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272nd out of 1,169 books
—
6,225 voters
Welcome to Bordertown (Borderland #5)
by
Holly Black (Goodreads Author) ,
Terri Windling (Goodreads Author) , Cory Doctorow , Cassandra Clare (Goodreads Author) , Emma Bull (Goodreads Author) , Charles de Lint , Will Shetterly (Goodreads Author) , Amal El-Mohtar (Goodreads Author)
,
more…
Bordertown: a city on the border between our human world and the elfin realm. Runaway teens come from both sides of the border to find adventure, to find themselves. Elves play in rock bands and race down the street on spell-powered motorbikes. Human kids recreate themselves in the squats and clubs and artists' studios of Soho. Terri Windling's original Bordertown series w...more
Hardcover, 544 pages
Published
May 24th 2011
by Random House Books for Young Readers
(first published May 18th 2011)
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Whew, this is going to be a long review as each entry gets its own blurb. *deep breath* Well, here goes...
Ellen Kushner & Terri Windling – Welcome to Bordertown
This was a sweet story about a girl who left for Bordertown and thirteen days later for her – but 13 years later for the human world – her younger brother gets a postcard she sent home and starts on a journey to find her. It is a story not only of his journey to find his older sister but to also find his place in the world. I quite li...more
Ellen Kushner & Terri Windling – Welcome to Bordertown
This was a sweet story about a girl who left for Bordertown and thirteen days later for her – but 13 years later for the human world – her younger brother gets a postcard she sent home and starts on a journey to find her. It is a story not only of his journey to find his older sister but to also find his place in the world. I quite li...more
I had sort of a love-hate deal going with the original Bordertown stories; though I liked the idea of them, there was this rich privileged kids patina to the stories. The Bordertown runaways were special, they dressed in leather, they found magic, and no one ever seemed to have to get a down and dirty job in order to survive--they live on air and music, or if they work at the inn, it seemed no one ever has brutal hours or hurting feet like waitressing in this world.
Enough of that. I think it's...more
Enough of that. I think it's...more
9 likes · like · see review
Like any collection, this one is uneven. Please don't throw things at me, Border fanatics. I assure you that I love Bordertown as much as anyone. The unevenness can be divided roughly into two groups: good and bad. For a change of pace, I'm going to start with what was so very good about this anthology, in a disjointedly listing sort of way. Like so:
Nalo Hopkinson and Catherynne Valente, turning out two ass-kickingly awesome stories, of the type which manage to feel epic and mythic despite their...more
Nalo Hopkinson and Catherynne Valente, turning out two ass-kickingly awesome stories, of the type which manage to feel epic and mythic despite their...more
2 likes · like · see review
It's been 13 years since the last Bordertown collection was published. The authors chose to address that in these new stories, acknowledging the years that had passed in the World. In Bordertown itself, only 13 days have passed. Old friends show up (hello, Ron story! Farrel Din makes an appearance, as do many others) and we're introduced to new friends. And there are vampires! Okay Lankins but yes, Bordertown vampires. Excellently done.
I didn't realize how much I'd missed life on the Border unt...more
I didn't realize how much I'd missed life on the Border unt...more
You know your anthology sucks when the best story in it gets 4 stars.
Yes, that's right. Not a single story in the anthology got 5 stars. A couple came close, but non achieved the rating. And I'm not one of those people who only saves 5 stars for the very best books in existence; I give it out fairly often. So to say that not a single story in here got the rating is a really shitty reflection of the editing and writing. It's not the worst anthology I've read (21 Proms actually had a higher rating...more
Yes, that's right. Not a single story in the anthology got 5 stars. A couple came close, but non achieved the rating. And I'm not one of those people who only saves 5 stars for the very best books in existence; I give it out fairly often. So to say that not a single story in here got the rating is a really shitty reflection of the editing and writing. It's not the worst anthology I've read (21 Proms actually had a higher rating...more
3 likes · like · see review
I read the first Bordertown books when they came out in the 80's, 90's and liked the mix of normal world & elf runaways, the music, the gangs, and the atmosphere created in the Bordertown anthologies and novels. When I found out there was going to be a new book telling more stories about that fascinating town and it's inhabitants I was extremely excited.
I just finished Welcome to Bordertown, the new addition to the Bordertown lore and was not disappointed. For a while, Bordertown was inacces...more
I just finished Welcome to Bordertown, the new addition to the Bordertown lore and was not disappointed. For a while, Bordertown was inacces...more
I love reading anthologies of short stories, it is one of the best ways to find new authors and catch up with old ones. Welcome to Bordertown was no exception. I found I knew most of the authors and I enjoyed visiting with them - Holly Black, Terri Windling, Charles de Lint, Neil Gaiman, Cassandra Clare and Jane Yolen, just to name a few!
Although I have read a lot of anthologies, this was my first time experiencing Bordertown, where all the stories are connected by a place and where urban fantas...more
Although I have read a lot of anthologies, this was my first time experiencing Bordertown, where all the stories are connected by a place and where urban fantas...more
I'm going to get this out of the way: there was a part of me that worried that this volume would be terrible or disappointing, but I feel like it's a worthy successor to the Bordertown stories I particularly loved, like "Danceland" and Finder. The gimmick that the way to the Border has been closed for 13 years, from the perspective of the world we know, while a mere 13 days passed on the Border is played with just enough for humor and drama, not to the point of being cheesy.
I'll be posting r...more
I'll be posting r...more
If you have loved the Borderlands series since the beginning, then you know what I think.
If you haven't, and this is your first time across the border?
Then you're lucky. You'll get to meet Wolfboy, Orient, and Farrel Din, and Screaming Lord Neville. And you'll get to meet the new faces who made their way to the crazy town between the Human world and the Realm where the Truebloods come from.
The stories vary from whimsical: Welcome to Bordertown to the romantic and heartbreaking A Tangle of Green...more
If you haven't, and this is your first time across the border?
Then you're lucky. You'll get to meet Wolfboy, Orient, and Farrel Din, and Screaming Lord Neville. And you'll get to meet the new faces who made their way to the crazy town between the Human world and the Realm where the Truebloods come from.
The stories vary from whimsical: Welcome to Bordertown to the romantic and heartbreaking A Tangle of Green...more
Lots of good stories - I like the idea of this place that has defined parameters, that everyone agrees to these and from that point goes off and writes different things. I often have a few favorites in a collection like this - even when its by one author - and some stories I don't quite connect with. I enjoyed everything. I did have a few favorites - Will Shetterley's story about the bookstore, and Tim Pratt's handling of wishes, and the remaking of onself in Emma Bull's story...favorites is har...more
After more than a decade, a new book is available in the Bordertown series. This is another book in the groundbreaking series which has been praised as the originator of the urban fantasy genre, where fantastical creatures live alongside humans in the modern world. Before the stories begin a beginners guide to Bordertown help the reader new to the series jump right in with enough understanding of the Bordertown world to find themselves immediately drawn into this world and the stories. How to ex...more
There's a good framework here, with the existing word of Bordertown and the useful idea of a time-slip to give the authors some room. Several stories were creative and engaging.
But as I neared the end of the book. it got to be too much of a muchness. I'm finding Bordertown boring. Coffee, music, motorcycles, drugs, sex, elves, like wow man. And yes, I *was* there for the sixties and I'm on my fifth motorcycle and I make vicious coffee, so it's not as if I don't get it.
And it's implausible. The...more
But as I neared the end of the book. it got to be too much of a muchness. I'm finding Bordertown boring. Coffee, music, motorcycles, drugs, sex, elves, like wow man. And yes, I *was* there for the sixties and I'm on my fifth motorcycle and I make vicious coffee, so it's not as if I don't get it.
And it's implausible. The...more
Holly Black's intro says it best:
"It was more than the idea of folklore mixed with contemporary life that compelled me. I was also drawn in by the idea that all these writers...wrote stories together and left clever references to each other in their work. And that created in me a longing for something I didn't even know I could have. I could someday be a writer and have writer friends and we could tell stories together.
From the first time I read the books, I knew that was what I wanted - to be a...more
"It was more than the idea of folklore mixed with contemporary life that compelled me. I was also drawn in by the idea that all these writers...wrote stories together and left clever references to each other in their work. And that created in me a longing for something I didn't even know I could have. I could someday be a writer and have writer friends and we could tell stories together.
From the first time I read the books, I knew that was what I wanted - to be a...more
Apr 26, 2012
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Short Stories
Bordertown is an unusual short story collection. It is not just a book of short stories, it is a book of short stories, poems, and graphic novel that all connect to each other. This book is its own unique mix, just like Bordertown, the place the stories are all written about. The common theme in the book is finding magic in life, runaways, discovering the place you belong, and believing that something better is possible. Any teen who feels as if the world does not have...more
Short Stories
Bordertown is an unusual short story collection. It is not just a book of short stories, it is a book of short stories, poems, and graphic novel that all connect to each other. This book is its own unique mix, just like Bordertown, the place the stories are all written about. The common theme in the book is finding magic in life, runaways, discovering the place you belong, and believing that something better is possible. Any teen who feels as if the world does not have...more
A remarkably strong collection of short stories* from the shared-world universe of Bordertown, a city that sits on the border between the World (earth) and the Realm (Fairyland). Despite being the fifth collection of stories, you don't need to know anything about Bordertown before picking this book up. All the stories are self-contained and there's a primer at the front for any concepts or terms that you may stumble over. I should know. I'm a "noob" myself to this series.
The conceit for the ant...more
The conceit for the ant...more
In 1986, Terri Windling introduced to the literary world a fantastical place called The Borderlands. Here, in the Borderlands - outcasts, runaways - they all ended up in an old abandoned part of the city that was a Mecca for them called Bordertown.
In this place, humans, elves, and half-breeds lived together and tried to work together through various “issues” in order to find a way to live in peace. Now, in 2011, a slew of urban fantasy authors have come together to each write a story or poem th...more
In this place, humans, elves, and half-breeds lived together and tried to work together through various “issues” in order to find a way to live in peace. Now, in 2011, a slew of urban fantasy authors have come together to each write a story or poem th...more
WOW! What a group of amazing writers! Bordertown is a city on the border between the human world and the elfin realm. There are several earlier collections: Bordertown: A Chronicle of the Borderlands (1986), Bordertown: Where Magic Meets Rock & Roll (1996) and The Essential Bordertown (1999). I will be going to find the other books now that I've read this one. These are the kinds of stories that drew me into reading fantasy and now I know where all the writers went - they all ran off to Bord...more
A new tome in my favorite shared universe, ever! Woo! Bordertown is the same but the rest of the world sure isn't. The thirteen days that passed in town were really thirteen years to the rest of the world. But now the border is open again, and the people that considered themselves on the cutting edge of everything are forced to deal with a world that has moved on without them. But if there's anything they can do, it's adapt. Love the new life that was breathed into the series.
I have loved Bordertown for many years now and I was delighted to see this title on the shelves. I would recommend this anthology to all of you who have sojourned in Bordertown before. The Way is Open once again, in prose, poetry and pictures. First, just check out the list of authors. It's like a Who's Who of modern fantasy writers. These are the story-tellers, the purveyors of magical words, the evokers of love and sorrow. For those of you who have not sampled the pleasures of Bordertown, imag...more
I remember the original Bordertown series from back in (I think) the late '90's : in fact I still have 1 of them....! (Time to dig that out, methinks).
For those of you not familiar, Bordertown is a shared-world set of short story anthologies, set, surprisingly enough, in Bordertown - the city on the boundary between our world & Faerie . Now, 13 years on, a new anthology's been published - & it's bloody good....
Short stories are , I reckon, even harder to do well than novels : it's also r...more
For those of you not familiar, Bordertown is a shared-world set of short story anthologies, set, surprisingly enough, in Bordertown - the city on the boundary between our world & Faerie . Now, 13 years on, a new anthology's been published - & it's bloody good....
Short stories are , I reckon, even harder to do well than novels : it's also r...more
I was a teenager during the '80s heyday of shared world anthologies (hey, whatever happened to those?). I read most of them voraciously (Thieves' World, it's your turn to come back next), but one of my favorites was definitely the Borderland series. Not only were many of my favorite authors involved (Charles de Lint, Will Shetterly, Steven Brust), but the concept itself was fascinating. Elves. Rock and Roll. Unreliable magic. And the pairing of modern society with some of the oldest beliefs in f...more
Somehow, I missed the older Bordertown stories, so this was my first trip to the fabled city between our world and The Realm (Faerie, home of the Truebloods we call Elves). Now, I want to go back and read the original Bordertown books.
Bordertown is a wild, ruinous place where our world’s technologies and trends meet magic and glamour. Many of the residents are runaways; quite of a few of them are young and abused. The stories in Welcome to Bordertown, edited by Holly Black and Ellen Kushner, t...more
Bordertown is a wild, ruinous place where our world’s technologies and trends meet magic and glamour. Many of the residents are runaways; quite of a few of them are young and abused. The stories in Welcome to Bordertown, edited by Holly Black and Ellen Kushner, t...more
I'm not sure this book works. The introduction of new computer technology to Bordertown seems off (did they really have to have a typical Cory Doctorow "teenage hero invents the internet and gets laid at the same time" story? Really truly?), and the "it's been thirteen days in Bordertown but thirteen years for the World" conceit seems invented to cover up the gap in books more than anything else, altho some of the writers use it very well. Most of the poetry reads like song lyrics without music,...more
5 likes · like · see review
I think the idea of Bordertown is fascinating, and I'd love to read some of the original stories. My main complaint about this collection would be that the short stories make it hard to develop any really complex storylines and character development, but I often feel that with short stories. There were a couple that were modern vampirey things which I didn't really get into and a couple I skipped, one about the internet, one which used a lot of slang or dialect which I found nearly impossible to...more
I loved the original Bordertown books. I read the original anthology, I read Will Shetterly's novels. I read the next anthologies. My only complaint was that they ended. Now there is a Bordertown anthology for the next generation!
The thirteen years since we last were able to read about Bordertown were thirteen years in the World but only thirteen days on the Border! So a new generation of runaways bring with them their cell phones and their modern culture. But the Border remains a tricksy place...more
The thirteen years since we last were able to read about Bordertown were thirteen years in the World but only thirteen days on the Border! So a new generation of runaways bring with them their cell phones and their modern culture. But the Border remains a tricksy place...more
Enjoyable collection, combining long-time urban fantasy authors with younger writers who have grown up under their influence. The stories are a bit mixed, and the few poems interspersed mostly fall flat. Still, most maintain a remarkable consistency of setting, and the thread of young characters' dreams and yearnings is strong.
Bordertown is a refuge for young runaways from The World, and a gateway to the land of Truebloods (elves) who mix with them in nightclubs and occasionally in bed. Passage...more
Bordertown is a refuge for young runaways from The World, and a gateway to the land of Truebloods (elves) who mix with them in nightclubs and occasionally in bed. Passage...more
Eh. Possibly should not have read in less than three days, as everything started to blend together. Bordertown: awesome on its own terms, not yours! I get it.
The best of the lot, for me, was the Kushner-Windling piece -- mostly because it was delightful happymaking story-I-would-like-to-tell -- Emma Bull's "Incunabulum," and Tim Pratt's "Or Stars, Our Selves" (although holy wow, worst title ever). Okay, so there were some good parts, including Charles de Lint's finale, which isn't really about B...more
The best of the lot, for me, was the Kushner-Windling piece -- mostly because it was delightful happymaking story-I-would-like-to-tell -- Emma Bull's "Incunabulum," and Tim Pratt's "Or Stars, Our Selves" (although holy wow, worst title ever). Okay, so there were some good parts, including Charles de Lint's finale, which isn't really about B...more
A fun new anthology of short stories and poems exploring Bordertown, the area where the human world and Elfin realm intersect. The original Borderland series was created by Terri Windling in 1986, and represented a new direction for fantasy literature. Many well-known YA authors are represented here, some veterans such as Jane Yolen and Patricia McKillip as well as the newer voices of Neil Gaiman and Cory Doctorow. It's a fun concept, with most of the stories written from the viewpoint of the hu...more
I am fond of Bordertown and its various stories and storytellers, so I had intended for quite a while to get my hands on this anthology. Having now consumed it... Well, you know. These types of books are always a little up and down. Part of the problem was, I thought, the poems - I'm not opposed to poems, and I quite agree that a book about the Fey should probably have some Fay-ish verse in them, but most of the authors who wrote the poems would have made me happier had they written stories inst...more
I took my time and really savored this book because it's just about my favorite kind of stories. Despite the wide range of authors and styles, there was really only one real dud and that one just too laughably over the top in presenting what isn't a bad kernel of an idea at all (Cory: you'd be more bearable if you didn't try so very hard). I love how one place holds its identity through all of the details different authors offer, and I love its patchwork nature. Feral houses and a place that is...more
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Holly Black is a best-selling author of contemporary fantasy novels for kids, teens, and adults. She is the author of the Modern Faerie Tale series (Tithe, Valiant, and Ironside), The Spiderwick Chronicles (with Tony DiTerlizzi), and The Good Neighbors graphic novels (with Ted Naifeh) The Poison Eaters and Other Stories, a collection of short fiction, and The Curse Worker series (White Cat, Red Gl...more
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“We''re all misfits here,” he says, almost proudly. “That's why I started this squat, after all. For people like us, who don't fit in anywhere else. Halfies and homos and hopeless romantics, the outcast and outrageous and terminally weird. That's where art comes from, Jimmy, my friend. From our weirdnesses and our differences, from our manic fixations, our obsessions, our passions. From all those wild and wacky things that make each of us unique.”
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31 people liked it
“Reading about Bordertown was the first time I saw people like me in speculative fiction. Messed-up kids, making messsed-up choices. I couldn't be a magician's apprentice or a pig keeper who might or might not be a king's son or a princess with a prophecy hanging over my head. But I could, maybe, somehow, be part of a community of artists who loved magic.”
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2 people liked it
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