The Magic Shop - Softcover

Denise Little worked for Barnes & Noble/B. Dalton Bookseller for many years, first as a bookstore manager, then as their national book buyer for romance, science fiction, and fantasy fiction. She then joined Kensington Publishing, where she edited her own line of romance, Denise Little Presents. She's currently executive editor at Tekno Books.

The 17 stories in this anthology on the theme of places to buy magic make up an exceptionally strong volume. In "Tarnished Linings," P. N. Elrod goes for the gruesome, while in "Dime Store Rings," Michelle West offers probably the most powerful story here--on aging, in children as well as parents. Mel Odom uses American Indian folklore in "The Serpent of the Lakes," while Kristine Katherine Rusch puts a corporate troubleshooter for a chain of magic shops in a position where the trouble at hand threatens to shoot (or stab) back. "The Fairest" by Von Jocks ingeniously varies the theme of the magic mirror, while India Edghill's "Winter Phoenix" (which nearly ties West's entry as best in the book) powerfully alters the theme of the fate of a certain Russian princess. Even the less compelling stories here feature gratifying grace notes. All told, singular testimony to how much originality, or at least good storytelling, a venerable theme can generate. Roland Green
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