Dust City

By Robert Paul Weston

Henry is a wolf, an anthropomorphized  wolf. He usually walks upright but can also go on all fours. His front paws are hand-like and he talks.  That is true of all the animalia of his world. Frogs, fox, goats, ravens, cats, hedgehogs, they all are people. They have jobs, live in houses, drive cars and such.
Henry's dad is in prison and Henry has been sent to a reform school for breaking a window. He finds out that his father has been sending him letters, but the letters were never given to Henry to read.
Dust is fairy dust. The fairies used to live in their fairy city above Dust City. Fairy dust is powerful magic and can be used to do virtually anything. But the fairies have disappeared and no one knows why or where they have gone. But in the letters, Henry's dad says that the fairies are being held captive and harvested for their fairy dust by the illegal fairy dust suppliers. And the dad wants his son to find out where the fairies are and expose the  conspiracy. But how can Henry do anything locked up in reform school?

This was an OK story. The fairy tale connection was at times a little overbearing. Cinderella is an administrator. Snow White is a hard-boiled detective. Rumplestiltskin is a gangster. Jack and the beanstalk are there too. It was all a bit much.
Basically it is the story of a teenager who infiltrates a drug operation and discovers that the truth about a big business and its connection to organized crime, dressed up in a fairy tale setting. Also, the ending was a bit weak.

Review by Kirkus Reviews.

The Thief of Always

By Clive Barker

Harvey is 10 years old and bored. School is boring, the weather is boring and there is nothing to look forward to in the middle of boring old February. So when a stranger invites Harvey to visit Holiday House, he is suspicious but eventually gives in to his longing for something fun and different.
At first, Holiday House is everything the stranger promised: the weather is beautiful, every day is Christmas and there is food and treats aplenty. Plus, Harvey enjoys the company of two other children at Holiday House, Wendell and Lulu. Of course, Holiday House is not the wonderful paradise it pretends to be. All those presents and toys and treats have to be paid for. And the price is very steep, indeed.

This was an OK story, rather predictable with what I felt was a weak ending. I mean, why would a creature as old and experienced as Mr. Hood, the power behind the house, fall for the very obvious trick that Harvey pulled on him?
The blurbs in the front of the book claim it is intended for teens and adults but I think most adults would find it as predictable as I did. It was not a surprise that Holiday House turns out to be a snare and a trap and that Mr. Hood is feeding on the souls of all the lost children that end up there. Or that Harvey is the hero who will rise to the occasion and rescue not only himself but all the lost children. Or even that each day at Holiday House is a year in the real world. I can't recommend this book for adults but kids would probably enjoy it.

*batteries not included

By Wayland Drew (based on a screenplay)

An old apartment building is in danger of being torn down by a developer, which it might not be if the building is fixed up and shown to be of some historical value to the city. But the tenants have run out of time and have no money and the developer has sent some thugs to persuade the holdouts to move. One of the tenants sends out a desperate prayer for some kind of help and the prayer is heard and two miniature flying saucers show up. These saucers, which seem to be a male and female, like things nice and neat and clean and they soon get the place looking spic and span, including one of the tenants' cafe in the first floor of the building. Soon the cafe is doing a good business and the thugs, dismayed to see these holdouts prospering, bust up the cafe and break out its windows.
But the little saucers, joined my their tiny offspring, are up to the task and they get the cafe repaired overnight. What the thugs do next just may be the end for the people of the old apartment building and of the little flying saucers.

I think this book is basically meant for children, such an unlikely story and a pretty simple plot. I never saw the movie it was based on, so I don't know if the movie was any good. The book was an OK read, but pretty juvenile.

The Last Unicorn

By Peter S. Beagle

So there's this unicorn and one day she realizes that it has been yonks since she has seen another unicorn. She decides to investigate and she shortly discovers that all the other unicorns are gone. She then decides that she must find out what happened to them and where they are. So she sets out on her quest.
Well, she doesn't get far before she is captured by an unscrupulous witch who puts the unicorn into her carnival as an exhibit and there the unicorn stays until she talks the witch's inept magician into helping her escape. And escape is vital because the witch has also captured a harpy and the magic holding the harpy captive is weakening and it will soon burst free and destroy anything in its path. Fortunately the unicorn manages to slip away when the harpy gets free and goes after the witch.
The harpy & the magician resume the unicorn's quest and the magician has a quest too. He wants to find his true power and become a real magician instead of a fake, carnival magician.
The unicorn found out that the other unicorns were driven away by the Red Bull and that the Red Bull serves King Haggard, a blighted king who rules a blighted kingdom. So the unicorn, the magician and a thief's moll they acquire along the way set off for Haggard's kingdom to confront him and his fearsome Red Bull. And in the process each will grow and discover things about themselves they never realized and the unicorn will find out what it is like to be vulnerable.

This is a take on your standard fairy tale, with monsters, magic, a handsome prince, an ensorcelled kingdom, a fair maiden (and a not-so-fair maiden), a wizard and a not-so-happy ending. It was a really good read, engrossing and often fun, and not really your standard fairy tale.

New Words

Theorbo: a larger type of lute typical of Renaissance music. "Their seven servants had set up a scarlet canopy beneath a tree, and the royal young couple ate a box lunch to the accompaniment of lutes and theorbos."

Lamia: a monster with the head and breasts of a woman and the lower half of a serpent, which ate children and sucked the blood from men. "'Unicorn, mermaid, lamia, sorceress, Gorgon - no name you give her would surprise me, or frighten me.'"

Afreet: a cunning demon or spirit from the djinn world. "Long years later, when Schmendrick's name had become a greater name than Nikos's and worse than afreets surrendered at the sound of it, he was never able to work the smallest magic without seeing Prince Lír before him, his eyes squinted up because of the brightness and his tongue sticking out."

The Stepsister Scheme

By Jim C. Hines

We all know how fairy tales end ... "and they lived happily ever after." Well, not always. Cinderella had her happily-ever-after until her Prince Charming ran off with one of the wicked stepsisters. And with poor Cindy (whose real name, we are told, is Danielle) expecting her first baby, no less.
This isn't a case of wandering affections or of a husband frightened by the responsibility of impending parenthood. No, something more sinister is afoot. It's up to the intrepid Danielle (aka Cinderella) to track down her errant husband and detach him from whatever charm the nasty stepsister has placed on him. To do so, though, she is going to need some backup and that's where Snow White and Sleeping Beauty come in. No longer just fairy tale princesses, these two women are now in charge of their own destinies and armed to the teeth, to boot.
Off to fight the baddies (and fight they do, lots and lots of fighting), the princesses head off to Fairytown, where they believe the evil stepsisters have absconded with the besotted prince. With a little help from their friends, a magic sword, and some handy magic, the women are ready and able to take on all challengers. Those stepsisters are going to regret the day they ever fooled around with Cindy's guy!

Sounds like a lot of fun, right? Wrong. Unless you like written depictions of battles and tussles. I don't. I should have known what I was getting into when the first tussle occurred within the first ten pages of the story. To me, it seemed like one of those books where the story is merely a transitional device to the next fight. Beyond the constant fighting though, the book is just not interesting. I never really cared about any of the characters until nearly the end of the book. The only part that captured my attention is where Danielle (Cinderella) ends up captive and serving her stepsisters just like in the bad old days. That was the only part of the book that I felt was compelling and interesting. The rest was just blah.