Skip to content

Tag: retellings

May Romance Round-Up

Published 30 May 2018 by Gin Jenny

Clear your schedules, I am going to talk about a book so entirely in my wheelhouse that it and my wheelhouse are basically coterminous. (That’s an exaggeration but not really.) I refer to KJ Charles’s latest book, The Henchmen of Zenda. Before I get into The Henchmen of Zenda, I need to confess that I have this weird soft spot for old-time British adventure novels. There’s no defense I can or should make about this. These are horribly sexist and racist books that I wouldn’t recommend to anyone. I like the swashbuckling. So when I heard that one of my…

Continue readingMay Romance Round-Up
Leave a Comment

Review: Here Lies Arthur, Philip Reeve

Published 10 Sep 2010 by Gin Jenny

All right, I give up. Philip Reeve isn’t for me, and Arthurian stories may not be either. Here Lies Arthur is the story of Gwyna (if you are expecting her to turn out to be Guinevere, like I was, revise your expectations now and save yourself some confusion), who is taken in by Myrddin, a healer and wise man traveling with conquering soldier Arthur. At once Gwyna is caught up in Myrddin’s quest to make Arthur a legendary king capable of uniting all of Britain. It’s my favorite kind of story: a story about stories. And yet, and yet. One…

Continue readingReview: Here Lies Arthur, Philip Reeve
44 Comments

Review: Weight, Jeanette Winterson

Published 21 Apr 2010 by Gin Jenny

I feel like all the Kage Baker books I’m reading should qualify for the Once Upon a Time Challenge, because they do feel more like fantasy than science fiction.  However, despite their genre-bending qualities, they have cyborgs, and the time travel is done with machines.  So Jeanette Winterson’s Weight, a retelling of the myth of Atlas and Hercules, is my first read for the Once Upon a Time Challenge, in which I am pretending I am not really taking part. Weight is a book about looking for new ways to tell stories.  That is a theme that I love.  It’s…

Continue readingReview: Weight, Jeanette Winterson
31 Comments

My day yesterday

Published 19 Feb 2010 by Gin Jenny

Jenny: If fiction is going to be meta, it should be meta exactly like The Unwritten.  I HAVE DECREED IT SO. Universe: Oh yeah? NY Times: Zachary Mason’s The Lost Books of the Odyssey is metafiction and sometimes wonderful.  Read an excerpt. Jenny: I am unmoved by this excerpt. Slate and WSJ: Zachary Mason’s The Lost Books of the Odyssey is meta-licious.  We love it. Jenny: Whatever.  I will believe it when I see it. The Lost Books of the Odyssey: WIN WIN WIN. True story.

1 Comment

Review: Fire and Hemlock, Diana Wynne Jones

Published 14 Feb 2010 by Gin Jenny

So Fire and Hemlock is a retelling of the ballad “Tam Lin”, but it incorporates elements from a dozen other fairy tales, myths, and legends.  I read this article one time that Diana Wynne Jones wrote, about the process of writing Fire and Hemlock and all the different strands of stories she used, which was quite, quite interesting.  The story begins with a young woman called Polly, who is packing her things for Oxford and has come across a book that she remembers being quite different to what it is now.  This leads her to the realization that she has…

Continue readingReview: Fire and Hemlock, Diana Wynne Jones
46 Comments

The Problem of Susan, Neil Gaiman

Published 13 Jan 2009 by Gin Jenny

While I’m in a talking-about-C.S.-Lewis groove, I might as well review this short story.  I reread it yesterday because I was thinking a lot about C.S. Lewis and Aslan and God, and leaving Susan behind when everyone heads into Aslan’s country.  And here’s what I came out of it with: This story hurts my feelings.  On C.S. Lewis’s behalf, my feelings are hurt by this story. The main body of the story isn’t the problem.  I think the story is great actually.  It’s essentially a young reporter interviewing a professor of children’s literature, who (it’s very strongly implied) is the…

Continue readingThe Problem of Susan, Neil Gaiman
226 Comments

Jenna Starborn, Sharon Shinn

Published 14 Apr 2008 by Gin Jenny

So I read this for my Victorians class, basically because I want to write a paper on it for my final project – that research proposal is due in on Thursday and I’ve given it shockingly little thought in comparison to my usual intensive research schedules with these term paper things – anyway, I’m reading it for my final project, and I didn’t expect it to be any good.  I judge books by their cover, and this cover was rubbish. I also judge them on really cheap jokes.  The fact that she talks into her little voice recorder, the brand…

Continue readingJenna Starborn, Sharon Shinn
8 Comments