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111 pages, Hardcover
First published August 15, 2023
“The only curse is that she is a changeling. And she will be as cruel as she can, because that is the nature of changelings. Good spirits do not steal away babies to take their place. It is only the wicked that are sent to make mischief. And only the dutiful that are sent to try and stop them.”
“It should have mattered. All that love and all that trying should have changed … something…”
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“There’s a very high wall,” said Halim, “according to the imams, called al-A’raf. Between hell and paradise. And if you haven’t been good enough or evil enough to go one place or the other, you live in this wall. But even those people will eventually enter paradise, because God is merciful.” He jammed his chin onto his fist and gazed at Toadling. “It seems like you’ve been stuck in that wall for quite a long time now … That’s all the theology I’ve got in me, incidentally, so I hope it’s useful.”
Toadling sighed. “I would like to climb down from that wall,” she admitted.
“Well, then.”
“It never occurred to her to doubt her welcome. Such was the gift of a child raised with love.”
In the early days, the wall of thorns had been distressingly obvious. There was simply no way to hide a hedge with thorns like sword blades and stems as thick as a man’s thigh. A wall like that invited curiosity and with curiosity came axes, and it was all the fairy could do to keep some of those curious folk from gaining entrance to the tower.--------------------------------------
Eventually, though, the brambles had grown up around the edges—blackberry and briar and dog rose, all the weedy opportunists—and that softened the edge of the thorn wall and gave the fairy some breathing room. Roving princes and penniless younger sons had been fascinated by the thorns, which were so obviously there to keep people out. Hardly anybody was interested in a bramble thicket.
How does anyone manage? There are too many streams and they all flow and all of them could be good and there’s no way to know. How does anyone ever choose to do anything?Match.com profile – Languid Lady - Wanna meet a real princess? Low maintenance, fond of comfortable bedding, long walks in dreamland, quiet weekends at home in the castle. If you are looking for consistency, a quiet, luxurious, restful life, send me a message. Only real princes need apply. Let’s make some magic together. (Submitted for a friend)
One thing I like to do with fairy tales is to look at them and go “How can I make this even worse?” - from the Grim Dark interviewI am not so sure that Kingfisher’s tale really is a worse version. Well, maybe worse that the Disney version. But far from the worst. There is one (and there are others as bad) in which a wandering king happens by the castle where a sleeper named Talia is housed. He decides this is a great opportunity for him, absconds with her virginity, and leaves the unconscious Talia pregnant with twins. What a guy!
Being a knight isn’t about being religious, you know, so much as it is to figure out what to do with your extra sons so they don’t tear up the family seat. Every now and then someone gets the idea we should start chopping each other’s heads off, but in practice, the Pope squats in Rome like a spider and the caliphs glare at one another over their walls, and the rest of us get along as best we can with each other.”As is obvious from this, Halim comes across as a pretty decent sort, mostly there to check out something he had read, about a long-form sleeper in a tower. I suppose there might be an angle of interest in forming an alliance with a landed bit of royalty when your own prospects are a bit slim, but really, it is mostly curiosity. We are led to think that he is a good guy by the conversations he has with Toadling. But is he on the level with her, or is he trying to manipulate her into letting him past the massive thorn hedge that surrounds the castle?
Practical overworked middle-aged women basically keep the world running…And being myself a rather frumpy middle-aged woman, I write stories about people like me partly because they’re very much who I can write, but also because I want those women to have stories. Sometimes we read fantasy stories in order to pretend we’re someone else, but sometimes we read fantasy stories in order to pretend that people like us can have adventures too. Mind you, if the readers ever get tired of reading about middle-aged gardeners, I’m probably in trouble, but so far, so good. - from the Grim Dark interviewThe second is the creative reinterpretation Kingfisher had concocted of the classic tale. It is far from alone. The Sleeping Beauty story first appeared in the 14th century. A later version, adapted by Charles Perrault in the late seventeenth century forms the basis of all later versions, including the one transmitted by the Brothers Grimm. That one was called Little Briar Rose. I am sure you will be excited to learn that there is classification system for fairy tales, called the Aarne-Thompson system. It was news to me that this existed. It is a major tool for folklorists. Sleeping Beauty slots in at Type #410, FYI. There have been many versions over eight hundred years.
“There’s a very high wall,” said Halim, “according to the imams, called al-A’raf. Between hell and paradise. And if you haven’t been good enough or evil enough to go one place or the other, you live in this wall. But even those people will eventually enter paradise, because God is merciful.” He jammed his chin onto his fist and gazed at Toadling. “It seems like you’ve been stuck in that wall for quite a long time now . . . That’s all the theology I’ve got in me, incidentally, so I hope it’s useful.”And there is the wall between Toadling and Halim. Will they break through that one?
Toadling sighed. “I would like to climb down from that wall,” she admitted.
Two hundred years. It was immense—unthinkable—and ultimately meant nothing at all. Two years or two hundred or two thousand. The magic endures.