Firebirds Soaring: An Anthology of Original Speculative Fiction

Overview

First Firebirds. Then Firebirds Rising. Now there is Firebirds Soaring, the third anthology of original stories by some of today's finest writers of fantasy and science fiction. These authors, including Nancy Farmer (The Sea of Trolls), Ellen Klages (The Green Glass Sea), Margo Lanagan (Black Juice), and Jane Yolen (The Devil's Arithmetic), have brought new worlds and Old Magic to life in nineteen remarkable pieces of short fiction. Mike Dringenberg, co-creator of Sandman with Neil Gaiman, contributes decorative vignettes. Firebirds Soaring--like Firebirds and Firebirds Rising--sets the standard for short fiction for teenagers and adult fans of the genre.

Editorial Reviews

Gr 9 Up-This anthology, the third volume in the series, contains 19 short stories by some of the top writers in this genre. Nancy Springer opens the volume with a story of a precocious young princess with a gift of discernment who unearths the controlling power of the moon goddess hidden in a golden ring. Nancy Farmer takes readers on a magical train ride into eternity. Margo Lanagan's "Ferryman" reveals the dark and dreary life of the boatman of the dead, while Jane Yolen and Adam Semple offer up the brutal, very adult retelling of "Little Red Riding Hood" as a sexually abused young woman who copes with her pain by cutting herself and disappearing into a fantasy world. The selections vary in length, with some short stories, some novellas. Each work is introduced by an evocative illustration that beautifully sets the scene for the written work. The variety of styles and themes and a gathering together of so many talented writers in one work offer readers a banquet for the imagination. For fans of the genre, this is a must read.-Debra Banna, Sharon Public Library, MA Copyright 2008 Reed Business Information.

Author Information

Bio of Clare Bell

Born in England in 1952, Clare Bell moved to the US in 1957. She worked in oceanography, electrical engineering, test equipment design and mechanical engineering before she wrote her first book, Ratha's Creature (Atheneum-Argo Margaret K .McElderry 1983), the story of a prehistoric wildcat who learns to tame fire. Since then she has continued to write fantasy and science fiction for children and adults. She says, "I am still fascinated by prehistoric animals and big cats, as showcased in the five Ratha series novels. I consider my two little cats, Danny and Athena, to be research assistants as well as companions and have learned a lot from them." "My stories show sociological themes as well, exploring the changes that are brought about in culture through technology, even one as crude as fire. I also enjoy creating plausible and workable prehistoric animal and alien characters. The central theme of my fiction is evolution, a result of my being influenced early by the works of C.S. Lewis, Olaf Stapledon , and Arthur C. Clarke. Bell has degrees in electrical and mechanical engineering, biology and chemistry and she works in technical areas in addition to writing fiction. She built and designed electric vehicles and spent a year in Norway working on the Ford Think EV. She raced EVs in the Arizona Public Service Company-sponsored Solar and Electrics competitions, held from 1991 to 1998. Her electric Porsche 914, known by her racing number, #13, was a well-known top-placing competitor in these races. She was also involved with the Women's Electric Racing and Educational Team (WE'RE-IT), racing the Porsche and a converted race-Rabbit, #6 Hop-along. After moving to a remote site in California's coastal mountains, Bell and her partner put together theirr own solar and wind systems and experimented with a power-generating waterwheel. A naturalized citizen of the US, she now lives with her partner-become-husband, Chuck Piper, in the hills west of Patterson, California. Please visit her website at rathascourage.com.

Bio of Kara Dalkey

Kara Dalkey is the author of several fantasy books, including Little Sister, The Nightingale, and Blood of the Goddess series. She lives in Gunnison, CO.

Bio of Candas Jane Dorsey

Candas Jane Dorsey is a writer, editor, and publisher. Dorsey was the president of the Writing Guild of Alberta, and editor of Edmonton Bullet, and one of the founding editors of the River Books imprint of the Books Collective of Edmonton. Dorsey is currently a member of the editorial advising committee for OnSpec SF magazine, and publisher of Tesseract Books, Canada's oldest speculative fiction imprint. Various pieces of Dorsey's short fiction have been awarded the Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy Award for Best Short-Form Work in English. "Johnny Appleseed on the New World" was chosen for the Visions of Mars CD-ROM included aboard in the 1994 launch of the U. S.-Russian exploration. 030

Bio of Carol Emshwiller

Carol Emshwiller was born in Ann Arbor, Michigan, in 1921 and grew up in Michigan and France. A MacDowell Colony Fellow, she has received a National Endowment for the Arts grant, a New York State Creative Artists Public Service grant, a New York State Foundation for the Arts grant, and has won the World Fantasy, Nebula, Philip K. Dick, Gallun, and Icon awards. Her short fiction has appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, Century, Lady Churchill's Rosebud Wristlet, New Directions, Orbit, The Voice Literary Supplement, Omni, SciFiction, and many other anthologies and magazines. Her short work has been collected in World Fantasy Award winner The Start of the End of it All, Verging on the Pertinent, Joy in Our Cause, and Report to the Men's Club and Other Stories. She is also the author of four novels, Carmen Dog, Ledoyt, Leaping Man Hill, and Philip K Dick Award winner The Mount. Emshwiller lives in New York City in the winter where she teaches at New York University School of Continuing Education. She spends her summers in a shack in the Sierras in California.

Bio of Nancy Farmer

Nancy Farmer has written three Newbery Honor Books: The Ear the Eye and the Arm; A Girl Named Disaster; and The House of the Scorpion, which, in 2002, also won the National Book Award. Other books include Do You Know Me, The Warm Place, and three picture books for young children. She grew up on the Arizona-Mexico border, and now lives with her family in Menlo Park, California.

Bio of Ellen Klages

Ellen Klages lives in San Francisco, California

Bio of Margo Lanagan

Margo Lanagan is a highly acclaimed writer of novels, short stories, and poetry. Black Juice, her second collection of stories, won a Printz Honor Award and the World Fantasy Award for Best Collection. Ms. Lanagan lives in Sydney, Australia.

Bio of Nick O'Donohoe

No bio available for Nick O'Donohoe.

Bio of Chris Roberson

Chris Roberson lives in Austin, Texas. He has written for adults about his invented Celestial Empire, but this is his first novel for teenagers.

Bio of Sherwood Smith

Sherwood Smith's day job is dodging raining accordions and battling flying squids, otherwise known as junior high teacher. Her most popular book is a YA fantasy from Firebirds Books called Crown Duel, and she has also written a fantasy book called Inda, published by DAW Books. She has one spouse, two kids, and two dogs.

Bio of Jo Walton

No bio available for Jo Walton.

Bio of Elizabeth Wein

No bio available for Elizabeth Wein.

Bio of Laurel Winter

No bio available for Laurel Winter.

Bio of Jane Yolen

Born and raised in New York City, Jane Yolen now lives in Hatfield, Massachusetts. She attended Smith College and received her master's degree in education from the University of Massachusetts. The distinguished author of more than 170 books, Jane Yolen is a person of many talents. When she is not writing, Yolen composes songs, is a professional storyteller on the stage, and is the busy wife of a university professor, the mother of three grown children, and a grandmother. Active in several organizations, Yolen has been on the Board of Directors of the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators, was president of the Science Fiction Writers of America from 1986 to 1988, is on the editorial board of several magazines, and was a founding member of the Western New England Storytellers Guild, the Western Massachusetts Illustrators Guild, and the Bay State Writers Guild. For twenty years, she ran a monthly writer's workshop for new children's book authors. In 1980, when Yolen was awarded an honorary Doctor of Law degree by Our Lady of the Elms College in Chicopee, Massachusetts, the citation recognized that "throughout her writing career she has remained true to her primary source of inspiration--folk culture." Folklore is the "perfect second skin," writes Yolen. "From under its hide, we can see all the shimmering, shadowy uncertainties of the world." Folklore, she believes, is the universal human language, a language that children instinctively feel in their hearts. All of Yolen's stories and poems are somehow rooted in her sense of family and self. The Emperor and the Kite, which was a Caldecott Honor Book in 1983 for its intricate papercut illustrations by Ed Young, was based on Yolen's relationship with her late father, who was an international kite-flying champion. Owl Moon, winner of the 1988 Caldecott Medal for John Schoenherr's exquisite watercolors, was inspired by her husband's interest in birding. Yolen's graceful rhythms and outrageous rhymes have been gathered in numerous collections. She has earned many awards over the years: the Regina Medal, the Kerlan Award, the World Fantasy Award, the Society of Children's Book Writers Award, the Mythopoetic Society's Aslan Award, the Christopher Medal, the Boy's Club Jr. Book Award, the Garden State Children's Book Award, the Daedalus Award, a number of Parents' Choice Magazine Awards, and many more. Her books and stories have been translated into Japanese, French, Spanish, Chinese, German, Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, Afrikaans, !Xhosa, Portuguese, and Braille. With a versatility that has led her to be called "America's Hans Christian Andersen," Yolen, the child of two writers, is a gifted and natural storyteller. Perhaps the best explanation for her outstanding accomplishments comes from Jane Yolen herself: "I don't care whether the story is real or fantastical. I tell the story that needs to be told."

Bio of Marly Youmans

No bio available for Marly Youmans.

Bio of Louise Marley

Lousie Marley, a performer of classical music, is the author of several novels including The Terrorists of Irustan and The Glass Harmonica, which was the co-winner (with Ursula LeGuin's Tales from Earthsea) of the 2001 Endeavor Award for Outstanding Achievement in Science Fiction or Fantasy. She lives in Redmond, Washington with her husband and son.

Bio of Nancy Springer

Nancy Springer, an instructor of creative writing with York College in Pennsylvania, is the author of more than thirty novels for adults, young adults and children, as well as nonfiction, novellas, short stories and poetry. Among her published novels are IN THE BLACK BEAST, THE GOLDEN SWAN, CHAINS OF GOLD and APOCALYPSE. The best advice that Nancy can give based on her life experiences is to ' Conform, go crazy, or become an artist, ' which she has on her rubber stamp. If she could add one more thing to it, she says it might include one of the following: ' Hug a horse. Paint the porch cream and lavender. Eat Chinese whenever possible. Put the old picture in a new frame. Take a bike ride. Go dancing. Believe in the power of dreams. '

Bio of Nina Kiriki Hoffman

Nina Kiriki Hoffman won the Bram Stoker Award for First Novel for The Thread That Binds the Bones, and her second novel The Silent Strength of Stones was a finalist for both the Nebula and World Fantasy Awards. Most of her work has been shorter length fiction, collected in the small press volumes A Legacy of Fire and Courting Disasters and Other Strange Affinities. Both Past the Size of Dreaming and A Red Heart of Memories are based on her Nebula Award-nominated novella "Home for Christmas." She lives in Eugene, Oregon with four cats and a mannequin.

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Additional Info

Imprint

Puffin

Filesize

2.81 MB

Number of Pages

592

eBook ISBN

9781101021460