Tails of Wonder and Imagination

By: Stephen King, Joyce Carol Oates, Susanna Clarke, Lawrence Block, Tanith Lee, George R.R. Martin, Neil Gaiman

Narrated by: Teresa DeBerry, Jeremy Arthur, Cynthia Barrett

Length: 25 hrs and 33 mins

Publisher's summary

What is it about the cat that captivates the creative imagination? No other creature has inspired so many authors to take pen to page. Mystery, horror, science fiction, and fantasy stories have all been written about cats.

From legendary editor Ellen Datlow comes Tails of Wonder and Imagination, showcasing 40 cat tales by some of today's most popular authors. With uncollected stories by Stephen King, Carol Emshwiller, Tanith Lee, Peter S. Beagle, Elizabeth Hand, Dennis Danvers, and Theodora Goss and a previously unpublished story by Susanna Clarke, plus feline-centric fiction by Neil Gaiman, Kelly Link, George R. R. Martin, Lucius Shepard, Joyce Carol Oates, Graham Joyce, Catherynne M. Valente, Michael Marshall Smith, and many others.

Tails of Wonder and Imagination features more than 200,000 words of stories in which cats are heroes and stories in which they're villains; tales of domestic cats, tigers, lions, mythical part-cat beings, people transformed into cats, cats transformed into people. And yes, even a few cute cats.

Table of Contents:

"Through the Looking Glass (excerpt)" - Lewis Carroll
"No Heaven Will Not Ever Heaven Be..." - A. R. Morlan
"The Price" - Neil Gaiman
"Dark Eyes, Faith, and Devotion" - Charles de Lint
"Not Waving" - Michael Marshall Smith
"Catch" - Ray Vukcevich
"The Manticore Spell" - Jeffrey Ford
"Catskin" - Kelly Link
"Mieze Corrects an Incomplete Representation of Reality" - Michaela Roessner
"Guardians" - George R. R. Martin
"Life Regarded as a Jigsaw Puzzle of Highly Lustrous Cats" - Michael Bishop
"Gordon, the Self-Made Cat" - Peter S. Beagle
"The Jaguar Hunter" - Lucius Shepard
"Arthur's Lion" - Tanith Lee
"Pride" - Mary A. Turzillo
"The Burglar Takes a Cat" - Lawrence Block
"The White Cat" - Joyce Carol Oates
"Returns" - Jack Ketchum
"Puss-Cat" - Reggie Oliver
"Cat in Glass" - Nancy Etchemendy
"Coyote Peyote" - Carole Nelson Douglas
"The Poet and the Inkmaker's Daughter" - Elizabeth Hand
"The Night of the Tiger" - Stephen King
"Every Angel is Terrifying" - John Kessel
"Candia" - Graham Joyce
"Mbo" - Nicholas Royle
"Bean Bag Cats(R)" - Edward Bryant
"Antiquities" - John Crowley
"The Manticore's Tale" - Catherynne M. Valente
"In Carnation" - Nancy Springer
"Old Foss is the Name of His Cat" - David Sandner
"A Safe Place to Be" - Carol Emshwiller
"Nine Lives to Live" - Sharyn McCrumb
"Tiger Kill" - Kaaron Warren
"Something Better than Death" - Lucy Sussex
"Dominion" - Christine Lucas
"Tiger in the Snow" - Daniel Wynn Barber
"The Dweller in High Places" - Susanna Clarke
"Healing" - Benjamin Dennis Danvers
"The Puma" - Theodora Goss

©2010 Ellen Datlow (P)2013 Audible, Inc.

Mostly Great Except

Story 12 is horrible, if you like a story about killing cats this is for you! Some of the story's are extremely well written and preformed. Why they would include such a dark story within this book is beyond me.

So Much More Than I Expected!!!

This collection of short stories blew me away! Each individual story is so unique. None of the stories in this book share anything more than cats. Beyind that every story is different and they are all amazing in their own ways. This book is a lot longer than i thought so that was a nice surprise. This is a must read as the stories will take you on some fun but sometimes emotional rides, with a little bizarre/scary/weird thrown in for a great mix. Thumbs up all the way!!! Loved it!

Just ok

A few of the stories were really good. A few of the stories were really terrible. most of the narrators were good, The one about the witch's children was arguably the worst story and narration in the book. Her voice was incredibly grating and nasal in general and her "cat" voice was particularly bad. Unfortunately it was one of the longer stories in the book. Kind of glad when I reach the finish line of this one.

A collection of good and not so good tales

A collection of stories by great authors containing some great stories and some not so exciting stories. Worth reading for the sake of the good tales that comprise half the stories in the book. I found the stories of the witch and the space trader aka terraformer, quite entertaining. The narration was adequate, but some bits were being repeated especially the details about the authors.

Really Good Mix of short Fiction. -

If I were you I'd ignore the negative reviews. This was a really good mix of short fiction. Like many collections I liked some more than others. But, we all have different tastes is books.

That being said (and this will be a bit spoiler-y) In some of these stories cats come to a bad end - and that seems to have been too much for a few very vocal readers. However, let me point out that in any good story it is possible for an important character to meet a bad end. This creates story tension. And, in several of these stories People meet bad ends. Apparently this did not offend any sensibilities. I'm assuming these people wouldn't have had anything nice to say about Old Yeller. That is, of course, had old yeller been a cat.

Very nice

I liked this a lot good mix of stories recommended to anyone who like short fiction

Fascinating

a very interesting collection of short stories about cats and cat-like beings. I love cats, and therefore am biased towards these stories.

Does this cat have 9 lives...

I will give two big thumbs up on the stories themselves.

there are two primary narrators doing the performances. Technically the performances are top notch. However I continually found myself getting perturbed and bored with one of the narrator's. to the extent I didn't even want to finish the book .

it's a personal preference thing, but I think I will pay attention and avoid future books being performed by one of the two of them.

Good even Great stories. technical production is very good. 13hr left and I am contemplating skipping and remaining stories read by one narrator.

Too much cat for my taste

Not worth it. I did not wonder or imagine for the majority of the stories. Even kings story was meh... if you know the cat from hell story by King , none of the stories in this book come close to the drivel in this collection.

Inconsistent Quality

Some stories were great. I particularly liked the one about the barn paintings and George RR Martins offering. As a whole some stories were so bad I had to skip them half way through. The author bios were also a little obnoxious and repetitive.