The Language of Thorns: Midnight Tales and Dangerous Magic
Leigh Bardugo
The Language of Thorns: Midnight Tales and Dangerous Magic is a collection of six doubly fictional stories. They are doubly fictional in that (1) They are folktales -- the fiction a culture tells itself and its children, and (2) They are the folktales of fictional cultures: the nations of Leigh Bardugo's Grishaverse. The six stories come from four countries
Novyi Zem: "Ayama and the Thorn Wood", ★★★★★.
Ravka: "The Too-Clever Fox", ★★★★☆, "The Witch of Duva", ★★★★★, "Little Knife", ★★★☆☆.
Kerch: "The Soldier Prince", ★★★★☆.
Fjerda: "When Water Sang Fire", ★★★★★.
The Ravkan stories were published individually by Tor, and I have reviewed them separately. (My reviews are linked in the list above.) The Zemeni, Kerch, and Fjerdan stories were new to me. Beginning "Ayama and the Thorn Wood" after having read the three Ravkan stories, I was immediately impressed at how different the tone was. Ravka is transparently based on Russia, and the Ravkan folk tales have a palpable Russian feel. "Ayama and the Thorn Wood" does not. Neither do "The Soldier Prince" or "When Water Sang Fire". "The Soldier Prince" felt like a story from Holland to me. "When Water Sang Fire" is clearly Scandinavian in tone. "Ayama and the Thorn Wood" I could not identify -- it has elements from Greek mythology, but felt very Arabian Nights to me.
Each of the six stories is recognizably a riff on some well-known story from our world. They are not, however, retellings. Although Bardugo begins with recognizable ideas from familiar stories, the stories she tells are not familiar. They are her own stories, darker than the stories you know and yet brilliant. Here are the stories I recognized:
The Too-Clever Fox: The trickster -- Reynard, Anansi, Br'er Rabbit, etc.
The Witch of Duva: Hansel and Gretel
Little Knife: Stories in which a king sets tasks for suitors for the hand of his daughter.
The Soldier Prince: The Nutcracker and the Mouse King.
When Water Sang Fire: The Little Mermaid.
Ayama and the Thorn Wood: The Minotaur.
"Ayama and the Thorn Wood" and "When Water Sang Fire" are particularly powerful.
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