Welcome to Bordertown

New Stories and Poems of the Borderlands

By: Ellen Kushner - editor, Holly Black - editor

Narrated by: Cassandra Campbell, MacLeod Andrews, Holly Black, Ellen Kushner

Audie Award Nominee, Short Stories/Collections, 2013

Bordertown: a city on the Border between the human world and the elfin realm. A place where neither magic nor technology can be counted on, where elf and human kids run away to find themselves.

The Way from our world to the Border has been blocked for 13 long years. Now the Way is open once again—and Bordertown welcomes a new set of seekers and dreamers, misfits and makers, to taste life on the Border.

Here are 13 interconnected stories and eight poems—all new work by some of today’s best urban fantasy, fantasy, and slipstream writers: Christopher Barzak, Holly Black, Steven Brust, Emma Bull, Cassandra Clare, Charles de Lint, Cory Doctorow, Amal El-Mohtar, Neil Gaiman, Nalo Hopkinson, Alaya Dawn Johnson, Annette Curtis Klause, Ellen Kushner, Patricia McKillip, Dylan Meconis, Tim Pratt, Sara Ryan, Delia Sherman, Will Shetterly, Janni Lee Simner, Catherynne M. Valente, Terri Windling, and Jane Yolen.

©2012 Holly Black and Ellen Kushner (P)2012 Brilliance Audio, Inc.

Bordertown Lives! now in stunning audio form

I came late to the Bordertown books, discovering them as an adult, but once I did I collected them assiduously on Amazon and eBay and devoured them greedily. I was delighted when I learned that there would a new collection, and that Ellen Kushner, my favorite writer, would be one of the editors.

The Bordertown series was the first of the "Urban Fantasy" genre, set in a world very close to our own contemporary world, rather than faux-medieval-Earth or some other planet entirely. So the issues of gang violence, racism, and political and economic inequalities, are just as real in this world as they are in ours, and present in a way that are very relevant to young readers (as well as older ones).

The premise is that Bordertown has been closed off from the world, for thirteen years in world time, but only thirteen days in Bordertown. This plays into a number of stories, most significantly the opening, "Welcome to Bordertown", by Ellen Kushner and Teri Windling. In this story, a little boy waits thirteen years to grow up and journey to Bordertown in search of his sister. When he is reunited with her, they have both made surprising discoveries about themselves.

I liked most everything in this anthology, but I loved "A Tangle of Green Men" by Charles de Lint, "Incunabulum", by Emma Bull, and particularly "We Do Not Come in Peace" by Christopher Barzak.

The performances of the narrators Cassandra Campbell, MacLeod Andrews, and Ellen Kushner, are particularly noteworthy. Kushner's reading of "Soulja Grrrl: A Long Line Rap" by Jane Yolen made me howl with laughter. Andrews' interpretation of the narrator, Marius of "We Do Not Come in Peace" was a perfect portrayal of a disillusioned young man who considered himself beaten down by life in Bordertown. Campbell's multiple dialects in Nalo Hopkinson's "Ours is the Prettiest" were loads of fun.

If you are planning a summer trip with kids in the YA age group, this would be a great and thoughtful introduction to the genre of "Urban Fantasy", and something the whole family could enjoy.

Road Trip! Yea

If you could sum up Welcome to Bordertown in three words, what would they be?

Nice to be back in Town!

If you were to make a film of this book, what would be the tag line be?

Take the trip, if you dare.

Any additional comments?

Worth your time...if you like road trips to the Border...