Book Review: Fantasy Short Stories, Suzanne Rogerson
Fantasy/Story Collection: Fantasy Short Stories, Suzanne Rogerson
Blog Tour June 20, 2022
Restaurants seem to have two approaches to appetizers. One approach is to provide something different, something not found on the dinner menu. It may be thematic: empanadas at a Mexican restaurant, soup at an American restaurant, etc. But something not necessarily found among the other offerings.
Others use the appetizers to appeal to those with smaller appetites or who aren’t sure what they may like. These choices may include smaller portions or ala carte servings of menu items. Rather than going for the one large ticket, these restaurants are hoping people will come back wanting more.
Suzanne Rogerson might favor the second approach to appetizers. Her new book, Fantasy Short Stories, features characters, scenes, vignettes, and even excerpts from her other fantasy novels and series. Her hope, presumably, is to appeal to new audiences who do not know her work, to whet their appetite for more and bring them back to the table for the larger portions. At least for this reader, this book has done that job.
Rogerson’s series are full of magic and full of people who are afraid of magic. Sometimes that fear turns into persecution. A young girl, just learning about her abilities, has to flee for her life with her cousin after healing a neighbor’s horse. A family trying to live in hiding is slaughtered at home with only a young daughter escaping the carnage. Heroes and heroines ride tall, using spells and swords to defend the weak and the innocent. Evil stalks the land, but good does not lie down in its path.
Although these themes are recognizable to any fantasy reader, that does not make them careworn or unwelcome. Indeed, those of us who appreciate genre literature are looking for some of those comfort foods. We want to see good fighting evil. It may not always win, but we want to see it striving. We want to see a magical world. Sure, it may lack working toilets, but it would be nice to have a secret ability to heal the sick, to defend the weak, to prevent certain orange-tinted usurpers from reclaiming their seats of power. (OK, that may just be me.) If we were overly fond of the real world we would stick to non-fiction. Fantasy allows us to escape, at least for a time, from the news of plagues and droughts, of wars and turmoil, of violence and oppression. Granted, we are escaping into a fantasy world that is often full of plagues, droughts, wars, turmoil, violence, and oppression. At least they are not our conflicts.
Rogerson has effectively pulled me into her worlds. I am not sure when I will get to her other books, but they have definitely attracted my attention and I hope to add them to my quite intimidating TBR pile before long.
Our thanks to Rachel Gilbey of Rachel’s Random Resources for our copy of Fantasy Short Stories, provided so we could participate in this blog tour. The opinions here are those of Scintilla. For other perspectives, check out the other bloggers on this tour.
Book Review: Fantasy Short Stories, Suzanne Rogerson
Thanks very much for reading and reviewing Fantasy Short Stories as part of the blog blitz. I hope you have a chance to read the full length novels in the future.