Time for Bedlam ~ a collection of cautionary tales contains some really rather good stories. The premise of twisted fairy tales is a good hook, one that caught my eye when I saw the call for submissions a while back. Firstly, I like the style of the book. The cover picture, the unusual typeface for the story titles (although I didn't think the occasional illustrations added much). Plus I'm very fond of familiar stories which have been wrestled out of all recognition into something new, so I approached this anthology with high hopes. And the first few stories didn't let me down. James S. Dorr's Cindy is, as might be guessed, a variant on the Cinderella story, a hugely enjoyable romp with fairies and spontaneous combustion. Loved it. This is followed by A. C. Wise's Sugar Shock, a new angle on Hansel and Gretel's gingerbread house in the woods, and another great story. K. S. Dearsley's tale of a sister who sets out to save her brothers continues the trend of immensely readable stories.

Derek J. Goodman's story The Tinker is a rather different proposition. It starts out reading like bad pornography, and continues with a compelling but ultimately depressing tale of unrequited love. I may have liked it more if the narrating character hadn't been quite so much of a loser. There then follows a fair attempt at folklore becoming reality from Jason Andrew -- a little confused for my taste, but an interesting idea, then Let Us Prey, a one joke story that could have been better with more focus on the plot and less on building up to the punchline.

The Dragon's Lesson is one worth remembering, and worth reading too, followed by a story from the editor entitled Bip Bop. This harks back to the tempo of stories I remember reading as a child, with the title phrase occurring again and again to charm children. It is amiable enough, but a little long in its description of the rise and fall of two brothers' fortunes. Through a Glass Darkly by J. J. Beazley, apart from reminding me overmuch of M. R. James' View from a Hill is slow, preachy in style, and, in my opinion, dull, so when I came upon another story by the same author later in the book, I was mystified. The inclusion of one story of this type is fine for a change of pace, a change of tone. But two? The second story was also slow, excessively wordy, and dull, with the first sign of any action occurring five pages into the story. I think this author may be more suited to lengthy philosophical essays than to fiction.

Despite the faintly irritating present tense of Weyland the Smith, Daniel Arbuckle presents us with an interesting tale of a man seeking revenge, although I couldn't help but wish there was more point to the story. Eustace Albert is another story with the same complaint. It offers a great, hugely entertaining start, with a mother seeking to cure a boy who echoes every conversation, but ends somewhat limply.

The Mongoose and The Homecoming are more usual stories which both provide a good read, the former telling the heroic story of a mongoose's attempts to protect a family, and the latter describing a monster's return home to where it was born. Blood for Blood is a pretty ordinary retelling of Hans Christian Anderson's The Little Mermaid, adding little new of interest, and James Cooper's The River Remembers starts off too fancifully for me, with many words saying very little and the conceit of 'chapters' a sentence or two long, but actually turns out to be a reasonable story of river gods and sacrifices.

The final two contributions finish off the book as it started, with great storytelling. Joy Remy Marchland's tale of a post-nuclear Little Red Riding Hood making her way across the dangers of the crumbling wolf-inhabited city is nearly faultless and a gripping read. And the classic Rapunzel story, told from a different point of view by Angelyne Bosch, suggests new motives for the actions of the wicked witch stepmother.

Time for Bedlam took a concept alive with possibilities and created an anthology with stories from the past, present and future -- a wonderful range of variation. I think it is well worth a read; there are some truly great stories in there. These fairy stories are far too good to leave to the children...

Time for Bedlam is available now from Project Pulp, Amazon, or Lulu.