{"id":253,"date":"2008-07-22T01:39:14","date_gmt":"2008-07-22T01:39:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.fact.org\/reading\/?p=253"},"modified":"2012-02-27T14:22:57","modified_gmt":"2012-02-27T14:22:57","slug":"magic-for-beginners","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.fact.org\/reading\/?p=253","title":{"rendered":"Magic for Beginners"},"content":{"rendered":"

Magic for Beginners<\/em> by Kelly Link<\/h3>\n

This meeting was held at A. T.\u2019s home in north Austin. Eleven people attended. Our topic, Magic for Beginners<\/em>, was a World Fantasy Award-nominated collection by Kelly Link. Three us had read Kelly Link previously. Nine started the book, and four finished.<\/p>\n

One person had only read two stories: \u201cMagic for Beginners\u201d and \u201cThe Faery Handbag.\u201d She thought both were delightful. It should be pointed out that both of these stories won major awards.<\/p>\n

Another person read the entire book. She loved the way Kelly Link writes, but did not like any of the stories. This reader does not like magic realism, the tradition to which she feels Link aspires. She did like the ending of \u201cStone Animals\u201d, but in general found the stories to be consistently depressing. This reader said she may pass the book on to a relative who seems interested, but does not plan to read Kelly Link again.<\/p>\n

Another reader commented that he likes Link\u2019s writing and he likes magic realism, but he felt these stories were missing some essential element. He suggested that maybe the author is too nice. There were several nifty bits in the writing, but could not see any of the stories had a point.<\/p>\n

Yet another had met the author personally and likes her, but has a mixed impression of her work. She liked \u201cThe Faery Handbag\u201d but did not like its \u201cwrite your own ending\u201d conclusion. She read several other stories and did not feel that they worked.<\/p>\n

One person was simply in the wrong mood to read this book. She had been itching to read an action\/adventure novel. She could see why this book\u2019s stories would appeal to people who like \u201cliterary fiction,\u201d but personally found too many of the book\u2019s stories had inadequate endings.<\/p>\n

Another liked the experimental nature of many of the stories. He felt more happens in these stories than in a lot of well-regarded New Wave sf. \u00a0He enjoyed the reading experience, and said he generally likes contemporary urban fantasy.<\/p>\n

Another reader commented that these stories were \u201cartsy and fartsy\u201d and not at all to his taste. He does not enjoy weird fiction or horror. He thought \u201cStone Animals\u201d had its good points, but otherwise the book did not appeal to him.<\/p>\n

One person who doesn\u2019t read much short fiction had mixed comments on the book. He thought the writing was good, but disliked the mysterious endings of many of the stories. His favorite story was \u201cThe Zombie Contingency Plan,\u201d containing the wonderful quote \u201czombies are like Canadians.\u201d<\/p>\n

We briefly discussed similar writers, including Jonathan Carroll, Karen Joy Fowler, and Sean Stewart.<\/p>\n

Overall our opinions on this book were mixed. Afterward, many of us had dinner at Culver\u2019s. The food was good but service was disappointing.<\/p>\n

— A. T. Campbell, III<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Magic for Beginners by Kelly Link This meeting was held at A. T.\u2019s home in north Austin. Eleven people attended. Our topic, Magic for Beginners, was a World Fantasy Award-nominated collection by Kelly Link. Three us had read Kelly Link previously. Nine started the book, and four finished. One person had only read two stories: […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-253","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fact.org\/reading\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fact.org\/reading\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fact.org\/reading\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fact.org\/reading\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fact.org\/reading\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=253"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.fact.org\/reading\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":601,"href":"https:\/\/www.fact.org\/reading\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253\/revisions\/601"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fact.org\/reading\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=253"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fact.org\/reading\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=253"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fact.org\/reading\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=253"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}