-- It's a terrific bargain. For around the price of a nonillustrated trade paperback [$$$], you get a hardbound book with illustrated dust jacket and chapter headings by master fantasy illustrator Charles Vess.

-- I read the stories in it in order, instead of picking and choosing the authors I liked. I probably haven't done that in a multi-author anthology since I was a teenager (back when giant lizards roamed the Earth).

-- Vess is an Illustrator, in the best sense of the word. He doesn't just draw pretty pictures; he helps tell the stories.

-- Even though this is a theme anthology, and (as others note) there's lots of stories of teens coming of age while lost in the wilderness, the authors have diverse voices. You get different stories, with different teens (some likeable, others detestable), going through a variety of life-changing experiences.

-- Although the stories vary in quality, they're all readable -- even Midori Snyder's story, which left a bad taste in my mouth by tying things up in too neat a bow and giving the hero's girlfriend a highly-annoying speech at the end.

Give it a try!


The Green Teen   March 26, 2004
 11 out of 18 found this review helpful

I was intrigued by the idea of this anthology, but was rather disappointed to discover that the intended audience seemed to be teenage girls. This is not to say that the book is unreadable by those who aren't of the female and thirteen-year-old variety (I am neither), but it does certainly make a number of the stories rather trite and repetitive. There are a handful of poems as well, but they're so short (and it's unlikely you're buying the book for the poems), that I'll leave them out of the review.
Individual reviews follow:
"Grand Central Park" by Delia Sherman begins our voyage. The first-person protagonist is a young overweight "sensitive geek" girl (autobiographical?) who encounters the Queen of the Fairies in New York City. It doesn't come off well, especially when the author tries to overdo the teen voice. For a far better execution of this idea one should see "Joshua Tree" by Emma Bull later in the volume. The story is bland, the writing cringingly bad at times. Give this one a miss: 2/4.
"Daphne" by Michael Cadnum simply retells the story of Apollo and Daphne (first person again). There's nothing new here for those who know it, especially Ovid's version. 2/4.
"Somewhere in My Mind There Is a Painting Box," by Charles deLint, is the first truly engaging story in the book. Yes, the protagonist is a female teen, told in first-person point of view (one wonders what the directives of the editors were...), but she isn't silly or self-involved as the others seem to be; rather, she's just a young girl without the angst-ridden melodrama of most teen fiction. She encounters a "fairy world" that put me in mind of Tolkien's "Leaf by Niggle." 3.5/4.
"Among the Leaves So Green" is a fine entry by Tanith Lee, featuring a "brand-new" Grimm's Fairy Tale, with twin sisters, a wicked mother, and witches in the forest. A good read, if confusing. It's conspicuous in having our first third-person narrative. 3 out of 4.
"Hunter's Moon," by Patricia A. McKillip reads less like a short story than a condemnation of the practice of hunting. Somewhat moody, she paints a fine picture of Autumn, but there's little here to think of the eponymous "Green Man" of the title, and the characters remain drab. 2/4.
"Charlie's Away" by Midori Snyder takes a slight twist on the theme-here we have a teenage boy. The story is chingly beautiful and sad. The imagery is wonderful, as Charlie escapes childhood guilt into a treetop world, and should be especially poignant to those who remember the anxieties of first leaving home. 3.5/4.
Katherine Vaz's "A World Painted By Birds," on the other hand, is quite simply gibberish and nonsense. In it she has a vaguely Hispanic-themed world, but the storytelling is so disjointed and random that it becomes nearly impossible to learn (or indeed, care) what is happening in the story. It is an impressionistic painting brought to life, with all the failures of narration that this implies. 1 out of 4.

"Grounded" by Nina Kiriki Hoffman returns us to the teen angst motif, rather tired by this point in the book; the protagonist and her mother fly to California to meet her mother's internet-boyfriend (yes, I know...). He has some magic tree-power, etc. Yawn. 1 out of 4.
"Overlooking," by Carol Emshwiller, is a complete mystery to me. At only 15 pages, and in the voice of (apparently?) a fairie-queen of sorts, it describes an encounter with a traveler, his desire to see something (which remains unclear), and then his murder (which she takes part in? Maybe?). It's a jumbled mess. Read a napkin instead. 1 out of 4.
"Fee, Fie, Foe, et Cetera," on the other hand, by Gregory Maguire, is a delightful little jaunt, tongue-in-cheek, about Jack and the Beanstalk's world. How this relates directly to the Green Man is again a mystery, but the description of Jack the Lesser and his ladybugs alone is worth the read. 3.5/4.
Emma Bull's "Joshua Tree" is probably the most effective of the "teenage girl" stories, as the author has the voice down to reality, and paints a compelling picture. The "tree" itself is little seen, but remains a focal point in the girl's history-and she, unlike Ms. Sherman, manages to convincingly speak in the voice of another generation.
"Ali Anugne O Chash (The Boy Who Was)" by Carolyn Dunn is so poorly written that I simply skipped it; apparently it involves Native American myths. 0/4.
"Remnants" by Kathe Koja is less a tale of the Green Man than it is one of modern insanity, told in disjointed form from the point of view of either an insane or mentally challenged individual who lives a "forest" created from garbage-plastic bottles and paper bags strung on rakes. It's disturbing in some of its imagery, particularly when it attempts to evoke beauty from such-it doesn't work, but it's an admirable effort. 2.5/4.
"The Pagodas of Ciboure," on the other hand, by M. Shayne Bell, is what makes the book worth buying, especially if you're a fan of Classical Music. You'll understand why once you've read it-the author takes a story of a rather famous composer and fills in some details, along with a bit of myth that isn't generally known outside of that part of the world. 4/4.
Finally, Jeffrey Ford's "The Green Word" reads rather like a pseudo-horror story in the vein of Stephen King's "Eyes of the Dragon." Set in an unidentified medieval land where traitors are executed and witches revenge themselves upon kings, it is a fairly brutal story, all told. Well-written, but without a major point. 2/4.
So...is the book worth buying? Yes-but only if you enjoy juvenile fiction. Check it out from a library or read the good stories "Fee, Fie, Foe...," "Charlie's Away," "Pagodas," "Somewhere in my Mind...," "Among the Leaves..." and "Joshua Tree." Skip the rest.


Read it and be refreshed by green.   July 7, 2003
 9 out of 9 found this review helpful

Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling have paid true homage to the spirit of the Green Man in this anthology. Not only do the short stories collected in this hefty volume evoke a true sense of mystery in the wild, but artist Charles Vess -- who publishes much of his work via his own, well-respected Green Man Press -- has provided cover art and incidental illustrations to bring the concept alive.
From top to bottom, front to back, Tales from the Mythic Forest is an excellent collection of stories unearthing the heart of the woodlands, the spirit of the trees and the face of nature.


Winding roads and leafy faces   July 2, 2002
 8 out of 9 found this review helpful

The editorial review hits the nail on the head when it says that most of these stories involve teenagers going into the woods and having some sort of coming-of-age experience. And in this way, many of the stories are similar, since they have similar themes.

However, some of the authors manage to make something fresh and beautiful out of the traditional archetype of kids-lost-in-woods. Delia Sherman contributes a tale of the Faery Queen of Central Park, and the insecure girl who faces her in a battle of wits. Tanith Lee presents probably the darkest of the tales, "Among the Leaves So Green", about two outcast sisters who each have a special destiny. (This one is probably my favorite--it's pure magic.) Emma Bull's "Joshua Tree" is a lovely story about high school, raves, friendship, and mystery. Jane Yolen's poem "Cailleach Bheur" is terrific. For these stories and many more, I recommend this book.

Of course, in all anthologies, there are disappointing stories. Patricia McKillip's "Hunter's Moon" seems like a political rant about hunting and meat-eating. And Gregory Maguire fleshes out Jack (of Beanstalk fame), his mom, his brother, and the harp, while somehow managing to avoid making me care about any of them. They're both good stories by good writers--they just weren't to my taste. The writing is good in all of these stories; there are just a few that aren't for me.


15 short stories + 3 poems   June 14, 2005
 6 out of 8 found this review helpful

"In this book, we've asked the writers to journey deep into the Mythic Forest, to bring back tales of those wild lands, and of the creatures who dwell within them. Thus in these pages you'll find witches, wolves, dryads, deer men, a faery or two, and numerous magical spirits of nature..."
- from the editors' preface

Windling's "Introduction" outlines the origins of the archetype of the Green Man and other forest beings.

--

Bell, M. Shayne: Sickly little Maurice Ravel meets "The Pagodas of Ciboure" - creatures out of French legend - on his grandmother's estate, and asks them to heal him. But what can he do for them?

Bull, Emma: The narrator, a girl with a taste for raves who doesn't fit in with either base kids or townies, is busy growing up in a Marine base town on the border of "Joshua Tree" National Park. (The rave reads like a faery celebration, nice touch.)

Cadman, Michael: "Daphne" narrates the tale of Apollo's attempted seduction.

de Lint, Charles: "Somewhere in My Mind There Is a Painting Box" Twenty years ago, two painters walked into the woods covering the hills outside Newford, but only Frank Spain has returned to a world he no longer belongs to. How can he return when he only tagged along with his mentor in the first place? His mentor, who once said "Many times the only painting box I take is in my head."

Dunn, Carolyn: Braided format, one thread following the ill-fated deer hunt of "Ali Anugne O Chash (The Boy Who Was)", the other narrated by the clubfooted girl who loved him but brought about his downfall.

Emshwiller, Carol: The narrator, matriarch of the hidden forest people who amuse themselves "Overlooking" mountain climbers, alternately talks about her experiences with humans and about one day's company of an old man the youngsters brought to her.

Ford, Jeffrey: "The Green Word" The forest people's revolt draws to a close as Moren Kairn accepts the last gift the witch of the forest has to offer: a mysterious seed that grants him easy dying even as he faces execution. The witch, in turn, creates a champion from the earth watered by Kairn's spilled blood: Vertuminous, a manlike tree with fruit where his heart should be, who regenerates every time he's killed. *That* attracts the king's attention...

Gaiman, Neil: "Going Wodwo" (poem) "I'll leave the way of words to walk the wood..."

Hoffman, Nina Kiriki: The narrator's mother Meg and her prospective stepfather Vernon both work at keeping people "Grounded", Meg in a hospice, Vernon as a psychologist from his home in the woods bordering Silicon Valley. Tale relates Meg and Fiona's first face-to-face meeting with Vernon and his kids, as Fiona keeps looking for the snags of living among these fair folk.

Koja, Kathe: The narrator's forest is made of "Remnants", but the 'Department of People Watching' doesn't like it.

Lee, Tanith: Two half-sisters, Bergette and Ghilane, are the unloved daughters of the village prostitute by two different woodcutters, conceived "Among the Leaves So Green" and often sent back on errands as their mother secretly hopes to be rid of them. Interesting twist, along the lines of Lee's RED AS BLOOD stories, that the hateful older sister needing redemption is the focus rather than the decent younger sister.

Lewis, Bill: "Green Men" (poem) "Foliate faces flower and the/memory of an antique hour/unwinds beneath/a carpenter's craft;/masons, too, saw their shape/sleeping in the stone."

Maguire, Gregory: "Fee, Fie, Foe, et Cetera" Retelling of the Beanstalk story, with the action split between two Jacks - the adventurer and his daft younger brother - and their mother, none of whom are very bright. The king's mismanagement of the treasury leads to trying the family for "agricultural treason", for instance.

McKillip, Patricia A.: "Hunter's Moon" Dawn and her little brother Ewan, lost in the woods during deer-hunting season, are returned to their family in a way the hunters will never forget.

Sherman, Delia: The narrator, a girl living near "Grand Central Park", must play Truth or Dare for her life against one of the fairies living there. "'We ain't in the Old Country no more. We're in New York' - Noo Yawk is what she said - 'New York, US of A. We ain't got no Queens, except across the bridge.'"

Snyder, Midori: "Charlie's Away" to the Greenwood the day after receiving his college acceptance letter, his grief for his lost baby sister and the weight of responsibility for filling two children's places in his parents' lives finally having been too much for him. Something like TAM LIN in reverse.

Vaz, Katherine: "A World Painted by Birds" told in a traditional fairy-tale style. The General ruling Rio Seco condemns those who defy him to a detention camp on the far side of the forest - though not the young lacemaker Lucia, since the General's Wife has a weakness for lace. When Lucia falls in love with a young violinist who has played songs protesting the General's tyranny, the lovers flee into the forest and join the Gardener, who as a man already half a plant found it easy to vanish, but still fights to free the prisoners.

Yolen, Jane: "Song of the Cailleach Bheur" (poem): "She is the winter, the wind, the snow,/Her breath both warm and chilling./A single word from her icy lips,/A single kiss is killing."