SKU: 56980503077

Bone Swans: Stories

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Bone Swans: StoriesWinner of the 2016 World Fantasy Award for Best Collection Contains "The Bone Swans of Amandale," 2015 Nebula Award finalist for Best Novella 2015 Locus Recommended Reading List, Best Collection and Best Novella "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

Winner of the 2016 World Fantasy Award for Best Collection

Contains "The Bone Swans of Amandale," 2015 Nebula Award finalist for Best Novella

2015 Locus Recommended Reading List, Best Collection and Best Novella

"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

"Bone Swans is a joy of feathery bones & ghoulish clowns. I adored every word. Like an eyas cries for meat, I cry for more. C.S.E. Cooney's a major talent and these are major talent stories. Who can resist hero rats, pouting swans, feral children, flying carpets and the Flabberghast? So tongue-tied am I with delight I fall back on the usual cliches: gripping, delightful, insightful, rollicking & lyrical--and yet not one cliche is to be found in Bone Swans, only stories of surpassing delicacy and wit, told by a lady of rare talent. Please, ma'am, might I have some more?"
--Ysabeau S. Wilce, Andre Norton Award wining author of Flora's Dare

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."



Binding Type: Paperback
Publisher: Mythic Delirium Books
Published: 07/07/2015
ISBN: 9780988912441
Pages: 226
Weight: 0.74lbs
Size: 9.00h x 6.00w x 0.52d

Review Citations: Publishers Weekly 05/25/2015
Library Journal 07/01/2015 pg. 61
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SKU: 56980503077

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JReppy
Lake Worth, US
★★★★★ 5
beautiful story
Format: Kindle
“With Stars in Her Eyes” is a beautiful book. The characters have dealt with and are dealing with some pretty heavy issues, especially Courtney. And for Courtney especially, her past has resulted in some pretty dysfunctional thinking and behavior (quite understandably). However, while the story deals with some heavy topics, there is also a lot of humor, wonder and joy. There are so many things to love about this story — the friendship between Thea and Marshall and between Courtney and Sam; the bookshop “pets” and how they are incorporated into the story; Ms. Jeannie (who is kind of intimidating); the banter between Thea and Courtney, especially all the innuendo (intentional or not); the legal food puns; the joy and appreciation Thea experiences with her photography, especially using the older cameras and techniques she learned from her grandfather; the discussion of the books Thea and Courtney like to read; the descriptive intimate scenes; the book clubs; the lyrics of Courtney’s songs, etc.
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Reviewed in the United States on September 17, 2025
D
DocRobReads
Massapequa, US
★★★★★ 5
Strong sense of place and character😍
Format: Kindle
Burke really nails emotions. I did not grow up with religious trauma, but reading about Courtney made me feel like I did. I didn't have a family that treated me like the help just because I was following my own path, but reading Thea's POV made me believe I had. It's truly a gift when an author can establish such a strong sense of place and character. I can't wait to see what she does next.😍 4.5🌟
WAS THIS REVIEW HELPFUL?YesReportShare
Reviewed in the United States on September 16, 2025
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Verified Purchase
Amateur Romance Reader
Pawtucket, US
★★★★★ 5
Ugh, why does it have to be over?!?
Format: Kindle
Okay, Amazon/Kindle is dirty for prompting a review right as you finish the book, and I’m typing this through (happy) tears right now! I have thoroughly enjoyed this whole series and have to recommend that you read each one. Moving through the stories of Elle, Darcy, Brendon, Annie, Margot & Olivia has been very fun, adventurous and satisfying overall. The romance is amazing, the steamy sections are s t e a m y, and the finales are perfect. I like that the conflicts are not too extreme, drawn out or kitschy like they can be in other forms of media. I also enjoyed that this series was written in a more modern timeline. Not to mention with a straight romance sandwiched by 2 queer romances, this series is built for bi/pansexuals. Man, I’m going to miss these characters, but I will be watching very closely for more of Alexandria Bellefleur!
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Reviewed in the United States on November 5, 2023
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Verified Purchase
D Booker
San Leandro, US
★★★★★ 4
A starry second chance romance that’s not to be missed.
Format: Kindle
I’ll admit I was super excited to read this and at the same time apprehensive too because I absolutely loved “Written in the Stars” and didn’t want to set it up on a pedestal of unfair expectations. Not sure I was completely successful on that front ☺️. So Margot’s story is a second chance romance with Olivia, her high school best friend who ended up marrying the quarterback jock. 11 years later they meet and interesting things happen. Margot is one of those caustic but heart of gold characters that I’ve adored from book one. I loved there was more of that in this book and it was a nice juxtaposition to Olivia’s character that’s basically kindness and generosity personified. Bellefleur’s writing definitely does the word “rom-com” justice, as the story is packed with plenty of pining and humor. That cat scene being the most memorable of the lot. I also loved the pacing of this book. Second chance romances often tend to yank readers back and forth between timelines, causing reading-whiplash. But in this book, there’s none of that and the story progresses with enough background to keep you engaged and focused. That brings me to communication tropes. Love-‘em or hate-‘em they are the backbone of angst inducement. This book felt like one ginormous communication trope. Ironically, Margot’s character actually bemoans how she hates it when characters don’t communicate, which I thought was quite tongue and cheek by Bellefleur given how this book flowed. There’s lots of sexy scenes in this book and while I loved reading them, it also felt like that’s all that was happening. Margot and Olivia weren’t really talking until the very end. So even though I liked the pacing for the majority of the book, the end was like a train hurtling down the track sans brakes. So much was happening, threads being closed with a grand gesture looming, my heart was racing and I even started reading faster which didn’t help my feeling, that it was rushing to the end. The epilogue was great and I really loved getting glimpses of Elle and Darcy throughout this book. Overall while it may not have the tingly charm of “Written in the stars”, it is a great read that closes out the series nicely.
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Reviewed in the United States on February 13, 2022
M
Verified Purchase
Marta
Omaha, US
★★★★★ 5
Very good book!
Format: Kindle
I really enjoyed reading “Count my lucky stars”. It was a great sapphic romance - sweet, funny and entertaining. It was the last book in the series and it summed up all the three couples from the series perfectly. I really liked Margot and just the way she is and also I felt for Olivia because I am similar - I usually put other needs above my own. They were just great together - they balanced each other out. Very good read.
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Reviewed in the United States on April 7, 2025

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