Last Summer at Mars Hill

by Elizabeth Hand

Paperback, 1998

Call number

813/.54 21

Genres

Publication

New York: HarperPrism Publishers, c1998. 324 p. ; 24 cm.

Pages

324

Description

Short fiction that's "poignant and terrifying by turns"--including a Nebula and World Fantasy Award-winning novella (Publishers Weekly). Twelve exceptional stories by the multiple award-winning author of Waking the Moon and Black Light prove that Elizabeth Hand is just as adept with short fiction as she is in the novel form. The title story traces a world-changing summer at a New England artists' colony for young Shadowmoon Starlight Rising, who comes to know life, death, and an unbelievable secret about the strange apparitions that dwell in her community.   Other stories include "Snow on Sugar Mountain," which features a young boy who has the power to shapeshift into any form with the help of a Native American artifact; "The Bacchae," in which womankind rules a savage futuristic version of our world; and "The Erl-King," where a fairy tale horrifyingly comes true. Each story includes an afterword by the author.   This ebook features an illustrated biography of Elizabeth Hand including rare images and never-before-seen documents from the author's personal collection.… (more)

Awards

World Fantasy Award (Nominee — Collection — 1999)

Language

Original language

English

Physical description

324 p.; 9.5 inches

ISBN

0061053481 / 9780061053481

UPC

046594013002

User reviews

LibraryThing member clong
A very impressive collection from author Elizabeth Hand, an author whom I had not previously read. These are ambitious, powerful stories with beautifully drawn characters, stories that vary in tone from almost pastoral to very angry. Several of them deal with death, others with mankind at his very
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ugliest. Several of them call on images from Greek mythology.

Five of these stories got added to my "all time favorite short stories" list: "Justice," a very angry story about a woman reporter who covers crimes commited by abusive men for a supermarket tabloid; "The Erl-King," a Lovecraftian Faust tale; "The Bacchae," a sort of scary antidote to James Tiptree Jr.'s classic "The Screwfly Solution;" "Snow on Sugar Mountain," a gentle story about a dying ex-astronaut and a runaway shapeshifter; and "On the Town Route," in which a young woman rides an ice cream truck to a fantastic destination. The only story that really didn't work for me was "In the Month of Athyr," the collection's sole science fiction entry.

I will definitely plan to look for more books by Elizabeth Hand.
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