In The Palace Of Repose - Hardcover

Holly Phillips has won the 2006 Sunburst Award for her collection of short stories In the Palace of Repose.

Holly Phillips's collection In the Palace of Repose has made the final ballot for the World Fantasy Awards in the category of best single-author collection category, and her story "The Other Grace" (from the collection) is a finalist in the short story category.

Holly Phillips was among the finalists for the 2006 Crawford Award, given by the International Conference on the Fantastic in the Arts. Holly was nominated for her collection In the Palace of Repose.

*Starred Review* Horror-movie buffs may love monsters and mayhem, but many of them also laud the 1940s B movies produced by Val Lewton and famed for suggesting horrors rather than showing them. Canadian newcomer Phillips one-ups Lewton by refraining to characterize what menaces her protagonists as evil or necessarily threatening. The king locked away for five centuries in "In the Palace of Repose" may be too much for all society to handle, but when he emerges, the three men who assume his keeping seem up to the challenge. The spirit of the female conqueror interred in a barrow in "A Woman's Bones" is dreaded by the native peoples who know her legends, but the interpreter for the archaeologists digging at the barrow becomes prepared to welcome the violent wraith's release. The girl art thief in "Pen and Ink" seems threatened more by the mysterious curator who spurs her on than by her quest for her vanished father literally in his paintings. Often Phillips' protagonists' desire to bring magic back into the world is greater than any fear of supernatural forces. The heroine of Phillips' least fantastic story, "Summer Ice," succeeds at working magic, and her reward, like her accomplishment, is altogether natural, though wonderful indeed. Phillips writes dark fantasy mostly with the aura of heroic fantasy, aiming to awe far more than to frighten--and succeeding, awesomely. Ray Olson
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