KanePaul - Wonderland: an anthology of works inspired by Alices adventures in Wonderland

Table of Contents

AN ANTHOLOGY

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Print edition ISBN: 9781789091489

Electronic edition ISBN: 9781789091496

Published by Titan Books

A division of Titan Publishing Group Ltd

144 Southwark Street, London SE1 0UP

www.titanbooks.com

First edition: September 2019

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Names, places and incidents are either products of the authors imagination or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead (except for satirical purposes), is entirely coincidental.

Introduction Copyright 2019 Marie ORegan & Paul Kane

Alice in Armor Copyright 2019 Jane Yolen

Wonders Never Cease Copyright 2019 Robert Shearman

There Were No Birds to Fly Copyright 2019 M.R. Carey

The White Queens Pawn Copyright 2019 Genevieve Cogman

Dream Girl Copyright 2019 Cavan Scott

Good Dog, Alice! Copyright 2019 Juliet Marillier

The Hunting of the Jabberwock Copyright 2019 Jonathan Green

About Time Copyright 2019 George Mann

Smoke em if You Got em Copyright 2019 Angela Slatter

Vanished Summer Glory Copyright 2019 Rio Youers

Black Kitty Copyright 2019 Catriona Ward

The Night Parade Copyright 2019 Laura Mauro

What Makes a Monster Copyright 2019 L.L. McKinney

The White Queens Dictum Copyright 2019 James Lovegrove

Temp Work Copyright 2019 Lilith Saintcrow

Eat Me, Drink Me Copyright 2019 Alison Littlewood

How I Comes to be the Treacle Queen Copyright 2019 Cat Rambo

Six Impossible Things Copyright 2019 Mark Chadbourn

Revolution in Wonder Copyright 2019Jane Yolen

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means without the prior written permission of the publisher, nor be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

A CIP catalogue record for this title is available from the British Library.

Introduction

MARIE OREGAN and PAUL KANE

Wonderland.

That one word conjures up all kinds of mental images, from the tea party with the Mad Hatter to the grinning Cheshire Cat, from the White Rabbit to the giant chess game and the Queen of Hearts. And Alice, of course. Always Alice.

Ever since their publication back in 1865 and 1871, Lewis Carrolls Alices Adventures in Wonderland (originally called Alices Adventures Under Ground) and its follow-up Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There have captivated readers of all ages, providing the source material for countless movies and TV shows. Beginning with the silent adaptations of 1903 and 1910, by directors Cecil Hepworth and Percy Stow, and Edwin S. Porter, then carrying on through the TV incarnations of George More OFerrall in 1937 and 1946 From the classic and beloved Disney animated version of 1951 to, most recently, the Tim Burton takes of the twenty-first century, starring Mia Wasikowska in the title role, our obsession with this mythos seems to know no bounds.

Alices adventures have been turned into a ballet, countless comic strips (wed highly recommend picking up Dynamite Entertainments The Complete Alice in Wonderland), theyve inspired parodies such as The Westminster Alice, an opera, a popular song by Jefferson Airplane, a theme-park attraction (based on the Disney version) and even video games! References toand the influence ofthe original works can be felt across the board, and our interest extends as much to the story behind Wonderland as it does to the study of the place itself.

In terms of fiction, novels inspired by the works started appearing as early as 1895 with Anna M. Richards A New Alice in the Old Wonderland, and have continued right up to the present with interpretations such as A.G. Howards Splintered trilogy, The White Rabbit Chronicles from Gena Showalter, and Christina Henrys The Chronicles of Alice.

The originals are very special stories that have stayed with us both since childhood, and which have subsequently led to putting together this anthology you now hold in your hands. But, of course, if you are going to gather a range of tales that also take as their inspiration the world of Wonderland, including drawing on the real-life circumstances surrounding its creation, then you have to be sure youre doing something very different from what has gone before not easy when you consider just how much of it there has been. Thankfully, the talents contributing to Wonderland are very special themselves, and their unique approaches have resulted in some of the best fantastical fiction weve ever read! Within these pages youll find poetry by Jane Yolenand the imagination on display here would put some novels to shamewhile Jonathan Green uses the Jabberwocky poem as the jumping-off point for his story. There are historical approaches to Alice from the likes of Juliet Marillier, Genevieve Cogman and L.L. McKinney (this takes place in her own Alice-inspired monster-hunting A Blade So Black universe). Theres even a Wild West tale from Angela Slatter and a story by Laura Mauro which presents us with a very different Wonderland, inspired by Japanese folklore.

Authors such as Alison Littlewood, Cavan Scott and Catriona Ward make the more outlandish elements their own, while James Lovegrove draws on the supernatural for his entry. Cat Rambo takes us to a part of Wonderland we havent seen before and Lilith Saintcrow gives the mythology a science-fiction spin. The nightmarish reaches of the imagination are the breeding ground for M.R. Careys visions, while Robert Shearman, George Mann, Rio Youers and Mark Chadbourns tales have a deep-seated emotional core which will tug at the heartstrings as well as shock and surprise.

So, its time now to go down the rabbit hole, or through the looking-glass, or But no, wait. By picking up this book and starting to read it youre already there, cant you see? You dont need to do a thing because its already surrounding you. Youre not late at all; its perfect timing, in fact! Youve already begun your journey of exploration. Youre already in the place that they call

Wonderland.

Marie ORegan and Paul Kane

Derbyshire, 2019

Alice in Armor

JANE YOLEN

She dashed from the house,

Reverend Dodgson lingering at the door.

Never again. Never again, she thought.

She knew he would not follow.

He was too timid for the chase.

She found the armor

where shed stashed it, by the old hedge.

The hole in the root, unused for years

still gaped like a giants mouth.