★★★ 1/2
" 'Not my job to judge, boy.' Baba Yaga filled and fit the pipe again. 'But I do observe that its difficult to escape familiar patterns. When you live your life with cruel words, you look for people to give them to you. When you escape and evil stepmother, you take an uncaring bride. When your father throws you out, you love someone who won't love you back. And to keep yourself in cruelty, you're willing to risk head and hands on the mayors side board. Keep the pattern going. Hm.' "
Short stories are hard to review. I found myself really enjoying some of the stories, but others not so much. This collection combines classic fairy-tales with steampunk. I found the incorporate of steampunk elements in the stories to be really interesting and I'm always up for fairy-tales. My first introduction to the "steampunk genre" was last year when I read Clockwork Angels by Cassandra Clare. I had to do a bit of research because I knew practically nothing about it - definitely a unique genre! My favorite stories from the collection included La Valse, Fair Vasyl, You Will Attend Until Beauty Awakens, and The Mechanical Wings.
I've always been really interested in fairy-tales and re-tellings of them. I am currently reading the Barnes and Noble edition of Hans Christian Andersen's fairy-tales - and I have Brother's Grimm waiting on my dresser. Since I listened to the audio book, I had a hard time finding a complete list for the fairy-tales. Here's what I came up with:
La Valse by K.W. Jeter - based on The Red Shoes by Hans Christian Andersen
Fair Vasyl by Stephen Harper - based on Vasilisa the Beautiful by Alexander Afanasyev and tales of Baby Yaga
The Hollow Hounds by Kat Richardson - based on The Tinderbox by Hans Christian Andersen
The Kings of Mount Golden by Paul Di Filippo - based on The King of the Golden Mountain by The Brothers Grimm
You Will Attend Until Beauty Awakens by Jay Lake - based on Sleeping Beauty by Charles Perrault with an adaptation of Little Briar Rose by The Brothers Grimm
Mose and the Automatic Fireman by Nancy A. Collins - based on legends of Mose the Fireboy
The Clockwork Suit by G.K. Hayes - based on The Emperor's New Clothes by Hans Christian Andersen
The Steampiper, the Stovepiper, and the Pied Piper of New Hamelin, Texas by Gregory Nicoll - based on legends of the Pied Piper
The Mechanical Wings by Pip Ballantine - based on The Wild Swans by Hans Christian Andersen
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