Book Review: To Spin a Darker Stair

To Spin a Darker Stair is a collection of two short stories, the first is a reprint of Catherynne M Valente’s, A Delicate Architecture and an original short, Oracle’s Tower, by Australian author Faith Mudge.  The cover and and internal illustrations are by Kathleen Jennings (who was interviewed by Galactic Chat here).

I was lucky enough to get the book for $5 during Fablecroft’s World Fantasy Awards special offer – Kathleen Jennings has been nominated for her work across a number of projects, including many local and international small presses and Fablecroft have been an active supporter of her work.  You should still be able to get it at the all inclusive price here.

The two stories are fairytale inversions or alternates, a growing fave genre of mine.  I like works that examine the often simplistic, often conservative morals of fairytales and either examine and reinterpret them or show the other side of the story.

A Delicate Architecture is the first Valente I have read and the writing is as good as I would expect it to be from her reputation.  The writing is rich and poetic which suits the subject matter of the story perfectly – a girl purportedly made from confectionary seeks the glamour of the Imperial capital.  This story is heartbreaking.

Oracle’s Tower, while less consciously rich in its prose manages to create a beautiful fairytale ambience. It feels more consciously fairytale like to me.  Valente charms you with her command of language.  Mudge rearranges the fairytale building blocks and tropes so that the work has a familiarity but the reader is not sure where they are being led. I don’t want to say much more about the stories themselves.  I had no knowledge of the fairytales they were to riff off beforehand and I think a clean reading approach to the stories is the best way to experience them.

Thematically the stories fit well together and I appreciate the effort Fablecroft went to create this book. They can’t be making too much on this offer and yet we get a very rich deal in the bargain -Valente, Mudge and Jennings in a bound book for less than the coffee and croissant you could enjoy while finishing it.

If you like fairytale retellings and you want to see two skilful proponents with different approaches and styles I think you’ll like it.

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Links that have me pondering for half a day

or possibly longer.

I blame Jonathan Strahan who signal boosted Catherynne M. Valente’s post which led to much goodness.

So Catherynne wrote a post:

Let Me Tell You About the Birds and the Bees: Gender and the Fallout Over Christopher Priest

If you are tired of the whole Priest debacle, the post is less about him and more about the community’s reaction to him and how, that if he was a woman, he’d have been threatened with violence and rape.

The comments are worth reading and the inevitably clueless man turns up and even been schooled by Cat and then Scalzi doesn’t seem to shift him.

Catherynne linked to Requires Only Hate by acrackedmoon as an example of a woman who is constantly on the receiving end of misogynistic hatred for her no hold bared takedowns of SF&F sacred cows.  Peter Watts called her a rabid animal.

I discovered a new term Neckbeard:

Neckbeard - Talkative, self-important nerdy men (usually age 30 and up) who, through an inability to properly decode social cues, mistake others' strained tolerance of their blather for evidence of their own charm.

Which had me in stiches, because it’s spot on.

acrackedmoon’s post Lord of Neckbeards – Tolkien rape/suicide/pedestal watch challenged me as a fan of Tolkien and gave me a new perspective.  It’s well worth a read. 

acrackedmoon then linked to  How to be a fan of problematic things which should help you come to terms with having your literary or genre darlings criticised.

Say goodbye to a couple of hours, if you follow the links.

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More trumpet blowing from me:

I have been nominated to run in this years fan fund for the National Science Fiction Convention to be held in Melbourne.

If you appreciate the work that I do in Australian Speculative Fiction Fandom and you have a spare $5, you can vote for me here and help send me to the National Conference

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