The quality of each story is high, but you have to like Beagle's quirky voice to appreciate them.
Generally, the bad end unhappily, and the good happily, but not completely so.
"Sirit Byar" is a great and tragic tale of love, music, and death; be advised it is PG-13 for language & sexual references, but nothing graphic.

"Magician" was a poignant morality tale of reaching too far; and "Players" a comedic and politically pointed one.
"Lal and Soukyan" is more meaningful if you have read "The Innkeeper's Tale" first, being the return of two major characters in old age, and the strange quest they undertake.
I liked "Choushi-wai's Story" the best, because of the picaresque plot and twist at the end.
The tale-teller, Choushi-wai, appears briefly in "Lal and Soukyan" but none of the others are connected directly.
"Giant Bones" is also poignant and tragic, as are a lot of Beagle's works. ( )

First let me say, despite the cover design & length, this book is written for adults. Most kids 9 up could read it, but I'm not sure how many would have the patience for it. Lovely writing, subtle intrigues, slow plots. A reread would be a good thing, because it's hard to slow down the first time through a book like this.

I mean, it was especially hard for me because these were very long short stories (or short novellas?) and that's a length I don't have much practice with. I couldn't get comfortable and immerse myself in the story before it was over - but it was a full-fledged story with extra characters and complicated plot, not just a device to make an interesting point or share a provocative idea, and I kept wanting each story to be more like that.

But that's my problem, not the author's. For the right reader, one more careful than I or more into fantasy, this is most likely worth 4 or even 5 stars.

I was struck by the humorous bits, for example:

A local lord is described, A decent man... - killed people only when he thought it really necessary, and never tortured them, didn't believe in it. Hard to imagine what more you can ask from the nobility."

"Some say he invented a new curse... with every step, but that is not true. He was already running short on the fourth day."

There's not much humor, though.

Hmm, it just occurred to me that I don't like this in about the same way I don't like LeGuin. If you like her work, maybe you should try this." ( )

See What I Have Been Reading, February 2011 at From Word to Word

Giant Bones is set in the world of the Innkeeper's Song. I set the book down when I got to the story "Lal and Soukyan," since it was not only a revisiting of the world of the Innkeeper's Song, but of major characters and I hadn't read the other book yet and didn't want to ruin things. Without giving anything away, it's a good idea to read Giant Bones second (or at least that story).

Overall, the stories were entertaining with one or two of the six a little weaker. My favorite by far was the title story being funny, filled with wonder and just a great story overall. Reminded me a little of The Princess Bride with the storyteller and audience interjecting now and then but that's where the humor was and it worked well. ( )

Beautiful. That's about all I can say. ( )