I love tales retold cleverly.

I'm not one who loves Christmas in a traditional sense these days - working retail often leaves much of the "ho-ho-ho" replaced by "go-go-go" and the end result is being tired. I've made it a point to find new traditions for myself and my family and friends whereby I can enjoy small pieces of the holiday.

"The Firflake" just became one of those traditions. It's a lovely story, taking pieces of Christmas tales and turning them just a little sideways, so the light can shine on them from a new angle - one that's refreshing and cheerful from the new point of view.

The characters are charming, the magic sparkles in the words, and I finished the tale - which is more like a half dozen tales woven together into a whole - with a genuine smile on my face.

It takes a lot to give me a sense of Christmas cheer, but Anthony Cardno did so. The Firflake has earned a place beside the traditional Christmas stories, where it can shine every year.

By now it's no secret that Jeff Mann should be crowned the king of eroticism that balances the knife edge between so many dichotomies; death and the erotic, violence and love, dominance and compassion, fear and arousal. The outright poetry of Mann's words somehow partners with topics that can be brutal or tender (or a heady mix of both) and leads the reader along without respite. I've tried - I've honestly tried - to read just a bit of a Jeff Mann novel or collection at a time in a vain attempt to make it last, but I never succeed. I tear through, cover to cover.

If you'll allow me the pun, I devoured this.

Derek Maclaine is the ancient Scottish vampire that Mann has introduced a few times over in various anthologies, magazines, and novellas - I discovered the character in "Black Sambuca" in the anthology Blood Sacraments. Derek is so unique and refreshingly so - a vampire, yes, but no suave and debonair European. Derek is a Scot, displaced now to rural Virginia, and unapologetic in his love of all things rural and pagan. His desire - mixed with the blood lust of his kind and his penchant for dominance and bondage - led the way through a darkly intriguing story. After I read "Black Sambuca" I ran to the internet, and found the rest of the Derek Maclaine tales and buying copies of each appearance of the character. It was quite the trek, and the end result was bouncing around in Derek's timeline somewhat, but I had no regrets.

Fastforward a bit, and this book appeared. There are two new tales for those of you who've been as completionist as I have. The first is the bulk of the collection, the 92-page novella "Derek and Angus," which tells of Derek's origin and the moment he was changed into a vampire, and the man for whom he made that choice. Set in 1717, "Derek and Angus" hums with Mann's poetic turn of phrase with language and the spoken word and the obvious love of wild naturalism. Angus is such a key part of Derek's character through all the other stories, and reading "Derek and Angus" was such a bittersweet ride - you know (if you've read the other tales) where this is going, but you can't help but watch. "Derek and Angus" is a novella of love and revenge told with depth and brutality - the sense of the time is so well evoked, and the reality the two men face in being together isn't skipped over. Wonderful!

The other new tale is "The Last Crumbs of Sacher Torte" and brings Derek to 1897 Austria and shows a more mature Derek now - one who has grown into his abilities and his penchant for ropes and ties, dominance and submission, and - of course - blood. This story, alongside "Saving Tobias," are the stories holding the most visceral reminders of what Derek is. This is a beast as much as a man, and though there is kindness in him, it is unwise to earn his ire.

As I've mentioned, I had read "Hemlock Lake," "Saving Tobias," "Whitby," "Wolf Moon/Hunger Moon" and "Black Sambuca" before, but I re-read them. "Hemlock Lake" reveals a Derek yearning for his losses, but starting to see the potential in the world the remains for him. "Saving Tobias" is perhaps the most brutal tale - Derek deciding to punish a man who has helped strengthen the intolerance in this rural part of the world - but even this story has such fluid eroticism to it. "Whitby" sees Derek's reach growing, and by "Wolf Moon/Hunger Moon" and "Black Sambuca" there's a real sense of history marching to the present. I enjoyed the progression they presented - Derek growing more mature, reaching the present from his origins, and coming to new places almost full-circle in the collection. Derek is a character who walks the centuries between tales, and does so with a believable growth and consistency - not an easy balance to strike.

But then again, I shouldn't be surprised. Like I said, Jeff Mann seems to have those balancing acts down pat.

Having already read Rebekah Weatherspoon's "Better Off Red" (a vampire sorority girl story that was freaking hot and a refreshingly new take on vampires) I knew that I was in for some quality writing with "The Fling."

It was there - from page one, Weatherspoon's erotic style is there in full force, and she wastes no time in getting you on board for the situation. The engaged Annie has a deal with her fiance Jeff - they're spending a month prior to the wedding as a kind of "one last hurrah" time apart. What happens in this month is intended to be just that - a last fling with their time apart. Jeff, Annie knows, is off in Europe with his buddies and probably sowing his last wild oats, and so Annie takes the opportunity to test that desire she's always had to sleep with a woman.

The woman in question is Annie's personal trainer, and Oksana is incredibly different from Annie - Oksana is mixed race, tattooed and pierced, and slim and toned; Annie has always been short, is blonde-cute, and has definitely been blessed in the breast department. Annie approaches this fling as just that - a one night stand, meant to be enjoyed and remembered, and nothing more.

Except Annie starts to realize that what she feels with Oksana is something bigger than she set out to enjoy.

What I hadn't expected was to get so caught up in the sweetness of the two women - both come from histories that leave them hesitant and scarred in realistic ways, and I caught myself gobbling my way through the book to make sure that things would end well for everyone involved. Of course, when you're talking about a relationship that was supposed to be a fling before marriage, how can no one get hurt?

Fun, sweet, and - of course - hot as heck, Rebekah Weatherspoon delivers again. It's almost enough to make me forgive her for not writing the fraternity boy side of her Vampire Sorority Sisters series.

Almost.

As always with a collection of writings, it's hard to decide where to stand on the collection as a whole. I daresay that Pohl-Weary did a damned fine job thematically and with the organization (there is a definite sense of, well, sense to the order in which the pieces are presented), but the quality of the works does vary quite a bit.

The highlight, for me, was "'Cuz the Black Chick Always Gets it First," by Candra K. Gill, a solid bit of work on the dynamics of race in 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer,' - it's refreshing to find a fan who can deconstruct a show for its weaknesses, not just its strengths, and balancing both in the same entry was a nice touch.

The lowpoint, for me, was actually an artwork piece. Shary Boyle has a panel of five or six pages, which ran the gamut of a wonderful piece with a frumpy lady flying with birds, to a very angry looking woman with a baseball bat. But the piece that really threw me off was one where three young girls of various racial descent are holding a man pinned in a kneeling position - one little girl holding his hands behind his back, one with her foot on his groin, in a pose that speaks of pressure application, and one with a knife to the man's throat.

Now - I think there was an aim for role-reversal here - the typical (and factual in the majority of cases) white male pedophile. Reversed, this picture would be a disturbing violent piece about a pedophile, a predator, a sick tableau of violence. Instead, we have a sick tableau of violence where three little girls threaten a man's life, and we are left to assume the man has done something bad (since, for all that I can attempt to project here, it's not like one can point a finger at a row of men and say "Normal, normal, pedophile, normal...") Like I said, I think it aimed for role-reversal; it missed.

All in all, however, this was a solid bit of editing - prose and nonfiction both, some graphic novels, some artwork (the rest of the pictures by Shary Boyle, I should note, I quite enjoyed), all of it of a decent enough calibre to be substantive in total.

Definitely worth a bite.

'Nathan

Two very disturbing stories from Neil Gaiman, this was a duet of short plays adapted for "Seeing Ear Theatre" and read by Bebe Neuwirth ("Snow Glass Apples") and Brian Dennehy ("Murder Mystery.")

"Snow Glass Apples" was a re-telling of Snow White with a ghastly vampiric twist, and from the voice of the Queen, who is anything but the Disnified villainess we've come to know and loathe. Snow White is herself a disturbing figure, and all in all, this was a very enjoyable re-telling of a classic, if a tad gruesome in its telling and conclusion.

"Murder Mystery" I found quite wonderful - it is a tale that includes the investigation of the first murder ever - an angel has been killed, and another angel is called to investigate. The B-plot story, however, just plain didn't make sense.

If I had to break them into two parts, "Snow Glass Apples" would get a '5' and "Murder Mystery" would get a '3.' Hence the '4.'

'Nathan

This is another fantastic book from the author of 'Practical Magic,' 'Blue Diary,' and 'The Probable Future.' Nora Silk is not the typical woman of 1959 Long Island. She's divorced, has two children, and never seems to care if they get dirty while they play. She wears high heels and black stretch pants, and her nails are always done in bright colours. Her eldest son, Billy, tends to pick stray thoughts out of the minds of people around him, and James, only months-old, eats anything he can find in one chubby cute hand. When they move onto the street where the norm is two parents, two children, and nothing unexpected, Nora Silk is ostracized, Billy is bullied, and it seems that the status quo will always regain its balance.

But the men start to notice Nora's distinct grace with more than a bit of lust, and Nora's comments and advice to the women start to break cracks in the veneer of "we should do what we have always done." Sparks fly, a trace of magic is in the air, and before long, 1959 is going to roll over into the sixties, and Nora Silk's influence will be felt by all.

I adored this book - much as I adored the previously mentioned Hoffman titles I listed above - and had that trademarked Hoffman lump in my throat when the book was drawing to a close. As always, it's the characters - and the level of empathy you feel for all of them - that keep you going, and Hoffman's deft touch with a trace of the supernatural always leaves you charmed. A ghost here, a clairvoyant there, and a tangled thread of folk remedies throughout, there's something magical in how she writes, and how the reader feels while watching her worlds.

'Nathan

I inherited this book from a friend of mine who moved to England, and I must say, I wish I'd read it earlier. At first, the levels of violence were a bit of a turn-off (I'm not keen on massive gun-laden stories), but the society inside this Sci-Fi novel is just so interesting and well-crafted, I forgave the violence to enjoy it.

In this future world, everyone is implanted at birth with a "stack," a chip in the back of neck that keeps your memory and personality on file. If you're murdered, and the stack survives, you're "re-sleeved" into another body (synthetic or not) to testify at your trial. Die of old age? Buy a new sleeve, if you can afford it. The amount of "fallout" in this society due to this technology was astounding, and plausible, and done extremely well by Morgan.

At it's heart, this story is a murder mystery, and a story of revenge: someone kills a centuries old "Meth," (Methuselah), who, dutifully backed up every eight hours, comes back, but with no real idea of what happened in those eight hours to lead to his murder, and quite curious about it, and that Meth hires our hero to figure things out. Our hero of the tale is actually a criminal serving time in a virtual jail (his body is, of course, given to someone who needs it more), and he is beamed to earth from his own colony when the Meth hires him. Wearing someone else's body (which has a fallout of its own), the narrator of the tale tries to figure out who would try to kill a man who'd lived centuries, and why...

Between religious and spiritual reasons, hatreds, rivalries, and plain-old-jealousies, there are no shortages of potential murderers, and the tale spins wonderfully. I highly suggest it.

'Nathan

By far the grittiest and nasties book in this series so far. For the background, basically, around the time of WWII, an alien virus was let loose over New York, and spread around the world. Called the 'Wild Card' virus, the effects are quite random. Nine out of ten people draw the "black queen" and die. Of the survivors, nine out of ten draw a "joker" and end up deformed in some massive way. Of those one in a hundred survivors who draw neither, they might draw an "ace" (and basically end up with super-powers) or a "deuce" (and end up with not-so-super powers).

In this collection, a mafia vs. gangs war has broken out in 'Jokertown' where most of the deformed Jokers live, a ghetto in New York, and between the mafia, the gangs, the aces and jokers involved, things get ugly. There is also the continuation of two other plots - the sincerely disturbing Ti Malice, the hate-mongering Reverand Leo Barnett, and the hidden Ace Gregg Hartman, whose powers of manipulation are pulling him further and further towards presidency. The cast of characters are just as solid as ever, and I, for one, was very happy to see the return of the Turtle, my favourite character to date.

Solid stuff, with a nice ending that makes you twinge for the next in the series, which I shall order post haste...

'Nathan

An audiobook abridged on two tapes, I absolutely adored listening to this story, even though it spends a very long time in a darker place, with kind of silent anguish that seems unable to get past the lips of the women telling their tales.

Put more simplistically, the tale is told by four mothers and four daughters, the mothers born Chinese, the daughters born American in San Francisco. The story weaves from character to character, beginning with the death of one of the mothers, and the unfolding of a story that reaches backwards into her past, and ahead to the futures of all the children, and underlines the huge gap between generations that can so easily occur between countries, ages, and cultures.

Touching, and read by the author (always my favourite), the tape kept my interest throughout, with that sort of aching soft sadness that grows - ever so slowly - into a superb sense of saved triumph.

Definitely worthwhile as a reading and/or listening experience, I'm certainly going to hunt down more Amy Tan for my own listening pleasure.

'Nathan

I read 'Burndive' by this author earlier, and wanted to nab this earlier title. It was just as good as 'Burndive,' in that the characters were rich, the galaxy very strongly detailed, and the conflicts both interesting and plausible.

The storyline is one of abused trusts - when a young boy named Jos survives the slaughter of most of his spaceship, he is taken by a pirate, and basically raped and abused for a year of his life, with the pirate's attempt to turn Jos into the perfect companion and tool. Jos manages to escape, only to be taken in by the enemies of mankind, aliens (and those few traitorous humans who empathise with them). There, Jos is enfolded into the arms of the assassin-leader of the sympathizers, and learns to feel good in a culture that seems gentle and caring and compassionate by comparison. And when he, too, is trained to defend this way of life, he is asked by the man he trusts the most to go undercover among the human soldiers and act as a spy.

Jos's feelings and confusion over his loyalties are very evocative - he finds people to love on all sides of the three-way-war, and his intense mental control, in direct contrast to his inability to handle his own reflection (and rarely being able to tolerate even a caring touch) make him a remarkably well written character that evokes reader empathy. I, for one, can't wait for the next Lowachee.

'Nathan