Hags, Sirens, and Other Bad Girls of Fantasy

This book was quite entertaining, and most of the stories were strong. These short stories were a great twist to the old myths - ranging from funny, to mildy chilling, to downright silly. Definitely a great light read!

This anthology, assembled by Denise Little, brings together a collection of stories about women. Not all of them are `bad girls' as the title would like us to believe. Most of the stories center on taking characters normally seen as villainesses and retelling the stories from their point of view, to show they're normal people in unnatural circumstances. Of course, not all the stories are like this. Two that stand out are Banished by Jane Toombs, the main character learns that however bad you are, there's always someone a badder and Jean Rabe's character in Black Annie takes animal rights to a whole new level. A complete list of the stories follows *** Shall We Dance by C.S. Friedman *** Bitter Fruit: A Tale of Crownland by Rosemary Edghill *** The Light of Ra by Phaedra M. Weldon *** Time and Memory by Leslie Claire Walker *** Band of Sisters by Allan Rousselle *** Mother of Monsters by Greg Beatty *** Sisters of the Blade by Loren L. Coleman *** To Ride the Serpent Once More by Terry Hayman *** Lilith by Peter Orullian *** Homeless by Annie Reed *** Sharper Than A Serpent's Tooth by Christina F. York *** Tsonoqua by Nathaniel Poole *** Banished by Jane Toombs *** Soul Taker by Lisa Silversthorne *** Heart of Stone by Scott William Carter *** Black Annie by Jean Rabe *** The Amphora by Steven Mohan, Jr. *** Dust by Michael Hiebert *** The Last Ride by Douglas Smith *** Greek to Me by Laura Resnick All the stories are well written and flow nicely together, making this one of the most solid anthologies I've read in quite some time. Highly recommended to fantasy fans, anthology fans, and anyone looking for a good book to read.

This twenty story anthology focuses on just what the title states: the bad females of fantasy and fairy tales. Normally stories containing Pandora or Isis, etc. they play the villainess secondary character; in this collection these notorious bad girls play the lead role so the audience sees how they perceive their persona, public image, and the encounters that make characters like Cinderella's stepmother become the connotation of parental abuse. Though for the most part well written, much of the bite of being the malevolent one is taken away as several of the ladies insist they are misunderstood. Still fantasy fans who enjoy their villains to be hardened women will find this compilation of all new stories fun and will follow the frolics of these fatal fatale females mostly of Greek mythos. Harriet Klausner