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Fables and Fantasies  By  cover art

Fables and Fantasies

By: Orson Scott Card
Narrated by: Emily Janice Card, Rosalyn Landor, Mirron Willis
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Publisher's summary

This third volume of Orson Scott Card's five-volume anthology of short stories features 10 fantasies and fables full of princesses and giants, bears and monkeys, magic and revelation. Discover the pitfalls of paradise, how to handle a dragon, the true secret of happiness, and much more.

Stories included are: "Unaccompanied Sonata", "A Cross-Country Trip to Kill Richard Nixon", "The Porcelain Salamander", "Middle Woman", "The Bully and the Beast", "The Princess and the Bear", "Sandmagic", "The Best Day", "A Plague of Butterflies", and "The Monkeys Thought 'Twas All in Fun".

Card offers background commentaries for each story in a series of afterwords and introductions.

©1990 Orson Scott Card (P)2009 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Critic reviews

"One of the genre's most convincing storytellers. An important volume." ( Library Journal)
"Definitive....A series of introductions and afterwords offering Card's thoughts on his life and his writing are as absorbing as the stories." ( Publishers Weekly)

What listeners say about Fables and Fantasies

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THE BEST DAY

It is extremely rare that I give a five star rating to an anthology. It usually only takes one bad story to bring the review of the collection down. Matter of fact I believe this is a first for me. Card explains that Fables are hard to write. That may be so, but I believe Card is at his best writing Fables and Fantasies. There is not one story in this collection I would give less then four stars. These were written in the late 70's and early 80's when Card was at the top of his game. They are also short stories, so he is not allowed to waste words. Although I will admit there are two stories that did meander a little and went a tad to long, still good stories though.

This is the third book in the huge book, Maps in A Mirror. They can be read in any order, I have read the first two and will go on to read the rest. If you are a fan of the Alvin series you may want to start here. The first two were good and have some great stories. If you are a fan of Ender's Game or any of Card's other works, but have not read his short stories, then you are missing out.

The narration is perfect and made listening better then reading.

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16 people found this helpful