Do you know why I like compilations/anthologies? I like them because they include a veriety of stories (sometimes united by a common theme) and I do not have to expect that I will be sitting here reading twenty stories that are exactly the same. Its a lovely feeling.
Title: The Tiger Fortune Princess
Book: Returning my Sister's Face, and other far eastern tales of whimsy and malice
Author Eugie Foster
As I am stating on each of these, this is a review for one of the short stories in this anthology and thus the image will be the same for each of these. This is not a repeat.
This tale takes place in China, and begins with the Chinese Empress Meiying. As far as empresses in stories go, she is the same. Being beautiful, wise, and compliant.
She follows tradition to a T, and does everything correctly when she finds herself with child. Enter the "angry fairy" trope. This comes in the form of soothsayer who is casting the future baby's horoscope. The soothsayer gets interrupted by an outside force and because she is now annoyed, changes the fortune to a curse. The Empress Meiying allows this, because fate, and does her damnedest to keep the curse from happening.
"Your daughter will die unborn
unless she rides the dragon's tail.
If she survives the dragon,
she will be devoured before she meets her husband,
and without a son in law,
her father will die of unhappiness."
Meiying does her best to make sure that while allowing the curse room, does not allow it to happen, while allowing its course to run. She does everything in her power to make this go smoothly including living as a peasant in the countryside alone with the baby.
This was a very good story, had a very "sleeping beauty" feel to it.
ISBN: 1-60762-011-1
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