Renaissance Faire

I've never actually been to a RenFaire -- yet -- but I love the idea of recreating a (granted, decidedly romanticized) a capsule of medieval life in the modern day as a break from all the commotion and hustle-bustle. And it's that romanticized view of the past that lends itself easily to fantasy, since the line between reality has already been playfully erased: "Jewels Beyond Price" -- While digging through a pile of all but worthless trinkets, a put-upon jeweler stumbles on what looks like a lamp with a genie inside, ready to grant the wishes he didn't realize he had. "Diminished Chord" -- A down-on-his-luck musician discovers he may have a second chance for his dreams when he picks up a lute which might just have some magic in its strings. "Splinter" -- When he tries to swipe a holy artifact from a seemingly dotty old gentleman, a pickpocket learns the hard way about the pain his thefts have caused. "Giralomo and Mistress Willendorf" -- In a by-turns comical and thought-provoking clash of wills, a latter-day Savonarola locks wits with a mysterious woman who appears to be Mother Nature herself. "A Time for Steel" -- A Lady Godiva impersonator wittingly or unwittingly alerts two detectives to a murder at the Faire. "One Hot Day" -- Two young women at the Faire have a strange encounter with a crazy old woman who might be the Crone herself come to stir things up. "Wimpin' Wady" -- It's easy for a young child to go astray at the Faire, but when Faeries get involved, the results could spell trouble... "Brewed Fortune" -- An old family rivalry and a seemingly hokey tea-leaf reading session prove to carry more weight for one faire-goer and his seemingly stodgy friend. "Marriage a la Modred" -- After a Faerie prince threatens his sister's honor, a bored teenager finds out the real meaning of chivalry -- and that the Faire might not be such a dumb place to spend a Saturday afternoon, after all. "A Dance of Seven Vales" -- When developers want to bulldoze a faire-ground to make way for a bunch of McMansions, a wise bellydancer must find a way to charm them into changing their plans. "Moses' Miracles" -- A collector of ancient manuscripts makes the discovery of a lifetime in a bookseller's stall, but he may have to take on the Sidhe to claim it. "Grok" -- Even an Orcish being roving at the Faire has a tale to tell, and despite his grungy exterior, he just might have a poignant secret hiding under the hair and rags. "Renaissance Feare" -- A flip comment about wishing to live in the Renaissance era triggers something a bit too real for a modern couple roving at the Faire. "The Land of the Awful Shadow" -- On returning to find a RenFaire-ground set up in the wilderness where he roamed as a youth, a warrior reconnects with his past -- both the boyishly delightful and the shadows of adulthood brought on early. "Faire Likeness" -- Two guildswomen suspect that a carver of eerily life-like wooden figures may have a nasty ulterior motive to his craf

This anthology gives a number of stories set at Renaissance Faires in various parts of the country. All make use of some fantastic encounters or occurrences to tell their stories. "Jewels Beyond Price" by Elizabeth Ann Scarborough is a fine story, though it is a bit slow. Nothing like a genie to make life interesting. "Diminished Chord" by Joe Haldeman does not actually take place at a Fair, but it does make use of fantasy. A musician has a magical encounter with a mysterious woman and acquires something that allows him to become successful later. The closest to a Fair is a musical performance among other players of antiquated instruments at a gathering at a home. "Splinter" by Kevin J. Anderson and Rebecca Moesta is a nice lesson-story that brings in some historical personages and religious artifacts to educate a misguided young man. "Girolamo and Mistress Willendorf" by John Maddox Roberts is a really nice story about an eternal conflict. It brings in classic religious items and something of the battle of the sexes. "A Time for Steel" by Robert E. Vardeman is a nice little Arthurian story set in a modern Fair. I enjoyed this one. "One Hot Day" by Stephen Gabriel is one of the stories in the anthology that links an attendee of a Fair to the past by some mystical means. The buildup was good, but the end was a bit sudden. The resolution itself, though, we nicely done. "Wimpin' Wady" by Jayge Carr is something of a lesser part of this book. This one deals with faeries and changelings and parental authority and how children of any race can be precocious. "Brewed Fortune" by Michael Stackpole is one of the really good stories in this book. Using characters from a past story, he uses a Renaissance Fair setting to tell a story about the assistant to an investigator that ties into the ancestry of that assistant's past. Really well done. "Marriage A La Modred" by Esthner Friesner was another lesser story in the book. A young man inadvertently gets his sister into trouble with a fantastic Fair-attendee, leading him to a noble decision to save her. The ending is lame, and most of the dialogue and developments nothing to write home about. Not her best work. "A Dance of Seven Vales" by Rose Wolf is another so-so story. This one has magical and mystical doings aiding preservation of the environment, and the many creatures that live therein. "Moses' Miracles" by Roberta Gellis is a really nice story. A collector of rare manuscripts and his assistant make an interesting acquiantance at a Fair. Linking ancient religion and New World civilizations in a satisfying way, Gellis delivers one of the better stories in this book. "Grok" by Donald J. Bingle is a bit sad, telling the story of a forgotten man whose only life takes place at the annual Fair. "Renaissance Fear" by Stephen D. Sullivan is another lesson-story, and another time-travel story. While it is at least not as touchy-feely as most of the stories in this collection, the o