A CINDER'S TALE: Review
Bet you thought you weren't getting a review today, didn't you? Yes, it's late (here on the East Coast, anyway). But, I didn't quite finish reading this story in time to have the review up this morning. I cannot guarantee that I will have the review for the fifth story up on Saturday, but it will go up this weekend.
Cinderella... in space? From the moment I heard about this one, I was skeptical. I love a good sci-fi as much as any nerd (though I do prefer watching it to reading it, most of the time), but it just seemed a bit too far-fetched to be believable.
However, Stephanie Ricker makes it work in A Cinder's Tale, the fourth story in the Five Glass Slippers collection. And she makes it work rather beautifully.
Elsa is a Cinder: a space miner working for Tremain Station helping collect a valuable ore called cendrillon from a dangerous and somewhat unstable gas giant. Although it's not her dream job, it pays the bills and she is fairly happy in this life with her tight-knit crew. And if her job doesn't have much variation, at least the danger makes it exciting. And at least the war is over.
When the massive ship, Sovereign, docks at Tremain Station for fuel before beginning its journey of exploration for the next year, everyone is excited about getting to meet the much-decorated war-hero captain and his son. And when it is discovered that there will be a formal celebration complete with music and dancing, the excitement cannot be contained.
But when disaster strikes in the middle of the party, Elsa and her crew must face a difficult choice: obey orders and perish trying to save the Station, or disobey and save lives while sacrificing everything else?
This is such a well-told story, and I can imagine all sorts of other adventures just waiting to be told about these characters and this universe. The "Cinderella" aspects of the story were far more subtle than in the first three tales, and therefore reading the story was also a bit like going on a scavenger hunt... but the elements were all there. From fairy-godmother to wicked stepmother to a lost glass... helmet... this could not be mistaken for anything but a Cinderella story, and yet, it was also quite solidly a wonderful sci-fi tale all on its own as well.
I also enjoyed the (perhaps completely unintentional, because this story was most likely written before the movie came to theaters) nod to another fairy tale story, as Elsa is from the planet of Anser, which is extremely cold and wintry most of the time. When talking about her family she says that her father was, "a glacial geologist; he loved Anser because of - not in spite of - the cold and the snow." You know me and my penchant for cold weather, Winter, and snow, so I loved that line all on its own... and then, later, when I sat down to write this review and reflected on the fact that the story was about a girl named Elsa who hailed from a snowy planet... well... I also love cross-over references, even unintentional ones. (I wish I was having this author over during the Blog Tour, because that is definitely the question I would ask her). C'est la vie. Maybe some other blogger will ask it.
Overall, I just loved this story!
(Decided to mix it up a bit, as the glass slippers are mentioned, but not featured in this story... and it's just such a different take on the tale from the others)