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Summary
Summary
Firebirds is more than simply an anthology -- it is a celebration of wonderful writing. It gathers together sixteen original stories by some of today's finest writers of fantasy and science fiction. Together, they have won virtually every major prize -- from the National Book Award to the World Fantasy Award to the Newbery Medal -- and have made best-seller lists worldwide. These authors, including Lloyd Alexander (The Chronicles of Prydain), Diana Wynne Jones (The Merlin Conspiracy), Garth Nix (The Abhorsen Trilogy), Patricia A. McKillip (Ombria in Shadow), Meredith Ann Pierce (The Darkangel Trilogy), and Nancy Farmer (The House of the Scorpion), each with his or her own inimitable style, tell stories that will entertain, provoke, startle, amuse, and resonate long after the last page has been turned. The writers featured in Firebirds all share a connection to Firebird Books, an imprint that is dedicated to publishing the best fantasy and science fiction for teenage and adult readers. This anthology marks a milestone for Firebird -- and is a must-read for all teenage and adult fans of speculative fiction. Book jacket.
Author Notes
Garth Nix was born in Melbourne, Australia on July 19, 1963. He graduated from the University of Canberra in 1986 and worked various jobs within the publishing industry until 1994. After a stint in public relations, he returned to books and took up writing as a career. He is the author of Blood Ties, Clariel, Newt's Emerald, the Old Kingdom series, The Seventh Tower series, and The Keys to the Kingdom series. In 1999, he received a Golden Duck Award for Australian Contribution to Children's Science Fiction. To Hold the Bridge was named Best Collection by the 2015 Aurealis Awards. His novella, By Frogsled and Lizardback to Outcast Venusian Lepers, was named Best Science Fiction Novella by the 2015 Aurealis Awards. In 2018, he won the 2017 Aurealis Award for the Best science-fiction short story.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (5)
School Library Journal Review
Gr 7-9-Fifteen-year-old Francesca (Franky) Pierson, middle child of a local Seattle celebrity and his abused artistic wife, recounts her observations of the final dissolution of her parents' marriage. Although Oates gives Franky a credible and engaging voice, the family's descent into turmoil and the revelation of the violence at the heart of the mother's disappearance hold almost no surprising twists. As in Julius Lester's When Dad Killed Mom (Harcourt, 2001), there is some exploration of how an adolescent works through increasingly serious familial problems, reinterprets parental behaviors, and confronts the fact that the childhood home is forever gone. Franky moves slowly from oblivious acceptance of her family as normal through rebuilding her life in the shadow of her mother's murder and her father's incarceration. The pacing allows readers to become fond of her while inviting some impatience with her stubborn adherence to blind faith in everyone but herself for so many chapters. Unfortunately, most of the supporting characters-from Franky's steroid-addled half-brother and her regressing younger sister through her manipulative father and her protective best friend-remain flat, as though assigned singular aspects of the human condition rather than peopling the teen's world with beings as capable of complexity as she discovers herself to be.-Francisca Goldsmith, Berkeley Public Library, CA (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publisher's Weekly Review
This impressive collection showcases an unusual diversity of styles, settings and tone. November, editor of Penguin's Firebird imprint, has chosen wisely: each of these 16 tales has literary merit strong enough to transcend its respective micro-genre (heroic fantasy, fairy tale, magic realism, "feline fantasy," etc.). Highlights are many: Lloyd Alexander eschews his usual epic fantasy setting in "Max Mondrosch," a darkly intriguing quasi-Edwardian nightmare about a man whose job hunt is literally the end of him; Diana Wynne Jones and Garth Nix offer robust tales likely to satisfy their respective legions of fans (Jones in familiar territory, Nix less so); Nancy Farmer, in "Remember Me," relays a bittersweet tale of a girl born into the wrong body and into the wrong family, and her journey back to where she belongs; and the highlight, Megan Whalen Turner's "The Baby in the Night Deposit Box" shares much of the sly morality-play structure of the best Twilight Zone episodes. Uniformly mature and thoughtful, these stories are likely to appeal not only to imaginative children but adults as well. Ages 12-up. (Sept.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Horn Book Review
(High School) Any anthology of new fantasy published specifically for the YA market is welcome, and this is a strong collection, the stories richly varied. Diana Wynne Jones pits an assortment of wonderfully differentiated cats against a horrifying, decrepit (but still riddling) Sphinx in ""Little Dot."" Sherwood Smith, with characters from Crown Duel, offers a level-headedly romantic exploration of true beauty and true love. Megan Whalen Turner handles the mysterious-abandoned-infant theme with a light and sure touch in ""The Baby in the Night Deposit Box."" Several stories, such as Delia Sherman's ""Cotillion,"" a Tam Lin story set in a modern-day but magical New York City, use traditional material as a springboard; others, like Nina Kiriki Hoffman's story of a lost extraterrestrial child (""Flotsam""), are entirely original. Not all of the sixteen stories shine. Nancy Springer's ""Mariposa"" is clever but slick; Garth Nix's ""Hope Chest"" is an unsuccessful blend of Nazi allegory and shoot-'em-up Western and gratuitously gory to boot. And it must be noted that editor November's generous definition of fantasy results in a few anomalies: Lloyd Alexander's tragicomic ""Max Mondrosch"" is surely more social commentary than fantasy, and Elizabeth E. Wein's ""Chasing the Wind""--though one of the best stories in the collection--is entirely realistic. Teens will likely accept these outliers, just as they will ignore the excessive front and back matter and get right to the good parts. (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. All rights reserved.
Kirkus Review
A splendid gathering of award-winning fantasists. Feminist allegories and fairytale retellings are heavily represented, with some gems among the standard fare. Delia Sherman's "Cotillion" stands out for its fully realized heroine's twist ending, and Sherwood Smith's "Beauty" enlivens a would-be dull moral with likable characters. Tragedy and comedy are also here in force; Garth Nix's and Megan Whalen Turner's offerings both abandon not-quite-human infants in human towns, with drastically different results. Emma Bull and illustrator Charles Vess collaborate with a ballad, reworked as graphic short. Diana Wynne Jones brings fresh perspective to a deceptively simple tale of a country wizard and his cats. Elizabeth Wein's realistic "Chasing the Wind" and Nancy Farmer's changeling tale "Remember Me" provide compelling glimpses into adolescent self-realization. Not as extraordinary as the all-star contributor list could indicate, as the experimentation the form invites is largely absent here. Still, this is a magical collection. Lloyd Alexander's chilling foray into darkness by itself would justify the price of admission. (Fiction. 12+) Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
Gr. 7-12. The only theme in this gorgeous tapestry of a collection is that all the authors are part of the Firebird imprint. The 16 stories are richly romantic in the broadest sense, and they effortlessly transport readers. Delia Sherman's opening Cotillion evokes the spell of lute music and New York City in 1969; Garth Nix's creepy Hope Chest is a Western stand-alone with a very unusual sheriff; Michael Cadnum and Meredith Ann Pierce turn old stories inside out. There's a cat tale (Diana Wynne Jones), and an odd changeling tale (Nancy Farmer), and a graphic novel by Emma Bull and Charles Vess. Nancy Springer takes a bemused and ironic look at what might happen when a girl wants her soul back. So many beguiling tales in one package make this a real find. --GraceAnne DeCandido Copyright 2003 Booklist
Table of Contents
| Introduction | p. 1 |
| Cotillion | p. 5 |
| The Baby in the Night Deposit Box | p. 42 |
| Beauty | p. 69 |
| Mariposa | p. 107 |
| Max Mondrosch | p. 122 |
| The Fall of Ys | p. 138 |
| Medusa | p. 150 |
| The Black Fox | p. 157 |
| Byndley | p. 180 |
| The Lady of the Ice Garden | p. 199 |
| Hope Chest | p. 228 |
| Chasing the Wind | p. 264 |
| Little Dot | p. 297 |
| Remember Me | p. 338 |
| Flotsam | p. 352 |
| The Flying Woman | p. 394 |
| Acknowledgments | p. 417 |
| About the Editor | p. 421 |