neothe0ne's review against another edition
Read The Baby in the Night Deposit Box by Megan Whalen Turner to teens.
raven_acres's review against another edition
5.0
Enjoyable fantasy book of short stories. Set for a young adult/teens group, but still enjoyable for adults. Famous and not so famous authors.
metaphorosis's review against another edition
4.0
This is one of the better anthologies I've read. All anthologies are something of a mixed bag. The reader's taste very seldom meshes exactly with the editor's, or the editor has had to make some compromises along the way. Firebirds is substantially above average.
The book is helped, of course, by having some very big names in SFF - [a:Lloyd Alexander|8924|Lloyd Alexander|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1200328980p2/8924.jpg], [a:Patricia A. McKillip|25|Patricia A. McKillip|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1220752490p2/25.jpg], [a:Garth Nix|8347|Garth Nix|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1207583754p2/8347.jpg], to name a few. Aside from her first couple of books, I've never read anything by McKillip that wasn't terrific, and that's true here.
The value of anthologies is in introducing readers to new authors. Here, I read a story ("Beauty") by [a:Sherwood Smith|12350|Sherwood Smith|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1339177179p2/12350.jpg], an author I'd never heard of. I was struck by how well developed the world was for a short story. It turns out that's because it is a well developed world. But I nonetheless immediately went out and bought the related novel, [b:Crown Duel|21060|Crown Duel (Crown & Court #1-2)|Sherwood Smith|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1309213505s/21060.jpg|4398231]. I'll be looking up [a:Nancy Farmer|8360|Nancy Farmer|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1207168030p2/8360.jpg] as well. But this anthology also has some other surprises. "Max Mondrosch" was a startling departure from the Lloyd Alexander of the Chronicles of Prydain ([b:The Book of Three|24780|The Book of Three (The Chronicles of Prydain, #1)|Lloyd Alexander|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1317791689s/24780.jpg|1149593]), but no less good because of it.
The editor says she built the book around a graphic novel by [a:Emma Bull|22548|Emma Bull|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1220945364p2/22548.jpg] and [a:Charles Vess|10763|Charles Vess|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1273720560p2/10763.jpg], and I looked forward to it. I'm sorry to say that that story is by far the weakest in the book. Happily, almost all the other stories range from good to excellent.
In short, well worth picking up.
The book is helped, of course, by having some very big names in SFF - [a:Lloyd Alexander|8924|Lloyd Alexander|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1200328980p2/8924.jpg], [a:Patricia A. McKillip|25|Patricia A. McKillip|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1220752490p2/25.jpg], [a:Garth Nix|8347|Garth Nix|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1207583754p2/8347.jpg], to name a few. Aside from her first couple of books, I've never read anything by McKillip that wasn't terrific, and that's true here.
The value of anthologies is in introducing readers to new authors. Here, I read a story ("Beauty") by [a:Sherwood Smith|12350|Sherwood Smith|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1339177179p2/12350.jpg], an author I'd never heard of. I was struck by how well developed the world was for a short story. It turns out that's because it is a well developed world. But I nonetheless immediately went out and bought the related novel, [b:Crown Duel|21060|Crown Duel (Crown & Court #1-2)|Sherwood Smith|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1309213505s/21060.jpg|4398231]. I'll be looking up [a:Nancy Farmer|8360|Nancy Farmer|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1207168030p2/8360.jpg] as well. But this anthology also has some other surprises. "Max Mondrosch" was a startling departure from the Lloyd Alexander of the Chronicles of Prydain ([b:The Book of Three|24780|The Book of Three (The Chronicles of Prydain, #1)|Lloyd Alexander|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1317791689s/24780.jpg|1149593]), but no less good because of it.
The editor says she built the book around a graphic novel by [a:Emma Bull|22548|Emma Bull|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1220945364p2/22548.jpg] and [a:Charles Vess|10763|Charles Vess|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1273720560p2/10763.jpg], and I looked forward to it. I'm sorry to say that that story is by far the weakest in the book. Happily, almost all the other stories range from good to excellent.
In short, well worth picking up.
acidsunshinee's review against another edition
4.0
I really loved this anthology. I started reading it because of Garth Nix and just kept going. I found a few new favorite authors from the shorts contained within.
choirqueer's review against another edition
3.0
This one was all right! The talking cat story was memorable. The others were a mixed bag. I had sort of imagined that I was picking up a book that would be an interesting sampler of authors whose longer works I'd then want to go check out, and I didn't get a lot of that from this anthology. But for the most part I had a good time reading.
teahorse's review against another edition
3.0
This book was sweet, if a bit juvenile for me. Ideal for middle school readers, some of the stories were touching in their innocence, and others felt boring. I'm too old for some of these story formats, but others were still a wonderful read!
eupomene's review against another edition
3.0
This is a wonderfully varied collection of short fantasy stories. The authors collected here are at the top of the game -- Lloyd Alexander, Diana Wynne Jones, Garth Nix and Nancy Farmer, to name a few. My favorite stories were "Cotillion" (another Tam Lin tale), "The Lady of the Ice Garden" (a Japanese twist on Andersen's Snow Queen) and "Chasing the Wind" (whose author mainly wished to write about aeroplanes). A treat.
iamnotamerryman's review against another edition
4.0
Really enjoyed this collection of stories. My favorites were "The Baby in the Night Deposit Box," "Little Dot," and "Beauty."
drekklin's review against another edition
Haven’t touched this in a while and I want to complete it, but I want to finish LOTR and some other books sooner.
dandelionfluff's review against another edition
4.0
Firebird Fantasy almost always publishes golden material. These anthologies are wonderful!