In Lands That Never Were: Tales of Swords and Sorcery from The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction

by Gordon van Gelder (Editor), Robert E. Howard (Contributor), Phyllis Eisenstein (Contributor)

Long before Arnold attempted a pale copy, Conan the Barbarian held sway over the land, and all was swell. Neither man nor woman, beast nor spirit could rival him. Then, for many a day, he disappeared ... but lo, now he's back! Conan is featured, together with some of fantasy's favorite characters, in this compendium of swordplay and wizardry, fleet-footed thieves and flat-footed palace guards, witches and man-eating leopards, giants and giant slugs. In Lands That Never Were also Includes introductions to each story by the editor.

Genres: Fantasy, Anthologies, Short Stories, Science Fiction

320 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 2004

About the author

Gordon Van Gelder (born 1966) is an American science fiction editor. From 1997 until 2014, Van Gelder was editor and later publisher of The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, for which he has twice won the Hugo Award for Best Editor Short Form. He was also a managing editor of The New York Review of Science Fiction from 1988 to 1993, for which he was nominated for the Hugo Award a number of times. As of January 2015, Van Gelder has stepped down as editor of Fantasy & Science Fiction in favour of Charles Coleman Finlay, but remains publisher of the magazine.

Reviews

[Danielle The Book Huntress · Rating 4 out of 5]

These stories were very entertaining and imaginative, hosting an entire spectrum of storylines and heroes of different kinds. I was glad to see strong female characters in these stories who could fight just as well and save the day along with their male counterparts.

[Danielle · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book suffers from an unfortunate cover but a wealth of stories inside. Like so many anthologies, one hopes to find a variety of stories and more than a few that are appealing.

This collection based on the theme of stories of swords and sorcery from the Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction delivered up some gems as well as some classics from Fritz Leiber and Robert Howard. While I did enjoy the pulp-y beginning, I found myself more ensorcelled by the newer helpings particularly "King Rainjoy's Tears" by Chris Willrich, "Counting Shapes" by Yoon Ha Lee and "Dragon's Gate" by Pat Murphy. I almost forgot to mention Jeffrey Ford's "The Fantasy Writer's Assistant" which pokes gentle fun at the barbarian swordsman genre and fantasy writers as well. Literally, I laughed out loud as I read his description of Ashmolean's flatulance and random outbursts as he typed.

A diverting collection. While, it doesn't showcase the full array of fantasy writing like other collections and certainly doesn't push any genre envelops, the anthology was enjoyable and again had some truly enjoyable stories...almost every story was a pleasure and that's more than I can say for some collections I read.

[Sally · Rating 2 out of 5]

xxxxx"Hall of the Dead" Howard/Camp
***--"A Hedge Against Alchemy" Morressy
***--"Ill Met in Lankhmar" Leiber
xxxxx"Counting th eShapes" Lee (seemed too sad)
xxxxx"Firebird" GyR (bad language up front)
****-"Dragon's Gate" Murphy
xxxxx"After the Gaud Chrysalis" Finlay
*----"The Swordsman Whose Name Was Not Death" Kushner
xxxxx"The Island in teh Lake" Eisenstein
***** "Darkrose and Diamond" Le Guin
xxxxx"King Rainjoy's Tears" Willrich
xxxxx"The Fantasy Writer's Assistnat" Ford

xxxxx = didn't read/finish

-----

I liked *two* stories out of this collection. The editor took pieces that had appeared in his magazine from the last several decades, so I got the impression these were "important" to sci-fi/fantasy. Call me naive, but I don't understand why material written for adults needs to have bad language, deeply sorrowful themes, or gay/amabivalent gender characters. Guess I should stick to YA! he he

[Ed Wyrd · Rating 4 out of 5]

Entertaining read, except only two of the stories fit into a tradition definition of Sword and Sorcery, the Conan tale and the Fafrd and Gray Mouser tale. All the rest, although very good and very imaginitive, are not strict S&S, but more general fantasy.

[bluetyson]

In Lands That Never Were: Tales of Swords and Sorcery from The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction by Gordon Van Gelder (2004)