REVIEW: Animythical Tales by Sarah Totton

Animythical Tales by Sarah Totton
Publishing Information: Paperback; 126 pages
Publisher: Fantastic Books (27 February 2010)
ISBN 10: 1604599324
ISBN 13: 978-1604599329
Standalone
Copies: Provided by author
Reviewers: Yagiz and Tyson

"In this elegant volume, award-winning author Sarah Totton takes her readers on speculative journeys of the heart and mind that will both challenge and engage you. Within these tales, readers will learn the meaning of darkness and pain and fear. Yet they will also learn about love and happiness and laughter. Sarah Totton explores the full kaleidoscope of the human heart and peels it back, one layer at a time. She offers her readers a full palette of emotions and stories to sift through, never settling, never holding back, and never flinching. Whether she is writing about the loss of innocence through dark revelations, the point to which a human mind can be stretched before succumbing to the magic of faerie, or something as preposterous as cloud-fishing in a world with pink yaks, the stories in Animythical Tales are always told with an eye toward revealing something important about the human condition. If you have ever yearned to fall into fabulous adventures in unforgettable worlds, Animythical Tales is the collection for you."

Tyson

Sarah Totton's Animythical Tales is a collection of 10 short stories from various speculative fiction magazines and collections. Many of which are award winning stories or at the very least runners-up. Every story in the collection is terrific and nearly every one of them has a twist.

I like the cover to the collection. The Entry of the Animals into Noah's Ark by Jan Brueghel is not the usual fare and in a strange way seems to work with the stories contained within.

My two favorite short stories in the collection are A Sip From the Cup of Enlightenment and Flatrock Sunners. In A Sip From Cup of Enlightenment, Totton tackles the subject of organised religion and the myth of the Holy Grail. I loved the intrigue and the characters in the book as we are slowly edging towards the truth and the unexpected twist at the end was great.

The story Flatrock Sunners, was just odd and completely different from what I had expected. The background story was interesting and the creatures that are featured in the story where just different from what I had encountered before. The premise of the story was also very enjoyable. Again, the story had a satisfying ending.

While this is not a collection that I would have picked out by myself, I can say that I really enjoyed the short stories contained within Animythical Tales. It is a break way from the norm and I am happy that I decided to read it.

Plot 7
Characters 7
Style 7

Overall 7/10

Yagiz

In an e-mail conversation, the author used the following statement to describe Animythical Tales: "The collection comprises ten animal-themed fantasy stories with a surreal, dark or absurd twist (imagine Salvador Dalí's artwork as stories)".

I love Salvador Dalí's paintings. There's something captivating and fascinating in their surrealist themes. And to my delight, I found similar traits in most of Sarah Totton's stories.

The first story called A Fish Story brought me back to my teenage years. I was unsure about what to think of this opening story when I got hit by The Man with the Seahorse Head. I usually don't like present tense narrative too much but I loved this very-short story, which mixed sadness and happiness. I felt the impossibility of stopping time, the unavoidable surrendering to what time does to our loved ones, the happiness found in good things in life.

The third story, Flatrock Sunners was a pretty disturbing one, but a very good one nonetheless. I really enjoyed it. Was it about making bad choices or about choosing people who love us over people who want something from us? Does good really prevail over evil?

Pelly Medley was another very interesting one. The protagonist, Geoffrey, is a scientist living alone on an island as part of an expedition where he studies birds. Then one day, his life changes after a strange incident. Throughout the story, the reader can find various reasons explaining the events. I'd love to share my theories but there's no room for spoilers in the reviews, is there?

The following story, Bluecoat Jack is another very well written dark story. I was still thinking about it when I surrendered to another great story called A Sip From the Cup of Enlightenment. The question that got stuck in my head after reading this one was: Is the pursuit of knowledge essentially the pursuit of truth?.

In Choke Point, the reader has the impression that she knows where the story is going but the author very cleverly applies a twist that surprises the reader. The Bone Fisher's Apprentice is followed by A Little Tea and Personal Magnetism, which is written in a different style. The frequent quotes create a humourous setting which reminds me of those movies where suddenly everything stops to have a guru-style personality to talk a few seconds about deeply meaningful things. And the closing story, The Teasewater Five is a surreal and sad one.

All in all, I was pleasantly surprised by Sarah Totton's Animythical Tales. I really enjoyed most of her stories. They are surreal and dark, and some of them stay in a corner of your mind for quite some time.

Plot 8
Characters 7
Style 8

Overall 8/10