A Random Discussion Q

[lylassandra.livejournal.com]

I realize it has (unfortunately) been out of print, but how many people have read Instead of Three Wishes? What did you think? Did you see any intriguing similarities, differences, parallels between those stories and the Thief series?

Sorry if this has been previously discussed...

Comments

[fabricalchemist.livejournal.com]

Yes! Our library has a copy =)

I don't recall many similarities to Thief. It was more like completely different stories in the same distinctive style. Which was fun, because they already felt familiar even though I'd never read them before.

[orenzmarmalade.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I totally agree. I borrowed it from a friend a while back. What a great book, it was so funny. :P

[cabin-boy.livejournal.com]

It's not out of print, they had a new run August 2006- I just bought a copy last summer. Amazon link. (http://www.amazon.com/Instead-Three-Wishes-Magical-Stories/dp/0060842318/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/104-1625790-9795116?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1191446394&sr=8-1) ^.^

I can't really remember anything in particular that stood out (and there are definitely no similarities to the Thief series that I could point to), but it was a fun read nonetheless.

[rowana.livejournal.com]

Great question. I agree with Bear, completely different stories but written in a similar style. I loved the title story - and enjoyed all of the others a lot too, but I didn't notice any real similarities. They were all wonderfully original. On the other hand, "The baby in the night deposit box", a short story from the Firebirds anthology, seemed to have one or two similarities to the Queen's Thief books. A beautiful queen, a king with curly dark hair...okay, so the fact that both stories contained a king and a queen was the only real similarity, but I do like to picture Penny, the heroine of the story, as being something like Eugenides and Irene's potential daughter. Because Penny was a great character.

[idiosyncreant.livejournal.com]

Oh, yeah, I liked that one!

In general, I only really loved the title story. But I really did LOVE that one. I would love an urban fantasy novel in that vein from MWT. But no distractions! Sorry, sorry...

[lylassandra.livejournal.com]

I didn't mean plot or character similarities-- all of those short stories were completely unrelated. I meant more the tone or style or themes, or even just things people liked about the stories, too.

[rowana.livejournal.com]

I think it varied from story to story. Some of them seemed to be very similar in tone, whilst some seemed fairly different to me - 'Aunt Charlotte and the Nga portraits', 'The Nightmare' and a couple of others seemed much more haunting than the Queen's Thief books, for some reason. But I don't remember noticing any real similarity in themes between the books and short stories either. The plots were just as clever, I thought, and just as well told, and there were a couple of those lovely twists in the short stories too, but other than that...

One or two of the stories did remind me a little of some of the short stories Gen tells in 'The Thief'.

What similarities did you notice, lylassandra?

Not what you expected

[sclerotia.livejournal.com]

MWT said in a post somewhere that she was trying to emulate the style in Joan Aiken's "Not What You Expected" when she wrote these stories. I'd say she learned the art of the subtle twist quite well and applied it to Eugenides.

Re: Not what you expected

[idiosyncreant.livejournal.com]

The plot twist, yeah.
But I think the slightly prickly characters you have to love anyway are the most major similarity I felt from it.

[filkferengi]

I enjoyed the short-story collection & am thrilled to see it discussed here.