Posted at Shelf Inflicted This is a fun and satisfying collection of stories about runaways. Some are running to something or away from something. Some are human, some halfie, and others are elves, or True Bloods, as they call themselves. Bordertown is a city between the Human World and The True and Only Realm that is inhabited by the Fae folk. Elvin magic does not work in the World and technology does not work in the Realm. Both work in Bordertown inconsistently and with interesting effects. Be...

An interesting anthology of short stories based on Terri Windling's Bordertown. To sum up, Faerie/Arcadia/whathaveyou pops back into the real world. That doesn't work so well, so instead a magic Berlin Wall of sorts is put up, so ne'er will Earth and Faerie meet again. Except for Bordertown, which is basically stuck in the middle where humans and faeries, technology and magic, mix up, sometimes well, oftentimes not. This was my first foray into Bordertown, and I liked the setting; Bordertown has...

In some ways, this anthology is the best introduction to Borderland, a perfect way for new readers to encounter the shared 'verse. Each contributing author provided an Introduction that helps orient the reader to this place, from how to find it to where to stay, where to eat, dangers to avoid, to differences between elves and humans and where the great music is. The stories themselves are phenomenally well written. Most of them find their way to an upbeat, satisfying conclusion, but since life k...

I didn't love every single story, but in general I absolutely love this shared world. If there was ever a fantasy world that I want to live inside, Bordertown is it.

I felt that this book started out much stronger than it ended. It was a very neat idea; a guidebook to the Bordertown between the human world and the elven world, interspersed with short stories about various aspects of life in this mythical town. The concept itself is fascinating and there is some pretty impressive world building, just because there were so many authors involved. The stories started off very well, and I sped through most of the book in a day. The last few stories stopped holdin...

Another Borderland anthology. This one didn't stick in my mind the way that Bordertown did, but going back through it once I started reading the first story I discovered that I had read it before. And then it turns out that the stories I liked the best weren't any of the stories that I remembered. My favorite part of the book wasn't any of the stories at all, it was the Guide to Bordertown segments inserted between the stories written from the perspective of a bunch of Bordertown kids. As such,

Having just finished this book, I feel as though I’ve come home from a week spent walking the wild, gritty streets of Bordertown. The memories of madness, desperation, beauty, grime, and magic still cling to me, and I’m not sure if I’m going to be able to easily shake them off. Thirteen authors take the reader’s hand in this urban fantasy collection, lead the reader to the city limits and thrust them into a world of street kids, rock and roll, elves, enchantment, dreams and disappointments. The

I love the Bordertown books, but this is my least favourite. I could never quite put my finger on why - I like the travel-guide sections between the stories, the stories themselves are hit or miss, but that's normal for anthologies, and there are some interesting characters.Then I read an Amazon review (I think) that referred to this volume as "gentrified", and realized, by Jove, that's it exactly. It somehow feels gentrified.

I like it. I will wish I had it next time I am on an airplane or a beach. I will perpetually wish I had it when I was twelve. But I am not in any of those places. And I need to read more important things.

Meh. Depressing. Short shorts about a gritty fantasy world with too much 'real' world drama, underdeveloped characters and too many quirks and costumes for my taste.

Great writers, but I couldn't get into it. May try it again another time in a different mood.

Enjoyment Rating: 5🌟Writing Quality: 4.75🌟Every time I finish another installation of the Borderland series, I feel like a Mad River Rat - shaking and aching for my next drink. This particular book is shaped as a Guidebook. Where to eat, which neighborhoods to frequent, how to avoid culture clash between Truebloods (aka Elves) and humans. I love everything about this world. The unreliable magic and inconsistent science. The gritty breath of every day life. The fact that not all, in fact not even...

While not all of the stories in this collection are absolutely wonderful, reading them is important if you have any interest in the development of the urban fantasy genre. Mostly stories, the remainder of this volume is sort of a newcomers' guide to Bordertown. What made this interesting is that this was the last volume of the series before the 13-year hiatus.Stories by Patricia McKillip, Steven Brust, Midori Snyder and Charles de Lint are among the best in my opinion, but your mileage may diffe...

4.5 stars

Of course it's good; it's Bordertown!

Read in 1999, not reviewed at the time.Re-read 5/2016: “Socks” by Delia ShermanAt a flophouse where a group of misfit kids, including one girl known derisively as 'Socks,' has found a degree of safety and protection, a new girl comes into the fold. Tough-talking and damaged, she's full of unlikely stories about her mother being a runaway princess of Elfland. But more of her tales might be true than one might guess, and she could help Socks heal, in more ways than one.I found this a bit more heav...

I was disappointed with this installment of the Borderland series. Gone were my favorite characters from the original books and gone were any memorable new characters. I was hoping for more adventures of the bands, gang members, runaways, and artists from the originals. Not only those things but I felt it didn't have the same "magic" or feel.

This collection is right up there with Lost Souls at the top of my guilty pleasures list. Unrelentingly "twee" tales of adventurous kids running away to the glittery 24/7 RenFair that is Bordertown with dreams of being rock stars and hanging out with elves, only to find themselves stumbling around like clueless noobs while struggling to find a place to fit in in a town full of misfits. Taking the same "shared world" approach as the Thieve's World series, the Bordertown stories are more fun and

This is an anthology of stories set in Bordertown, a gritty city perched between the modern human world and the Realms of Faerie. Interspersed with short stories by such favorites as Charles de Lint, Midori Snyder, and Ellen Kushner are exerpts from a "traveller's guide" to Bordertown, detailing where to find good eats and how to avoid offending the Truebloods (elves to you and me). Like all anthologies, there are stories that are better than others, but overall it's a real gem and a hell of a l...

The Essential Bordertown, as with all the Bordertown anthologies, is an incredible new kind of teen urban fantasy. It deals with all the well-known “teenage problems” – particularly cultural identity – in a magical, energetic way by turning them into wonderfully plotted metaphors that are both entertaining and insightful. That said, Bordertown is more than a series of self-help essays in fantasy short-story format. Bordertown, in its own way, represents a bit of a movement in teen fantasy, which...