View source for Rags and Bones by Melissa Marr and Tim Pratt (Editors)

{{infobox1
|title=Rags and Bones
|author=Melissa Marr and Tim Pratt (Editors)
|reviewer=Robert James
|genre=Anthologies
|rating=4.5
|buy=Yes
|borrow=Yes
|isbn=978-1472210524
|pages=384
|publisher=Headline
|date=October 2013
|summary=While it's slightly hit and miss, the good stories in this short story collection are so good that it's required reading.
|cover=1472210522
|aznuk=1472210522
|aznus=1472210522
}}
Some of today's top authors have come together to retell classic tales - from fairy stories to Victorian-era fiction. As usual with this kind of anthology, it's a fairly hit-or-miss affair, but the hits here are so strong that they're well worth picking up the book for.

As you'd expect, [[:Category:Neil Gaiman|Neil Gaiman]] gives us something truly special here, as his ''Sleeping Beauty''-inspired fantasy ''The Sleeper and The Spindle'' took my breath away. It's a beautifully written fantasy with an ending I didn't see coming. The other fairy tale update here is [[:Category:Kami Garcia|Kami Garcia's]] ''The Soul Collector'', which brings ''Rumpelstiltskin'' into the world of urban fantasy. At just over 20 pages, it's action-packed, tense, and really made me care about the characters despite its short length.

I was less impressed by Garcia's [[Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl|co-author Margaret Stohl's]] contribution. Her ''Sirocco'', which takes place on the film set of an adaptation of ''The Castle of Otranto'', did little to capture my attention. Similarly, [[:Category:Carrie Ryan|Carrie Ryan's]] ''That The Machine May Progress Eternally'', inspired by EM Forster's ''The Machine Stops'' was one that I couldn't get to grips with - Ryan's writing style doesn't appeal to me at all, although I know her [[The Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan|Forest of Hands and Teeth]] books have a lot of fans. Prior to this collection, my only exposure to the works of [[:Category:Melissa Marr|Melissa Marr]] was [[Carnival of Souls by Melissa Marr|Carnival of Souls]], which I couldn't recommend that highly because of a poor ending. Happily, her take on Kate Chopin's ''Awakenings'', inspired by the Orkneys' selkie legends, has a much more satisfying conclusion and is one that all folklore fans should check out.

But there's relatively few misfires here overall, and the best stories, along with some beautiful illustrations by Charles Vess, make up for it. [[:Category:Holly Black|Holly Black's]] breathless confessional ''Millcara'', updating Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu's ''Carmilla'' to modern times, is for my money a more gripping vampire tale than her recent novel [[The Coldest Girl in Coldtown by Holly Black|The Coldest Girl in Coldtown]], while a trio of authors I've somehow never read before all surprised me with wonderful writing. I have only the vaguest memories of Rudyard Kipling's ''The Man Who Would Be King'', but [[:Category:Garth Nix|Garth Nix's]] ''Losing Her Divinity'' is a wonderfully tricky homage to it. I love the literature of the American South, and co-editor [[:Category:Tim Pratt|Tim Pratt's]] transplant of Henry James's ''The Jolly Corner'', the story of an unlived life, to that location works brilliantly. A warm narrator and a seductive writing style made this one of my favourites in the collection. Then there's [[:Category:Kelley Armstrong|Kelley Armstrong's]] ''New Chicago''. I think WW Jacobs' The Monkey's Paw is so well-known that it's a brave idea to even try to change it, but Armstrong succeeds here by placing it in a future world which is scary enough to live in even before the lead character comes across that monkey's paw. 

The undoubted jewel in the crown of this collection, though - so good that at around 60 pages it would be worth the price of this hardback alone - is [[:Category:Rick Yancey|Rick Yancey's]] wonderful ''When First We Were Gods''. I don't normally like sci-fi that much - although Yancey's [[The 5th Wave by Rick Yancey|The Fifth Wave]] is a rare exception - but this far future set update of Nathaniel Hawthorne's ''The Birth Mark'' is a class above nearly any other short story I've read all year. A magnificent space-set story of love and obsession, written with the same wonderful style which has made Yancey's ''Monstrumologist'' one of my favourite series, this is a must-read.

Overall, this is a very strong collection which any fantasy or sci-fi fan should go out and get.

Another YA anthology I really liked was [[Kiss Me Deadly by Tricia Telep (Editor)]]. If stories by individual authors here make you want to check out more by them, some good places to start are [[Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl]], [[The Monstrumologist: The Terror Beneath by Rick Yancey]], [[The Fall (The Seventh Tower) by Garth Nix]] and [[Wicked Lovely by Melissa Marr]].

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[[Category:Melissa Marr]]
[[Category:Tim Pratt]]
[[Category:Saladin Ahmed]]
[[Category:Kelley Armstrong]]
[[Category:Holly Black]]
[[Category:Neil Gaiman]]
[[Category:Kami Garcia]]
[[Category:Carrie Ryan]]
[[Category:Margaret Stohl]]
[[Category:Gene Wolfe]]
[[Category:Rick Yancey]]
[[Category:Garth Nix]]
[[Category:Charles Vess]]
[[Category:Fantasy]]
[[Category:Science Fiction]]
[[Category:Teens]]
[[Category:Short Stories]]