Ladies of Grace Adieu

[icepixie]

I picked up the copy of The Ladies of Grace Adieu which came for me at the library today. Then I read it practically in one sitting. It's good, y'all. If you liked Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell, you will definitely like this. I think my favorite story was Mr Simonelli, or the Fairy Widower, although the title piece is very good as well. And there's also a very short piece in which the Duke of Wellington visits fairyland via the village of Wall! Yes, that Wall, from Stardust. Awesome.

Speaking of Gaiman, apparently he has a new book of stories and miscellany out which I didn't know about. Has anyone read it?

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[alto2.livejournal.com]

Fragile Things is on my Christmas list. I bought Smoke and Mirrors in October, after spending about an hour in the bookstore reading the first and last stories (the latter was highly recommended and the first one sounded interesting in his little blurb in the intro, and was fantastic). I seem to like his short stuff more than others, so I went ahead and asked for FT on faith. (Mom called to ask me about it, so I'm fairly certain I'm getting it ;) )

I'm intrigued just by the title The Ladies of Grace Adieu. I take it it's a fantasy-ish short story collection?

[icepixie]

I'm more than willing to read FT purely on the basis of the fact that there's a story in there about the twelve months sitting in a room and arguing. *g* And I loved "Snow, Glass, Apples" in Smoke. Great story. And the vampire sestina was cool, too.

I'm intrigued just by the title The Ladies of Grace Adieu. I take it it's a fantasy-ish short story collection?

It's eight short stories set in the same magical world of Clarke's debut novel, Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell. If you haven't read that, do not pass go, do not collect $200, but go find that book and read it, 'cause it's excellent. It's all about what the world would be like if magic did exist, and England had a strange history that was intertwined with the land of Faerie, and what happens when magicians are sent to win the Napoleonic Wars. I'm not the most well-read in fantasy, but for my money, she's the first person to come anywhere near Tolkien's level of world-building. (George R.R. Martin comes close as well, but he's gone in more of a political direction than a fantastical/magical one.)

The style it's written in is really interesting as well. The narrator shifts nimbly from storytelling mode to an academic journal style, including copious footnotes about the history of the world Clarke has created. This sounds like it shouldn't fit together, but it really does. And Clarke does a great job of making magic and Faerie subtly unsettling, kind of in the way that the Doctor can be unsettling when he's being very obviously alien.