Mini Review

Mini Reviews of Short Stories...

I'm in the middle of reading Night of the Vampires By Heather Graham. I decided until I am finished with that I would review some short stories I have been reading. I sometimes have a hard time getting into short stories because there is not enough world or character building.

These are from Year's Best Fantasy 8 (Best of 2007) Edited by David G. Hartwell & Kathryn Cramer.

Paper Cuts Scissors By Holly Black

I really enjoyed this story. It is about a guy who goes to library school to find a way to save his girlfriend. The girlfriend did not want to deal with the real world and gets lost inside a book, literally. The settings and characters were well done and you can visual the scenes in this story from the college classroom to the dusty old basement filled with books.

Rating: 4

A Portrait In Ivory By Michael Moorcock

This story seemed to be missing something and left me trying to figure out where the author was trying to go with it. The main character was well described and you could picture the setting for this story well. Those are the only things I liked about this story. It is about an artist carving the likeness of the Elric out of ivory from a dragon. I believe it is supposed to make you think about what happens in this situation; does the person that is being carved lose a piece of themselves in the carving and if so how does it affect them. You don't really get this from the story itself, you get it more from the Editor and what they tell you the premise is supposed to be.

Rating: 2