The Borderland series of urban fantasy novels and stories were created for teenage readers by author Terri Windling. Most of the series is set in Bordertown, a dystopian city near the border between "the Elflands" and "The World". The series consists of five anthologies and three novels. The series has spawned fan groups, gaming groups, costumed events (such as the Borderzone parties in Los Angeles), and was discussed in The Fence and the River: Culture and Politics at the US-Mexico Border by Claire F. Fox.[1]
Bordertown is the name of the shared universe created by Terri Windling, and a fictional place within that universe. The premise of the Borderland books is that the "Elflands" - a realm of magic populated by post-Tolkien elves have "returned" to "The World". The region of juxtaposition of the Elflands and the World includes Bordertown or "B-Town", and the "Borderlands" which lie between Bordertown and the World. In the liminal environment of Bordertown and its environs, neither magic nor technology functions "normally", and unpredictable combinations of the two may emerge.
The geographic location of Bordertown in relation to our world is unspecified, although it usually seems to be within North America. Like New York City, Bordertown has a neighborhood named "Soho"; Bordertown's Soho is a largely depopulated part of the city given over to youth from both the World and the Elflands. Some have run away to Bordertown; others have run from something. The stories set in Soho often combine urban fantasy of various forms with a vaguely post-apocalyptic atmosphere.
The Borderlands series, created for teenage readers, focuses primarily but not exclusively on the disenfranchised youth culture of Bordertown, as manifest in gang violence, race relations, and miscegenation, impromptu forms of social organization, class conflict, generation gaps, and literary criticism. The music of the 1980s is a significant influence.
"Prodigy"
"Gray"
"Stick"
"Charis"
"Demon"
"Exile"
"Nevernever"
"Lost in the Mail" (II)
"Nightwail"
"Lost in the Mail" (III)
"Alison Gross"
"Lost in the Mail" (IV)
"Berlin"
"Lost in the Mail" (V)
"Reynardine"
"Lost in the Mail" (VI)
"Light and Shadow"
"Lost in the Mail" (VII)
"Rain and Thunder"
"For It All" (lyrics)
"Lost in the Mail" (VIII-IX)
"Introduction"
"How to Get There #1: From the World to the Border"
"Oak Hill"
"How to Get There #2: The Path from the True and Only Realm to the False Lands and The City of Illusion (Translation for Humans: How to Get from Elfland to Bordertown)"
"Dragon Child"
"First Things First: So You Need a Place to Stay"
"Socks"
"The Gangs: And Life's Other Little Annoyances"
"Half Life"
"Hot Water: A Bordertown Romance"
"Arcadia"
"Nightlife: Where to Find It"
"So You Want to Be a Star: Get Real"
"May This Be Your Last Sorrow"
"Uptown: How the Other Half Lives"
"Rag"
"When the Bow Breaks"
"Argentine"
"Culture Clash #2: A Trueblood Guide to Human Peccadillos"
"Cover Up My Tracks with Rain"
"Famous Last Words"
"How Shannaro Tolkinson Lost and Found His Heart"
"Introduction"
"Introduction"
"Shannon's Law"
"Cruel Sister"
"A Voice Like a Hole"
"Stairs in Her Hair"
"Incunabulum"
"Run Back Across the Border"
"A Prince of Thirteen Days"
"The Sages of Elsewhere"
"Soulja Grrrl: A Long Line Rap"
"Crossings"
"Night Song for a Halfie"
"Our Stars, Our Selves"
"Elf Blood"
"Ours Is the Prettiest"
"The Wall"
"We Do Not Come in Peace"
"A Borderland Jump-Rope Rhyme"
"The Song of the Song"
"A Tangle of Green Men"