Wünschelzeit

by Esther M. Friesner

Libro usado en buenas condiciones, por su antiguedad podria contener señales normales de uso

Genres: Fantasy, Fiction, Humor, Speculative Fiction, Romance

203 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 1993

About the author

Esther M. Friesner was educated at Vassar College, where she completed B.A's in both Spanish and Drama. She went to on to Yale University; within five years she was awarded an M.A. and Ph.D. in Spanish. She taught Spanish at Yale for a number of years before going on to become a full-time author of fantasy and science fiction. She has published twenty-seven novels so far; her most recent titles include Temping Fate from Penguin-Puffin and Nobody's Princess from Random House.

Her short fiction and poetry have appeared in Asimov's, Fantasy & Science Fiction, Aboriginal SF, Pulphouse Magazine, Amazing, and Fantasy Book, as well as in numerous anthologies. Her story, "Love's Eldritch Ichor," was featured in the 1990 World Fantasy Convention book.

Her first stint as an anthology editor was Alien Pregnant By Elvis, a collection of truly gonzo original tabloid SF for DAW books. Wisely, she undertook this project with the able collaboration of Martin H. Greenberg. Not having learned their lesson, they have also co-edited the Chicks In Chainmail Amazon comedy anthology series for Baen Books, as well as Blood Muse, an anthology of vampire stories for Donald I Fine, Inc.

"Ask Auntie Esther" was her regular etiquette and advice column to the SFlorn in Pulphouse Magazine. Being paid for telling other people how to run their lives sounds like a pretty good deal to her.

Ms. Friesner won the Nebula Award for Best Short Story of 1995 for her work, "Death and the Librarian," and the Nebula for Best Short Story of 1996 for "A Birth Day." (A Birth Day" was also a 1996 Hugo Award finalist.) Her novelette, "Jesus at the Bat" was on the final Nebula ballot in the same year that "Death and the Librarian" won the award. In addition, she has won the Romantic Times award for Best New Fantasy Writer in 1986 and the Skylark Award in 1994. Her short story, "All Vows," took second place in the Asimov's SF Magazine Readers' Poll for 1993 and was a finalist for the Nebula in 1994. Her Star Trek: Deep Space Nine novel, Warchild, made the USA TODAY bestseller list.

She lives in Connecticut with her husband, two children, two rambunctious cats, and a fluctuating population of hamsters.

Reviews

[Brenduh]

It was an interesting premise and it was pretty good... until it got weird and boring.

[Angela · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was rather disappointed in this book, because the original was great and just shouldn't have been tampered with. The first fifteen chapters are exactly the same as before (and that used to be the end of the story), but then another whole plot began and continued on for another twenty chapters.

Honestly, the second half should have just been written as a sequel, because everything was so different from the first half of the book - it felt like a very strange jump. I really didn't care for the new plot, either, and I especially didn't like what she did to most of the characters (Boabdil used to be my favorite character, but he just became a jerk). The portrayal of marriage and other family relationships was very frustrating as well: playing up all the dumb stereotypes without any reparation in the end. There were even several typos (the first half is free of such errors). That's a big pet peeve of mine.

Also, the 1993 printing has a few stylized illustrations, but this one has none of Frank Kelly Freas's pictures at all, so I was sad to lose that fun aspect of the story.

I very highly recommend the original printing of this book (five stars!), but I wouldn't recommend this version to anyone.

[Tammy · Rating 3 out of 5]

A cute, funny story about a newbie genie who forgets (gasp! not even tricked!) to add the 'three wishes only' clause when he's summoned.

The book is not particularly long, but has two related, standalone-ish plots. Looking at the edition information on good reads, it seems like the original printing only contained the first half of the book. It's probably better this way, but it does feel like the book concludes and then unexpected starts up again.

[Arylin · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed Wishing Season. It was a quick and fun read that kept me entertained the entire time I was reading it. The fact that this book is actually a combination of two books turned into one was not distracting at all for me and I felt that the two stories flowed quite well with one another. All in all, a good book that I recommend for anyone looking for a quick fun read.

[Helen Fleischer · Rating 4 out of 5]

As charming, amusing and wise as one could wish for.