Fantastic Alice
Author : Various (Anthology)
Editor : Margaret Weis
Published : December 1st, 1995 by Ace
304 pages
Paperback
I found this book in a local used bookstore last fall and while I can’t say I’m a super-fan of the work of Lewis Carroll, I was certainly familiar with the stories of Alice in Wonderland. At least I thought I was. What I learned as I read through this anthology was that I pretty much only knew some of the highlights, recognized a handful of the characters, and that was the extent of my knowledge.
This anthology contains sixteen short stories from various authors and each story takes a stab at different characters or different themes. What is interesting is that all of the stories take these classic characters and drop them into a more contemporary setting. Which in itself is a bit strange because the settings FELT very 1990’s, which of course is now itself 30 years ago.
To put it bluntly, the book just had a strange vibe to it.
Within the sixteen stories, they are all well written. They weren’t BAD stories. But aside from maybe one or two that stood a little above the rest, this collection terribly missed the mark for me. To be perfectly honest, I can’t even give you a FAVORITE story from this book as none of them really stuck with me.
Many of these stories tackle some heavy themes, such as death and grief or facing the fact that life marches on for all of us. They do it in a flavor that typically feels like the authors are trying to capture some of the wonder of the denizens of Wonderland. But while some of the stories feel complete, so often they feel like a random idea blurb that takes us on a little journey only to end abruptly. I don’t know if this is an issue with the fantasy genre not fitting the short story format as well as something like horror or even science fiction, or if it’s just an issue with me not really having as much of a connection to the worlds Carroll created as I thought I did.
Thinking more about it, the one or two stories that stand out the most to me are a story called Transformation and the Postmodern Identity Crisis by Lisa Mason and the final story in the collection called A Pig’s Tale by Esther M. Friesner.
In ‘Transformation’ we get a look at a version of Alice that came back from Wonderland and grew to be a bitter old woman. A bitter old woman now tasked with giving a speech to her adoring fans after all these years that details all of the cranky goodness about what happened to the other citizens of Wonderland after the original story ended. It was one of those fun stories that reminded me of a drunken old woman just speaking her mind after years of being silenced because she no longer gives a f**k.
In ‘Pig’s Tale’ we get a look at a bit of a thought exercise that I found interesting. More interesting than the story itself to be perfectly honest. It’s the idea centering around how the characters no longer exist when the story fades to history until someone reads them(or tells them) once again and that sharing of stories is what gives life to the characters and their worlds. It’s a bit of a cautionary tale of the downside of always searching for some deeper meaning within stories and characters as well, because sometimes we need to remember to just enjoy a story for what it is, an imaginary place to visit and escape our day to day reality. We don’t always have to dissect everything for it’s hidden and deeper meanings. Not to mention that often times when doing that, the “meanings” we find are nothing more than our OWN projections onto the words the author put on the page.
It was an interesting thought process.
But that’s not really enough for me to endorse this book or recommend it to most people.
Fantastic Alice is packed with sixteen short stories that, while not poorly written, were just not stories written for me. The pace of most was slow and meandering, if not outright nonsensical(which I know SOME of the Wonderland tales could be also). There were just so few moments I remember even after finishing this book just last night.
Can a book be well written, while also just being kind of boring and forgettable?
That’s how this one felt for me.
I think primarily for two reasons. First, I’m just not as connected to the worlds of Carroll as I previously though I was. Second while I found the writing contained in each story to be solid, enjoyable at times even, with no truly BAD stories that I really disliked, there were also none that really slapped me across the face and made me sit up and take notice.
In the end, the only readers that I’d recommend this book to without reservations would be those of you that are true, die-hard, fans of Alice in Wonderland and the worlds of Lewis Carroll. If you really know those characters and those worlds I think these stories will hold more interest for you. But for those of you that, like me, are just casual fans that might recognize names and places but never went DEEP into the worlds of Wonderland… you’ll likely find this to be a boring and forgettable slog to get through.
They can’t all be winners and not every book is written for every audience. I just wasn’t the audience for this book.
***
If you enjoy this review and the AIC Stories Podcast experience, consider helping out by sharing this review, sharing the podcast episodes you love, telling your friends about us, and giving us a follow on social media.
Of course if you want to say thanks and help keep the archive growing here at AIC Stories, you can always join us at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/aicstories! Your support there goes directly into continuing to bring you the content you love, as well as allowing me to keep growing and expanding that which is possible here in the AIC Stories universe.
No matter how you support AIC Stories I greatly appreciate it and appreciate YOU spending some time with me.
Keep reading, listening, watching and most of all… enjoying stories!