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Finding Magic
Seventeen stories moves from vampiric fantasy to skateboarding versions of fairy tales, to worlds of magic and power we can only dream of.
308 pages, Hardcover
First published November 9, 2007
204 people want to read
About the author
Tanya Huff
150 books2,446 followersTanya Sue Huff is a Canadian fantasy author. Her stories have been published since the late 1980s, including five fantasy series and one science fiction series. One of these, her Blood Books series, featuring detective Vicki Nelson, was adapted for television under the title Blood Ties.
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Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews
June 28, 2008
Huff's most recent collection includes a useful bibliography of her work, an innocuous introduction, and an exploratory essay at the end that I could have done without. The stories are all of good quality, and many of them feature the worlds and characters from her novel series. Her better works tend to be humorous with an underlying message that's never intrusive to the narrative. "Tuesday Evenings, Six Thirty to Seven," is a silly fantasy story that really knocked my socks off, and "I Knew a Guy Once" is one of the best science fiction stories that I've read in years.
October 20, 2023
re-read November 2012
not one dud in the bunch!
A gorgeous cover by Jody Lee!
now, if we could just find the person who was responsible for proofreading this bad boy and smack 'em (for example, Jors was called Jars for one entire page!)
"I Knew a Guy Once" from Space, Inc. reread 4/1/2015
"Choice of Ending" (from Maiden Matron Crone recollected in He Said, Sidhe Said) 5/23/2005 reread 3/18/2015 read aloud to Lisa 11/30/2015
"He Said, Sidhe Said" from Faerie Tales and recollected in He Said, Sidhe Said read 3/18/2015
"After School Specials" from Children of Magic reread 4/1/2015
"Finding Marcus" from Sirius, the Dog Star recollected in He Said, Sidhe Said reread 3/18/2015
"Jack" from Little Red Riding Hood in the Big Bad City and re-appeared in February Thaw reread 3/7/2015
"Slow Poison" from In the Shadow of Evil and recollected in Nights of the Round Table reread 3/10/2015
"Tuesday Evenings, Six Thirty to Seven" recollected in He Said, Sidhe Said reread 3/18/2015
"Blood in the Water" reprinted in Nights of the Round Table reread 3/8/2015
"Not That Kind of War" from Women of War reread 4/1/2015
"Under Summons" from Mythspring and re-collected in He Said, Sidhe Said re-read 3/19/2015
"A Woman's Work..." from If I Were An Evil Overlord reprinted in Nights of the Round Table reread 3/9/2015
"The Things Everyone Knows" from Under Cover of Darkness and recollected in Swan's Braid reread 3/12/2015
We Two May Meet
"The Demon's Den" from Sword of Ice reread 4/2/2015
"Brock" from Sun in Glory reread 4/2/2015
"All the Ages of Man" from Crossroads rereda 4/2/2015
not one dud in the bunch!
A gorgeous cover by Jody Lee!
now, if we could just find the person who was responsible for proofreading this bad boy and smack 'em (for example, Jors was called Jars for one entire page!)
"I Knew a Guy Once" from Space, Inc. reread 4/1/2015
"Choice of Ending" (from Maiden Matron Crone recollected in He Said, Sidhe Said) 5/23/2005 reread 3/18/2015 read aloud to Lisa 11/30/2015
"He Said, Sidhe Said" from Faerie Tales and recollected in He Said, Sidhe Said read 3/18/2015
"After School Specials" from Children of Magic reread 4/1/2015
"Finding Marcus" from Sirius, the Dog Star recollected in He Said, Sidhe Said reread 3/18/2015
"Jack" from Little Red Riding Hood in the Big Bad City and re-appeared in February Thaw reread 3/7/2015
"Slow Poison" from In the Shadow of Evil and recollected in Nights of the Round Table reread 3/10/2015
"Tuesday Evenings, Six Thirty to Seven" recollected in He Said, Sidhe Said reread 3/18/2015
"Blood in the Water" reprinted in Nights of the Round Table reread 3/8/2015
"Not That Kind of War" from Women of War reread 4/1/2015
"Under Summons" from Mythspring and re-collected in He Said, Sidhe Said re-read 3/19/2015
"A Woman's Work..." from If I Were An Evil Overlord reprinted in Nights of the Round Table reread 3/9/2015
"The Things Everyone Knows" from Under Cover of Darkness and recollected in Swan's Braid reread 3/12/2015
We Two May Meet
"The Demon's Den" from Sword of Ice reread 4/2/2015
"Brock" from Sun in Glory reread 4/2/2015
"All the Ages of Man" from Crossroads rereda 4/2/2015
September 27, 2011
This collection is in serious need of a good editor.
Among other things, there's a sentence where she uses "until" where she obviously meant "unit", multiple instances of misspelling the name of the main character, and plenty of misplaced commas and apostrophes. When I'm seeing obvious errors that could have been caught with even the most cursory inspection within a couple of pages, it's a indication of poor editing.
It seems very odd to me that the quality is so poor since the majority of these stories are reprints from other anthologies. I would have assumed the problems would have been noticed in the first printing!
As far as the stories go - I really enjoyed the stand-alone stories that were not linked to any of her novel universes. I particularly liked "I Knew a Guy Once", "Slow Poison" and "Tuesday Evening Six Thirty to Seven". (Though, really, "I Knew a Guy Once" and "Slow Poison" are the same story in a radically different settings.)
"The Things Everyone Knows" was great, but it doesn't stand on it's own very well, so if you aren't already acquainted with Terazin from her other collections you may not fully appreciate it.
For the stories linked to the novel universes, I didn't really care for many/any of them. I haven't read much of Huff's work other than the Blood series, and while I wasn't lost really, I wasn't engaged in the stories.
Among other things, there's a sentence where she uses "until" where she obviously meant "unit", multiple instances of misspelling the name of the main character, and plenty of misplaced commas and apostrophes. When I'm seeing obvious errors that could have been caught with even the most cursory inspection within a couple of pages, it's a indication of poor editing.
It seems very odd to me that the quality is so poor since the majority of these stories are reprints from other anthologies. I would have assumed the problems would have been noticed in the first printing!
As far as the stories go - I really enjoyed the stand-alone stories that were not linked to any of her novel universes. I particularly liked "I Knew a Guy Once", "Slow Poison" and "Tuesday Evening Six Thirty to Seven". (Though, really, "I Knew a Guy Once" and "Slow Poison" are the same story in a radically different settings.)
"The Things Everyone Knows" was great, but it doesn't stand on it's own very well, so if you aren't already acquainted with Terazin from her other collections you may not fully appreciate it.
For the stories linked to the novel universes, I didn't really care for many/any of them. I haven't read much of Huff's work other than the Blood series, and while I wasn't lost really, I wasn't engaged in the stories.
July 31, 2024
This is, undoubtedly, the weakest collection of tales of Tanya Huff that I have read. It's full of long works linked to various story-arcs and fantasy-worlds that she had created. Unerringly, all those tales fell flat. But the book was redeemed by four stories, and to read those four stories one can indeed get hold of this volume.
Those stories are~
1. I Knew a Guy Once: Greatest short story about small, incremental changes causing a turnaround? Perhaps. But it’s a fact that henceforth I would read this story whenever I feel depressed. Truly magical stuff, believe me!
2. Slow Poison: A grim, remorseless, violent and strangely subversive version of 'I Knew a Guy Once'. But it does the job.
3. Tuesday Evenings, Six Thirty to Seven: This tale showcased the Tanya Huff I knew. Marvelous story.
4. A Woman's Work: Another classic 'Tanya's specual'— a tale that celebrates the breaking of conventions and compels us to cheer all the way.
Alas! The rest were mostly meh or boring.
The book has some serious essays and extensive bibliography detailing the author's works. They make reading this volume somewhat tedious but are important, nevertheless. But as far as the stories are concerned, I strongly recommend that you leave the above-mentioned four stories for last— to savour them to the fullest.
Those stories are~
1. I Knew a Guy Once: Greatest short story about small, incremental changes causing a turnaround? Perhaps. But it’s a fact that henceforth I would read this story whenever I feel depressed. Truly magical stuff, believe me!
2. Slow Poison: A grim, remorseless, violent and strangely subversive version of 'I Knew a Guy Once'. But it does the job.
3. Tuesday Evenings, Six Thirty to Seven: This tale showcased the Tanya Huff I knew. Marvelous story.
4. A Woman's Work: Another classic 'Tanya's specual'— a tale that celebrates the breaking of conventions and compels us to cheer all the way.
Alas! The rest were mostly meh or boring.
The book has some serious essays and extensive bibliography detailing the author's works. They make reading this volume somewhat tedious but are important, nevertheless. But as far as the stories are concerned, I strongly recommend that you leave the above-mentioned four stories for last— to savour them to the fullest.
April 8, 2025
Finding Magic is an enjoyable and varied collection of mostly fantasy stories (she classifies one as science fiction) by Tanya Huff. They're character-focused and go in some surprising directions. My favorite is "The Demon's Den," about a mine engineer who has to single-handedly rescue a man from a cave-in, even though she was maimed and blinded in an earlier event.
I'd give this book four stars except that the editorial work is really bad. The stories are full of typos, almost all of which are real words but the wrong words. A spellchecker is not a substitute for a proofreader!! Tanya deserved better than that.
Disclaimer: I know the author personally.
I'd give this book four stars except that the editorial work is really bad. The stories are full of typos, almost all of which are real words but the wrong words. A spellchecker is not a substitute for a proofreader!! Tanya deserved better than that.
Disclaimer: I know the author personally.
January 1, 2019
The main character is an Evil Overlord who does such despicable things as...build hospitals, provide free education, and force fathers to help raise their children. All in pursuit of ultimate power, of course, which makes it all the more fun to see her use these good deeds for evil ends.
December 29, 2017
yes there are many typos but overall one of the best anthologies by a single author I've ever read
June 1, 2016
I happened on Tanya Huff's Summon the Keeper and liked it, so I picked up this book of her short stories.
What's annoying me is that this prolific and experienced writer apparently has no idea how to use an apostrophe and frequently makes other basic language mistakes. (It's one of the fan organization anthologies and apparently didn't get edited.)
The stories are OK but nothing earthshattering.
I'm going to look for the other Keeper novels, but this, and the Four Quarters novels which I've also tried (read the first without much enthusiasm, abandoned the second after a few chapters), don't inspire me to read much more of hers.
What's annoying me is that this prolific and experienced writer apparently has no idea how to use an apostrophe and frequently makes other basic language mistakes. (It's one of the fan organization anthologies and apparently didn't get edited.)
The stories are OK but nothing earthshattering.
I'm going to look for the other Keeper novels, but this, and the Four Quarters novels which I've also tried (read the first without much enthusiasm, abandoned the second after a few chapters), don't inspire me to read much more of hers.
March 19, 2010
If I want more (HENRY) out of the author of the Blood Books, I will have to dig up the Smoke trilogy. Loved the first story (I Knew a Guy...) and the retelling of Tam Lin was pretty awesome. The Tony story made little sense, probably because I haven't read the Smoke trilogy. But it also didn't make sense, period. Sadly, the rest I could take or leave.
February 21, 2009
I like Tanya Huff, and I enjoyed this collection of short stories. Some familiar faces are here - Valor has a story, as does the girl from the Keeper books - as well as some one-offs. I was personally most fond of the story about the Brownie leader, but I enjoyed the whole thing.
November 18, 2012
Good collection with a few of my favorites (Slow Poison, A Woman's Work) and new ones to add to the list of favorites (I Knew a Guy Once, Brock). I've enjoyed discovering this author - one of those gifts from the universe that is only meant to delight.
September 10, 2014
The first short story in this collection is also a song; I Knew a Guy Once lyrics By Brenda Sutton (of Three Weird Sisters), © 2003.
June 17, 2008
Stories were very good. Editing sucked! For instance, the spelling of a character's name changed halfway through one short story, and no, it wasn't part of the plot.
March 22, 2009
Terrific collection of short stories. I love her writing style.
July 16, 2010
This was the worst copyediting job I've ever seen, hands down. That aside, though, I love Tanya Huff and I adore her short stories as much as any of her longer stuff.
January 18, 2011
Good collection of stories by an interesting author. I had encountered some before, but enjoyed rereading those and meeting new characters or familiar characters in new stories.
April 13, 2011
Great collection of short stories! It is a great way to dip into the many different worlds and stories Huff has written, and it makes me interested to read more of her books.
July 19, 2021
A collection of stories, a couple also published elsewhere. Magic themed, in various settings.
Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews