Upon a Once Time - Various Authors - ★★★★.½

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AUTHORS: Various
GENRE: Sci-fi Anthology
PUBLICATION DATE: November 1, 2020
RATING: 4.5 stars.


The description of this book on NetGalley says:
"This book gathers twenty-one authors who have brought new focus to fairy tales by combining two well known stories with a literary genre of their choice."

When you read this, your mind starts expecting a Neil Gaiman-esque fictional + fantastical bonanza. And the book does deliver to a great extent.

The fairy tales used for this anthology range from the popular ones such as Beauty and the Beast, The Pied Piper and Little Red Riding Hood to totally unheard ones (unheard at least by me! 🤭) such as The Arthurian Cycle and The Caliph Stork. But whether I was aware of the original fairy tale or not didn't affect my comprehension, nor did it impair my enjoyment.

Unlike what you would assume, not every tale here is a fantasy fairy world retelling. You have a wonderful mix of science fiction, dark fantasy, humour, horror, steampunk, cyberpunk... The stories take a unique approach to the traditional fairy tales and in most cases, they leave you stunned with their unusual spin on the original.

Almost every story in the anthology is a pleasure to the senses! Of the 21 stories in the collection, I thoroughly enjoyed 16. Some of my absolute favourites were 'Six Rusalki', 'Little Tom's Reality', 'Strings That Ought to be Pondered Even in Urgent Times', 'Taketori Momogatari', 'Gell Who Makes', and 'A Dark Path Through the Forest of Stars'. But I do wish the writers would rethink some of the story titles; they are quite a mouthful!

Overall, this is a really interesting, eclectic collection and would be a great choice for all SFF lovers.

I received an advance review copy of the book for free from NetGalley, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

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