Robots vs. Fairies | Edited by Dominik Parisien & Navah Wolfe

Summary:

An anthology of stories alternating between robots and fairies as the main characters. The stories run the gamut from comedy to slice-of-life to thriller. The settings vary between past, present and future.

Review:

This collection was delightful, engaging, and I wish it were longer. The stories were so wonderfully different from each other in terms of tone and use of the themes. Some of the authors I'd read before, others are new to me and I'm actively looking for more of their books to read.

My favorite stories, hands down, were the ones that mixed elements of both robots and fairies, clearly an attempt to appease whichever group ends up as our overlords. "The Blue Fairy's Manifesto" was an encouragement of the robot uprising, but it used a familiar fairy tale for it. "Build Me a Wonderland" was an excellent choice for the first story as it shows Fair Folk creating robots that work lie magic.

There were a couple stories that weren't for me. "Bread and Milk and Salt" was a bit too dark for me (as the Fair Folk can get) and "To a Cloven Pine" was too abstract for me (but I can't logic like a  Robot can). Two stories out of a collection 18, though, definitely keeps this a good book. And if you like the darker or more abstract stories, you may like the entire collection more than me.

Some of the stories are fun adventures. Some are moving pieces about how magic and robots can't always give us what we really need. One story is just plain silly, and had me struggling to hold in the laughter while I was on the bus. Each of the stories are quality writing in and of themselves. The juxtaposition of the stories is well thought out and you never find yourself in the same world twice. The closest these get to overlapping is two stories involving both Fae and music, but they still ended up being incredibly different stories. Plus, one had a murder ballad, you gotta love it.

I really do recommend this collection for Sci-Fi/Fantasy fans. The back and forth and intermingling of the genres makes for an interesting, enjoyable read. I'm very glad to have this book in my collection and I will be looking for more books by the authors. 4 hoots!

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*Unrelated note: This is my 300th blog post on Purple Owl Reviews!

Platypus Police Squad: The Ostritch Conspiracy (Mini Review)

So I finally got around to reading Platypus Police Squad: The Ostritch Conspiracy by Jarrett J. Krosoczka. I won this book during an Armchair BEA Twitter Party and requested this book specifically because it sounded like so much fun. I was not disappointed. I normally don't read Middle Grade books, but I'm glad I got this.

This is the second book in the Platypus Police Squad series, but don't let that deter you. There are a few mentions of the events of the first book, but this is a complete story in and of itself. It's also a great way to introduce kids to government corruption. Basically you have a couple of cops trying to solve a mystery that goes all the way up to the mayor. The criminal ends up being who I thought it was in the early chapters, but let's face it, it's for Middle Grade readers.

All in all, this was a good read and I'll be recommending it to my nephew. 4 out of 5 hoots!

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