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Japanese Dreams
The first volume in a series of anthologies offering short stories drawn from the storehouse of world mythology, Japanese Dreams takes the reader to the islands of fire and smoke -- where shape-shifters, demons and lovers all populate a landscape blossoming with story. Contributions by such authors as Richard Parks, Catherynne Valente, Jeannette Westwood, Eugie Foster, Ekaterina Sedia, Erzebet YellowBoy, Yoon Ha Lee, Jenn Reese, Sarah Prineas, Jim C. Hines and Steve Berman all offer us a glimpse of a silken sleeve or the red fur of the fox as she slips between the rushes, daring us to follow.
224 pages, Paperback
First published May 14, 2007
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About the author
Sean Wallace
188 books27 followersSean A. Wallace (born January 1, 1976) is an award-winning American science fiction and fantasy anthologist, editor, and publisher best known for his work on Prime Books and for co-editing two magazines, Clarkesworld Magazine, and Fantasy Magazine. He has been nominated a number of times by both the Hugo Awards and the World Fantasy Awards, won two Hugo Awards and one World Fantasy Award, and has served as a World Fantasy Award judge.
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
June 12, 2013
Not bad! My favorite was Steve Berman's "A Troll on a Mountain with a Girl".
October 12, 2024
Main problem: a lot of non-Japanese authors. Doesn't hold up to the title unfortunately.
September 29, 2011
I quite enjoyed this collection, more than I thought I would. Grammatical and italics differences aside, I happily followed along the path set out by Mr. Wallace with his choice of story order.
However, I feel that most who would pick up this book should have more than a passing interest in Japanese culture, history, and mythology so would hopefully be familiar with such words as kitsune, hibakusha, okaa-san, Amaterasu and Tokugawa Ieyasu. Having been a student of Japanese culture for many years and a language-learner as well I am lucky enough to know all of the terms mentioned in their native Japanese and could generally guess whom most of the mythological creatures and gods could be. If someone picked up this story without any knowledge of Japanese myths or even horror stories I'd think that they would be missing out on so much of the stories and rich culture displayed.
This is not me trying to sound boastful but rather to say that some people might have difficulties understanding the meaning behind some of these tales as they are not clearly but more cleverly expressed. Some words are never given in English leaving the reader to infer the meaning and there are stories that leave after certain twists that might not make as much sense if one does not know the mythos behind it.
With all of that said, I enjoyed myself quite and bit and would definitely recommend this to the Japanese aficionado!
However, I feel that most who would pick up this book should have more than a passing interest in Japanese culture, history, and mythology so would hopefully be familiar with such words as kitsune, hibakusha, okaa-san, Amaterasu and Tokugawa Ieyasu. Having been a student of Japanese culture for many years and a language-learner as well I am lucky enough to know all of the terms mentioned in their native Japanese and could generally guess whom most of the mythological creatures and gods could be. If someone picked up this story without any knowledge of Japanese myths or even horror stories I'd think that they would be missing out on so much of the stories and rich culture displayed.
This is not me trying to sound boastful but rather to say that some people might have difficulties understanding the meaning behind some of these tales as they are not clearly but more cleverly expressed. Some words are never given in English leaving the reader to infer the meaning and there are stories that leave after certain twists that might not make as much sense if one does not know the mythos behind it.
With all of that said, I enjoyed myself quite and bit and would definitely recommend this to the Japanese aficionado!
April 29, 2015
I was disappointed by both the intent of this collection--gazing upon Japan from a (mostly) Western perspective--and the quality of the editing. Usually I enjoy works published by Lethe, but this collection includes grammar and formatting errors that I typically do not experience in Lethe publications.
From this collection, my favorite stories were: K. Bird Lincoln's "And the Bones Would Keep Speaking," Robert Joseph Levy's "The Rental Sister," Richard Park's "The White Bone Fan," and Lisa Mantchev's "In Fortune's Marketplace." All of these are worth reading both for the quality of the writing and the creativity of the pieces.
I couldn't shake this feeling that these authors used the myths, religions, and history of Japan as fodder to make their stories more unique and "exotic." While most of the author's were respectful of their usage of these elements, I still felt distinctly uncomfortable at points. The inclusion of some of the comments in the introduction highlight the "gaze" on Japan from outside in a way that makes it hard to read without flinching. In the introduction, it is described that, "This is a book of dreams. These are the things we have dreamed of Japan, the radiant hybrids of Japanese myth and Western experience. The beautiful gaijin tales of English-speaking writers reaching out their hands towards a country that was born when a jeweled spear pierced the sea...this is the Japan of the mind" (Japanese Dreams 11).
From this collection, my favorite stories were: K. Bird Lincoln's "And the Bones Would Keep Speaking," Robert Joseph Levy's "The Rental Sister," Richard Park's "The White Bone Fan," and Lisa Mantchev's "In Fortune's Marketplace." All of these are worth reading both for the quality of the writing and the creativity of the pieces.
I couldn't shake this feeling that these authors used the myths, religions, and history of Japan as fodder to make their stories more unique and "exotic." While most of the author's were respectful of their usage of these elements, I still felt distinctly uncomfortable at points. The inclusion of some of the comments in the introduction highlight the "gaze" on Japan from outside in a way that makes it hard to read without flinching. In the introduction, it is described that, "This is a book of dreams. These are the things we have dreamed of Japan, the radiant hybrids of Japanese myth and Western experience. The beautiful gaijin tales of English-speaking writers reaching out their hands towards a country that was born when a jeweled spear pierced the sea...this is the Japan of the mind" (Japanese Dreams 11).
February 3, 2011
Despite a few spelling errors, all the stories had interesting myths combined in each tale.
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November 9, 2009Contains my story "Lady Blade."
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April 24, 2011Contains my story "Lady Blade."
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews