Exit Strategy by Martha Wells
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
It appears this is the last (for now, written Feb 2019) of the Murderbot Diaries novellas from Martha Wells. The good news out of this is that we are getting a full length novel!! That's right a lot more Murderbot coming our way soon.
What can I tell you about this book... if you already liked the first three novellas you'll enjoy this one too. It brings our favourite bot full circle. Back to the company of the original crew in All Systems Red. Except this time they have the data to cause a stir.
Murderbot evolves up to this point in the series. We see them (in my mind Murderbot is a girl... however I give you gender neutral pronouns as a way to not impose my opinion on anyone) progress to a point where they can control way more droids, scanners, systems, etc. than we would have ever thought possible. That comes at a price however and Exit Strategy is all really about what the price is and how far Murderbot will go to bring down the Company.
There is all the same snark, sarcasm, humour and clever wit in Exit Strategy as in the first three books. I still think book 2 was my favourite because of the ship ART. There isn't quite the same relationship in Exit Strategy between them and another bot as we had in books 2 and 3. But because we have our human leads back I barely noticed. Exit Strategy ramps up fast, and you MUST have read book 3 prior to getting into this one (they are seamlessly connected from one page to the next). Overall I still love Murderbot and am in agony waiting for Wells to give us more!
(Related but Unrelated Note: I'm super annoyed Wells fantasy trilogy is out of print because now I want to read everything she has ever read!)
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My Friend Sleep by Laura Baker
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
The best kind of children's stories are the ones that have a lyrical pace to them. Writing a children's book may seem easy, and maybe many are. Canadian born Laura Baker steps her writing in My Friend Sleep up to a level so many other children's books by turning the words into a poetry with a lullaby tempo. Paired up with the gorgeous illustrations of Hannah Peck from the UK, My Friend Sleep is sure to become a parent and children's favourite. This is the kind of story that could have the staying power of I'll Love You Forever and could be gifted to parents from their adult children in the future.
I honestly cannot say anything but good things about this gorgeous story about falling asleep and not being afraid of the dark. I wish I had this book as a child and cannot wait to gift it to all the little ones in my life.
Please note: I received an eARC of this book from the publisher via NetGalley. This is an honest and unbiased review.
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How to Fracture a Fairy Tale by Jane Yolen
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
So I’m a little frustrated. I read an eARC of this that had no linked table of contents and so I didn’t know there were authors notes to go with every story at the back!! I would have liked these at the beginning or end of each story within the book context. Especially because some of the notes Jane Yolen made at the end of the book are key to understanding her decision to include the story or why she changed what she did.
The Tales
There are a lot of fairy tales in this book. Some are multi-sectioned and upwards of 75 pages. Others are not even 1000 words long. The variety is well spread-out and you could easily choose to read these in any order you wanted. None of them rely on you having read the story before.
I really enjoyed the ones based on traditional fairy tales. There are many that are not based in stories you may know. Some are from foreign folklore many may not be familiar with (but what a great time to learn about it!) and others have biblical context to them. As someone who is familiar with the commonly known Bible stories this was fine for me but someone less versed in religious text may find this frustrating.
What's a Fairy Tale?
Yolen's collection has really made me think about what is a fairy tale? Does Disney need to have made an animated movie for it to count? (I hope not!) Does it need to be 'well known' and who defines what is common enough? Does it need to have a strong moral? A princess? An evil villian? You get where I'm going with this. It's hard to define a fairy tale. And so my thought on what is a fairy tale is different from Yolen. Once I accepted that to be the case things were better for me. The first Bible story threw me for a loop; even though I really enjoyed the one where the man is taken to Hell and then Heaven to see 'what they are like'.
The Best?
The obvious question with anthologies is, which story is best? I don't know if I can answer this. There are so many great merits to most of the stories in this anthology. There are a couple duds (including one early on, so what out!) but overall a clear 80% or more of these stories are excellent. I did really enjoy the unique take on Rumpelstiltskin (a personal fave), the dragons whom no one remembers and the Snow White reversal.
Overall
There are a lot of hidden gems in How to Fracture a Fairy Tale and I'm confident any reader could find at least one or two stories they liked. That is perhaps the true genius of Yolen's writing and interpretations is that she sees them from all different perspectives. There is no one 'fracture' point of view that all the stories are told from. Instead it's as though a different person wrote the stories in some cases.
The introduction by Marissa Meyer is repetitive, dull and easily skipped. It feels included to capitalize on her name recognition. But don't skip over Yolen's short introduction to the stories. She has a couple important things to say about what she deems a fracture and how fairy tales have evolved over the years.
Please note: I received an eARC of this book from the publisher via NetGalley. This is an honest and unbiased review.
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