It’s Craning Men (original) (raw)

When Sorrows Come, by Seanan McGuire – After a lot of build-up throughout the last few books, we finally get to see Toby and Tybalt’s wedding, at the court of the High King of the Divided Courts in Toronto. Of course, since nothing can be simple in her life, Toby comes across a plot to overthrow the King, which involves a bunch of Doppelgangers infiltrating the wedding. Fortunately, her dress has been enchanted to be resistant to bloodstains. It’s a good read, and a significant change in the characters’ narrative. The accompanying novella, And with Reveling, continues with Toby’s point of view, detailing her thoughts on the wedding after the action has been resolved.

Kesrick: An Adult Fantasy, by Lin Carter – Carter seems to be largely known for his continuations of stories by other pulp fantasy and science fiction writers, including Robert E. Howard and Clark Ashton Smith, and for his scholarship into such writing. He also wrote two Oz books that were published after his death by Chris Dulabone, The Tired Tailor of Oz and The Merry Mountaineer of Oz. This book, from 1982, is a comic fantasy that references a lot of other works in the genre, including classical mythology, medieval romances, the Arabian Nights, and, yes, the Oz books. At one point, the sorcerer Pteron uses the same spell Mombi did to disenchant Ozma in The Marvelous Land of Oz. It’s a fast-paced story about a knight errant, the titular Kesrick, who sets out to find the missing pommel stone from his magic sword Dastagard, in the process befriending a wizard, riding a hippogriff, rescuing a woman who spends the whole adventure in the nude, tricking a genie, and confronting an evil sorcerer. One conceit of the setting is that it’s basically our world as it’s presented in myth and legend, doing a decent job at tying together very different legends and fiction. There’s a character named Gaglioffo, who’s a parody of how Muslims were written in old European tales, a cowardly, treacherous pagan. There are endnotes explaining most of the references, which have definitely inspired further research on my part. It’s rather slight and silly overall, but it’s very relevant to my interests. And I understand there are three sequels.

The Crane Husband, by Kelly Barnhill – I’ve read two of Barnhill’s children’s books, but this one is darker and more adult, even if the protagonist is a teenage girl. It plays on the Japanese legend of the Crane Wife, which was also referenced by the Decemberists, about a crane who takes human form to marry a man who saves her life, but turns back to avian form and leaves him when he gets too mean and greedy. In this story, the protagonist is from a line of abused women who ran away from home, or, in her mother’s telling, “flew away.” The mother is an artist whose husband died some years earlier, she and her two children living in a house in the middle of a farm that’s now owned by a conglomerate and worked by drones. The daughter sells her mom’s work to pay the bills, inventing the persona of an adult man in order to be taken more seriously. That is, until a crane, who also sometimes takes the form of a man, arrives at the farm. The mother falls in love with him, despite the clear indications that he’s abusing her, and neglects her children and household. None of these central characters are ever given names, although the narrator’s younger brother is Michael. It’s a quick read, and fantastic in an unsettling way.

This entry was posted in Animals, Art, Book Reviews, Chris Dulabone, Fairy Tales, Humor, Magic, Monsters, Music, Mythology, Names, october daye, Oz, Oz Authors, Relationships, seanan mcguire, Technology and tagged abuse, and with reveling, arabian nights, clark ashton smith, cranes, decemberists, doppelgangers, fairies, hippogriffs, jinn, kelly barnhill, kesrick, lin carter, marriage, mombi, ozma, robert e. howard, swords, terra magica, the crane husband, the crane wife, the marvelous land of oz, the merry mountaineer of oz, the tired tailor of oz, weapons, when sorrows come, wizards. Bookmark the permalink.