Once Upon A Time... in the faraway land of Story, a Hugo-winning Editor realized that no one had collected together the fairy tales of the age, and that doorstop-thick anthologies of modern fairy tales were sorely lacking...
And so the Editor ventured forth, wandering the land of Story from shore to shore, climbing massive mountains of books and delving deep into lush, literary forests, gathering together thirty-three of the best re-tellings of fairy tales he could find. Not just any fairy tales, mind you, but tantalizing tales from some of the biggest names in today's fantastic fiction, authors like Gregory Maguire, Susanna Clarke, Charles de Lint, Holly Black, Alethea Kontis, Kelly Link, Neil Gaiman, Patricia Briggs, Paul Di Filippo, Gregory Frost, and Nancy Kress. But these stories alone weren't enough to satisfy the Editor, so the Editor ventured further, into the dangerous cave of the fearsome Bill Willingham, and emerged intact with a magnificent introduction, to tie the collection together.
And the inhabitants of Story--from the Kings and Queens relaxing in their castles to the peasants toiling in the fields, from the fey folk flitting about the forests to the trolls lurking under bridges and the giants in the hills--read the anthology, and enjoyed it. And they all lived... Happily Ever After.
Table of Contents:
- Introduction - essay by Bill Willingham
- A Night in the Lonesome November - short fiction by Bill Willingham
- The Seven Stage a Comeback - (2000) - poem by Gregory Maguire
- And In Their Glad Rags - short fiction by Genevieve Valentine
- The Sawing Boys - (1994) - novelette by Howard Waldrop
- Bear It Away - (2000) - short story by Michael Cadnum
- Mr. Simonelli or the Fairy Widower - (2000) - novella by Susanna Clarke
- The Black Fairy's Curse - (1997) - short story by Karen Joy Fowler
- My Life as a Bird - (1996) - novelette by Charles de Lint
- The Night Market - (2004) - short story by Holly Black
- The Rose in Twelve Petals - (2002) - short story by Theodora Goss
- The Red Path - short fiction by Jim C. Hines
- Blood & Water - (2008) - short story by Alethea Kontis
- Hansel's Eyes - (2000) - short story by Garth Nix
- He Died That Day, in Thirty Years - (2002) - novelette by Wil McCarthy
- Snow in Summer - (2000) - short story by Jane Yolen
- The Rose Garden - (2004) - novelette by Michelle West
- The Little Magic Shop - (1987) - short story by Bruce Sterling
- Black Feather - (2007) - short story by K. Tempest Bradford
- Fifi's Tail - short fiction by Alan Rodgers
- The Faery Handbag - (2004) - novelette by Kelly Link
- Ashputtle - (1994) - novelette by Peter Straub
- The Emperor's New (and Improved) Clothes - (1999) - short story by Leslie What
- Pinocchio's Diary - short fiction by Robert J. Howe
- Little Red - (1993) - short story by Wendy Wheeler
- The Troll Bridge - short fiction by Neil Gaiman
- The Price - (1999) - short story by Patricia Briggs
- Ailoura - (2002) - novelette by Paul Di Filippo
- The Farmer's Cat - (2005) - short story by Jeff VanderMeer
- The Root of the Matter - (1993) - novelette by Gregory Frost
- Like a Red, Red Rose - (1993) - novelette by Susan Wade
- Chasing America - (2006) - novelette by Josh Rountree
- Stalking Beans - (1993) - short story by Nancy Kress
- Big Hair - (2000) - short story by Esther M. Friesner
- The Return of the Dark Children - (2002) - short fiction by Robert Coover