This is one of my favorites. I first read this story in a copy of Realms of Fantasy magazine (which was disbanded a few years ago, so the only place to find those is on ebay as back issues. Once they're gone, they're gone. Which is quite unfortunate due to them being a high quality fantasy magazine.) that I had received in a swag bag at the Faerieworlds Festival when it was still in Eugene, OR. It took for frigging EVER to track down this exact story, but I finally was able to. (I cannot wait to see what the other stories are like!)
Thus, I received this book as a Christmas present this year. AWESOME.
Story: Daughter of Botu
Book Title: Returning my Sister's Face, and other far eastern tales of whimsy and malice.
Author: Eugie Foster
You will be seeing this book cover each time I review a story in this collection. Just FYI so that you aren't concerned that you're about to read the same post as last time.
Daughter of Botu is absolutely magical. It is harsh, it is gritty. It is about Rabbits. It is about shapeshifting. It is about remembering who you are, and knowing where you came from.
This is the story of An-ying. A young female rabbit who belongs to a warren of rabbits who have had multitudes of bad luck. Poison, trouble with foxes, hunters, and severe drought.
The last thing she expected was for her fate to take over (though her grandmother knew exactly what was in store.)
Four words: Rabbit... Human... love story.
It's soooooo good you guys. If you like stories that deal with shapeshifters you will love this one; to have a rabbit be the shifter is a complete breath of fresh air after being swamped with werewolves and vampires for years. Prey animals are not normally seen as having shifting abilities in modern shape shifter stories. It is wonderful.
Word to the wise: You're probably going to learn a few chinese words. Foster does a great job of seamlessly blending the english and chinese terms so that they are easily understood without a glossary. I think it also a breath of fresh air that she gave traditional names instead of automatically naming characters Caucasian names.
Check out this book!
ISBN: 1-60762-011-1
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