Ace, 1999, paper.
If O. Henry had written a quiet urban fantasy about a gargoyle it would read like Alan Rodgers' "The Gargoyle's Song." If "Arsenic and Old Lace" is your cuppa [tea], you should enjoy Wendy Webb's "Smiling Beasties." Bloodthirsty gargoyles collect their due in "Bleeding Stones" by Harlan Ellison and "The Hour of the Sisters" by Jo Clayton. Humans surrender their humanity through a variety of disturbing transformations in Neil Gaiman's "How Do You Think It Feels," Nancy Holder's "Little Dedo," Faust and Kiernan's "Found Angels" and Levinthal and Skip's "Now Entering Monkeyface."
With gentle humor, Jane Yolen and Robert J. Harris examine the stress (fractures) of college life in "Studies in Stone." Brian Hodge's "Cenotaph" is an imaginative look at gargoyled churches as "sleeper ships" for the Olde Gods, until their time comes again. Once, I saw a Green Man carved into a church portal. Now, I know why it's there!
My favorite story is Katherine Kurtz's "The Gargoyle's Shadow." As a fan of the defunct, animated television series, "Gargoyles," I can picture this story as one of the Quest episodes. I would place this story after the Banshee story, guest starring Colm Meany (ST: DS9), but I digress.
In Kurtz's story, a community of gargoyles is trying to protect their churches and public buildings from crime in modern day Dublin. Since they don't become mobile until the full moon, they've had trouble policing their territory. After a particularly violent series of robberies and crypt desecrations, Paddy the Gargoyle descends from his church roof to put an end to the mayhem. Paddy recruits an aged Knight of Malta, to aid him in the daylight hours and bring the knaves to justice. It was just like the goode olde days of yore.
I'm not surprised this book was nominated for the Bram Stoker Award, because I enjoyed each story. Violent or cute, eerie or humorous, there's a tale to suit your mood.
<*> Ariann <*>
This is an eclectic collection of seventeen stories ranging from gargoyles as the demonic tormentors of sinners in Melanie Tam's "Hagoday", to gargoyles as the silent solace of lost souls in Charles de Lint's "May This Be Your Last Sorrow."