I was attracted to this book by the beautiful cover and I love reading fantasy, particularly the re-imagining of fairy tales. The Tangleroot Palace is a compilation of six short stories and one novella written by bestselling, award-winning comic book author Marjorie M. Liu over the past twelve years. They have been previously published in other anthologies.

Marjorie M Liu is an extremely talented and clever author. She doesn't tie herself to one sub-genre of fantasy, so these stories are a mix of re-imagined fairy tales, fantasy romance, dark fantasy and horror. There are stories about vampires, witches, super-heroes, reluctant princesses and female warriors. My favourite was the novella-length titular story, about a princess rebelling against being a princess, particularly the arranged marriage she is expected to put herself through to save her country from a vicious warlord. I enjoyed it so much, I wish it had been full-length! I also loved The Briar and the Rose (a re-imagining of Sleeping Beauty with a dark twist), and Sympathy for the Bones, a macabre story of power and revenge between witches.

Some of the stories went over my head because they were not written in a genre I usually enjoy, but The Tangleroot Palace is one of those 'Quality Street' collections: there will be something here for everyone to enjoy!

I particularly enjoyed the author's notes at the end of each story, citing her inspiration!

Stories included:

Sympathy for the Bones
The Briar and the Rose
The Light and the Fury
The Last Dignity of Man
Where the Heart Lives
After the Blood
Tangleroot Palace (novella)

Thank you to Marjorie M. Liu and Titan Books for my copy of this book, which I requested from NetGalley and reviewed voluntarily.

The Tangleroot Palace is the latest anthology story collection from Titan Books, but rather than bringing together a host of different authors Titan have decided to shine the spotlight on Marjorie Liu, the Hugo, and Eisner award winning author. In this lovely collection Liu presents readers with several short stories from across her career that showcase her creative and engaging fantasy work.

There are several stories in The Tanggleroot Palace, some of which feel so oddly similar to our own world they could easily be taking place in a time we know, just out of sight. Others, however, take place in strange fantasy worlds, alternate histories, and even possible futures.

The first story in the collection is 'Sympathy for the Bones', which follows a young woman who lives with the local town witch, learning how to work her magic to assist the older woman. Despite having been raised by this woman the young girl feels no love for her, having suffered at her hand over the years. Using the skills the old woman has taught her, she hatches a plan to be rid of the witch forever. This story felt like the perfect introduction to this collection, slowly drawing the reader in and introducing the more magical elements slowly as it went. It had some creepy and dark moments, and painted a wonderfully morally grey lead.

'The Briar and the Rose' is a twist on the Sleeping Beauty story, where the bodyguard of a powerful and influential woman discovers that her mistress is actually a witch. Not only that, but she's possessing the body of the woman she's residing inside, and that she needs to 'sleep' every week to maintain that hold. However, when the sleeps the body's real inhabitant is able to wake up, and the two woman form a strong relationship. This was a wonderful queer romance story, with an inventive twist on the traditional tale. Very quickly the story set the stakes with the evil witch, and the desperate lovers, and before you knew it you were rooting for these two women to find a way of escaping from the curse that keeps them apart.

'Call Her Savage' is a story that takes place in an alternate history, where magic and crystal skulls have been used to advance society in wildly different directions to our own. Set during a war between China and Britain, we follow a Chinese super soldier, a woman who has been granted super-human powers and abilities, who must sneak into enemy territory to save an important figure. The story dealt with themes of betrayal, trauma and morality in war in surprisingly detailed ways for such a short story. Liu does a ton of world-building here too, and it very much felt like this could be part of a much bigger series.

'The Last Dignity of Man' is Liu's comic book story, a field in which she's actually won awards too. It tells the story of a rich businessman who's obsessed with Superman. He wants Superman to be real, and would give anything for it to happen, and so sets out to become Lex Luthor in the hopes that being Superman's greatest villain will somehow force the hero the world needs to become real. This is perhaps the strangest story in the bunch, and whilst Alexander Lutheran's motives and way of thinking don't make complete sense you get the sense that they're not really supposed to, as over the course of this slightly bizarre tale you really get to know him, and see how much help the man really needs from those in his life. Despite the weirdness, it ended up being an incredibly sweet story.

'Where the Heart Lives' felt like the most fairy-tale-like story of the bunch, and really leans into the almost dream-like nature of magical stories. It tells the story of a young woman who travels to a magical forest, and who begins to live with a group of people with strange powers, and a connection to the spirit that lives deep within the forest that surrounds them. There's a good sense of mystery to this story, and it felt like a full YA fantasy story condensed down, with all of the 'will they wont they' stuff removed and a focus on the main events. Because of that, whilst it was good it did feel a bit light, and is a story I'd have enjoyed seeing being given more room.

'After the Blood' is a story that's actually something of a prequel to some of Liu's other work, but still stands on its own as an interesting story. Set in a future where a deadly diseases has destroyed most of humanity, and those left behind have had to use more old fashioned skills to get by. Oh, and the virus has also turned some of the survivors into supernatural beings, so there are monster and Amish vampires. It's a fun story, one that I think doesn't quite give enough information to be great as there were times I was left wondering why things were happening; but overall it was an enjoyable tale, and definitely left me wanting to read the series it ties into.

The final story in the book is the longest, the titular 'Tangleroot Palace'. This story introduces us to a young princess who has grown up in her fathers castle able to do whatever she wants. She's pursued the things that she finds interesting, leading to a princess who loves horse riding, reading, and messing around in the gardens. She's a free spirit. However, when her father informs her that she's being married to a supposedly brutal and frightening warlord in order to protect the kingdom she decides to run away from the palace, setting her sights on the Tangelroot forest, where powerful magics are said to reside. This being the longest story in the collection means that we get to spend a lot more time with the characters, and as such I found that I came to really like the princess, as well as the folks she meets along the way. As with some of the other stories in the book, it did feel like a scaled back version of a story that would normally be given a book all to itself, and as such felt a bit light in places; but was otherwise interesting, engaging, and delightful.

The Tangleroot Palace is a great collection of stories from an author with a lot of talent. Most of these stories are short, but you still find yourself coming to care for the protagonists, being invested in the stories, or intrigued by the worlds that Marjorie Liu has created. The stories collected here highlight where Liu's skills lie, with crafting stories, characters, and worlds that very quickly become engaging and intriguing. The stories all feel like they could have been books in their own rights, that they could have been expanded upon and built into bigger tales; and in some ways it does feel a bit of a shame that some of them haven't been. Whilst I loved reading the stories on offer here a lot of the time I felt a little sad that they didn't go on longer.

As a way of being introduced to Liu's work this book's a great way of seeing if she's an author you want to try out, if you'd be interested in more of her work. It showcases the variety and versatility of the author, and gives you some idea of what to expect from her other work. I did have a lot of fun reading these stories, I just wish I had more of them.

An eclectic selection of short stories, each of which comes with a little note from the author about her motivation and situation at the time of writing.
I really enjoyed a couple of them but some of them really weren't my thing. Definitely a talented author with a wide range.
I loved the superhero/supervillain story the most.

Marjorie Liu has collected together 8 years’ worth of shorter works that have peppered her writing career whilst she was publishing longer novels, and her award-winning work for Marvel comics.

Liu’s authorial comments that bookend each short work are illuminating – she expounds either her methodology or the spark that set the particular story alight.

Her feminist and pro-LGBT themes are what attracted me to the collection to begin with, but what I wasn’t expecting was for her messages of empowerment and visibility to be so elegantly and compellingly drawn. Frankly, these stories moved me.

The importance of the book industry publishing texts that centre on the spectrum of relationships between women, cannot be overstated. What Marjorie Liu has crafted here are stories that somehow manage to normalise women’s experiences by situating that gynocentrism in a dynamic range of high fantasy, hard sci-fi, paranormal, and post-modern fairytale reinventions.

I particularly loved ‘Sympathy for the Bones’ and ‘The Light and the Fury’. The standout piece for me here is ‘The Briar and the Rose’. As Liu comments of its bleak Sleeping Beauty source material: ‘I wanted to reinvent it as a tale about women, and the power of women, and how woman save each other and themselves through sisterhood and love. As most women I know will tell you, they don’t always sleep a lot – but they fight plenty.’

Marjorie Liu is someone who’s books I have always enjoyed. I discovered her via the co-created Monstress graphic novel and found her dark and spellbinding narratives captivating since. When I learnt that her debut of short stories was due for release I was excited and after finishing the E-ARC I am not disappointed.

We are led by the hand into the deep heart of the tangled woods. A place that is full of unexpected detours, dangerous magic and sometimes even more dangerous women. We meet memorable characters such as the Apprentice witch who seeks her freedom from betrayal with the help of bones of the innocent and a meticulously plotted spell. Briar, a bodyguard for a body-stealing sorceress, who discovers her love for Rose, whose soul emerges once a week. A runaway princess trying to escape an arranged marriage finding a true family in a troupe of traveling actors at the borders of a deep and dark wood. And others too. Each with their own, sometimes dark and disturbing, story to tell.

Liu’s narratives are all woven together beautifully, each one dark, lush and truly spellbinding. I have to say I did enjoy all of them but my particular favourites were the novella, The Tangleroot Palace and Where the Heart Lives. All were perfect though. While short each story’s characters shined out, being strong and memorable. It was wonderful to read stories about powerful females who often save themselves and their loved ones. The beautiful love story between Briar and Rose was so well created and weaved.

It is truly an amazing debut of short fiction and I hope we see more in the future. I particularly enjoyed the little notes at the end of each story informing us more of the processes or creation of the stories and characters there in. A definite must read for fans of Monstress. Each story is perfectly contained but I did wish sometimes I could learn more about these spellbinding women and the worlds they inhabit.

I want to thank Titan Books and Netgalley for the chance to access an E-ARC of this title. I have already purchased a physical copy which I know will be read again and again.

This was a delightful collection of fantastical stories that I really enjoyed. As always with a story collection, there were some that I preferred over others, but as a cohesive whole, I felt that this collection was great. My personal favourites were Sympathy for the Bones, The Briar and the Rose and Where the Heart Lives. Overall, this was a really enjoyable collection that I would definitely recommend.
I received a free copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for a fair and honest review.