Previous SFF Author: Martin L. Shoemaker
Best American Fantasy by Jeff VanderMeer (ed.)
The first thing that stands out is that if I merely stuck to looking for fantasy stories from the usual sources, I probably wouldn’t have come across many of the short stories in this anthology. And that I think is the strength of Best American Fantasy — that it reprints stories some genre readers were never aware of. That’s not to say this doesn’t have its fair share of “expected” stories but for the most part, it’s been a real treat.
June 12th, 2009. Charles Tan (GUEST)´s rating: 4 | Jeff VanderMeer | Short Fiction | SFF Reviews | no comments |
A friend of mine simply adores Tim Pratt and so my curiosity was piqued when I saw this short story collection in the bookstore. Little Gods isn’t thick by any means (at under 300 pages) but it does include 14 short stories.
First off, I really, really love the book design. Second, the book has an introduction by Michaela Rossner, and then an afterword in which Tim Pratt talks about his stories. As for the stories themselves, the adjective that best describes them is “elegant.” Whether Pratt’s stories are very,
June 5th, 2009. Charles Tan (GUEST)´s rating: 4.5 | Tim (T.A.) Pratt | Short Fiction | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Liavek by Will Shetterly & Emma Bull
One of the things I love about used bookstores is stumbling across out of print books from favorite authors. I picked up Liavek because I’ve enjoyed Emma Bull since The War for the Oaks, and discovered a fun collection of short stories. Unlike most anthologies, Liavek is a shared world universe, where all the authors write short stories that are set in the same location, with the same characters. Not only do characters reoccur,
June 4th, 2009. Ruth Arnell´s rating: 4 | Emma Bull, Will Shetterly | Short Fiction | SFF Reviews | no comments |
A Glory of Unicorns by Bruce Coville
Bruce Coville (the compiler and editor of this anthology) promised in his introduction no sappy unicorns, tells us that unicorn love is hard and demanding, and unicorns themselves neither safe nor sweet. However, four stories into this book I found that was exactly what the book was delivering — sweet, dreamy, dear little unicorns. Contradicting his own words Coville brings us the story of ‘The Guardian of Memory’ in which unicorns have names such as ‘Arabella Skydancer’ and ‘Manda Seafoam’ and are entirely domesticated,
May 16th, 2009. Rebecca Fisher´s rating: 3 | Bruce Coville | Children, Short Fiction | SFF Reviews | no comments |
A Fantasy Medley edited by Yanni Kuznia
FORMAT/INFO: A Fantasy Medley is 136 pages long divided over four short stories and is published by Subterranean Press in two editions: A fully clothbound hardcover limited to 3000 copies and a numbered hardcover limited to 200 copies and signed by the authors and editor. Dust jacket by Kristy Doherty.
ANALYSIS:
1) “Zen and the Art of Vampirism” by Kelley Armstrong. “Zen and the Art of Vampirism” is an urban fantasy tale with all of the usual trimmings including a female protagonist,
March 28th, 2009. Robert Thompson´s rating: 4.5 | C.E. Murphy, Kate Elliott, Kelley Armstrong, Robin Hobb | Short Fiction | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Poe: 19 New Tales Inspired by Edgar Allan Poe edited by Ellen Datlow
Whether you’re aligned with the literary academia or an unabashed genre reader, the name Edgar Allan Poe commands much respect. I think it’s only fitting that a modern anthology inspired by the author’s body of work should be released on his 200th anniversary. Kudos to Solaris Books for taking on the task of publishing such a book, which all comes together with the firm editorial direction of Ellen Datlow. Datlow, for me, has been an editor who’s less impressed with literary fireworks or verbal acrobatics but focuses more on the meat and bones of the story,
March 18th, 2009. Charles Tan (GUEST)´s rating: 4 | Ellen Datlow, John Langan, Kristine Kathryn Rusch, Lucius Shepard, Suzy McKee Charnas | Short Fiction | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Strange Tales of Secret Lives by Jeff VanderMeer
I had absolutely no idea what to expect from Strange Tales of Secret Lives and this book certainly did surprise. Jeff VanderMeer explains the origins of Secret Lives in the introduction: this is a collection of various short stories of (hopefully) fictional what-ifs of real people: a researcher is really a king, a pharmacist plans to live the double-life of a detective, etc.
I’m not a fan of flash fiction and most of the stories here definitely fall under that category yet VanderMeer manages to write it with such imagination and gusto that it becomes palatable,
March 12th, 2009. Charles Tan (GUEST)´s rating: 3 | Jeff VanderMeer | Short Fiction | SFF Reviews | no comments |
The Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror 2008
For me, The Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror 2008 has been a two-headed beast. On one hand, it’s an eagerly anticipated book by people involved in the industry, usually for the summation at the front of the book and the honorable mentions list at the back. The various editors are quite thorough and detailed when it comes to this part. The other aspect is, of course, the story/poetry selection, which is what will likely attract the casual reader.
So,
March 3rd, 2009. Charles Tan (GUEST)´s rating: 4 | Catherynne M. Valente, Daniel Abraham, Delia Sherman, Elizabeth Hand, Ellen Datlow, Garth Nix, Kelly Link, Kij Johnson, Lisa Tuttle, Ted Chiang | Hugo Award, Nebula Award, Short Fiction | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Paper Cities by Ekaterina Sedia
Bring up urban fantasy nowadays and most readers will probably assume that you’re talking about such authors as Laurell K. Hamilton, Jim Butcher, Simon R. Green, Kim Harrison, Charlaine Harris, Sherrilyn Kenyon and so on, but in this new anthology from Senses Five Press, which is edited by Ekaterina Sedia, Paper Cities reveals that Urban Fantasy has actually been around for almost two hundred years and can be traced as far back as the Arabian Nights.
December 7th, 2008. Robert Thompson´s rating: 4 | Barth Anderson, Ben Peek, Cat Rambo, Catherynne M. Valente, Ekaterina Sedia, Greg Van-Eekhout, Hal Duncan, Jay Lake, Kaaron Warren, Mark Teppo, Vylar Kaftan | Short Fiction | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Mythic II edited by Mike Allen
Much like its predecessor Mythic, Mythic 2 feels compact and precise. Both the prose and poetry (and everything else in between) are easy to read and have a lyrical tonality. The anthology is even and consistent, with no sudden drops or spikes in the quality. Editor Mike Allen also continues the format of alternating between both mediums, which makes the book work.
For the most part, I found the poems to be decent and the fiction enjoyable.
November 18th, 2008. Charles Tan (GUEST)´s rating: 3 | Catherynne M. Valente, Cherie Priest, Jo Walton | Short Fiction | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Previous SFF Author: Martin L. Shoemaker
Ricky, if you live in the USA, you win a copy of THE PALE HOUSE DEVIL! Please contact me (Marion)…
I'm relieved that I wasn't the only one who wanted to throw the book across the room early on. The…
Interested in Alyx now simply because "I Thought She Was Afeared Until She Stroked My Beard,” is definitely one of…
Although usually filed under SF, Double Star is the best novel ever written about the theater and acting. Period. Full…
Thanks for this excellent overview! Alyx has been on my radar for a while and I recently picked up an…