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Publisher's Weekly
These five novellas by science fiction and mystery stylist Wilhelm combine both genres. Never before published, ''Children of the Wind'' is a tragedy about brilliant and energetic six-year-old twins--John and James, the ''jays''--who make life miserable for their peers through their imaginative play. The jays take revenge against their 11-year-old cousin for condescension, and precipitate disaster. Love intertwines with hate on the plains of Kansas in ''The Girl Who Fell into the Sky,'' and a healing is provided by communication between two times. ''A Brother to Dragons, a Companion of Owls'' tells of a future peopled by a few oldsters, where humanity has almost died off after war and plagues, and the coming of feral children who might provide hope. Wilhelm draws the unsuspecting reader quietly into her worlds of wonder, which often begin prosaically. She writes poetically and penetratingly about the nature of love in its different guises and about interdependence and dynamics that bind couples together.
Library Journal
A young mother's understanding of and growing fear for her twin sons create an atmosphere of encroaching doom in the title story in this collection of five novellas by the author of Smart House and The Dark Door ( LJ 9/15/88). Whether set in the near future (''A Brother to Dragons, a Companion of Owls'') or in present-day America (''The Girl Who Fell into the Sky,'' ''The Gorgon Field,'' and ''The Blue Ladies''), Wilhelm's short fiction is always lucid and intelligent, as it crosses the barely perceptible borders between real and unreal. Highly recommended.
Genre: Young Adult Fantasy
These five novellas by science fiction and mystery stylist Wilhelm combine both genres. Never before published, ''Children of the Wind'' is a tragedy about brilliant and energetic six-year-old twins--John and James, the ''jays''--who make life miserable for their peers through their imaginative play. The jays take revenge against their 11-year-old cousin for condescension, and precipitate disaster. Love intertwines with hate on the plains of Kansas in ''The Girl Who Fell into the Sky,'' and a healing is provided by communication between two times. ''A Brother to Dragons, a Companion of Owls'' tells of a future peopled by a few oldsters, where humanity has almost died off after war and plagues, and the coming of feral children who might provide hope. Wilhelm draws the unsuspecting reader quietly into her worlds of wonder, which often begin prosaically. She writes poetically and penetratingly about the nature of love in its different guises and about interdependence and dynamics that bind couples together.
Library Journal
A young mother's understanding of and growing fear for her twin sons create an atmosphere of encroaching doom in the title story in this collection of five novellas by the author of Smart House and The Dark Door ( LJ 9/15/88). Whether set in the near future (''A Brother to Dragons, a Companion of Owls'') or in present-day America (''The Girl Who Fell into the Sky,'' ''The Gorgon Field,'' and ''The Blue Ladies''), Wilhelm's short fiction is always lucid and intelligent, as it crosses the barely perceptible borders between real and unreal. Highly recommended.
Genre: Young Adult Fantasy
Used availability for Kate Wilhelm's Children of the Wind