The Magic Shop

by Jody Lynn Nye, Susan Sizemore, Kristine Kathryn Rusch

Book Overview

All-original stories from P.N. Elrod, Jody Lynn Nye, Michelle West, and others explore the endlessly fascinating possibilities that would arise if a magic shop truly sold magic.

• Format: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0756401739
• ISBN13: 9780756401733
• Release Date: February 2004
• Publisher: Daw Books
• Length: 319 Pages
• Weight: 0.38 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 4.2" x 6.8"
• Age Range: 18 years and up
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher

Customer Reviews

Entertaining and Humerous

Great book with entertaining stories. If you like fiction with a good twist, these stories will not disappoint.

Delightful

I thoroughly enjoyed this collection of stories. The stories cover all types of magic from the tradition meaning with witches and supernatural forces to everyday magic like a child's gift to her mother or self-confidence. This range of the meaning of magic along with the variety of stories (funny, sad, historical, contemporary) made this collection an interesting read. Each story not like the one before. Of course I had my favorites, which included "Everything Little Thing She Does," a very funny about a woman taking a magic house in stride (chiding the bookcase like a child when it attacks and using the stove turn burning fire pit to make amazing pies), "The Assassin's Dagger," an interesting story about corporate America taking over historic magic shops and "For Whom the Bell Tolled," a warm and fuzzy story about a shop owner realizing his actual desire after having a bell that brings him what he thinks he wants. My least favorite stories were "Dime Store Rings" and "Serpent of the Lakes." Many of the other reviewers thought "Dime Store Rings," was the best story of the collection, but I thought it was too depressing. I disliked "Serpent of the Lakes" because it wasn't interesting and the ability to connect with the main character didn't exist. I found the main character annoying. Easily the worst story of the entire collection.

15 short stories

Most of the shops are the classic mysterious small business, notable exceptions being those in "Serpent of the Lakes" and "The Assassin's Dagger". Several stories are from the customers' viewpoint or prospective new employees, allowing the store to retain the traditional mysterious atmosphere for the reader, but at least a quarter concentrate on shop owners or current employees. Most involve "real magic", but some need only self-confidence. Braunbeck, Gary A.: "The Hand Which Graces" The bartender at Gruber's has seen a lot. But tonight Sykes (the freelance stage magician whose patch includes the bar) went into a new local "magic shop" looking for new tricks for his act and came out with more than he bargained for. Edghill, India: "Winter Phoenix" When the Imperial Princesses visit a curious St Petersburg shop in 1916, the shopkeeper says fortunes are made, not told, and refuses to make any predictions. But Anastasia is sold a gilded walnut shell, that if broken can be whatever is needed, for just a moment. Can it save her from the fate facing her family? Edghill, Rosemary: "A Winter's Tale" is told by one witch to another (the narrator) while cleaning shop on a snowy night. Finding an elaborate box with disappointingly mundane contents, Lark remembers the weirdest item he ever encountered, working for another shop in California. Elrod, P.N.: "Tarnished Linings" Caitlin, temporarily filling in at the Cauldron, copes with an obnoxious kid propositioning her. When he combines this with shoplifting, two of the shop's patrons whip up a protection spell, but they put too much into it. But every cloud has a silver lining, right? Gilligan, ElizaBeth: "Off Key" Sarah has a moderately successful advertising career, but lacks self-confidence (the opposite of her twin, who has a social life but no benefits). Then on a lunchtime shopping trip to Marva's favourite shop, Sarah acquires a "key to success". Metaphorical, of course... Jocks, Von: "The Fairest" Zoe, a fantasy painter in her off-hours who's just gone full-time at her secretarial day job, notices that while she looks frumpy in all the mirrors at work, the mirrors at the Magic Shop (aromatherapy, feng shui, and meditation books) are another story. McCay, Bill: "The Curse of the Itch, or Finnegan Wakes" The magic shop was named "Eldritch", but after years of being run down, its sign reads "El Itch". Lang the narrator now believes in the uncanny (see VENGEANCE FANTASTIC), but his stubborn girlfriend Mags Finnegan insists on wearing the pendant she scavenged from the shop's discards... Nye, Jody Lynn: "For Whom the Bell Tolled" Charles, though struggling to keep up with operating expenses and low on worthwhile stock, buys a bell that supposedly summons whatever the ringer wants. This can be a problem, when so much good stock suddenly turns up that there's no storage space... Odom, Mel: The "Serpent of the Lakes" has joined forces with enemies of the Algonquin over water and hunting rights, and

Excellent anthology

"The Magic Shop" is one of the few anthologies I've read lately that has been entirely fulfilling. Denise Little, who edited this, did a superb job in finding seventeen writers to write about characters and their various experiences in various magic shops. All seventeen stories were good, but the best three in my mind were these. First, Michelle West's "Dime Store Rings" was absolutely mind-blowing, partly because I don't like most of her writing and did like this, and partly because she managed to write a very sad story without undue pathos. Second, Rosemary Edghill's "A Winter's Tale" was another excellent Bast story; it's a story within a story, and the last few lines absolutely cause chills. Rosemary Edghill's short stories are always thought provoking, and almost always absolutely astonishing, and this one met or exceeded expectations. More Bast stories, please! And finally, India Edghill (yes, India and Rosemary are related) wrote a powerful story about Anastasia, the "lost princess" of Russia, and one which envisioned a happier and more positive future for her than she probably got (as no one knows for sure). India Edghill mostly writes historicals, and does a fabulous job with them; this story definitely reflects her skill and ability as a writer. I'd definitely recommend this book for anyone over the age of about 14 (as some of the images in various stories are perhaps a bit graphic) or anyone over about 10 with parental or guardian supervision. Five stars, highly recommended. Barb Caffrey

Gret anthology

The premise of this fifteen story collection is relatively simplistic: what would happen to a customer if the magic shop found in many cities sold real magic? The contributors, whom are a virtual who's who (though there is one new author for me), provided a wide range of tales with some classified as horror, others are fantasy and science fiction, and finally a few that cross the speculative plain. Even the tone vastly differs with some authors writing amusing fictions of getting what you ask for while others take a more somber pitch. Each tale is well written as if Denise Little used a magical editing device to raise the bar. Most interesting is that the simple concept is turned into complex effects as the purchaser should have paid close attention to the maxim "buyer beware" since no hazardous to your health warning label accompanied the goods. Readers will enjoy these fine new stories that cast a spell requiring a one sitting read. Aside to Ms. Little: is the magic store that ensorcelled you the one near NYU or the one in Times Square that hooked many of us boomers back in the 1960s-1970s (don't know if they are still there)?Harriet Klausner