The Best of Catherynne M. Valente, Volume One

by Catherynne M. Valente, Alyssa Winans (Illustrator)

The celebrated author of Fairyland, Space Opera, and much more, Catherynne M. Valente is also known for her stunning prose and captivating worldbuilding. From life on Mars to the zombified streets of Augusta, Maine, she has taken readers on unforgettable journeys for two decades.

Subterranean Press is proud to present: The Best of Catherynne M. Valente, Volume One, the first comprehensive collection of Valente’s short fiction, soaring through eighteen years of pushing the edges of storytelling.

Among her award-winning stories, you’ll find everything from melancholy robot girls to Eurydice and Orpheus; from detectives in Purgatory to time-traveling squirrels to a very different Santa Claus; from the grey coast of Washington to Alice’s Wonderland.

Valente’s work is an open, beating heart, ready to welcome you in to its darkness and its light.

Table of Contents:

Left Ventricle

The Consultant
The Difference Between Love and Time
A Buyer’s Guide to Maps of Antarctica
White Lines on a Green Field
The Wolves of Brooklyn
Reading Borges in Buenos Aires
Days of Flaming Motorcycles
One Breath, One Stroke
Thirteen Ways of Looking at Space/Time
Mouse Koan

Right Atrium

The Melancholy of Mechagirl
The Future Is Blue
The Sin-Eater
The Sun in Exile
Color, Heat, and the Wreck of the Argo
The Perfect Host
How to Become a Mars Overlord
Fade to White
Secretario
Twenty-Five Facts About Santa Claus
In the Future When All’s Well
Planet Lion

Left Atrium

A Great Clerk of Necromancy
Urchins, While Swimming
L’Espirit D’Escalier
The Lily and the Horn
The Long Goodnight of Violet Wild
Palimpsest
The Red Girl
The Flame After the Candle
The Wedding
The Bread We Eat in Dreams
The Secret of Being a Cowboy

Right Ventricle

Aquaman and the Duality of Self/Other, America, 1985
A Fall Counts Anywhere
A Delicate Architecture
Golubash, or Wine-Blood-War-Elegy
Badgirl, the Deadman, and the Wheel of Fortune
Down and Out in R’lyeh
The Shoot-Out at Burnt Corn Ranch Over the Bride of the World
No One Dies in Nowhere
The Limitless Perspective of Master Peek, Or, the Luminescence of Debauchery
Daisy Green Says I Love You
Silently and Very Fast
What the Dragon Said: A Love Story

Genres: Fantasy, Short Stories, Science Fiction, Anthologies, Fiction, Collections, Speculative Fiction

800 pages, Hardcover

First published September 5, 2023

About the author

Catherynne M. Valente was born on Cinco de Mayo, 1979 in Seattle, WA, but grew up in in the wheatgrass paradise of Northern California. She graduated from high school at age 15, going on to UC San Diego and Edinburgh University, receiving her B.A. in Classics with an emphasis in Ancient Greek Linguistics. She then drifted away from her M.A. program and into a long residence in the concrete and camphor wilds of Japan.

She currently lives in Maine with her partner, two dogs, and three cats, having drifted back to America and the mythic frontier of the Midwest.

Reviews

[Craig · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a massive collection of diverse short fictions encompassing fantasy, horror, and science fiction. At a length of eight hundred pages, it not only has the "Best," but also lots of other good stuff; Valente is both a prolific and a very good writer. The book is divided into four sections named after the chambers of the heart, a convection which I didn't understand, but illustrates that you're getting four regular-sized volumes worth of prose (and a few poems) for your money. There are some very funny stories such as How to Become a Mars Overlord, a couple of obscure pieces that I just didn't get like The Long Goodnight of Violet Wild, several of her very popular twists and turns of fairy and folk tales (my favorite of these was Badgirl, the Deadman, and the Wheel of Fortune), the coolest zombie story I've read in a very long time (The Days of Flaming Motorcycles), and a whole lot more. No One Dies in Nowhere is a cool and challenging piece with some of the elegant literary curlicues of Jack Vance or Gene Wolfe, and The Shoot-Out at Burnt Corn Ranch Over the Bride of the World is the best Lafferty story that Raphael Aloysius never wrote. Three of the stories appeared in short novels, Silently and Very Fast, The Past is Red, and The Refrigerator Monologues, all of which are also quite good. I was intrigued by a Peter Pan/Alice story called The Flame After the Candle which recalls the raven/writing desk question... which is also mentioned in Silently and Very Fast. My two favorites were Down and Out in R'lyeh (a Cthulhu story so naughty and nifty that H.P. would have felt so guilty about loving it that you might have to spank him) and White Lines on a Green Field, one of the best high school stories ever. It's an awesome book, and I'm pleased to see that it has "Volume One" in the title.

[H.J. Swinford · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars. This sprawling collection of short stories from the mind of Catherine M Valente is really something. There is a lot of *weird* meshed with a lot of poignant emotions and observations. I loved how creative and smart so many of these stories were, and how different each one was from another. It's a huge collection, but I don't think there was a single story that bored me. I will definitely be grabbing a physical copy of this collection when it is released.

[Angela · Rating 4 out of 5]

*4.5 rounded down to 4 for easy rating*
Thank you to NetGalley and Subterranean Press for my arc in exchange for my unbiased opinion.

"The Best of Catherynne M. Valente, Volume One" is a massive collection of short creative work by Valente and at 800 pages and 45 pieces (pieces because there's a mix of prose and verse), it's the largest collection that I've read for one author. It is Volume One which implies that Valente has more stories to fill another collection but again...800 pages? That's a large number of pages for anyone to read at an appropriate pace. As it is, it took me a long time to finish this on top of my graduate courses' novels was honestly kind of impressive for me as one of my books amounted to around 700+ pages. Despite the digital thickness (and likely, physical thickness) of this book, it wasn't necessarily a struggle to read. Valente is a writer whose work I've always enjoyed reading. I first came across her for a creative writing course and I was blown away by her writing. The most recent work by her that I've read is "Comfort Me with Apples" and while that one was *weird* it was a good kind of weird. Now that I think about it, considering how large her catalogue is, I guess it does make sense for her to have a 45 piece short story collection. That said, the collection is split into four sections named after the chambers of the heart and like another reviewer had said, I really agree that this should have been split into four volumes rather than one whole compendium. I think that there was an underlying theme throughout each piece but if I'm being honest, I was not paying as deep attention to that since I was reading this in my "off" time.

Here are some of the standout pieces for me (according to my bookmarks in my eArc):
"The Consultant", "White Lines on a Green Field", "One Breath, One Stroke" (I would very much like more of this as a standalone novel or series, please), "Thirteen Ways of Looking at Space/Time" (the subject matter of this one reminded me something Ken Liu could have written, I loved it!), "Fade to White", "Secretario" (TW for this one because of the subject matter also it's just depressing), "In the Future When All's Well" (I'm so easy for vampires, gdi), "A Great Clerk of Necromancy" (LOVE THIS ONE but it's overall VERY sad), "The Lily and the Horn", "The Wedding" (finally something not excessively depressing!), and "The Bread We Eat in Dreams".

Although 10 out of 45 is really low, I still enjoyed this collection. It shows off Valente's strengths as a writer as well as her weaknesses; she seems to struggle with maintaining narrative with the weird and in most cases in this collection, she leans heavily into the weird and so, the story itself ends up lacking in storytelling and engagement. One of Valente's quirks that is also really evident here is how often she turns towards being "#edgelord" in the majority of her stories ("The Red Girl" story comes to mind, ugh) in order to be subversive but it just ends up being kind of choppy and lazy.

All of that considered, I would recommend this for people who are already familiar with Valente as a writer. I think if you're very new to her, this collection could easily land in the "Miss" pile. I would still buy this and will likely reread this over the summer.

[Jess · Rating 4 out of 5]

Does what it says on the tin!
I feel I ought to offer the disclaimer that I'm both already a fan of Valente's work and a longtime fan of Subterranean Press' releases, and I had already placed an order for the hardcover of this limited edition collection before I got the opportunity to review an ARC. I'm happy to say, though, that having read the book, I still feel great about my pre-order.

This is a chonker of a book, as other reviewers have noted. Valente is a bit like plum wine, in my opinion (upon reflection, Becherovka might make for a better analogy)--heady and complex and lovely for those who like the flavor, but even big fans of plum wine typically enjoy it best savored in small doses.

Literary, allusive, mythic, dense, wildly poetic and not a little surreal*, the whole book is well worth your time/purchase if you're a fan of Valente's work, but I doubt even devoted fans ought to go through this cover to cover. If you plan to drink it all at once, you might consider proceeding under the guidance of a physician, shaman, or lit-crit buddy with a thing for Borges, Japanese mythology, and mech poetry.

Thanks to Subterranean Press and Netgalley for the early access in exchange for an honest review.

*(The internal structure organizing the stories in the collection, divided into atria and ventricles, fits wonderfully and weirdly with the flavor and mind-feel of the stories themselves.)

[Bethany · Rating 2 out of 5]

2 stars

This review is based on an ARC ebook received for free from NetGalley. I am not being paid to review this book and what I write here is my own opinion. My rating scale is below.

I can already tell you, this should have been more, shorter volumes, instead of the four chambers of the heart (starting with left ventricle, then right atrium, then left atrium, and finally right ventricle), because holy hell: 800 pages?! That is way too long for a short story collection. I realize that Subterranean Press is not a conventional press, and so it can make the decision to publish 800-page short story collections, but this is a lot of short stories to read by one person. Forty five, I think? That’s enough to read one a day for a month and a half.

Beyond the excessive length, this is basically an anthology (although, technically, since it’s only one author’s work it’s a collection). Some of the pieces are good, others are not. Some are enjoyable, others are not. Good and enjoyable are not always synonymous. Overall, there were seven stories I would say I mostly liked, but the weight of the other 38, some of which I really disliked, pulls this down to a barely two-star book. For me, the fourth chamber was the least enjoyable section, but had the advantage of containing the most stories I’d already read, so I could get through it more quickly by skimming those.

It feels like there is an underlying theme of sadness and anger running through the selections here. Heartbreak, perhaps, to go with the chambers of the heart theme? I’m sure I’d know more if there was an introduction or afterword of any sort, but there isn’t so I just have to make my best guess.

I guess I’m just not sure why this was published. Did Valente die and I missed hearing about it? Does she have such a massive following that an entire (but actually incomplete) collection of her short fiction is necessary to help them find all her scattered writings? Perhaps a university library with an unusually well-developed speculative fiction section might have a use for it, but it’s really too bulky for a casual reader and I can’t imagine finding any other kind of reader for Valente (I promise I don’t mean that as an insult). If you’re a more-than-casual fan of hers, though, this may be the tome for you.

“The Consultant” - A hard-boiled consultant describes her job helping damsels discover their agency and options when the story ends and happily ever after isn’t. Not bad at all.
“The Difference Between Love and Time” - A young person grows up with the anthropomorphic personification of the space/time continuum as a friend and sometime lover. It’s surprisingly mundane.
“A Buyer’s Guide to Maps of Antarctica” - Descriptions of maps accompanied by the biographies of rival cartographers. The map descriptions are more interesting than the biographies.
“White Lines on a Green Field” - This was written for Seanan McGuire and Coyote, apparently. It is about how Coyote upends a high school by being himself, told by the girl who isn’t taken in. Surprisingly enjoyable.
“The Wolves of Brooklyn” - What begins as an interesting phenomenon - giant wolves in Brooklyn! - ends up with a depopulated borough. Kind of depressing.
“Reading Borges in Buenos Aires” - Surrealism (or magical realism) where Buenos Aires is a book, no a person, no an idea, no a city. Not my cup of tea.
“The Days of Flaming Motorcycles” - The aftermath of a zombie apocalypse is surprisingly normal, if sad, for not-quite-lone survivor Caitlin. No more arabica coffee, but no need to go bashing heads with a bat either. Meh, I’m afraid.
“One Breath, One Stroke” - The House of Second-Hand Carnelian is half in our world, half elsewhere, a place for weary supernaturals to take their ease. This story describes the inhabitants and their relationships. It feels more like background planning to a larger, longer story than anything else.
“Thirteen Ways of Looking at Space/Time” - A juxtaposition of creation myths turned scientific and the story of a science fiction writer. I’m not sure I see the point, but I liked the reimagined creation myths.
“Mouse Koan” - Narrative verse with lots of words that appeal to edgelords. Spoiler: it’s about The Mouse.

“The Melancholy of Mechagirl” - More verse, this time with a cotton candy cyberpunk feel. I’m really not a poetry person. Even when the subject is women in robot armour.
“The Future Is Blue” - I read this in The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2017. It was not my favorite in that anthology, as it felt both excessively long and kind of pointless, though at least it has something resembling a plot, which has been absent in most of the stories so far. Cyberpunkish again. Or at least dystopian.
“The Sin-Eater” - A broken down dancer in a broken down town decides she is eating the sin of America. It is never satisfactorily explained what that means and the story ends in a brutal murder. Distasteful.
“The Sun in Exile” - What happens when leadership ignores climate change: an allegory. It’s fine.
“Color, Heat, and the Wreck of the Argo” - A miserable photographer sees the moment when her subjects’ lives take an irrevocable turn through her ancient viewfinder. Sad but forgettable.
“The Perfect Host” - A confusing documentary about a woman who moves through the world, shilling nonsense, but is not really connected to anyone in the world. She is more of a vector than a person. The payoff is satisfying, but not worth the rest of the piece.
“How to Become a Mars Overlord” - The planet Mars is a cosmological archetype and you can rule your very own version just by following these two simple steps! Honestly, too wordy to actually be entertaining.
“Fade to White” - Opens with notes on a commercial that does some great worldbuilding, surprisingly. Then there are scenes from the lives of two young people living in the post-war world. It is compelling. My favorite so far.
“Secretario” - Social commentary about how violence is systemically perpetuated against women. Well-written but sad, sad, sad.
“Twenty-Five Facts About Santa Claus” - An entertaining pseudo-listicle about Santa Claus. Sort of.
“In The Future When All’s Well” - In this world vampirism is like teen pregnancy or drugs, only easier to contract and, perhaps, more liberating than living in the ways necessary to prevent vampirism. A Bethany dies. Still a good story though.
“Planet Lion” - Planetary researchers and policymakers disagree on how to proceed with a green lion-inhabited planet. It does not end well. I do not like reading about feline death.

“A Great Clerk of Necromancy” - The misunderstandings of childhood and unhelpfully overprotective adulthood explored in verse as a young reader tries to catch a clerk at Morgan le Fay-style sorcery. The concept is amusing but the overarching theme feels sad.
“Urchins, While Swimming” - A rusalka must make her way in the modern world, and she does, but there does not seem to be any joy in it. Again.
“L’Esprit de L’Escalier” - In this modern-set retelling,Orpheus and Eurydice don’t exactly live happily ever after, even though he managed to bring back from death this time. Orpheus is a shit and Eurydice is still given little personality or agency.
“The Lily and the Horn” - Previously read in Fantasy Magazine and it is both charming and dark. I like this one and would be pleased to read an actual book set in this world, as my only complaint about this story is that it feels more like background worldbuilding than an actual plotted narrative.
“The Long Goodnight of Violet Wild” - Haringly manic and largely unpleasant to read because of it. And it is way, way too long. Page 403-446. This 800-page book would be about 5% shorter without this story. That’s how long it is.
“Palimpsest” - Yeah, I don’t know what to make of this one. The narrator has sex with someone who’s just had a spontaneous map mark appear on her body and then she gets one, too, and seeks out others with the mark but to no real point or purpose.
“The Red Girl” - The real Little Red Riding Hood is not an amazing girlfriend, and wishes you’d quit trying to interpret her story to suit your narrative, thanks.
“The Flame After the Candle” - The lives of an unparented daughter juxtaposed with Barrie’s would-be son and an Alice made famous. One of these storylines is significantly easier to follow and more interesting than the other, but they all end melancholic.
“The Wedding” - A woman marries a frost giant in a spectacle narrated by her niece. No one dies and it’s basically a good party, though the groom’s side gets a bit drippy.
“The Bread We Eat in Dreams” - A demon who had been the baker of Hell is banished to colonial New England and makes the best of it, though the town is hardly grateful for her aid and wisdom, at least at first.
“The Secret of Being a Cowboy” - A poem, or two poems, if the text is to be believed. Not much to say about it, really.

“Aquaman and the Duality of Self/Other, America 1985” - A poem about growing up under the sea and the difficulties of life, I guess. I dunno. I don’t really get poetry.
“A Fall Counts Anywhere” - A robot and a fairy are commentators on a Non-Primate Combat Federation fight between the unseelie court and the robot apocalypse. Since the robot announcer is written mostly in ALL CAPS and the fairy doesn’t believe in paragraphs I find myself skimming over its sections, so probably I miss some of the humor. Read previously in Robots Vs Fairies, so in that context it was kind of meta.
“A Delicate Architecture” - Previously read in Trolls Eye View: A Book of Villainous Tales, where it was unremarkable, and Edited By, where it was one of the stories I liked best (but also, I really hated that anthology). The piece still holds up, but it’s not exactly a happy story, no matter how saccharine the content.
“Golubash, or Wine-Blood-War-Elegy” - A far-future wine tasting where the vintages have mighty pedigrees related to pieces of future military history. The final paragraphs of each vintage’s section are invariably the best because they are the tasting notes and tasting notes are always absurd. Read previously in Federations anthology. Not really memorable then or now.
“Badgirl, the Deadman, and the Wheel of Fortune” - Badgirl/Loula tells about her Daddy Mudpuddle and the deal he makes with the Deadman. Like “The Future Is Blue” and “The Long Goodnight of Violet Wild,” it’s a slog. I read this in The Starlit Wood, but forgot. I actually read that book twice and forgot I’d read it the first time because it was so forgettable.
“Down and Out in R’lyeh” - This title sounds so familiar, but I haven’t actually read the piece before. It’s Lovecraft’s creations in what feels like new wave detective style and reading it is a chore.
“The Shout-Out at Burnt Corn Ranch Over the Bride of the World” - The Wizards of New York and Los Angeles duel and the narrator - the Bride - describes how it went down. Part western, part dystopia, but not engaging.
“No One Dies in Nowhere” - This seems to be about a detective who would be a writer whose writing is interrupted by an unexpected corpse (people don’t actually die where he’s from). Not much of a mystery, though it’s neat to see Savonarola I guess.
“The Limitless Perspective of Master Peek, Or, The Luminescence of Debauchery” - A father bequeaths his children gold, land, and an iron punty. The narrator receives the latter and goes to make her fortune in 1660 London and ends up making a lot of glass eyes.
“Daisy Green Says I Love You” - I read this in The Refrigerator Monologues, and although it took a while to recognize which superhero’s wronged woman she was, I definitely recommend it, and the collection it was originally published in.
“Silently and Very Fast” - This story is not very fast. It goes from page 727 to 790. But it is the last actual story in the book, which I must say is a relief. It’s not entirely about any one thing, and has a bunch of convoluted sections, all narrated by a machine who crosses out the words like “see” and “feel” to indicate the difference between what a human feels and what a machine feels. I felt tired reading through this novella of a story.
“What the Dragon Said: A Love Story” - A work in verse narrated by a bitter dragon to the would-be paladin who seeks to kill it. It’s a pretty meh piece to end the collection on, to be honest.

rating scale
1 star - I was barely able to finish it. I didn't like it.
2 stars - It was okay. I didn't dislike it.
3 stars - It was interesting. I liked it.
4 stars - It was excellent. I really liked it.
5 stars - It was extraordinary. I really hope the author wrote more things.

[Damiana · Rating 5 out of 5]

A beautiful, strange, and wicked collection of thought-provoking stories. Catherynne M. Valente is one of the greatest writers of our age and this collection is just the tip of the iceberg of her work. As a fan of her books including Palimpsest, Fairyland series, Orphan's Tales, and more, I was stoked to read the short story collection.
As with any collection of so many stories, there are some that are better than others. My favorites included The Days of Flaming Motorcycles (probably the best zombie story I've read), The Future is Blue, and Color, Heat, and the Wreck of the Argo. There were many others I enjoyed but these were the ones that hit me hardest during this reading. I do think that a reader could come back to this collection multiple times and probably pick completely different favorites depending on mood and what's going on in your life and the world at large.
Highly recommend for fans of speculative fiction and Valente fans in general.

[joanna ☽ vee]

I need this expeditiously.

[camille!]

i finally finished....

[Kai · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cat Valente has always been a master of proE and I really enjoyed reading the compiled collection of het short stories. I don't have favourites but I didn’t particularly dislike anything as well.

[Erica · Rating 5 out of 5]

This collection confirms for me that I really like how Catherynne M. Valente writes. This is a very large collection of works, and in that there were ones I liked more than others but I still liked the prose and approach to the stories. This is a great collection of stories whether you have liked anything else by this author or are looking for tales that are fanciful, different, and compelling.

Personal favorites in this collection were: The Consultant, Reading Borges in Buenos Aires, The Days of Flaming Motorcycles, The Long Goodnight of Violet Wild, A Fall Counts Anywhere, A Delicate Architecture

Note: arc provided by the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for honest review

[Keeley · Rating 3 out of 5]

*Thank you to NetGalley and Subterranean Press for granting me access to an early copy of this book*

Why I Requested It: Before reading this collection, I had read multiple novels and novellas by Valente but only one short story, A Fall Counts Anywhere. The longer material was a very mixed bag (either liking it or quitting it), while the short story was a highlight in the anthology I originally read it in (Robots vs Fairies). So I was curious how I would feel about the rest of Valente's shorter works. Would I consistently enjoy them or would it turn into a mixed bag like the longer works. Plus Valente tends to write weird yet ornate narratives which I am in the mood for every once in awhile.
(Edit: there was one other Valente short story I read that was in this collection, Badgirl, Deadman, & the Wheel of Fortune, which I did not care for but my reasons for wanting to read this collection remain the same.)

Finishing Thoughts: This was a very comprehensive collection, at 800 pages, which is one of my main issues. At about the half way point I started to feel the burnout which did impact my enjoyment of the stories. In the first two sections there were multiple stories I could highlight in a positive manner, whereas in the last two sections there were only four. Had the collection been split, I possibly would have appreciated more. The other thing about this collection that I did not care for was the poetry. Aside from Mouse Koan (a critique of the Disney company and its history) my opinion is that all the poetry was superfluous and placing it in its own collection would also mitigate the issue of the length of the overall collection. As for my opinion on the stories within the collection, it was definitely a mixed bag experience. While there are some I thought were astounding (and would purchase if there was a collection out there that consisted of most of them), most I found to be disappointing and uninspiring. I've grouped them into three categories: Favorite, Interesting (not a favorite but appreciate the experience of reading it), and Boring/ Didn't Care For. In this review I will also give my brief thoughts on the stories I want to highlight in each section. Glad I read it, would absolutely read more short fiction by Valente, but would hesitate to pick up a collection by her again.

Favorite: The Consultant/ Reading Borges in Buenos Aires/ One Breath, One Stroke/ Fade to White/ Secretario/ The Lily & The Horn
*The Consultant: A perfect blend of the noir and fairytale genre. Using a noir filter to break down the tropes of the fairytale genre and heavily suggest things are not what always they seem, especially happily ever afters. Also very much about female agency, which is a narrative that will always intrigue me.
*Fade to White: My favorite story of the entire collection. The mixed-media segments worked well with the story without overwhelming it. Immediately invested in the two main characters and the conflicts they face because of their identity, particularly the females. Also one of the few stories in this entire collection that felt like a complete story.
*The Lily & Horn: Such a beautiful, delicate, and deadly story. This is set in world where conflict between countries is handled in a different manner, where women on are on the metaphorical front-lines and poison is the weapon of choice. Would like a novella set in this world following the same characters (since things end right before the action begins).

Interesting: Thirteen Ways of Looking at Time/Space/ The Future is Blue/ The Sin Eater/ The Sun in Exile/ The Perfect Host/ Twenty Five Facts About Santa Claus/ The Long Goodnight of Violet Wild/ A Fall Counts Anywhere/ A Delicate Architecture
*The Sin Eater: Akin to a modern-day Lottery by Shirley Jackson (my favorite thing by Jackson), this one is clearly making a statement about American culture and politics, with a similarly brutal ending. A clear sense of place and there clearly are important themes on display but aren't obnoxiously on the nose about it.
*The Long Goodnight of Violet Wild: Shouldn't work because it was long and weird, but if L'Espirit D'Escalier suffered because it lacked color, this one went wild with color and I loved it. In particular I liked how the protagonist changed as she went through each section of her world and how unique each part is, corresponding to a different color of the rainbow.

Boring/ Didn't Care For (some of these may be poems that I've accidently included because I've forgotten that they are poems): The Difference Between Love and Time/ A Buyer's Guide to Maps of Antarctica/ The Wolves of Brooklynn/ White Lines on a Green Field/ Days of Flaming Motorcycles/ Color, Heat, and the Wreck of the Argo/ How to Become a Mars Overlord/ In the Future When All is Well/ Planet Lion/ A Great Clerk of Necromancy/ Urchins, While Swimming/ L'Espirit D'Escalier/ Palimpsest/ The Red Girl/ The Flame After Candle/ The Wedding/ The Bread We Eat in Dreams/ Golubash, or Wine-Blood-War-Elegy/ Badgirl, Deadman, and the Wheel of Fortune/ Down and Out in R'lyeh/ The Shoot Out at Burnt Corn Ranch Over the Bride of the World/ No One Dies in Nowhere/ The Limitless Perspective of Master Peek/ Daisy Green Says I Love You/ Silently and Very Fast
*Unlike all the stories in the other two categories, where I remember all the stories but chose to only discuss a few, I remember very few of the narratives in this category
*L'Espirit D'Escalier: I chose this short story because it is one of the better known works by Valente that I can actually remember what happened and go into detail about how I feel about it. Also much of what I have to say about this one applies to the other short stories in this category that I can actually remember. This is a contemporary "retelling" of Orpheus and Eurydice that continues after they are reunited and both are mopping about their current circumstance. The only way I can describe this story is lifeless. When Valente writes stories based on twisting the tropes of a genre itself, I tend to like those stories better because they are focusing on themes and patterns which seem to suit her style of writing better. If the narrative focuses on a specific story, however, the results tend to be lackluster.

[WorldconReader · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Best of Catherynne M. Valente, Volume One is an 800 page collection of 45 short stories and novellas by the award-winning author, Catherynne M. Valente. The anthology showcases Valente's unique style, blending fantasy, science fiction, and speculative fiction to create imaginative and thought-provoking stories. Each story is a detailed work of genius, and should be carefully savored and contemplated. They would be perfect topics for a book club. I was delighted to read this collection, and look forward to reading more by Catherynne M. Valente.

I am very grateful to the publisher and author for kindly providing a temporary electronic review copy of this work.

[Venneh · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ended up reading this to close 2023 at my partner's place, and because of how thick (complementary) this is, it ended up taking me well into January to finish. It's great to have all of these stories in one place, including the original stories that spawned The Future is Red and Palimpsest, and the sheer breadth and depth of her work (themes, poetry, excerpts from other collections (like The Refrigerator Monologues)) is astounding when you take it all in like this. Looking forward to the next volume when it comes out!

[Book Club of One · Rating 4 out of 5]

45 stories by Catherynne M. Valente separated into the four chambers of the heart, The Best of Catherynne M Valente, Volume One highlights Valente's breadth of imagination and creativity as demonstrated by over two decades of short fiction.

Through short stories, novellas and works of poetry, the reader encounters works of science fiction, fantasy, listicles, retellings and works combining these different types. Many of these stories or poems are very playful with the subject, with a few of them revisited at greater length by Valente (for example Palimpsest became a full length book). At over 800 pages, this is definitely a dense undertaking best read in small bursts. As with any short story collection, some works are stronger than others, but as this is a 'best of' they all are of a higher quality, in fact many were nominated for or received prizes.

Some of my favorites:
White Lines on a Green Field - A retelling of the coyote myth set in a highschool.
A Buyer’s Guide to Maps of Antarctica - A tale of explorer rivalry as told through an auction catalogue
The Future is Blue - The most hated girl in garbage town details her life and how she earned her moniker.
Down and Out in R’lyeh - Three losers of try to escape the Lovecraftian small town life.

For fans of Valente it will be nice to have these works collected in a single edition, instead of parts of anthologies, featured on websites or published in periodicals. However, beyond the stories being collected there is nothing new in this volume. No introduction, no explanation of their ordering, and no commentary from the author. The latter is particularly disappointed as some of these works in their original release did have a paragraph explaining the process or influences involved.

I received a free digital version of this eBook via NetGalley thanks to the publisher.

[Cari Allen · Rating 3 out of 5]

As a huge Catherynne M. Valente fan, I was thrilled to be able to read this compendium with many of her works that I had previously not had the opportunity to read. Unfortunately, at 800 pages this anthology felt like a slog to get through. It would have been better to release it in half the size, especially due to Valente’s unique and highly descriptive writing style.

The stories themselves are exquisite, favorites including The Difference Between Love and Time, Reading Borges in Buenos Aires, The Future is Blue, and Daisy Green Says I Love You. However, however for every amazing short story, I felt like there were two or three filler stories that just seemed like unformed ideas or scenarios.

One other issue I had with my digital ARC through NetGalley was the formatting. Although no fault of the author, it did make reading a bit of a challenge and words and sentences seemed to form run on paragraphs with no natural breaks. There were even a few times that I had not realized that I was reading a completely different short story from the previous one.

Overall, a must for die hard Valente fans, but I fear the sheer size and breadth of her works in this anthology will deter any new readers from discovering her novels like The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making and Space Opera, two books that any sci-fi fantasy fan should most definitely read.

Thank you to NetGalley, Subterranean Press, and Catherynne M. Valente for an advanced readers copy in exchange for an honest review.

[Cari Allen · Rating 3 out of 5]

As a huge Catherynne M. Valente fan, I was thrilled to be able to read this compendium with many of her works that I had previously not had the opportunity to read. Unfortunately, at 800 pages this anthology felt like a slog to get through. It would have been better to release it in half the size, especially due to Valente’s unique and highly descriptive writing style.

The stories themselves are exquisite, favorites including The Difference Between Love and Time, Reading Borges in Buenos Aires, The Future is Blue, and Daisy Green Says I Love You. However, however for every amazing short story, I felt like there were two or three filler stories that just seemed like unformed ideas or scenarios.

One other issue I had with my digital ARC through NetGalley was the formatting. Although no fault of the author, it did make reading a bit of a challenge and words and sentences seemed to form run on paragraphs with no natural breaks. There were even a few times that I had not realized that I was reading a completely different short story from the previous one.

Overall, a must for die hard Valente fans, but I fear the sheer size and breadth of her works in this anthology will deter any new readers from discovering her novels like The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making and Space Opera, two books that any sci-fi fantasy fan should most definitely read.

Thank you to NetGalley, Subterranean Press, and Catherynne M. Valente for an advanced readers copy in exchange for an honest review.

[Keeley · Rating 3 out of 5]

*Thank you to NetGalley and Subterranean Press for granting me access to an early copy of this book*

Why I Requested It: Before reading this collection, I had read multiple novels and novellas by Valente but only one short story, A Fall Counts Anywhere. The longer material was a very mixed bag (either liking it or quitting it), while the short story was a highlight in the anthology I originally read it in (Robots vs Fairies). So I was curious how I would feel about the rest of Valente's shorter works. Would I consistently enjoy them or would it turn into a mixed bag like the longer works. Plus Valente tends to write weird yet ornate narratives which I am in the mood for every once in awhile.
(Edit: there was one other Valente short story I read that was in this collection, Badgirl, Deadman, & the Wheel of Fortune, which I did not care for but my reasons for wanting to read this collection remain the same.)

Finishing Thoughts: This was a very comprehensive collection, at 800 pages, which is one of my main issues. At about the half way point I started to feel the burnout which did impact my enjoyment of the stories. In the first two sections there were multiple stories I could highlight in a positive manner, whereas in the last two sections there were only four. Had the collection been split, I possibly would have appreciated more. The other thing about this collection that I did not care for was the poetry. Aside from Mouse Koan (a critique of the Disney company and its history) my opinion is that all the poetry was superfluous and placing it in its own collection would also mitigate the issue of the length of the overall collection. As for my opinion on the stories within the collection, it was definitely a mixed bag experience. While there are some I thought were astounding (and would purchase if there was a collection out there that consisted of most of them), most I found to be disappointing and uninspiring. I've grouped them into three categories: Favorite, Interesting (not a favorite but appreciate the experience of reading it), and Boring/ Didn't Care For. In this review I will also give my brief thoughts on the stories I want to highlight in each section. Glad I read it, would absolutely read more short fiction by Valente, but would hesitate to pick up a collection by her again.

Favorite: The Consultant/ Reading Borges in Buenos Aires/ One Breath, One Stroke/ Fade to White/ Secretario/ The Lily & The Horn
*The Consultant: A perfect blend of the noir and fairytale genre. Using a noir filter to break down the tropes of the fairytale genre and heavily suggest things are not what always they seem, especially happily ever afters. Also very much about female agency, which is a narrative that will always intrigue me.
*Fade to White: My favorite story of the entire collection. The mixed-media segments worked well with the story without overwhelming it. Immediately invested in the two main characters and the conflicts they face because of their identity, particularly the females. Also one of the few stories in this entire collection that felt like a complete story.
*The Lily & Horn: Such a beautiful, delicate, and deadly story. This is set in world where conflict between countries is handled in a different manner, where women on are on the metaphorical front-lines and poison is the weapon of choice. Would like a novella set in this world following the same characters (since things end right before the action begins).

Interesting: Thirteen Ways of Looking at Time/Space/ The Future is Blue/ The Sin Eater/ The Sun in Exile/ The Perfect Host/ Twenty Five Facts About Santa Claus/ The Long Goodnight of Violet Wild/ A Fall Counts Anywhere/ A Delicate Architecture
*The Sin Eater: Akin to a modern-day Lottery by Shirley Jackson (my favorite thing by Jackson), this one is clearly making a statement about American culture and politics, with a similarly brutal ending. A clear sense of place and there clearly are important themes on display but aren't obnoxiously on the nose about it.
*The Long Goodnight of Violet Wild: Shouldn't work because it was long and weird, but if L'Espirit D'Escalier suffered because it lacked color, this one went wild with color and I loved it. In particular I liked how the protagonist changed as she went through each section of her world and how unique each part is, corresponding to a different color of the rainbow.

Boring/ Didn't Care For (some of these may be poems that I've accidently included because I've forgotten that they are poems): The Difference Between Love and Time/ A Buyer's Guide to Maps of Antarctica/ The Wolves of Brooklynn/ White Lines on a Green Field/ Days of Flaming Motorcycles/ Color, Heat, and the Wreck of the Argo/ How to Become a Mars Overlord/ In the Future When All is Well/ Planet Lion/ A Great Clerk of Necromancy/ Urchins, While Swimming/ L'Espirit D'Escalier/ Palimpsest/ The Red Girl/ The Flame After Candle/ The Wedding/ The Bread We Eat in Dreams/ Golubash, or Wine-Blood-War-Elegy/ Badgirl, Deadman, and the Wheel of Fortune/ Down and Out in R'lyeh/ The Shoot Out at Burnt Corn Ranch Over the Bride of the World/ No One Dies in Nowhere/ The Limitless Perspective of Master Peek/ Daisy Green Says I Love You/ Silently and Very Fast
*Unlike all the stories in the other two categories, where I remember all the stories but chose to only discuss a few, I remember very few of the narratives in this category
*L'Espirit D'Escalier: I chose this short story because it is one of the better known works by Valente that I can actually remember what happened and go into detail about how I feel about it. Also much of what I have to say about this one applies to the other short stories in this category that I can actually remember. This is a contemporary "retelling" of Orpheus and Eurydice that continues after they are reunited and both are mopping about their current circumstance. The only way I can describe this story is lifeless. When Valente writes stories based on twisting the tropes of a genre itself, I tend to like those stories better because they are focusing on themes and patterns which seem to suit her style of writing better. If the narrative focuses on a specific story, however, the results tend to be lackluster.

[Amanda · Rating 3 out of 5]

NetGalley and Subterranean press provided me a copy of the Best Of Cathrynne M Valente to give an honest review.

Here it is: I wanted to like this book more than I did. Part of my challenge, the formatting made the stories bleed into one another like a fever dream. I will try this again in print and not on a deadline.

I loved Past is Red. I enjoyed Space Opera and The girl who circumnavigated Fairyland. This book was not for me in this format or right now, in general.

So what did I like? There was some interesting stories. I liked the rival map makers, the facts about Santa Claus, and a few others. They were inventive, funny, charming. It felt like I was reading a loosely edited writing journal.

What did I not like? This could have been 4 stellar volumes of short stories. All at once, it was like the scene in Matilda where the kid is forced to eat the delicious chocolate cake. It was good, but it was too rich for my taste.

I'll revisit this in print post publication without a deadline and update this review then.

[Amanda · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thank you to Catherynne M. Valente, Subterranean Press, and Netgalley for an advanced reader copy of "The Best of Catherynne M. Valente, Volume One" for an honest review.

I have been reading Valente for eons, it feels like now. I was one of the people to play 'The Ice Queen' when it was originally released on the internet, and I still own all my letters from the subscriptions when Valente would mail a letter, under a gorgeous red wax seal, of a brand new short story to her fans each month. I have been collecting every new and old story of hers since that time, and this publication feels like a godsend.

I was very interested when I saw it would be a 'best of' volume, and then incredibly blown away the moment I opened it and saw the index. It was so much bigger than I'd ever predicted. From far-back pieces up to those of last year's releases. There is something between these covers for every reader, stories of love, family, passion, drive, and inspiration, what makes a narrative and breaks a narrative. There are multifaceted characters of every assortment, who will speak honey into your ear, whether sweet or sour, and then you'll find yourself ten pages later weeping for them, no matter who or what you thought at the beginning.

I advise this to everyone and will be purchasing a copy for myself and my classroom (and maybe a few birthday's this year!).

[Graisi · Rating 2 out of 5]

Re-reading a lot of these stories (and not finishing most), I notice how much I've changed.

I used to be impressed by abstractness without clear substance. I suppose I furnished it with my own imagined substance when I was in my 20's.

I either love this authors books, or I strongly dislike them. I strongly recommend the Orphans Tales (1, & 2), and A Dirge For Prester John (1 & 2 [satisfying even though book 3 didn't get released]). They remain some of my all time favourite speculative novels.

[Rose Paris · Rating 5 out of 5]

An eclectic box of wonders from one of the queens of speculative fiction. This collection spans Valente's career and includes stories that have been previously anthologised but are now hard to find, particularly those published in Ventriloquism which is out of print and not available as an e-book, as far as I am aware.
Stand out stories:
The Consultant- detective noir does fairytales.
The Difference between Love and Time- an absolute star of time travel romance fiction, totally original, packs an emotional punch without ever being trite or sentimental.
White Lines on a Green Field- Coyote and Rabbit in small town USA
The Lily and the Horn- gorgeously described, literally poisonous love affair
Badgirl, Deadman and the Wheel of Fortune- bleak Armless Maiden retelling
But honestly, for such a huge collection there are very few skips for me. The Vol 1 gives me hope that we might see a Vol 2 in the not-too-distant future, hopefully with some more rare or previously unpublished stories.

[Thistle · Rating 2 out of 5]

800 pages of short stories. 45 short stories. All by one author. Even in the best case that would have been a lot, but this author writes "weird" stuff in "weird" ways.

One story was about the time/space continuum taking the form of a boy. Not it as a boy, but just in the shape of one. So when it opened its mouth, the sound of a pulsar came out.

What if a nation were a person? The rest of the world/nations were normal, but one nation was actually a person?

Most of the stories had things like time not flowing normally, perspective not working like it usually would in stories, things like that.

In small doses, I might have liked more of these stories, but after a couple of them all I wanted was a "normal" story with an actual story/plot in it and a typical flow of time, etc.

[Zoe · Rating 5 out of 5]

My only fault with this collection is its too big and pretty to take into the bath with me. While that slowed down my reading of it, I'd also say it's a blessing in disguise. This collection is so rich and dense with colorful prose and emotional depth that taking it piece by piece over a long while helped each unique story or poem sink in better than it would if I'd sped my way through. I enjoyed the chance to revisit some previous favorites, and likewise found the new (to me) ones to be charming and endearing. I'm so happy to have this be a "volume one" so I can look forward to whenever we might get the next one.

[Air · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thank you to NetGalley for a copy in exchange for an honest review.
I completely enjoyed the wild ride that was this collection! There is something for every person in this GIANT book of mind-bending stories and their gorgeous counterparts. You're taken on a new adventure with every chapter and it sores your imagination to new heights. There's so much detail and world-building that it's absolutely astounding to uncover.

[Mason Matchak · Rating 5 out of 5]

A spectacular and beautiful collection from one of the greatest prose writers ever. Reading Ms. Valente's writing is like watching a contortionist at work - she bends words in ways nobody else could make possible.

I'm not sure what else to say, as this is a limited-edition short story collection and I doubt anyone's going to decide whether or not to pick it up based on my review, but there's a staggering amount of material here (nearly 800 pages' worth) and I loved almost all of it.

[Kathryn Atreides · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a splendid collection of short stories! As weird, beautiful, and poetic as all of Valente's stuff.

Further RTC!

I do have one huge complaint about this book: there are typos, extra words, missing words, etc in every. single. story. Usually more than one. I find this particularly disappointing considering the cost of the anthology, and that it was a single print so no corrections will ever be made. I understand publishers can't catch every mistake, but 50+ is egregious.

[MJ Jordan · Rating 3 out of 5]

What a wicked and lovely set of stories. These were so amazing. I absolutely love that they were separated by the four main parts of a heart (L/R Ventricle, L/R Atrium). It was quite a large book for short stories, but I definitely enjoyed reading them.

Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher, and author for a copy of this ARC.

[wangxianshipcaptain · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love how much depth and feeling Valente can impart in such short stories. Many of the titles in this collection were fantastic and hit just right, but I think “The Bread We Eat in Dreams” was by far my favorite. Overall, there’s something for everyone in this, and I highly recommend it!

[Andrew Brooks · Rating 4 out of 5]

i am putting in a four star on this, because I can tell the quality of the writing. However, the things in her head and the things in mine are NOT playing nice, & I have too much going on to figure this out right now.

[Cari · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am in absolute awe of this author. I don't care for the poems/stanza type works, but the stories are phenomenal! My favorite was Silently and Very Fast, but I must have bookmarked over 10 of them.
To give you an idea of how amazing she is, I had 130+ highlights. So. Good.