Welcome to Bordertown (Borderland #8)

Featuring stories by Charles de Lint, Ellen Kushner, Stephen R Boyett and Terri Windling (writing as Bellamy Bach), Borderland introduced me not only to a world where Faerie had returned and both human and fey runaways flocked to a crumbling human city where technology and magic were equally wonderful, unpredictable and dangerous (much like the B-town residents themselves), but to the nascent genre of urban fantasy which I had only sampled up to that point.

I had done a complete Bordertown series re-read in 2004, but since then the books sat on a shelf, drawing comments, and occasionally being loaned out (don’t worry; I have loaner copies of nearly all of them) to visitors. They were constantly referenced, praised, geeked about and like most urban fantasy fans of a certain age, I imagined the stories I would have liked to have told, set in the Borderlands. As Emma Bull and Will Shetterly’s B-town novels Finder, Elsewhere, and Nevernever were reprinted for the YA market, I continued touching wood and crossing digits that the original anthologies would be reprinted as well; or at the very least that a “Best Of” collection might emerge. But new stories? I never even dared to dream.

Then my dreams came true in February 2009, when editors Ellen Kushner and Holly Black announced they would be returning to Borderlands in a new anthology, Welcome to Bordertown, 13 years after the last anthology was published. Needless to say, I was beyond overjoyed. Because the Borderlands anthologies shaped my tastes as a reader, and influenced my life in so many ways since I first picked up the TOR edition of Borderlands in paperback from a university bookstore in 1992.

Of course, my first thought was to wonder how B-town would look in the 21st century, a quarter century after the first stories were published? Sure, magic and rock & roll are eternal, but even with retro 80s nostalgia at its height and a whole new generation becomes convinced leggings really are pants, guyliner is completely acceptable if not expected at this point, and your hair can never be too big, I worried that the stories and world would seem dated; quaint even, to the current generation raised on computer animation, iPods, and smart phones.

I needn’t have worried. Because the new anthology remains as relevant, real, heart-breaking, exciting and marvellous as the first one’with the added bonus that in Welcome to Bordertown we get to see how B-town reacts to the 21st century.

Ever wonder how the internet came to the Borderlands? Or how B-town holds their own version of Carnival? Ever miss Screaming Lord Neville’s dramatic costume changes, or browsing the shelves at Elsewhere Books? Want to meet new Bordertown born-and-breds, humans with the dust of the world still behind their ears, or impossibly beautiful Truebloods with their own spinning racks of issues? Welcome to Bordertown has the hottest new bands in the clubs we know like the backs of our hands, the wildest old magic, and stories and poems and songs that make us laugh and cry no matter where we come from, or in what year we were born. Because no matter how much time passes between visits to B-town, people are still people (even when they’re werewolves, elves, and dragons), and we still dream the same dreams. They may not keep us fed or warm, our dreams’but they keep us breathing all the same, and sometimes the only difference between living and merely existing are the dreams we have and the dreams we share.

The new Bordertown hardcover hits shelves this month, with stories and poems by returning B-town residents Charles de Lint, Ellen Kushner, Terri Windling, Steven Brust, Emma Bull, and Will Shetterly, as well as newcomers to its streets Neil Gaiman, Jane Yolen, Nalo Hopkinson, Holly Black, Cat Valente, Amal El-Mohtar, and many others. And between its covers you’ll find all manner of dreams, in all shapes and sizes. Maybe this will be your first B-town anthology. Maybe it will open your eyes to a world you never knew existed. Maybe it will teach you something you never knew about life. Maybe it will show you things you never suspected about yourself. There’s only one way to find out…

What are you waiting for?

Bordertown lives.

Find your way.

In this collection of Bordertown tales the Way to Bordertown has been closed for 13 days in the lives of those in Bordertown, but 13 years for those outside its realm. I’m sure I’ve read a Bordertown story or two before this collection but its really not necessary to have ever read anything about Bordertown to be able to follow along. Besides, the Digger’s are nice enough to provide us a guide to a town where elves and humans alike play in rock bands, act out their deepest fantasies and spiral into joy and depression.

In this 22 story/poem collection, with the Ways to Borderland open again, new visitors arrive, to find lost family members, save their lives, save someone elses, find true love, find death and maybe make a little profit. Stories that stand out for me are – well all of them. Usually in an anthology this big there’s always at least one I completely skip and one I completely love but these are just plain good. The best part about this anthology is it was big enough to keep me busy!

My top 3 would have to be:
A Tangle of Green Men by Charles de Lint which brings in American Indian traditions as a young man just out of juvie meets a young blind woman at FaerieCon and finds a reason to be a better man every day, only to learn the work of living is harder at some times than others.
Soulja Grrrl: A Long Line Rap by Jane Yolen is hugely entertaining. It’s the story of Tamlin in a modern form. Usually I put up with the poems in anthologies and end up skipping them. Not in this collection and especially not this one!
Welcome to Borderland by Ellen Kushner and Terri Windling follows a little brother following his older sister to Borderland when her postcard arrives 13 years after she left. Convinced she’s alive he starts looking for a needle in a haystick, or a single, average girl in Bordertown. Along the way the magic of Borderland winds him in close even as his sister learns the myths of Bordertown don’t measure up to all the learning she has left at home. An elven queen, a Harvard researcher and a loyal dog slowly spiral them into a final meeting. The near misses are frustrating but the stories so good you keep hoping they continue to miss each other.

Now I have to go read every other Borderland collection I can find.

A great collection, marvelous stories from a marvelous and dangerous place. Worth reading for its sheer variety of tones and themes and voices, for the art, for the powerful punch that some of the stories pack, “A Tangle of Green Men” in particoular. Kudos to the authors and the curator for their great job.

Started off by accidentally ordering the MP3 audiobook (which I can’t play).
An excellent book. Light and dark. People with realistic personalities. I will have to get the other books from Bordertown.
Started off with Emma Bull and story called ‘silver or gold’ and was immediately hooked.

I hadn’t heard of the Bordertown series until reading a Charles de Lint short story collection. The collection of stories and poetry is 99% spot on, giving a weird and quirky look into a town created by a variety of different authors. It’s a collective effort and it works really well – enough to keep on the ‘reread’ set of bookshelves. In other words, it’s a keeper.

Galaxyaudiobook Member Benefit

- Able to comment

- List watched audiobooks

- List favorite audiobooks

- Bookmark will only available for Galaxyaudiobook member