This is for all the fairy tale and folklore lovers out there! Two fantasy book fandoms, both freely available:
Fandom: Travels with the Snow Queen - Kelly Link Category: Books & Literature Comments:"Where you are, where you are coming from, it is impossible to read a map made of paper. If it were that easy then everyone would be a traveler. You have heard of other travelers whose maps are breadcrumbs, whose maps are stones, whose maps are the four winds, whose maps are yellow bricks laid one after the other. You read your map with your foot, and behind you somewhere there must be another traveler whose map is the bloody footprints that you are leaving behind you."
Don't be scared off by the second person. This is a short story that is lyrically written, tugs at your heartstrings, empowers you, and turns a classic fairy tale 90 degrees. Not a complete 180, wicked-wolf-as-reporter sort of way, but enough to change the way you see the world for a little while, and the way you see the Snow Queen forever. It examines heartbreak and scars and warm boots and cold lips. It dances around the lies we tell ourselves and other people. It's built on female friendship and unexpected kindness and self-determination. And it's freely available and easy to read in a single sitting! Links: 1. The totally free and legal pdf of the short story collection, put up by the publisher: http://smallbeerpress.com/wp-content/uploads/Kelly_Link_Stranger_Things.pdf
Fandom: The King of Ireland's Son Category: Books & Literature Comments:"The Hunter-King was being waked in the neighbor-woman's house, and her eldest daughter had been the corpse-watcher the first night. In the morning they found that the girl's hand had been withered. The woman's second daughter was the corpse-watcher the second night and her right hand had been left trembling. This was the third and last night that the Hunter-King would be waked, and to-night there was no one to watch his corpse."
I grew up so obsessed with this book that it inspired my username when I made a dreamwidth and AO3. It's a 1916 retelling of Irish folk and fairy tales, which means it is now in the public domain. The titular character is a goodhearted youth, if a little naive, who gets himself into trouble during the start of the book and has to seek out a powerful enemy enchanter to set things right. But that's only the beginning! The book dips and weaves through vows of silence, the tale of the King of Cats, terrifying wakes, long-lost siblings (only some of them evil), and poems about Celtic deities. A woman instructs her lover to kill her and make a ladder of her bones, but remember to put them back very carefully in the correct order. A queen finally realizes she will never finish making seven bog-down shirts without speaking a word or shedding a tear, and learns to forgive herself for it. And there are happy endings! Links: 1. Project Gutenberg downloads in various formats: http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/3495 2. Free audiobook from Librivox: https://librivox.org/the-king-of-irelands-son-by-padraic-colum/ 3. And online at Sacred Texts for good measure: http://sacred-texts.com/neu/celt/kis/index.htm
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Fandom: Travels with the Snow Queen - Kelly Link
Category: Books & Literature
Comments: "Where you are, where you are coming from, it is impossible to read a map made of paper. If it were that easy then everyone would be a traveler. You have heard of other travelers whose maps are breadcrumbs, whose maps are stones, whose maps are the four winds, whose maps are yellow bricks laid one after the other. You read your map with your foot, and behind you somewhere there must be another traveler whose map is the bloody footprints that you are leaving behind you."
Don't be scared off by the second person. This is a short story that is lyrically written, tugs at your heartstrings, empowers you, and turns a classic fairy tale 90 degrees. Not a complete 180, wicked-wolf-as-reporter sort of way, but enough to change the way you see the world for a little while, and the way you see the Snow Queen forever. It examines heartbreak and scars and warm boots and cold lips. It dances around the lies we tell ourselves and other people. It's built on female friendship and unexpected kindness and self-determination. And it's freely available and easy to read in a single sitting!
Links:
1. The totally free and legal pdf of the short story collection, put up by the publisher:
http://smallbeerpress.com/wp-content/uploads/Kelly_Link_Stranger_Things.pdf
Fandom: The King of Ireland's Son
Category: Books & Literature
Comments: "The Hunter-King was being waked in the neighbor-woman's house, and her eldest daughter had been the corpse-watcher the first night. In the morning they found that the girl's hand had been withered. The woman's second daughter was the corpse-watcher the second night and her right hand had been left trembling. This was the third and last night that the Hunter-King would be waked, and to-night there was no one to watch his corpse."
I grew up so obsessed with this book that it inspired my username when I made a dreamwidth and AO3. It's a 1916 retelling of Irish folk and fairy tales, which means it is now in the public domain. The titular character is a goodhearted youth, if a little naive, who gets himself into trouble during the start of the book and has to seek out a powerful enemy enchanter to set things right. But that's only the beginning! The book dips and weaves through vows of silence, the tale of the King of Cats, terrifying wakes, long-lost siblings (only some of them evil), and poems about Celtic deities. A woman instructs her lover to kill her and make a ladder of her bones, but remember to put them back very carefully in the correct order. A queen finally realizes she will never finish making seven bog-down shirts without speaking a word or shedding a tear, and learns to forgive herself for it. And there are happy endings!
Links:
1. Project Gutenberg downloads in various formats:
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/3495
2. Free audiobook from Librivox:
https://librivox.org/the-king-of-irelands-son-by-padraic-colum/
3. And online at Sacred Texts for good measure:
http://sacred-texts.com/neu/celt/kis/index.htm