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A review by bubbleybrain
Fairytale Dragons by J.E. Feldman
4.0
Fairytale Dragons is exactly as it says on the tin. These are mostly reimaginings of Brothers Grimm stories with the base requirement that there is some type of dragon in it whether in passing or as an actual main presence. Because of that influence, not all endings are happy ones, but that's how a lot of fairytales go. These are decently-long shorts stories from a collection of authors, and as such, I'll review them individually. The one criticism to the press is the choice to use underscores instead of italics in some places, which is not to any standard style guide.
Dragon Lake by R.L Davenor: Our opening story features basically a weredragon; a woman who is cursed to murder princes in order to free her from her master's curse, but the charms of one prince makes her see otherwise. I'm not a fan of these insta-love narratives and "love conquers" all, but it was well-written and a good opener.
Steelsilk by Kay Humble: Play off of "The Elves and the Shoemaker", and while the elves bit was a bit ham-fisted, how it included both its main character and dragon was a very natural and understandable piece of storytelling that I appreciate. This all organically made sense and was a good narrative.
Cinder and Ash by Ashley L. Hunt: A Cinderella story, but the dragon here exists on the edge of a portal and only acts as an advisor. I question why they were there at all since it added nothing to the narrative. Everything else was on par to the classic narrative and thus one cannot go wrong with the try and true story.
Forged in Flames by Anstice Brown: A Rapunzel narrative but... with a dragon. Okay, didn't see that coming and it worked really well within the story. Bad prince is using magic and curses to court the main character and the object of his affection and she is going to have none of it. Really like this one. It was clever and concise.
Dragon Girl by Denise Ruttan: Picked up this anthology because of Author Ruttan. The strong LGBT showing in the bunch (though not the only one). It needed more run time to cover some elements. I liked its ideas, but wish they could be settled on for a little longer to sort of marinate the change and progression of these characters' explorations and self-discoveries. Also, the sexiest of the bunch, so I'm sure this will make some people quite happy.
The Dragon's Heart by S.O. Green: The other strong LGBT contender, and my goodness, this is dark and thrilling and salacious. Evil Queen vs Snow White, but you'll have no idea where this is going the entire time and it's great.
Nansi and the Dragon Damien Mckeating: Dystopic sci-fi framed in a fantasy and magic perspective from a population long removed from tech. Weren't expecting that one, huh? Very smart, very clever.
The Golden Arrow by Andrea J. Hargrove: A girl cursed into the shape of a dragon and a prince who is scared of her. Sans the one element of misunderstanding being rushed, the characters bonded well and everyone was generally believable as people. It's also nice when everyone isn't just a bunch of a*holes for once.
Fate and Familiars by Lydia Anne Stevens: I hated this one the most. There is nothing more irritating than getting the longest bio in the cluster (two pages) of, "I'm a best-selling author who got her many literary degrees EXACTLY on these and these dates, etc, etc, etc" and then get a story where the character is a bland self-insert over-powered Chosen One Mary Sue who is also going to college for writing but then is chosen to defend the "Magycke"(this alone made me want to drop this entire anthology down to a three star)...which is glitter in a bunch of snowglobes. The grandmother and granddaughter are catty to each other, the dragon amounts to nothing but a tattoo, and once the inciting event happens (which it takes way too long to get to), it rushes through it at supersonic speeds and results in whiplash. It also had the most spelling mistakes and typos, too.
The Claws of the Hunt by Nathan Slemp: A prince stumbles into the Fae realm to save his princess and discovers the myriad of curses and maligned creatures along the way.
Gingerbread and Ash by Nathan Slemp: Hansel and Gretel, except this is... different. The twist is unique, but as a plot point none of it makes sense. The fact there are dragons included in this is a strange plot inclusion that doesn't need to be there and isn't explained for.
Dragon Lake by R.L Davenor: Our opening story features basically a weredragon; a woman who is cursed to murder princes in order to free her from her master's curse, but the charms of one prince makes her see otherwise. I'm not a fan of these insta-love narratives and "love conquers" all, but it was well-written and a good opener.
Steelsilk by Kay Humble: Play off of "The Elves and the Shoemaker", and while the elves bit was a bit ham-fisted, how it included both its main character and dragon was a very natural and understandable piece of storytelling that I appreciate. This all organically made sense and was a good narrative.
Cinder and Ash by Ashley L. Hunt: A Cinderella story, but the dragon here exists on the edge of a portal and only acts as an advisor. I question why they were there at all since it added nothing to the narrative. Everything else was on par to the classic narrative and thus one cannot go wrong with the try and true story.
Forged in Flames by Anstice Brown: A Rapunzel narrative but... with a dragon. Okay, didn't see that coming and it worked really well within the story. Bad prince is using magic and curses to court the main character and the object of his affection and she is going to have none of it. Really like this one. It was clever and concise.
Dragon Girl by Denise Ruttan: Picked up this anthology because of Author Ruttan. The strong LGBT showing in the bunch (though not the only one). It needed more run time to cover some elements. I liked its ideas, but wish they could be settled on for a little longer to sort of marinate the change and progression of these characters' explorations and self-discoveries. Also, the sexiest of the bunch, so I'm sure this will make some people quite happy.
The Dragon's Heart by S.O. Green: The other strong LGBT contender, and my goodness, this is dark and thrilling and salacious. Evil Queen vs Snow White, but you'll have no idea where this is going the entire time and it's great.
Nansi and the Dragon Damien Mckeating: Dystopic sci-fi framed in a fantasy and magic perspective from a population long removed from tech. Weren't expecting that one, huh? Very smart, very clever.
The Golden Arrow by Andrea J. Hargrove: A girl cursed into the shape of a dragon and a prince who is scared of her. Sans the one element of misunderstanding being rushed, the characters bonded well and everyone was generally believable as people. It's also nice when everyone isn't just a bunch of a*holes for once.
Fate and Familiars by Lydia Anne Stevens: I hated this one the most. There is nothing more irritating than getting the longest bio in the cluster (two pages) of, "I'm a best-selling author who got her many literary degrees EXACTLY on these and these dates, etc, etc, etc" and then get a story where the character is a bland self-insert over-powered Chosen One Mary Sue who is also going to college for writing but then is chosen to defend the "Magycke"(this alone made me want to drop this entire anthology down to a three star)...which is glitter in a bunch of snowglobes. The grandmother and granddaughter are catty to each other, the dragon amounts to nothing but a tattoo, and once the inciting event happens (which it takes way too long to get to), it rushes through it at supersonic speeds and results in whiplash. It also had the most spelling mistakes and typos, too.
The Claws of the Hunt by Nathan Slemp: A prince stumbles into the Fae realm to save his princess and discovers the myriad of curses and maligned creatures along the way.
Gingerbread and Ash by Nathan Slemp: Hansel and Gretel, except this is... different. The twist is unique, but as a plot point none of it makes sense. The fact there are dragons included in this is a strange plot inclusion that doesn't need to be there and isn't explained for.