Angela Slatter
Tartarus Press is unquestionably one of the better independent presses in operation today, and in recent years, they've expanded beyond the traditional weird fiction of their early days and have started publishing contemporary fiction. These contemporary offerings have been the subject of widely divergent reviews here at Speculative Fiction Junkie: one of their books was #1 on our Top 5 Reads of 2009 list while another received the second most negative review any book has ever received here. Angela Slatter's collection, Sourdough and Other Stories falls somewhere in between these extremes.
Before diving into the contents of the book, it's worth noting that Tartarus Press has really stepped up the production quality with this book. To see what I'm talking about, take a look at this photograph. I really hope that they continue this trend in the future.
I always keep tabs on anything published by Tartarus Press but what piqued my interest in Sourdough and Other Stories was that I kept hearing and reading about it everywhere. What's more, once I started investigating further, every single review I encountered was extremely positive. In fact, I have not encountered a single negative or even hesitant word uttered about this book.
Sourdough and Other Stories is a collection of sixteen dark fairy tales all set in or near the imaginary city of Lodellan and their subject matter is consistent with what is found in traditional fairy tales. Most of the tales appear to be original stories but the collection also includes the retelling of a traditional fairy tale from a new angle. Women protagonists are also more prominently featured in these tales than is often the case.
Ms. Slatter is a very competent prose writer. As others have noted, her prose is effective and poetic, and a few of the stories in the collection really stood out. I'm thinking here in particular of stories like "The Navigator," the tale of a seafaring merchant who inherited her father's ships as well as his navigator, one of the last of a breed of flying creatures whose wings were clipped by the captain when his young daughter gave him reason to believe that the navigator might be plotting to leave his service. Her struggles against dwindling prospects and his against the plight of winglessness lead to a poignant conclusion.
To be completely honest, however, while most of the stories in this collection were enjoyable on some level, they didn't really leave much of an impression on me. I couldn't help but think that while Ms. Slatter populates her tales with the subject matter and frequently dark tone of the traditional fairy tale, most of the stories never achieved the sort of archetypal force that the best fairy tales do.
I also found that these stories were simply told a bit too matter of factly for my personal tastes. Most of them proceed directly from point A to point B without much intrigue, mystery, or atmosphere, and I just could not really get into them for that reason. To be fair, the same could be said about most traditional fairy tales as well.
I'm really somewhat torn about this one. One the one hand, Ms. Slatter is definitely a competent writer and many people obviously love this collection, but on the other hand, I could not get into it for the life of me.
Rating: 6/10
The True First
Sourdough and Other Stories was first published by Tartarus Press in 2010 in a limited edition of 300 copies.
[This review was based on a review copy]
6 comments:
It's always a little hard to write a review for a book that you know was well written but you just don't connect with. You did a great job with it and I may end up looking this collection up someday. Thanks for the review.
Thanks for the kind words Ryan G.
I'm curious, with publishers like Tartarus, do the review copies they mail out come out of the 300 copies, or do they make extras for such purposes?
@Donald: I wonder the exact same thing but I've been reluctant to ask. I suspect they make a few extras for this purpose but I don't really know. Let me know if you find out!
I agree 100%. I love Tartarus Press and was very curious as EVERY single word written about this book was positive. I also found the collection nice, but in no way outstanding. Thanks for another great review.
@Walter: thanks for your comments and kind words. I'm glad I wasn't the only one who felt this way.
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