WATERS LUMINOUS AND DEEP

The strongest stories in this collection are the ones previously unpublished: the two-page “Night Voyage,” as lovely a paean to the land of dreams as one might wish; the meandering and melancholy “Rafiddilee,” with its inside-out echoes of Rumpelstilskin and The Hunchback of Notre Dame; the gentle and ultimately rosy “Frogskin Slippers.” Pierce is brave enough to let us see “Icerose,” a tale she wrote when she was 17. While it has none of the power of her current work, it’s nifty to see the writer, pearly and opalescent inside the dark oyster shell of youth and inexperience. Pierce takes pieces of many tales and reworks them finely: in “Rampion,” the Rapunzel and Selkie references are woven into a very different tapestry. Readers who cannot get enough of Pierce will want to ride these “luminous and deep” waters; others might prefer Treasure at the Heart of Tanglewood (2001). (Short stories. 12+)