Previous SFF Author: Martin L. Shoemaker

Series: Short Fiction

Hart & Boot & Other Stories: By Tim Pratt

Hart & Boot & Other Stories by Tim Pratt

Tim Pratt’s second short story collection, Hart & Boot & Other Stories, features 13 stories that tackle various concepts and genres. While most of the stories still retain that mythology-inspired influence that is undeniably Pratt, they tend to have more closure compared to the stories in the previous collection. They’re nonetheless quick and easy reads, however, and anyone can get immersed in Pratt’s writing style.

Somehow, Tim Pratt manages to write stories called “Romanticore” and “Lachrymose and the Golden Egg” yet end up with a serious,

Wild Thyme, Green Magic: Cagey heroes & exotic locales

Wild Thyme, Green Magic by Jack Vance

I’m a big fan of Jack Vance’s wild imagination and his “high-end” writing style (his description, as I learned in this book). So, I was happy to get a copy of Wild Thyme, Green Magic, an assortment of his fantasy and science fiction tales which have previously been published in several SFF magazines and have now been compiled and edited by Terry Dowling and Jonathan Strahan and published by Subterranean Press.

Hunter’s Run: A fast but sophisticated read

Hunter’s Run by George R.R. Martin, Gardner Dozois, Daniel Abraham

Hunter’s Run is somewhat interesting in that it’s a collaboration novel that you can’t really tell is a collaboration and a science-fiction novel that relies surprisingly little on science fiction. And these are by no means complaints. The collaboration’s seamlessness speaks to the craft and professionalism of the three writers while the lack of reliance on science fiction allows for a fine mix of quick-paced adventure and character introspection.

Don’t get me wrong — the science fiction elements are essential to the plot: space-faring races,

Best American Fantasy: Literary and adventurous fantasy stories

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.

Little Gods: An elegant collection by Tim Pratt

Little Gods by Tim Pratt

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,

Liavek: A light read that will transport you to another world

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,

A Glory of Unicorns: Not quite what the introduction promises

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,

A Fantasy Medley: Wish it was longer

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,

Poe: 19 New Tales Inspired by Edgar Allan Poe

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,

Strange Tales of Secret Lives: Flash fiction from VanderMeer

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,

Next SFF Author: Gena Showalter

Previous SFF Author: Martin L. Shoemaker

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