The Ogre's Wife

The Ogre's Wife

Cover of first edition
Author	Richard Parks
Language	English
Genre	Fantasy short stories
Publisher	Obscura Press
Publication date	2002
Publication place	United States
Media type	Print (Paperback)
Pages	270 pp.
ISBN	0-9659569-5-4

The Ogre's Wife: Fairy Tales for Grownups is a collection of fantasy short stories by Richard Parks. It was first published in trade paperback by Obscura Press in August 2002. A Kindle edition was issued in 2011. The collection was nominated for the 2003 World Fantasy Award for Best Collection; its title story won the SF Age Reader's Poll for short story in 1995.

An "absolute treasure of a collection," the book collects fifteen novelettes and short stories by the author, one original to the collection, together with an introduction by Parke Godwin. It includes three of his "Eli Mothersbaugh" stories, "Wrecks," "The God of Children," and "A Respectful Silence." The Kindle edition also includes the author's notes on the stories in an appendix.

Contents

• "Ghosts, Gods, a Dragon, Assorted Legends and Things That Go Bump in the Heart: An Introduction" (Parke Godwin)
• "The Ogre's Wife" (from Science Fiction Age, v. 3, no. 6, Sep. 1995)
• "How Konti Scrounged the World (from Realms of Fantasy, v. 6, no. 3, Feb. 2000)
• "The Beauty of Things Unseen" (from Quantum Speculative Fiction, 1999)
• "Doing Time in the Wild Hunt"
• "My Lord Teaser" (from Elf Magic, Oct. 1997)
• "Doppels" (from Not of Woman Born, Mar. 1999)
• "Wrecks" (from Odyssey, issue 2, 1998)
• "The God of Children" (from Asimov's Science Fiction, v. 24, no. 12, Dec. 2000)
• "A Respectful Silence" (from Realms of Fantasy, v. 8, no. 2, Dec. 2001)
• "The Trickster's Wife" (from Realms of Fantasy, v. 7, no. 3, Feb. 2001)
• "A Place to Begin" (from Weird Tales, v. 57, no. 3, Spr. 2001)
• "Take a Long Step" (from Realms of Fantasy, v. 5, no. 4, Apr. 1999)
• "Judgment Day" (from Realms of Fantasy, v. 7, no. 1, Oct. 2000)
• "Borrowed Lives" (from Prom Night, May 1999)
• "Golden Bell, Seven, and the Marquis of Zeng" (from Black Gate, v. 1, no. 1, Spr. 2000)
• "Appendix: Story Notes" (Kindle edition only)

Reception

Parke Godwin called the book "one of the best SF/fantasy collections I've read in years" and wrote of Parks that "[l]ike any fine writer [he] doesn't label easily, which makes him hell for lazy-minded pigeonholers, but his themes are consistent and clear. He uses fantasy to underscore reality: the nature of our humanity and the inescapability of what we are, the choices we make and the price we pay for each, right or wrong. ... [H]e can step imperceptibly from deadpan funny to deeply affecting truth with an utterly transparent style that has the reader racing down the page [and] has the rare ability to say profound things simply."