaiman, Holly Black, Rick Yancey, and more) and a wide variety of styles and settings, there’s something here for every reader of science fiction and fantasy. Inspirations range from classics (Kate Chopin’s The Awakening) to fairy tales (Sleeping Beauty) to gothic thrillers (Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu’s “Carmilla”). Vess provides six delicately evocative illustrations based on fantasy classics. Fans of dystopian fiction will enjoy the many stories exploring a postapocalyptic future, and hopefully will seek out lesser-known works such as E. M. Forster’s “The Machine Stops,” inspiration for Carrie Ryan’s contribution. Of particular interest is Saladin Ahmed’s take on Sir Edmund Spenser’s The Faerie Queene, which shows us another side of the villainous Muslim Saracen brothers. With such diversity of styles and topics, it’s likely that not every story will please every reader, but it’s great fun sampling and discovering new authors and titles to explore. Grades 9-12. --Debbie Carton