Salt of the Air

by Vera Nazarian, Gene Wolfe (Introduction)

You are familiar with the salt of the earth. But did you know there is an even finer, more delicate essence? Take wisdom and imagination, responsibility and beauty, and mix them together in arcane proportions to form a rich and peculiar brine. The resulting water of life is an emotional muddy liquid, filled with existential sediment swirling in the light of secret reality and reflecting prismatic colors of hope and wonder. If allowed to evaporate- escape, flee, ascend into the ether and join the music of the spheres-what remains is the quintessence; a precious concentrate that is elusive and volatile, neither fully solid nor so illusory as to be devoid of pithy substance. It is the Salt of the Air. In this debut collection from the critically acclaimed author of Dreams of the Compass Rose and Lords of Rainbow, the sixteen stories are distillations of myth and philosophy, eroticism and ascetic purity. Dipping into an ancient multi-ethnic well, they are the stuff of fantasy-of maidens and deities and senior retirees, of kings and artists and con artists, of warriors and librarians, of beings without a name and things very fey indeed. . . .

Genres: Fantasy, Short Stories, Fiction

272 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2006

About the author

Vera Nazarian is a two-time Nebula Award Finalist, award-winning artist, and member of Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, a writer with a penchant for moral fables and stories of intense wonder, true love, and intricacy.

She immigrated to the USA from the former USSR as a kid, sold her first story at the age of 17, and since then has published numerous works in anthologies and magazines, and has seen her fiction translated into eight languages.

She is the author of critically acclaimed novels Dreams of the Compass Rose and Lords of Rainbow , romantic Renaissance epic fantasy trilogy Cobweb Bride , as well as the outrageous parodies Mansfield Park and Mummies and Northanger Abbey and Angels and Dragons , Pride and Platypus: Mr. Darcy's Dreadful Secret in her humorous and surprisingly romantic Supernatural Jane Austen Series , and most recently the bestselling high-octane science fiction series The Atlantis Grail , now optioned for film.

After many years in Los Angeles, Vera lives in a small town in Vermont, and uses her Armenian sense of humor and her Russian sense of suffering to bake conflicted pirozhki and make art.

Take the fun quiz to find out Which of the Lords of Rainbow do You Serve?

Reviews

[Jane · Rating 3 out of 5]

Uneven collection of tales. I liked the ones like folktales or fairytales and disliked the others--most of them. I couldn't give a higher rating since I disliked or thought mediocre over half of a 19 short story collection. This was the author's first attempt at a collection I believe and she was mixed in her success. I really liked Dreams of the Compass Rose and thought this not much of a comparison.

I liked the stories: "Beauty and her beast": a retelling of the fairytale with role reversal.
"Slaying of winter": a journey to the North and killing of the God of Winter.
"Lady of the Castle": Who is the true heir to the dead Lord of the Castle?
"I Want to Paint the Sky": a contest between two rival Master Painters.
"Swans": a retelling of tale similar to fairytale of the seven swans.
"Story of Love": a princess discovers what love is.

[Deborah Brannon · Rating 3 out of 5]

You can read my review of this anthology at Green Man Review.

[Alysa H. · Rating 5 out of 5]

An amazing collection. All of the stories here, which span about 20 years of Nazarian's career, are of the high fantasy and fairy tale variety, with the notable exception of the first ("Rossia Moya") which is a kind of contemporary "What if?" piece. These stories were put in a very particular order, and I would agree with Gene Wolfe who wrote in this book's introduction that "Rossia Moya" be read first. Although it is so markedly different than the rest, there's was a sensibility about it that I think did inform the way I absorbed all the rest. I would also agree with Wolfe that these stories be read one at a time, and with time in between, for they are all pretty intense. These stories are full of preternaturally beautiful and/or fierce people, but have a mostly feminist slant to them. They are lush, vivid, wondrous, and at times maddeningly frustrating -- in the best way.

[Rosalind M · Rating 3 out of 5]

The writing style in this book had a rhythm and voice that set the perfect mood for this collection of stories, bringing such life to the words that I felt as if the characters were speaking over my shoulder. The stories, however, just weren't to my personal taste.

[Leigh Kimmel]

Rich and subtle imagery reminiscent of the literary fairy tales of the 19th century.

[Isabel Mansfield · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a book of Short Stories Each one different and wonderful

[Howard Cincotta · Rating 3 out of 5]

This first volume by a now-established fantasy writer was an impulse buy after reading an Azimov’s review, but unread until now.

Vera Nazarian’s remakes of familiar fairy tales and fantasy motifs are a mixed bag: full of strong images and metaphorical language, but perhaps relying too heavily on over-used tropes of mysterious pale maidens with black hair and suppressed feminist agendas.

Let me cite two examples, one successful, the other less so. As author Gene Wolfe notes in his cryptic introduction, “The Young Woman in a House of Old” has a wonderfully conceived premise that Nazarian executes with understated precision. After all, what child has not, at some moment, peered at her strange collection of parents and relatives and thought, “Who ARE these people?”

By contrast, Nazarian’s “The Stone Face, the Giant, and the Paradox” can’t quite decide what it’s really about. Is it Janéh’s beautiful but immobile face, courtesy of a “fey” mother, the boorish boys who pursue her, or her mysterious connection with running stags in the forest? Or is it about the dreaming giant who, without prior notice, appears mid-story, stomping through the countryside and requiring Janéth’s direct action? Too many dangling story lines.

In other stories, such as “The Starry King” and “The Slaying of Winter,” Nazarian employs a burst of incandescent prose to resolve issues that appear muddled and unclear in the narrative.

Although Russian-born, Nazarian draws on familiar Western-flavored fantasy stories rather than ideas explicitly from East European or Russian mythology. No Byzantine or Russian Orthodox images here. Instead, we have a nifty role reversal in “Beauty and His Beast,” which I enjoyed, and “Absolute Perceptiveness, The Princess and the Pea,” retold as a hapless rape story, which I did not. The story “Sun, in its Copper Season,” follows a familiar narrative arc, but opens with a ravishing description of lassitude and sensuality; the dreamlike prose is one of Nazarian’s strengths.

But plucky princesses, no matter how wan and gorgeous, can blur after a while without either sharper edges or edgier humor. Several of the stories, such as “Lady of the Castle” and “Wound on the Moon” read more like fan fiction than any serious attempt to expand the possibilities of the fairy tale tradition.