Previous SFF Author: Anthony Doerr
(Born 1956)
Cameron Dokey lives Seattle, Washington with her 3 cats and her husband. She has a collection of over 50 old sci-fi and horror films. Ms. Dokey was born in the Central Valley of California and grew up reading classical literature and mythology, perhaps due to her father, Richard, being a teacher of Philosophy, Creative Writing, and Western Literature. Both of her parents are authors.
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The Once Upon a Time books are short but sweet retellings of old fairytales, written with the general plot of the original story in mind, but in such a way that there are a few surprises along the way (often the story is told in a contemporary setting that has no magical elements, or contains a twist on who the heroine eventually falls in love with). For their target audience they are a treat, and for everyone else, they are a pleasant way to kill a couple of hours.
Rebecca Fisher´s rating: 3 | Cameron Dokey | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Before Midnight by Cameron Dokey
Cameron Dokey‘s contributions to the Once Upon a Time series are undoubtedly the finest, but her retelling of Cinderella is initially a little hit and miss. The series as a whole involves writers taking a recognizable fairytale and tweaking it a little into something that is still familiar but which provides a different point of view. This can involve changing the setting or the time period, removing all the magical elements that make up the original tale, or simply fleshing out the characterization.
Rebecca Fisher´s rating: 3 | Cameron Dokey | SFF Reviews | no comments |
The Once Upon a Time books are a series of relatively slim volumes that retell traditional fairytales, usually in an updated setting. Water Song: A Retelling of “The Frog Prince”
for example is set during WWII, and with the magical elements removed. Belle is an exception to this rule, as it is set in your typical 19th century time-period and with plenty of emphasis on enchantment and mystery in its second half.
Other reviewers have compared Belle with Robin McKinley‘s Beauty: A Retelling of the Story of Beauty and the Beast.
Rebecca Fisher´s rating: 2 | Cameron Dokey | Young Adult | SFF Reviews | no comments |
The Wild Orchid by Cameron Dokey
The Once Upon a Time series takes traditional fairytales and gives them a new spin, either by rationalizing the magical elements (as in Snow) or by setting them in a more contemporary time period (such as Water Song). They make for short but sweet little reads; like Hershey’s Chocolate Drops, they’re hardly anything to get too excited over, but can provide a new point-of-view to stories you’ve been hearing since you were a child.
Rebecca Fisher´s rating: 3 | Cameron Dokey | Young Adult | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
Previous SFF Author: Anthony Doerr
I might say "formulaic" actually.
Your review made me curious, so I looked this book up. Sure enough: Tor. Tor seems to specialize in these…
It's a tightrope act for sure.
[…] Stuart (2 December 2015). “Roadside Picnic: Russian SF classic with parallels to Vandermeer’s Area X | Fantasy Lit…. fantasyliterature.com. Retrieved 8 […]
yes, I mean, there are certainly lots of good sci-fi/fantasy novellas out there, so they aren't impossible to do, but…