Audie Award Nominee, Short Stories/Collections, 2013
Bordertown: a city on the Border between the human world and the elfin realm. A place where neither magic nor technology can be counted on, where elf and human kids run away to find themselves.
The Way from our world to the Border has been blocked for 13 long years. Now the Way is open once again and Bordertown welcomes a new set of seekers and dreamers, misfits and makers, to taste life on the Border.
Here are 13 interconnected stories and eight poems all new work by some of today's best urban fantasy, fantasy, and slipstream writers: Christopher Barzak, Holly Black, Steven Brust, Emma Bull, Cassandra Clare, Charles de Lint, Cory Doctorow, Amal El-Mohtar, Neil Gaiman, Nalo Hopkinson, Alaya Dawn Johnson, Annette Curtis Klause, Ellen Kushner, Patricia McKillip, Dylan Meconis, Tim Pratt, Sara Ryan, Delia Sherman, Will Shetterly, Janni Lee Simner, Catherynne M. Valente, Terri Windling, and Jane Yolen.
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"As a fan of the original Bordertown what's not to love in a brand new collection of stories? This shared-world is a town bordering Faerie and the mundane North American worlds that is a haven for runaways on both side of the borders. Started by Terri Windling and contributed to by a who's who (Charles de Lint, Emma Bull, Will Shetterly, etc.) of 1980s originators of urban fantasy, it was a special treat for an old fan to read new stories by old favorites. But the real twist on this anthology is the additional inclusion of new contemporary (mostly YA) urban fantasy writers (Cassandra Clare, Holly Black, Neil Gaiman, etc.) whose muses were influenced by those original writers and the original Bordertown books. These younger writers of generally edgier and darker and definitely millennium-set urban fantasy meld with the original shared world by the conceit that, to the outside mundane world, Bordertown inexplicably disappeared and then returned after a thirteen-year absence. For the occupants of Bordertown, however, only 13 days passed while cut-off from the mundane world. The 1980s and the millennium kids get to bounce off of each other in sometimes hilarious and sometimes heartbreaking ways. In general, I have to admit a preference for those stories that more closely resembled those in the original volumes(generally sweeter, more innocent, and with magic rarely the solution to the problem) -- whether penned by the old or new generation. Some, as in any anthology, I had to scratch my head over as to why they were included at all or what exactly they had to do with Bordertown. Though not always my favorite stories, I did enjoy the implied commentary on the recent trend towards vampires and werewolves and the attempt to fit them into the faerie mythos of Bordertown. (And what fun to have Wolfboy make several appearances.) I love the greater diversity of this volume as well. What a great way to introduce younger readers to both Bordertown and the writers that influenced the fantasy that is being written today!
Book Pairings: The previous Bordertown anthologies, of course -- let's get them back in print, pretty please. Will Shetterly's Elsewhere and Neverwhere Bordertown-set novels. And the urban fantasy novels by any of the many contributors to this anthology."
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Miz (4 out of 5 stars)