strange and random happenstance

Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries by Heather Fawcett
Published by: Del Rey Books
Publication Date: February 11th, 2025
Format: Hardcover, 368 Pages
Rating: ★★★★
To Buy

Stories are the architecture of Faerie, more powerful than magic, more powerful than kings, and Cambridge professor, Emily Wilde, PhD, MPhil, BSc, Dde, tenured, is now in the middle of one. She and her fiance, Wendell Bambleby, are about to retake his kingdom. They've both taken a sabbatical from Cambridge to accomplish this goal. Wendell has been in exile from the Silva Lupi since his stepmother killed his entire family and assumed the throne. Thanks to Emily he not only has a way back, but his stepmother might have already perished by poisoning and he has a rather intimidating entourage. One wouldn't want to show up in one of the most dangerous Faerie realms without a plan. So they swan in with the guardians lead by Razkarden, the trolls, the tree fauns, and the fuchszwerge, the fox-faeries, lead by Snowbell. And they are met with no opposition. Which might be the most unnerving thing about entering the Silva Lupi. Eventually Queen Arna's half-brother, Lord Taran, saunters up and tells them the lay of the land. Arna isn't dead but if Wendell wants the throne he has to best Lord Taran. It's nothing personal, violence comes as naturally as drawing breath to the monarchs of the Silva Lupi, and he promised Wendell's father that he would protect the kingdom from a weak ruler. Lord Taran is the greatest swordsman in the land, and, for a while, Wendell holds his own, but it's not in swordplay that he bests his father, it's by his needle and thread. The path cleared they ascend their thrones and it seems that their only problem will be Emily adjusting the the great many monsters in Wendell's court. But Queen Arna has a neatly constructed vengeance in store. As Emily poisoned her she has in turn poisoned the land. Emily and Wendell worked so hard to find a way back to his world, that all their efforts should have been brought to this; only Wendell's death will lift the curse. Nothing more, nothing less. The Folk do appreciate a story that comes full circle. So in the logical extension of the illogic of Faerie, Emily will save the day due to her living a life lead by scholarly tomes. Stories are the foundations of this world, they may be used as a compass, a guiding star. They just need the right story, they need their guiding star, and this problem will just go away. Once she finds "King Macan's Bees" she thinks she has the answer, the story echoes the present problems, but it's uncanny how accurate it echoes them. Which worries Emily. Queen Arna is cunning and while Emily will never tire of untangling a faerie mystery, could this one be Wendell's last?

Heather Fawcett's Lady Emily series has been a magical, if at times menacing, romp through Faerie and it's academic accouterments. And while I've loved all the volumes in this series I find myself singling this one out as the most magical. While I could say it's because I've grown accustomed to the horrors, much like Emily is attempting to with the monsters in Wendell's court, I think it's really because of a few scenes of such magic that my breath was taken away. The most magical of these is when Emily and Wendell officially marry. In Faerie you don't have to have a big ceremony, you just have to declare your intentions and the deed is done. Which, let's be honest, Emily enjoyed far more than being the center of attention. But when they make their intentions known on a boat as they go to confront his stepmother when they pull apart from sealing their bond with a kiss the world around them is celebrating their love. Faeries are gathering along the shore with lights, like a forest full of fireflies, they illuminate the dark in a way that is pure magic. This is what I've always pictured when I think of the realms of faeries. Little me laying in bed being told fairy tales thrills at this moment. And my love of fairy tales is brought to a whole new level in this volume. Because Heather Fawcett tackles the intersectionality of ghost stories and fairy tales. That's right, Heather Fawcett is bringing in spiritualism into a story I already love and upping the game to a whole new level. So, ghost stories and fairy tales. They could both be under the umbrella of folklore, but personally I like to put them under the umbrella of horror. Because true ghost stories and fairy tales are terrifying. And that fear, that aspect of horror is what draws me in every time. It's the dark shadow of bedtime tales, those that keep you up at night because they have the ring of truth. For me, these types of tales are interchangeable. They are both about something otherworldly. And that this was acknowledged in this series makes me giddy. What's more, it's one of the reasons dryadology even exists as a discipline, because of people studying ghosts. Though, to take this even further, Archibald Robbins of the University of Amsterdam was an iconoclast who theorized there were interactions between the Folk and the spirit world. Then Helen Worthington-West took this further and presented a paper about a brownie who had spoken with the recently deceased using a door. Doors, like the door Emily needed to find to return Wendell to his realm. But this door goes to a spiritual limbo. A place half in the world, half elsewhere, where the ghosts of the Folk linger. Oh my, it's the commingling of two things that in my mind have always been linked that I just can't get enough of. I want more. And I totally agree with Emily, she should have been studying ghost stories instead of the histories of great faerie monarchs.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Cambridge, Emily Wilde, Emily Wilde's Compendium of Lost Tales, Faeries, Fairy Tales, Ghost Stories, Heather Fawcett, King Macan's Bees, Poison, Queen Arna, Silva Lupi, Spiritualism, Stories, Summer School, Wendell Bambleby

Four Gathered on Christmas Eve by Eric Powell, Mike Mignola, Becky Cloonan, and James Harren
Published by: Dark Horse Books
Publication Date: December 19th, 2023
Format: Hardcover, 72 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Four of the top creators in comics gather to continue the Victorian tradition of ghost stories on Christmas Eve.

Four tales of the bizarre and terrifying to keep you company on the cold yule night. A unique approach to the ghost story format where the creators themselves become part of the story in this deluxe edition hard cover designed by the award-winning Phil Balsman."

Needing that last minute gift for the comic lover in your life? Well, Dark Horse is riding in to the rescue!

Deadly Game by Michael Caine
Published by: Mobius
Publication Date: December 19th, 2023
Format: Hardcover, 320 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"DCI Harry Taylor has no respect for red tape or political reputations - but he's great at catching criminals.

And all his unorthodox skills will be needed as an extraordinary situation unfolds on his doorstep: a metal box of radioactive material is found at a dump in Stepney, East London, but before the police can arrive it is stolen in a violent raid.

With security agencies across the world on red alert, it's Harry and his unconventional team from the Met who must hit the streets in search of a lead. They soon have two wildly different suspects, aristocratic art dealer Julian Smythe in London and oligarch Vladimir Voldrev in Barbados. But the pressure is on. How much time does Harry have, and how many more players will join the action, before the missing uranium is lighting up the sky? Deadly Game is a compelling, fast-paced novel of international intrigue and twisting suspense from a legendary actor and British icon, who now proves himself to be a first-rate thriller writer."

I mean, there's no way Michael Caine actually wrote this right? Unless this was his big move after quitting acting... Either way, it's what everyone's dad is getting for Christmas this year.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Becky Cloonan, Christmas, Christmas Eve, Deadly Game, Eric Powell, Four Gathered on Christmas Eve, Ghost Stories, Ghostwriting, James Harren, Michael Caine, Mike Mignola, Tuesday Tomorrow

That Silent Night by Tasha Alexander
Published by: Minotaur Books
Publication Date: October 20th, 2015
Format: Kindle, 63 Pages
Rating: ★★★★★
To Buy

Colin and Emily have fled to town to run a few last minute Christmas errands and to avoid their neighbors. It's not that they haven't enjoyed the festivities at Montague Manor, though Colin did refer to them as The Festival of Horror, there just comes a time when enough is enough. For Colin that point was reached at the proposed daylong charades tournament that would include the entire population of a neighboring village. Therefore they are ensconced in their Park Lane house while the snow blankets the city ignorant to the fact that a different set of neighbors is about to cause them a bit of a bother. While Colin finishes some work for the Palace Emily finishes a chapter in the newest Elizabeth Mary Braddon book and looks out the library window to see the most astonishing sight. A woman has appeared out of nowhere and all the warmth of Emily's cozy library has vanished. The woman's clothes are out of date but more disturbingly she had no coat. On such a cold night Emily knew she must help and rushed out into the swirling snow to find no trace of the woman. Not even a footprint. Colin claims that this is what happens from reading sensationalist literature but Emily is convinced otherwise. The next morning their new neighbors, the newly wed Leightons, ask if they can borrow some coal as the delivery vehicles can not come through. Emily and Colin gladly offer up the coal as well as an invitation to dinner. Mrs. Leighton shares a strong resemblance to the lady Emily saw in the street, but tries to brush it off. But when she finds out the young newlyweds have returned from Switzerland where Penelope was taking a cure for her nerves... could it be the young bride is connected to the disturbing sight that Emily saw? And can Emily help her before Penelope is beyond hope and committed?

As I sat down to read That Silent Night there was a bite in the air and the first hint of snow was forecast. In other words, I had circumstances align perfectly to read this tale. Unlike Tasha's previous holiday offering, Star of the East, which went for the more Agatha Christie tradition of all the suspects snowbound in a manor house, here she went for the more ghostly Christmas narrative. Because while Dickens popularized and in some ways standardized this tradition of ghostly tales told around the fire with A Christmas Carol, he didn't start this tradition which goes all the way back to Shakespeare. Just think of some of the most famous ghost stories of all from The Turn of the Screw to The Woman in Black. These stories are framed by people sitting around a fire and trying to scare each other with tales of the otherworldly and supernatural while Christmas Day draws ever nearer. In fact an article that resurfaced this past weekend from last year, "A Plea to Resurrect the Christmas Tradition of Telling Ghostly Tales," is something I couldn't agree with more after reading That Silent Night. Tasha taps into this tradition and delivers what I easily believe to be a true holiday classic deserving to be read on Christmas Eve that while a part of the overall series can easily be read by anyone unfamiliar with the exploits of Emily and her husband Colin. Over the course of her two Christmas novellas Tasha has written almost pastiches of Wilkie Collins's work, moving from The Moonstone to The Woman in White. But it's the atmosphere of Collins's The Woman in White that makes it a perfect augmentation to this tale. There's more ambiguity, more mystery, and definitely a supernatural bent. That in fact is why I love this tale so much. Tasha doesn't discount the supernatural. She leaves us with ambiguity.

Yet with all the Wilkie of this story in the end it comes down to the Dickens of it all. Not just because Colin is bemoaning Dickens and the pestilential carolers but because That Silent Night couples the ghostly Christmas tale with a social conscience. Dickens strongly believed in showing us the worst of humanity not just to make us feel better but in order to educate us so that we can help others. Christmas might be a time for spooky stories but it is also a time for giving. And not just giving thanks. Emily's social conscience has evolved over the course of the series with many worthy causes being taken up, from suffrage to the plight of the factory worker to female education reform to name a few. Here we see a world of suffering most strongly connected to Dickens, that of orphanages. Through the course of Emily and Colin's investigations into Penelope's past and the ghostly form appearing in Park Lane they end up at an orphanage that Emily says is bleaker than even Dickens could write. The reality of what an orphanage is like, especially during the Victorian era, is terrifying. While the man in charge of running the establishment admits it lacks a certain warmth and holiday cheer he says the sad truth, that at least it's better for the kids than being out on the streets. But it also shows how easy it was for someone to fall through the cracks. In the 1800s, in fact any time before people's identities were so closely monitored and enforced through identification cards and passports and online profiles, you could literally just disappear. You could be lost to this other world of poverty and despair. But in true Dickensian spirit, while we might wallow in misery for a short time, in the end we get our happily ever after. It wouldn't be Christmas if the cockles of our hearts weren't warmed in the end.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: A Christmas Carol, Alexander Autumn, Charles Dickens, Christmas, Ghost Stories, Social Conscience, Star of the East, Tasha Alexander, The Moonstone, The Silent Night, The Woman in White, Wilkie Collins

That Silent Night by Tasha Alexander
Published by: Minotaur Books
Publication Date: October 20th, 2015
Format: Kindle, 63 Pages
Rating: ★★★★★
To Buy

Colin and Emily have fled to town to run a few last minute Christmas errands and to avoid their neighbors. It's not that they haven't enjoyed the festivities at Montague Manor, though Colin did refer to them as The Festival of Horror, there just comes a time when enough is enough. For Colin that point was reached at the proposed daylong charades tournament that would include the entire population of a neighboring village. Therefore they are ensconced in their Park Lane house while the snow blankets the city ignorant to the fact that a different set of neighbors is about to cause them a bit of a bother. While Colin finishes some work for the Palace Emily finishes a chapter in the newest Elizabeth Mary Braddon book and looks out the library window to see the most astonishing sight. A woman has appeared out of nowhere and all the warmth of Emily's cozy library has vanished. The woman's clothes are out of date but more disturbingly she had no coat. On such a cold night Emily knew she must help and rushed out into the swirling snow to find no trace of the woman. Not even a footprint. Colin claims that this is what happens from reading sensationalist literature but Emily is convinced otherwise. The next morning their new neighbors, the newly wed Leightons, ask if they can borrow some coal as the delivery vehicles can not come through. Emily and Colin gladly offer up the coal as well as an invitation to dinner. Mrs. Leighton shares a strong resemblance to the lady Emily saw in the street, but tries to brush it off. But when she finds out the young newlyweds have returned from Switzerland where Penelope was taking a cure for her nerves... could it be the young bride is connected to the disturbing sight that Emily saw? And can Emily help her before Penelope is beyond hope and committed?

As I sat down to read That Silent Night there was a bite in the air and the first hint of snow was forecast. In other words, I had circumstances align perfectly to read this tale. Unlike Tasha's previous holiday offering, Star of the East, which went for the more Agatha Christie tradition of all the suspects snowbound in a manor house, here she went for the more ghostly Christmas narrative. Because while Dickens popularized and in some ways standardized this tradition of ghostly tales told around the fire with A Christmas Carol, he didn't start this tradition which goes all the way back to Shakespeare. Just think of some of the most famous ghost stories of all from The Turn of the Screw to The Woman in Black. These stories are framed by people sitting around a fire and trying to scare each other with tales of the otherworldly and supernatural while Christmas Day draws ever nearer. In fact an article that resurfaced this past weekend from last year, "A Plea to Resurrect the Christmas Tradition of Telling Ghostly Tales," is something I couldn't agree with more after reading That Silent Night. Tasha taps into this tradition and delivers what I easily believe to be a true holiday classic deserving to be read on Christmas Eve that while a part of the overall series can easily be read by anyone unfamiliar with the exploits of Emily and her husband Colin. Over the course of her two Christmas novellas Tasha has written almost pastiches of Wilkie Collins's work, moving from The Moonstone to The Woman in White. But it's the atmosphere of Collins's The Woman in White that makes it a perfect augmentation to this tale. There's more ambiguity, more mystery, and definitely a supernatural bent. That in fact is why I love this tale so much. Tasha doesn't discount the supernatural. She leaves us with ambiguity.

Yet with all the Wilkie of this story in the end it comes down to the Dickens of it all. Not just because Colin is bemoaning Dickens and the pestilential carolers but because That Silent Night couples the ghostly Christmas tale with a social conscience. Dickens strongly believed in showing us the worst of humanity not just to make us feel better but in order to educate us so that we can help others. Christmas might be a time for spooky stories but it is also a time for giving. And not just giving thanks. Emily's social conscience has evolved over the course of the series with many worthy causes being taken up, from suffrage to the plight of the factory worker to female education reform to name a few. Here we see a world of suffering most strongly connected to Dickens, that of orphanages. Through the course of Emily and Colin's investigations into Penelope's past and the ghostly form appearing in Park Lane they end up at an orphanage that Emily says is bleaker than even Dickens could write. The reality of what an orphanage is like, especially during the Victorian era, is terrifying. While the man in charge of running the establishment admits it lacks a certain warmth and holiday cheer he says the sad truth, that at least it's better for the kids than being out on the streets. But it also shows how easy it was for someone to fall through the cracks. In the 1800s, in fact any time before people's identities were so closely monitored and enforced through identification cards and passports and online profiles, you could literally just disappear. You could be lost to this other world of poverty and despair. But in true Dickensian spirit, while we might wallow in misery for a short time, in the end we get our happily ever after. It wouldn't be Christmas if the cockles of our hearts weren't warmed in the end.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: A Christmas Carol, Alexander Autumn, Charles Dickens, Christmas, Ghost Stories, Social Conscience, Star of the East, Tasha Alexander, The Moonstone, The Silent Night, The Woman in White, Wilkie Collins