EX LIBRIS: STORIES OF LIBRARIANS, LIBRARIES, AND LORE - Paula Guran, editor


 A collection of stories centered around libraries and those who work in them is a near-perfect concept for a book. What reader hasn't had an experience at some point with a library? What writer hasn't interacted with a librarian?

I've come to have greater appreciation for the role of editor for a short story collection. The number of stories that a reader finds appealing or enjoyable definitely correlates with how much the readers' likes and dislikes falls in line with the editor's tastes. I've never read anything edited by Paula Guran before and it looks as though our tastes align by about 40%.

I'm not sure what I was expecting as I started this book ... what kinds of stories would these be? ... but I was definitely surprised at how many of them seemed to have a scifi or fantasy feel to them.  Perhaps these are the only ones I remember?

The first story in the collection, "In the House of the Seven Librarians" by Ellen Klages, was one of my favorites.  A strong opening story had me hopeful for a strong collection. The story of seven librarians who refuse to leave when a library is shuttered. A forest grows around them and things get even stranger when a very over-due book of fairy tales is put into the book return. (A search shows that this is available to read for free online.)

This is followed by a really powerful story, "The Books" by Kage Baker - an author with whom I am not familiar but probably should be.  A post-apocalyptic story in which traveling circus children explore a town they are visiting and discover a building which is floor-to-ceiling and wall-to-wall full of books.

Sarah Monette's "The Inheritance of Barnabas Wilcox" was 'wonderfully creepy' I noted on my Kindle. But my favorite of the entire collection might have been "In the Stacks" by Scott Lynch. In various places this story is described:

Life is always complicated for students of magic at the High University of Hazar, but the fifth-year exam is a particular challenge: Each student must return one library book.

Of course, they must return it to the Living Library, a haunted collection of ten million magical tomes, a collection where the rules of time, space, weather, and reality itself are subject to sudden change. Escorted by armored battle-librarians, a group of four students must face mysteries and monsters in a fight to get their books back on the shelves in this brisk, darkly whimsical sword and sorcery tale.

With Indexers and Vocabuvores (who can only be kept at bay by providing them with new words) - Lynch has created a wonderful, if not a bit familiar, magical world centered around the library.

These four works are quite strong, but that's only about 1/6 of the collection and maybe it's not worth buying for that small a sampling.  But maybe you'd like more of these stories.  Or maybe  ... here's an idea ... check out a copy at your local library.

This collection contains the following:

Paula Guran • Ad Librum
Ellen Klages • "In the House of the Seven Librarians"
Kage Baker • "The Books"
Esther M. Friesner • "Death and the Librarian"
Elizabeth Bear • "In Libres"
Richard Bowes • "The King of the Big Night Hours"
Ruthanna Emrys • "Those Who Watch"
Norman Partridge • "Special Collections"
Ray Bradbury • "Exchange"
Holly Black • "Paper Cuts Scissors"
Ken Liu • "Summer Reading"
Kelly Link • "Magic for Beginners"
Sarah Monette • "The Inheritance of Barnabas Wilcox"
Kristine Kathryn Rusch • "The Midbury Lake Incident"
A.C. Wise • "With Tales in Their Teeth, from the Mountain They Came"
Tansy Raynor Roberts • "What Books Survive"
E. Saxey • "The Librarian’s Dilemma"
Amal El-Mohtar • "The Green Book"
Scott Lynch • "In the Stacks"
Robert Reed • "A Woman’s Best Friend"
Xia Jia • "If on a Winter’s Night a Traveler"
Gregory Benford • "The Sigma Structure Symphony"
Jack McDevitt • "The Fort Moxie Branch"
Edoardo Albert • "The Last Librarian"
About the Authors

Looking for a good book? Ex Libris: Stories of Librarians, Libraries, and Lore, edited by Paula Guran, is a collection of stories with libraries as the central theme, of varying quality. None are terrible, but only a small handful are standouts.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Edelweiss, in exchange for an honest review.

3 stars

* * * * * *

Ex Libris: Stories of Librarians, Libraries, and Lore

editor: Paula Guran

publisher: Prime Books

ISBN: 9781607014898

paperback, 384 pages

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