Bone Swans · Stories

"C. S. E. Cooney is one of the most moving, daring, and plainly beautiful voices to come out of recent fantasy. She's a powerhouse with a wink in her eye and a song in each pocket."

--Catherynne M. Valente, NEW YORK TIMES–bestselling author of the FAIRYLAND novels

"These stories are a pure joy. C. S. E. Cooney's imagination is wild and varied, her stories bawdy, horrific, comic, and moving-frequently all at the same time. Her characters are wickedly appealing, and her language-O! her language. Lush, playful, poetic, but never obscure or stilted, it makes her magic more magic, her comedy more comic, and her tragic moments almost unbearable."

--Delia Sherman, author of YOUNG WOMAN IN A GARDEN: STORIES

A swan princess hunted for her bones, a broken musician and his silver pipe, and a rat named Maurice bring justice to a town under fell enchantment. A gang of courageous kids confronts both a plague-destroyed world and an afterlife infested with clowns but robbed of laughter. In an island city, the murder of a child unites two lovers, but vengeance will part them. Only human sacrifice will save a city trapped in ice and darkness. Gold spun out of straw has a price, but not the one you expect.

World Fantasy Award winner Ellen Kushner has called Cooney's writing "stunningly delicious! Cruel, beautiful and irresistible." BONE SWANS, the infernally whimsical debut collection from C. S. E. Cooney, gathers five novellas that in the words of Andre Norton Award winner Delia Sherman are "bawdy, horrific, comic, and moving-frequently all at the same time." Cooney's mentor, Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America Grand Master Gene Wolfe, proclaims in his introduction that her style is so original it can only be described as "pure Cooney," and he offers readers a challenge: "Try to define that when you've finished the stories in this book."

More praise for BONE SWANS

"Like one of her characters, C. S. E. Cooney is a master piper, playing songs within songs. Her stories are wild, theatrical, full of music and murder and magic."

--James Enge, author of BLOOD OF AMBROSE

"C. S. E. Cooney uses words like jewels, stringing them together on gold filigree sentences. Then she adds a beaded fringe of colorful characters-the living, the dead, the wronged, the righteous, the villainous, the vengeful, the divine. It's a treasure chest of a collection, and it's full of gems."

--Sharon Shinn, author of the ELEMENTAL BLESSINGS series

"These stories are rich, original fantasy with a sharp edge, peopled by vivid, engaging characters inhabiting fantastic worlds. This is a brilliant and thoroughly enjoyable collection."

--Martha Wells, author of THE BOOKS OF THE RAKSURA series

"Cooney drafts lyrical prose that sparkles with brilliant imagery and compelling characters. I can't wait to see what she does next!"

--Howard Andrew Jones, author of THE DESERT OF SOULS