Enchantment Place

by Laura Hayden, Melanie Fletcher, Jody Lynn Nye, et al.

Book Overview

Seventeen original stories about a mall where anything you can imagine is for sale-but who will pay the price?

The stores in Enchantment Place live up to the title, catering to a rather unique clientele ranging from vampires and werecreatures to wizards and witches, elves and unicorns' in short, anyone with shopping needs not likely to be met in the chain stores. Here are seventeen shopping trips you'll never forget, from a store...

• Format: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0756405106
• ISBN13: 9780756405106
• Release Date: August 2008
• Publisher: Daw Books
• Length: 352 Pages
• Weight: 0.40 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 4.2" x 6.8"
• Age Range: 18 years and up
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher

Customer Reviews

Enchantingly different

Like Little's previous effort, Witch High, this book is better described as a shared world than as a themed anthology; it's obvious that the contributors were presented with certain parameters and expected to stay within them. They imagine here a mall tailored to "vampires, weres, sorcerers, witches, elves, and other fey beings" but also patronized by ordinary mundane humans, staffed by both supernaturals and the powerless, and located in what is apparently an alternate Chicago where everyone (well, almost everyone; Roy Blake, narrator of the opening tale, seems not to have realized that the "unusual" class of customers even existed) accepts the presence of magic and general weirdness. As in any fantasy, their challenge is to make it all seem, not just real, but acceptable to the reader as well, and this they have done, in stories that range from the lighthearted ("Shining On," "Make-a-Mortal," "The Poop Thief") to the thrilling ("Altar Ego," "The Face is Familiar") to the romantic ("Heart's Fire," "Cupid's Crib"), with a generous helping of humor along the way. Little is rapidly joining her fellow DAW anthologist Martin H. Greenberg as one of my favorite editors. I'll be watching for her next collection.

whimsical fun

The in spot for shopping in Chicago is ENCHANTMENT PLACE, a mall opened 24 hours 364 days a year. This is the place where the vampires, shapeshifters, and other paranormal go shopping. The only day the mall closes is for that most sacred of holidays, Halloween. With that Introduction and whimsical kudos to her sister who's let them have a mall comment which led to this anthology, Denise Little brings out the ship 'til you drop supernatural crowd. In spite of the cutesy gimmick, the authors are a who's who of fantasy to include Sarah Hoyt, Deb Stover, Esther Friesner, Laura Resnick and Diane Duane; etc. Special acclaim goes to Peter Norwood who aptly titled his well written entry "And into the Fire" as he is the sole male contributor; Ms. Little must have settled on author realism even with an enchanted mall as finding men to admit they chose the mall over football would be too surrealistic. Surprisingly none of the tales are weak as each contains a bit of whimsy as if the writers truly enjoyed doing these tales. Where else could one shop for a familiar, watch the IRS audit a Wiccan supply store owner, observe I'm a unicorn watcher (apologies to the O'Kaysons), and of course trolls arguing over taxes. Readers will be enchanted from start of finish when Carman the untalented offspring of two mages deals with the enchanting "Poop Thief"; that sums up a lighthearted fun collection. Harriet Klausner