I received an eARC from the authors in exchange for an honest review. It has not affected my opinions.
Genre: Sci-Fi
Age Range: Adult
Star Rating: 4 stars
Series: standalone anthology
Blurb:
The sky was never the limit.
What if Snow White lived in a virtual world where the lines of reality are too blurred? What if Cinderella’s ugly step-sister was half made of metal and springs? What if Sleeping Beauty slipped into a hundred years of cryo sleep?
Seven authors join forces to reimagine your favourite fairy tales as new sci-fi adventures filled with space, tech, magic, charm, and of course: happily ever afters.
Blurb taken from Goodreads. Add to your shelves here.
INTO THE ARMS OF MORPHEUS, by Amy Johnson
INTO THE ARMS OF MORPHEUS is a Sleeping Beauty retelling about a galaxy divided and a pair of rulers trying to protect their daughter by isolating her, which backfires spectacularly.
I enjoyed the removal of a curse or prince. Instead, the actions leading to her sleep are the choices of Liana and her parents, though there are plenty of nods to the fairy tale (such as FLORA the AI who is responsible for her sleep). The ending is also very open, coming a while before most would end. It gives a sense of possibility.
EVERYTHING MADE BEAUTIFUL, by Dawn Christine Jonckowski
EVERYTHING MADE BEAUTIFUL is a fun reimagining of Cinderella where only one step sister is horrible. The other, the narrator, is a cyborg who is shunned by her mother almost as much as her step sister. Briallian and Cinderell swap places so Cinderell can go to the ball, and Briallen finds her own suitor at the same time. I enjoyed how this book flipped the traditional narrative to have sister’s standing up for one another and both getting their happily ever after.
SKYSCRAPER by Hayley Anderson
SKYSCRAPER is a subversion of Rapunzel where Rapunzel is a girl in an apartment in a very tall building and Flynn is a free climber who finds her balcony, but not everything is as it seems. I really enjoyed the twist in this one. It plays with your expectations of heroes and villains, and the narrative of the enemy told to others.
ALIANDRA, by Destiny Eve
in ALIANDRA, Jazmyn teams up with Aliandra in this tale to steal back an artefact that has been fought over for years, tearing their desert world apart. I appreciated the inclusion of a romanceless tale in this collection as fairy tales usually include one. It added a it of variety and let the tale focus instead on the heist and war instead of a couple’s relationship.
STARDUST AND STEEL, by Meri Benson
STARDUST AND STEEL is a beauty and the beast retelling although it’s very hard to tell until the final chapter. Most of it follows a daughter trying to find her missing father by arriving at a smuggler den. The last chapter includes the beast for the first time and nanobots that cause it.
JUST A BYTE, by Marie Sinadjan
JUST A BYTE is a Snow White take was a bit hard to pick out the fairy tale. I initially thought it medight be red riding hood (character called Scarlette), then robin hidd (rebels). It follows the unfavoured daughter of a business mogul who is saved from assassination by those wanting to destroy her mother’s business.
WILD SWAN CHASE, by Meghan Tomlinson
WILD SWAN CHASE is a retelling of the wild swans, Lark is hunting for her brothers who all went missing in new swan-like airplanes, but her stepmother has other plans than safe return. This was a very imaginative take on the tale, weaving in quite a few elements and bringing new things too . There is a love interest and a few secret identities too.
Sifa Elizabeth Reads 