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Paper Cities: An Anthology of Urban Fantasy
This anthology of 21 original fantasy stories explores humanity’s most dynamic and forceful creation—the city. Featuring tales from fantasy heavyweights such as Hal Duncan, Catherynne M. Valente, Jay Lake, and Barth Anderson, the collection whisks readers from dizzying rooftop perches down to the underpasses, gutters, and the sinister secrets therein. Mutilated warrior women, dead boys, mechanical dogs, and escape artists are just some of the wonders and horrors explored in this bizarre assembly of works from voices new and old.
271 pages, Paperback
First published April 1, 2008
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February 23, 2016
I can't take it anymore!!! I have to stop reading this book. It is so depressing and awful!!! Most of the stories I read were not good at all or just fair. I feel that some of these authors submitted story projects that they couldn't flesh out as a full length novels and started calling them a short story. And when some of the stories are less than 10 pages - one was about 5, you lose plot and character development. I had a hard time making myself keep reading it and then finally I had to just say I give up! I am going to stay away from this editor because I assume she is the one choosing the stories.
I find that when I read an anthology that has this many (usually over 10) short stories, the whole book will lose something and this for sure is an example of that.
I also usually don't give ratings to books I don't finish, but this was so bad that I felt my review is fair.
Below are reviews of the stories I was able to finish.
1. Andretto Walks the King's Way by Forrest Aguirre. This is a story about the Black Death coming to the village with a carnival. The story is told with headers such as "The Castle", "The Commoners' Way" with a small paragraph. At first I didn't think I'd like this disjointed telling with no real strong character, even Andretto is only there for a short bit. But I ended up enjoying it. I don't think this style would work with a full length novel, but for a short story, it worked fine. ***
2. The Tower of Morning's Bones by Hal Duncan. This story is about this myth and that myth, and then back to this one. All told as a sort of poem without a lot of complete sentences and not a lot of plot. Not my cup of tea. *
3. Courting the Lady Scythe by Richard Parks. Jassa has fallen in love with the female executioner Lady Scythe and tries to make a deal with a god-like woman to make Jassa fall in love with him. I'm on the fence about this story. When he made the deal, I could see the outcome. **-1/2
4. The Bumblety's Marble by Cat Rambo. Doolia is given a marble and later finds out it holds Dion's mother's heart. She's given it to a friend for some food. The story was cute but way too many things went on in only 8 pages. **-1/2
5. Promises; A Tale of the City Imperishable by Jay Lake. A young girl is tortured is some kind of school for girls only and makes a vow to always remember who she was. As she grows, she sacrifices so much. The ending was horrible, not horribly written but horrible in what happens. I'm not sure I like this story at all but that's based on the story itself which is very dark and depressing. *
6. Ghost Market by Gren Van Eekhout. A young man dies but in this world when you die your ghost is bottled up for people to sniff like drugs and relive your life. Another depressing story. *
7. Sammarynda Deep by Cat Sparks. Finally a good short story in this book! Maryaim has come to Sammarynda to find Orias, her lover who abandoned her without a reason or a goodbye. She finds out that each person in this town/country? sacrifices something precious as a sign of honor, such as one beautiful woman had her eye ripped out. Orias sacrified his love. When she finds out that she was his "honor", she jumps into this deep hole that is suppoed to change you sometimes physically and he follows her. A very good story. ****
8. Tearjerker by Steve Berman. The world changed where fantasy is reality. I didn't care for anyone but the invalid. Depressing story. *
9. The Title of This Story by Stephanie Campisi. A boy brings a religious book to a scholar to translate the name. The alphabet is mathematical and since the scholar can't give the book a name, it must not exist. What? *
I find that when I read an anthology that has this many (usually over 10) short stories, the whole book will lose something and this for sure is an example of that.
I also usually don't give ratings to books I don't finish, but this was so bad that I felt my review is fair.
Below are reviews of the stories I was able to finish.
1. Andretto Walks the King's Way by Forrest Aguirre. This is a story about the Black Death coming to the village with a carnival. The story is told with headers such as "The Castle", "The Commoners' Way" with a small paragraph. At first I didn't think I'd like this disjointed telling with no real strong character, even Andretto is only there for a short bit. But I ended up enjoying it. I don't think this style would work with a full length novel, but for a short story, it worked fine. ***
2. The Tower of Morning's Bones by Hal Duncan. This story is about this myth and that myth, and then back to this one. All told as a sort of poem without a lot of complete sentences and not a lot of plot. Not my cup of tea. *
3. Courting the Lady Scythe by Richard Parks. Jassa has fallen in love with the female executioner Lady Scythe and tries to make a deal with a god-like woman to make Jassa fall in love with him. I'm on the fence about this story. When he made the deal, I could see the outcome. **-1/2
4. The Bumblety's Marble by Cat Rambo. Doolia is given a marble and later finds out it holds Dion's mother's heart. She's given it to a friend for some food. The story was cute but way too many things went on in only 8 pages. **-1/2
5. Promises; A Tale of the City Imperishable by Jay Lake. A young girl is tortured is some kind of school for girls only and makes a vow to always remember who she was. As she grows, she sacrifices so much. The ending was horrible, not horribly written but horrible in what happens. I'm not sure I like this story at all but that's based on the story itself which is very dark and depressing. *
6. Ghost Market by Gren Van Eekhout. A young man dies but in this world when you die your ghost is bottled up for people to sniff like drugs and relive your life. Another depressing story. *
7. Sammarynda Deep by Cat Sparks. Finally a good short story in this book! Maryaim has come to Sammarynda to find Orias, her lover who abandoned her without a reason or a goodbye. She finds out that each person in this town/country? sacrifices something precious as a sign of honor, such as one beautiful woman had her eye ripped out. Orias sacrified his love. When she finds out that she was his "honor", she jumps into this deep hole that is suppoed to change you sometimes physically and he follows her. A very good story. ****
8. Tearjerker by Steve Berman. The world changed where fantasy is reality. I didn't care for anyone but the invalid. Depressing story. *
9. The Title of This Story by Stephanie Campisi. A boy brings a religious book to a scholar to translate the name. The alphabet is mathematical and since the scholar can't give the book a name, it must not exist. What? *
December 18, 2008
Paper Cities: An Anthology of Urban Fantasy was a book I stumbled upon on Amazon.com while searching for books or stories Catherynne M. Valente (or without the M.) has written so far. This collection includes a short story by her, that was the starting point for a full-fledged book that is being released next year in February. Score!
I also finally checked this book out because I read a book by the editor Ekaterina Sedia and thought it was good, and decided her choice of authors/short stories shouldn't be that bad.
Overall, I am stuck between 3 and 4 stars. Some stories didn't really impress me or I didn't like them as much, while others did wow me.
In the introduction, Jess Nevins gives a quick background of urban fantasy, and books written in this "mode of storytelling" and a few words about each short story. It didn't really ruin the stories for me, but for some, I think not reading the introduction would have made things better and less foreshadowing for me. I can't tell now, if it was the author's own foreshadowing that led me to be right about the events, or that and Nevins' introduction.
"Andretto Walks the King's Way" by Forrest Aguirre
I haven't heard of this author beforehand. I rather liked this story, and thought it was a good introduction to an anthology about cities. It shows clearly and creatively how interwoven life is in a city, despite most people saying you don't know anybody and it's impersonal. That may be true, but it's also a place where strangers' lives can affect you very easily.
"The Tower of Morning's Bones" by Hal Duncan
This story reminded me of Valente's style in Yume No Hon: The Book of Dreams and The Labyrinth. It's very vivid in its imagery and fantastical settings and circumstances. Unfortunately, like with Yume No Hon: The Book of Dreams, it made me realize how deficient my knowledge is of world mythology. Parts of it made more sense to me than others, but I also liked how it tied together. It was an interesting writing technique not to use quotations, but dashes before each piece of dialogue. Perhaps it's also to indicate that they aren't speaking as how we amongst ourselves.
"Courting the Lady Scythe" by Richard Parks
Richard Parks is an author of two books on my Wish List -The Ogre's Wife – Fairy Tales for Grownups and Worshipping Small Gods. This is one story I wish I hadn’t read about in the introduction. But it was well-written and left some questions about the world the characters were living in.
"The Bumblety's Marble" by Cat Rambo
Cat Rambo is another author I’ve heard of, though I don’t think I’ve read her stories before. This story is apparently one of her Tabat stories. So this is an unknown world to me, but I found this story a good introduction to that world. I would be interested in reading more of the stories based in that world.
"Promises; A Tale of the City Imperishable" by Jay Lake
This is another story that is based on a fictional world by the author. “City Impenetrable” stories, this time. The city sounds very dark and dangerous, but also sorrowful for the way it’s become. Well, perhaps not the city itself, but the characters in this story. I have to say this was one of the most heart-breaking stories I’ve read, and one of the most morally ambiguous stories. It leaves on such a cliff-hanger, yet there is such strong resolve in the main character. I hope there are other stories written about this particular character, though other stories about “City Impenetrable” would strike my interest.
"Ghost Market" by Greg van Eekhout
This story was an okay story. I liked the ending, though another contemplative wistful ending.
"Sammarynda Deep" by Cat Sparks
This was a remarkable story. I liked the lesson and thoughts I had while reading it. It was well-crafted, too.
"Tearjerker" by Steve Berman
This is one of Steve Berman’s Fallen Area stories, according to the introduction. I can believe it. It’s post-apocalyptic, and finding your setting is a little hard. This was a good story, and it makes me wonder about the various addictions people have, and what they’re willing to go back to/to do, though they know it’s unhealthy for them and would destroy them in the end, most likely.
"The Title of this Story" by Stephanie Campisi
I don’t really know how to define this story or talk about it. I think it’s about language, and labeling and how people are insistent on doing so. Also, how naming is very important for most people. I’m not so sure I understand Regent’s profession that well – I am curious to know what would happen when he is successful.
"The One that Got Away" by Mark Teppo
Unicorn mention! A bit wistful, but an enjoyable read.
"Alex and the Toyceivers" by Paul Meloy
This story is apparently the “opening chapter in a novel which continues, pulls together and completes a cycle of stories which tell of the struggle between the Firmament Surgeons and the Autoscopes, warring supernatural beings who want to maintain and perfect Creation on the one hand and destroy it through entropy and despair on the other.” Right… For some reason reading this story, I was reminded of the Little Nemo comics. It seemed a somewhat ludicrous story, and poorly written, too. And toys are creepy, sometimes, if they’re attacking. :S
“Godivy” by Vylar Kaftan
Wow. What a story. I don’t know if I like it, but I definitely thought it was original. Mermaid strippers…
“Painting Haiti” by Michael Jasper
A rather powerful story with vivid scenes. Wasn’t one I really liked or one I really disliked.
“The Funeral, Ruined” by Ben Peek
Wow. This was a rather interesting story. I would like to recommend it to a professor mine who teaches AI and also an Introduction to Philosophy class, for the Mind and Machines unit. It may, however, be more of an opening question than showing one perspective/opinion of the question of mind. The city/town Issuer reminds of Neil Gaiman’s necropolis Litharge, where preparing a Death is a profession and the city’s only reason for existence. (I’m sure there are other such places in other fantasy stories/series.) But yes, I rather liked this story, and also Linette’s character. I wish I could have known more about her and how her beliefs came to be. However, that may be Ben Peek’s other story “The Souls of Dead Soldiers are for Blackbirds, Not Little Boys.”
“Down to the Silver Springs” by Kaaron Warren
Holy F. The introduction said this would be a maternal horror story, a marriage horror story and a paternal horror story. No kidding. I have to say I can’t truly empathize with the desire for that specific event that the characters have, but it’s scary to see the lengths they’d go for it.
“They Would Only be Roads” by Darin C. Bradley
I’m not so sure I completely understood how the charms worked in this story. Sometimes I feel I do, but it is fleeting. There are some interesting scenes, though.
“Taser” by Jenn Reese
Well, I’m a little afraid of dogs myself, so this story kind of scared me. But I do love the main protagonist.
“The Somnambulist” by David J. Schwartz
I can see why this story is a metaphor for certain kind of husband!! While it’s somewhat briefer than other stories, the strength of a character is really awe-inspiring and it’s neat how it turns around.
“The Age of Fish, Post-Flowers” by Anna Tambour
A somewhat confusing story for me, possibly because I was distracted with text messages while I read this story. It’s based in a world after some monsters have invaded the country/world, but it’s not about killing them but about human survival. It was a nice view of people’s quirks in surviving that time.
“The Last Escape” by Barth Anderson
Reading this, I was reminded of the movie “The Prestige” vaguely. It starts off pretty light-hearted, about a street magician who is an escape artist and his performances raise the stakes it time. Its dark tone, though, is definitely reminiscent of the movie.
“Palimpsest” by Catherynne M. Valente
Kind of like snippets of scenes in her skin-city interspersed with “our reality” scenes. I do like her imagery, and it seems like this won’t be a confusing a book as The Labyrinth. I loved Valente’s The Orphan’s Tales series.
I also finally checked this book out because I read a book by the editor Ekaterina Sedia and thought it was good, and decided her choice of authors/short stories shouldn't be that bad.
Overall, I am stuck between 3 and 4 stars. Some stories didn't really impress me or I didn't like them as much, while others did wow me.
In the introduction, Jess Nevins gives a quick background of urban fantasy, and books written in this "mode of storytelling" and a few words about each short story. It didn't really ruin the stories for me, but for some, I think not reading the introduction would have made things better and less foreshadowing for me. I can't tell now, if it was the author's own foreshadowing that led me to be right about the events, or that and Nevins' introduction.
"Andretto Walks the King's Way" by Forrest Aguirre
I haven't heard of this author beforehand. I rather liked this story, and thought it was a good introduction to an anthology about cities. It shows clearly and creatively how interwoven life is in a city, despite most people saying you don't know anybody and it's impersonal. That may be true, but it's also a place where strangers' lives can affect you very easily.
"The Tower of Morning's Bones" by Hal Duncan
This story reminded me of Valente's style in Yume No Hon: The Book of Dreams and The Labyrinth. It's very vivid in its imagery and fantastical settings and circumstances. Unfortunately, like with Yume No Hon: The Book of Dreams, it made me realize how deficient my knowledge is of world mythology. Parts of it made more sense to me than others, but I also liked how it tied together. It was an interesting writing technique not to use quotations, but dashes before each piece of dialogue. Perhaps it's also to indicate that they aren't speaking as how we amongst ourselves.
"Courting the Lady Scythe" by Richard Parks
Richard Parks is an author of two books on my Wish List -The Ogre's Wife – Fairy Tales for Grownups and Worshipping Small Gods. This is one story I wish I hadn’t read about in the introduction. But it was well-written and left some questions about the world the characters were living in.
"The Bumblety's Marble" by Cat Rambo
Cat Rambo is another author I’ve heard of, though I don’t think I’ve read her stories before. This story is apparently one of her Tabat stories. So this is an unknown world to me, but I found this story a good introduction to that world. I would be interested in reading more of the stories based in that world.
"Promises; A Tale of the City Imperishable" by Jay Lake
This is another story that is based on a fictional world by the author. “City Impenetrable” stories, this time. The city sounds very dark and dangerous, but also sorrowful for the way it’s become. Well, perhaps not the city itself, but the characters in this story. I have to say this was one of the most heart-breaking stories I’ve read, and one of the most morally ambiguous stories. It leaves on such a cliff-hanger, yet there is such strong resolve in the main character. I hope there are other stories written about this particular character, though other stories about “City Impenetrable” would strike my interest.
"Ghost Market" by Greg van Eekhout
This story was an okay story. I liked the ending, though another contemplative wistful ending.
"Sammarynda Deep" by Cat Sparks
This was a remarkable story. I liked the lesson and thoughts I had while reading it. It was well-crafted, too.
"Tearjerker" by Steve Berman
This is one of Steve Berman’s Fallen Area stories, according to the introduction. I can believe it. It’s post-apocalyptic, and finding your setting is a little hard. This was a good story, and it makes me wonder about the various addictions people have, and what they’re willing to go back to/to do, though they know it’s unhealthy for them and would destroy them in the end, most likely.
"The Title of this Story" by Stephanie Campisi
I don’t really know how to define this story or talk about it. I think it’s about language, and labeling and how people are insistent on doing so. Also, how naming is very important for most people. I’m not so sure I understand Regent’s profession that well – I am curious to know what would happen when he is successful.
"The One that Got Away" by Mark Teppo
Unicorn mention! A bit wistful, but an enjoyable read.
"Alex and the Toyceivers" by Paul Meloy
This story is apparently the “opening chapter in a novel which continues, pulls together and completes a cycle of stories which tell of the struggle between the Firmament Surgeons and the Autoscopes, warring supernatural beings who want to maintain and perfect Creation on the one hand and destroy it through entropy and despair on the other.” Right… For some reason reading this story, I was reminded of the Little Nemo comics. It seemed a somewhat ludicrous story, and poorly written, too. And toys are creepy, sometimes, if they’re attacking. :S
“Godivy” by Vylar Kaftan
Wow. What a story. I don’t know if I like it, but I definitely thought it was original. Mermaid strippers…
“Painting Haiti” by Michael Jasper
A rather powerful story with vivid scenes. Wasn’t one I really liked or one I really disliked.
“The Funeral, Ruined” by Ben Peek
Wow. This was a rather interesting story. I would like to recommend it to a professor mine who teaches AI and also an Introduction to Philosophy class, for the Mind and Machines unit. It may, however, be more of an opening question than showing one perspective/opinion of the question of mind. The city/town Issuer reminds of Neil Gaiman’s necropolis Litharge, where preparing a Death is a profession and the city’s only reason for existence. (I’m sure there are other such places in other fantasy stories/series.) But yes, I rather liked this story, and also Linette’s character. I wish I could have known more about her and how her beliefs came to be. However, that may be Ben Peek’s other story “The Souls of Dead Soldiers are for Blackbirds, Not Little Boys.”
“Down to the Silver Springs” by Kaaron Warren
Holy F. The introduction said this would be a maternal horror story, a marriage horror story and a paternal horror story. No kidding. I have to say I can’t truly empathize with the desire for that specific event that the characters have, but it’s scary to see the lengths they’d go for it.
“They Would Only be Roads” by Darin C. Bradley
I’m not so sure I completely understood how the charms worked in this story. Sometimes I feel I do, but it is fleeting. There are some interesting scenes, though.
“Taser” by Jenn Reese
Well, I’m a little afraid of dogs myself, so this story kind of scared me. But I do love the main protagonist.
“The Somnambulist” by David J. Schwartz
I can see why this story is a metaphor for certain kind of husband!! While it’s somewhat briefer than other stories, the strength of a character is really awe-inspiring and it’s neat how it turns around.
“The Age of Fish, Post-Flowers” by Anna Tambour
A somewhat confusing story for me, possibly because I was distracted with text messages while I read this story. It’s based in a world after some monsters have invaded the country/world, but it’s not about killing them but about human survival. It was a nice view of people’s quirks in surviving that time.
“The Last Escape” by Barth Anderson
Reading this, I was reminded of the movie “The Prestige” vaguely. It starts off pretty light-hearted, about a street magician who is an escape artist and his performances raise the stakes it time. Its dark tone, though, is definitely reminiscent of the movie.
“Palimpsest” by Catherynne M. Valente
Kind of like snippets of scenes in her skin-city interspersed with “our reality” scenes. I do like her imagery, and it seems like this won’t be a confusing a book as The Labyrinth. I loved Valente’s The Orphan’s Tales series.
November 28, 2017
I really liked this book is very pleasant and interesting, although in the development a little sad
April 15, 2015
I question how much of 'city' or 'urban' come into play with this. As is often the case, you get some works in these collections some are good, some bad, some simply resonate, and other's fall flat. So, as per the collection, it's gets a solid mediocrity at 3 stars.
Favorite story was "Ghost Market". Greg van Eekhout writes a very short, perfect, story - with an economy of words and expressions that emulate poetry in what he says.
The other's I thought were good and worthwhile were, "Sammarynda Deep" by Cat Sparks, which looking up I see has won a number of awards and I can see why, again, in this story the Author writes in a novel sized fantasy world into just a few pages.
The two of these I want novels on!
"Tearjerker" (Berman) and "The Age of Fish, Post-Flowers" (Tambour) where very good, but in their attempts at brevity and the creation of these whole worlds they get blurry, they lose their place, and the story elements become abstract.
"Courting the Lady Scythe" (Parks) was very good, well written, clear, but also completely obvious. By the third paragraph or so you know this story is only going to end one way.
Finally, "The Title of This Story", had me, it did, I was invested in the griminess of this city, in it's literate-ness, a story about stories, semi magical, and amazing. It ultimately doesn't go anywhere, however, it has almost no plot, no story. It's a nice city 'sketch' however, but poor story telling.
Honorable mentions in order of enjoyment are, "The Funeral, Ruined", "The Last Escape", "Painting Haiti", and "Godivy" just because the many moments of 'wtf... WTF... am I reading" make it memorable. Now I can't help but blush when see the copy machine....
Favorite story was "Ghost Market". Greg van Eekhout writes a very short, perfect, story - with an economy of words and expressions that emulate poetry in what he says.
The other's I thought were good and worthwhile were, "Sammarynda Deep" by Cat Sparks, which looking up I see has won a number of awards and I can see why, again, in this story the Author writes in a novel sized fantasy world into just a few pages.
The two of these I want novels on!
"Tearjerker" (Berman) and "The Age of Fish, Post-Flowers" (Tambour) where very good, but in their attempts at brevity and the creation of these whole worlds they get blurry, they lose their place, and the story elements become abstract.
"Courting the Lady Scythe" (Parks) was very good, well written, clear, but also completely obvious. By the third paragraph or so you know this story is only going to end one way.
Finally, "The Title of This Story", had me, it did, I was invested in the griminess of this city, in it's literate-ness, a story about stories, semi magical, and amazing. It ultimately doesn't go anywhere, however, it has almost no plot, no story. It's a nice city 'sketch' however, but poor story telling.
Honorable mentions in order of enjoyment are, "The Funeral, Ruined", "The Last Escape", "Painting Haiti", and "Godivy" just because the many moments of 'wtf... WTF... am I reading" make it memorable. Now I can't help but blush when see the copy machine....
December 11, 2008
Of twenty-one stories, I liked five:
Cat Rambo's "The Bumblety's Marble." Two youngsters retrace their steps to find a magic marble. I actually believed in the city, and the characters.
Jay Lake's "Promises; a Tale of the City Imperishable." A girl gives up her name, her infant, her breasts--all to become one of the city's protectors. But there is one more test before she becomes a Grey Lady, and it may be too much for her.
Greg van Eekhout's "Ghost Market." A man goes to buy the memories of a murdered boy. Short, but with a punch to it.
Darin C Bradley's "They Would Only Be Roads." One down on his luck cyber-mage begs the help of another. I liked the world construction: charms powered by email chain letters, rumors, yarn...
Anna Tambour's "The Age of Fish, Post-Flowers." A group of dysfunctional city-dwellers builds themselves into a team in order to survive in a closed-off city. Little food, no sun, and constant invasion by orms, which can eat through anything. Taut, believable.
Catherynne M Valente's piece was well written but too surreal for my tastes.
Two stories stood out as particularly unreadable: Hal Duncan's "The Tower of Morning's Bones" was a confused mess. No sentence connected to the next. Paul Meloy's "Alex and the Toyceivers" was astonishingly bad.
Cat Rambo's "The Bumblety's Marble." Two youngsters retrace their steps to find a magic marble. I actually believed in the city, and the characters.
Jay Lake's "Promises; a Tale of the City Imperishable." A girl gives up her name, her infant, her breasts--all to become one of the city's protectors. But there is one more test before she becomes a Grey Lady, and it may be too much for her.
Greg van Eekhout's "Ghost Market." A man goes to buy the memories of a murdered boy. Short, but with a punch to it.
Darin C Bradley's "They Would Only Be Roads." One down on his luck cyber-mage begs the help of another. I liked the world construction: charms powered by email chain letters, rumors, yarn...
Anna Tambour's "The Age of Fish, Post-Flowers." A group of dysfunctional city-dwellers builds themselves into a team in order to survive in a closed-off city. Little food, no sun, and constant invasion by orms, which can eat through anything. Taut, believable.
Catherynne M Valente's piece was well written but too surreal for my tastes.
Two stories stood out as particularly unreadable: Hal Duncan's "The Tower of Morning's Bones" was a confused mess. No sentence connected to the next. Paul Meloy's "Alex and the Toyceivers" was astonishingly bad.
September 8, 2008
As always with these short story collections, I'll simply write a few words to every story--as I get around to them...
AUGUST 13:
"Down to the Silver Spirits" by Kaaron Warren: An enjoyable read that reveals some rather nasty horrors from below the (unnamed) city of modern life. It strung a particular chord in me since my wife is pregnant these days. And this story is about, well, what people--both men & women--will do to get a child, if for some reason they cannot have children the "natural way." The ending has just the right dose of horrific, future implications for my taste!:-)
This story is about two-third into the book, but I am glad I picked that one for starters. I certainly look forward to the next, random story...
AUGUST 16 (corrected):
"Promises; A Tale of the City Imperishable" by Jay Lake: This is an oddball... To me, at least. In Jess Nevins' fine Foreword it is mentioned that Lake has written several stories set in this city, so perhaps it's because I lack important knowledge beforehand. But I must confess that I found it difficult to get into the tale, and when finally I was getting the hang on it--the story ended.
The story has a fine-tuned sense of atmosphere, if perhaps a little too depending on beforehand-knowledge, and the dark Sister Order that the tale uses as background was fascinating enough. The whole "what do you want to give up?" theme & bitterness blend was well done, with a spicy, sad tang in the climax.
AUGUST 17:
"Ghost Market" by Greg van Eekhout: A very short tale. Too short, in my opinion, to really unfold the theme and plot. I still found this whole "buying ghosts/souls on the black market" story charming, though.
AUGUST 21:
"Godivy" by Vylar Kaftan:" Nope. Doesn't work for me at all. Alive photocopy machines, reproduction and a bizarre "back to nature" moral of sorts... Doesn't work for me. Perhaps if it had been longer, but as it is it left me cold, on the reading level. But kudos to Kaftan's imagination!:-)
Between AUGUST 17 & 22:
"The Funeral, Ruined" by Ben Peek: A particularly depressive cityscape is the background of this dark tale where tattoos are quite special. I liked it.
AUGUST 24:
"Painting Haiti" by Michael Jasper: A truly fascinating story about a young woman who has a very special gift when it comes to painting. Reality is certainly not bended in the normal way of things. This is a clever story with a clever twist on something being magical. I highly recommend it.
AUGUST 25:
"Taser" by Jenn Reese: A human gang that somehow is under the command of hellhounds, and what happens when one of the humans (up till then being one of the ardest followers of the hellhounds) suddenly reacts against the wish of the hellhound pack leader, Taser.
A different story than what I am used to, and one with a lot of potential beyond the natural limitations of a short story--but it worked within the confinements of such a tale. Kudos to the author:-)
AUGUST 29:
"The One That Got Away" by Mark Teppo: So far definitely one of the best stories in the anthology. And it's truly good I hasten to say to anyone still having doubt about the contents of this book.
Switches between two very different scenes, one in a night club of sorts; the other with the same people, chasing--a unicorn! Splendidly woven by Teppo, and meeting in a climax of rare, raw power. Fine character descriptions, emotional vibrancy (with existentiality hanging on the edge of the pages), and thoughtful considerations to the meaning of the unicorn. Raised the hairs on my arms, I tell you.
It's hard to find a better way to recommend a story:-)
SEPTEMBER 5:
"The Title of This Story" by Stephanie Campisi: I like the idea as well as the quirky characters in this story. But the general execution I find a little more so-and-so. Not among the best in this collection.
More to come...
AUGUST 13:
"Down to the Silver Spirits" by Kaaron Warren: An enjoyable read that reveals some rather nasty horrors from below the (unnamed) city of modern life. It strung a particular chord in me since my wife is pregnant these days. And this story is about, well, what people--both men & women--will do to get a child, if for some reason they cannot have children the "natural way." The ending has just the right dose of horrific, future implications for my taste!:-)
This story is about two-third into the book, but I am glad I picked that one for starters. I certainly look forward to the next, random story...
AUGUST 16 (corrected):
"Promises; A Tale of the City Imperishable" by Jay Lake: This is an oddball... To me, at least. In Jess Nevins' fine Foreword it is mentioned that Lake has written several stories set in this city, so perhaps it's because I lack important knowledge beforehand. But I must confess that I found it difficult to get into the tale, and when finally I was getting the hang on it--the story ended.
The story has a fine-tuned sense of atmosphere, if perhaps a little too depending on beforehand-knowledge, and the dark Sister Order that the tale uses as background was fascinating enough. The whole "what do you want to give up?" theme & bitterness blend was well done, with a spicy, sad tang in the climax.
AUGUST 17:
"Ghost Market" by Greg van Eekhout: A very short tale. Too short, in my opinion, to really unfold the theme and plot. I still found this whole "buying ghosts/souls on the black market" story charming, though.
AUGUST 21:
"Godivy" by Vylar Kaftan:" Nope. Doesn't work for me at all. Alive photocopy machines, reproduction and a bizarre "back to nature" moral of sorts... Doesn't work for me. Perhaps if it had been longer, but as it is it left me cold, on the reading level. But kudos to Kaftan's imagination!:-)
Between AUGUST 17 & 22:
"The Funeral, Ruined" by Ben Peek: A particularly depressive cityscape is the background of this dark tale where tattoos are quite special. I liked it.
AUGUST 24:
"Painting Haiti" by Michael Jasper: A truly fascinating story about a young woman who has a very special gift when it comes to painting. Reality is certainly not bended in the normal way of things. This is a clever story with a clever twist on something being magical. I highly recommend it.
AUGUST 25:
"Taser" by Jenn Reese: A human gang that somehow is under the command of hellhounds, and what happens when one of the humans (up till then being one of the ardest followers of the hellhounds) suddenly reacts against the wish of the hellhound pack leader, Taser.
A different story than what I am used to, and one with a lot of potential beyond the natural limitations of a short story--but it worked within the confinements of such a tale. Kudos to the author:-)
AUGUST 29:
"The One That Got Away" by Mark Teppo: So far definitely one of the best stories in the anthology. And it's truly good I hasten to say to anyone still having doubt about the contents of this book.
Switches between two very different scenes, one in a night club of sorts; the other with the same people, chasing--a unicorn! Splendidly woven by Teppo, and meeting in a climax of rare, raw power. Fine character descriptions, emotional vibrancy (with existentiality hanging on the edge of the pages), and thoughtful considerations to the meaning of the unicorn. Raised the hairs on my arms, I tell you.
It's hard to find a better way to recommend a story:-)
SEPTEMBER 5:
"The Title of This Story" by Stephanie Campisi: I like the idea as well as the quirky characters in this story. But the general execution I find a little more so-and-so. Not among the best in this collection.
More to come...
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 21, 2008
Paper Cities is an anthology of urban fantasy short stories. When I hear "urban fantasy" I tend to think of novels by Jim Butcher or Charles de Lint, who write about present day cities where fantastical happenings take place. The editor of this anthology, Ekaterina Sedia, has a broader view of the sub-genre - fantasy stories that take place in a city, regardless of the time period. From the collection's first story, it becomes clear what the problem with this loose description is - any medieval fantasy story that takes place in a large castle town now qualifies.
The genre's definition is a minor thing when compared with the quality of the stories - I just didn't enjoy many of them. Some are well written but simply uncaptivating, others are just bad ("Down to the Silver Spirits"). Out of the 21 authors, none who I was familiar with prior to this book, I only found about 4 or 5 who I was interested in following up with (and one of them doesn't even have a novel out yet!).
Can't say I recommend this one, although I started out feeling optimistic about it. The second half of the book was the weakest and I ended up skimming many stories after the first two pages didn't hook me in.
The genre's definition is a minor thing when compared with the quality of the stories - I just didn't enjoy many of them. Some are well written but simply uncaptivating, others are just bad ("Down to the Silver Spirits"). Out of the 21 authors, none who I was familiar with prior to this book, I only found about 4 or 5 who I was interested in following up with (and one of them doesn't even have a novel out yet!).
Can't say I recommend this one, although I started out feeling optimistic about it. The second half of the book was the weakest and I ended up skimming many stories after the first two pages didn't hook me in.
October 31, 2009
Like most anthologies, some good, some bad.
Highlights:
"Promises; A Tale of the City Imperishable" by Jay Lake: The dark sister order sound interesting, and this tale makes me want to read more.
"The One That Got Away" by Mark Teppo: An interesting Unicorn hunt story. I enjoyed this one alot.
"Tearjerker" by Steve Berman: An interesting little world with strange addictions.
Lowlight:
"The Tower of Morning's Bones" by Hal Duncan: Literary pretension at it's worst.
Highlights:
"Promises; A Tale of the City Imperishable" by Jay Lake: The dark sister order sound interesting, and this tale makes me want to read more.
"The One That Got Away" by Mark Teppo: An interesting Unicorn hunt story. I enjoyed this one alot.
"Tearjerker" by Steve Berman: An interesting little world with strange addictions.
Lowlight:
"The Tower of Morning's Bones" by Hal Duncan: Literary pretension at it's worst.
Read
April 29, 2009Contains my story "Taser."
January 21, 2013
I may come back to this one at a later time. I stopped reading it after finishing the first three stories as I had little interest in it.
I am a fan of Ekaterina Sedia and Hal Clement.
I am a fan of Ekaterina Sedia and Hal Clement.
February 11, 2016
While I was reading this I thought maybe the reason there seem to be less anthologies now with lesser know authors is because editors don't want to wade through a lot of submissions to find good stories, so they just go with tried and true authors. They know that Ken Liu, Seanan McGuire, et al. will come though for them, easy peasy. I thought that because if this is what Sedia ended up with, I hate to think of how many she went though to get them. Because this wasn't a good book, it was a tremendous slog to get through it and I still wasn't able to read a number of the stories. But then I started The Apex Book of World SF 2 and every story was good and most of them were great, the book just flew by. The stories in both books were written at around the same time, so the authors were contemporaries. Sure, the editor, Lavie Tidhar, had the luxury of searching out the very best stories from countries all around the world, he didn't have to stick to a theme. But regardless of why, his book is excellent and this one wasn't, it just wasn't at all. It shouldn't feel like an unpleasant labor to force myself to try to complete a book. None of the stories were great, most weren't even good. It's probably the worst anthology I can remember reading. I'm sorry to say it because I'm a fan of Sedia's and I wanted so much to find new authors to follow. I originally only intended to read Cat Rambo's Tabat story but I thought the urban fantasy theme would be right up my alley. Few of the stories were anything like what I thought urban fantasy would be, they weren't set in modern cities. I get that the authors were interpreting the theme as they wished. I'm not really into second world fantasies or historical fantasy, but it would have been fine if the stories were great. But they weren't. I wish I hadn't wasted my time and just stuck to Rambo's story and Valente's.
—- Holy moly, I put this review aside for a few days to do other things and in the meantime came across a reference to Sedia's work and saw that this book won the World Fantasy Award for best anthology! I have no idea how that is possible. All of the stories were mediocre at best, I just do not get that at all. Other than wanting to commend the well-rounded line-up of authors, as usual I don't understand the people who judge short stories at all. And the story by Cat Sparks won an Aurealis Award too. They usually have good taste. I liked the story actually, it just had a bad ending, but tons of short stories do, even in great books. You'll see my comments below about skipping stories and having to plow through the book. It was a tough one to get through. I'm stumped about this award thing. Maybe some of the stories I skipped were fantastic, but I doubt it.
Jess Nevins - Urban Fantasy - The most dull Forward ever. It could have been interesting, but it was really a chance for the author to write about the history of urban fantasy, his field of research, and then he said that none of what he'd written for pages actually applied to the book, only the last page or so actually was applicable. It was boring and way too intellectual with very little of value to this book. None of his Forward mattered because what was relevant to this book and what we think of as urban fantasy actually started in 1980 anyway. Only the short section at the end where he commented on the stories in the book was helpful or interesting.
Forrest Aguirre - Andretto Walks the King's Way - I wasn't impressed by this story about a medieval plague. It was not a fun opener for the book, a very bad choice. A really unpleasant story in pretty much every way. Maybe if it had been in the middle of the book it would have seems kind of ironic though. Ha, ha, plague kills lots of people, but one guy recovers! And it's just the beginning, ain't city life great?
Hal Duncan - The Tower of Morning's Bones - This story was one of the reasons I wanted to continue reading the book after I read Rambo's story, I've had ebooks of Vellum and Ink to read for many years. But boy was this over-written and hard to plow through. It was confusing and hard to figure out what the heck was going on because there were so many words describing every tiny thing but meaning very little. It should have been cool, it had a lot of mythological elements and characters focused through the lens of the underworld, and I love mythology. But I kept having to read paragraphs over and over again to try to figure out what the heck was going on, and that wasn't fun. He just made it too complicated in trying to give it a rich and ornate style. It needed to be scaled back two notches. But I give it points for ambition and scope. And if did have a lot of cool elements.
Richard Parks - Courting the Lady Scythe - I skipped it twice, when it didn't appear to be to my taste my first time through the book and later because when a review of his books didn't lead me to believe I wanted to try any of them because they also weren't to my taste. If they'd looked good I'd have tried the story to check out his style.
Cat Rambo - The Bumbelty's Marble - This story is part of Rambo's Tabat series of short stories and novels. You can see the chronology and find links to many of the short stories on her website. It was OK. I enjoyed the round robin feeling, a bit like Joe Abercrombie's great story, Tough Times All Over, in Rogues. Not that it was quite as good as Abercrombie's, but it felt similar. For some reason Rambo's Tabat stories never seem to pack a punch, it isn't what I'm used to from her. I've read a lot of her short stories and they're usually fascinating or emotionally charged or pensive or daring, something memorable and creative. Her Tabat stories tend to fall kind of flat. I mostly enjoyed the tiny bit of the city of Tabat that got filled in, a glimpse of the market, the parks, the sewers, and more Beasts.
Jay Lake - Promises; A Tale of the City Imperishable - I almost liked it. I was intrigued by the city because I read in the Forward that this was part of series of stories that Lake had written. I see now that he wrote two novels about the City as well. And the story was engaging, in a dark and grimy kind of way. And orphan Girl starts off with a group of women, Nurses, who make Oliver's Fagin seem kind. But she rises through the ranks in the organization through a series of brutal loyalty and skills tests. It was compelling. But then I didn't get the point of the end at all. Other than she turned into what she hated. It was too ambiguous. It sort of showed why, but then it didn't, so it left her seeming weak. Why do short stories always have such crappy endings?
Greg van Eekhout - Ghost Market - (If this isn't good then I quit, this book is too hard to get through.) - Yay, finally a good one! A very short story, three and three-quarters pages, with high impact about a hidden corner of a flea market where the items up for sale are the ghosts, or maybe the memory's of ghosts, of people's lives. I wonder why I haven't seen more of his stories in anthologies and magazines? It says in the back that he wrote a lot. Maybe he got busy writing the novels and I missed them because I found him after he stopped writing short stories. Oh well. FYI, I only liked his first book, Norse Code, but I really like his new series, the Daniel Blackland series, you should check it out.
Cat Sparks - Sammarynda Deep - This is the one that won the Aurealis Award. I kept trying at first to figure out where and when they were on Earth. I thought Sammarynda could be Samarinda and Makesa could be Makassar, but those are in Indonesia and that didn't make sense with the Bedouin trader. Then I saw that the world had two moons, so I realized this was probably actually science fiction/fantasy and not historical fantasy. I found those aspects of these story intriguing, I liked that the people had a culture other than Caucasian American or European. I get so tired of the white-washing of the future I see the vast majority of the time, it's one of my big pet peeves. It's patently false and incredibly boring. So, hmm, I mostly liked the story. It was going great, but again it had a weak ending. It didn't show why Jahira knew that what came up from the water was a fusion of the two when it was just a female, why did she think it was any part of Orias? I'd have been standing there waiting for him to follow the girl up. Or how the heck she was going to protect her on a small island of people who would want to kill her. And if the people were so suspicions and superstitious then why was Jahira the only one looking out for a survivor? Endings of short stories suck 95% of the time but I don't have to like it. But I guess the story did get me more interested in Sparks, who I've heard good things about.
Steve Berman - Tearjerker - This was one of his Fallen Area stories, which is absolutely my modern UF genre. An area in Philly has gone terribly wrong, apparently extra-dimensional. People are either normal, have weird powers or are mutated. The area is walled off and quarantined by the U.S. government. I'd like to read more of these stories but I could only find one from 2001 online. I'm not a big fan of collections so it's unlikely I'll get one of his just to check these out, but I might if I really like that story too. LGBT stories (his specialty) aren't a particular draw for me, but a good story is a good story. This particular story was pretty good, with the usual sort of crappy ending. The setting and situation he created with the Fallen Area was great, I'd love to read a novel about it. Maybe it's too big for short stories. Or maybe most people are just crappy short story writers. It's harder than writing a book. As evidenced by this anthology. But I'm happy to have read this one, it was definitely worth my time to "meet" him.
Stephanie Campisi - The Title of this Story - I couldn't concentrate on it, I tried a couple of times, but even though it seemed to have some interesting ideas, it just didn't grab me. I never finished it.
Mark Teppo - The One That Got Away - Not fun, a story about four guys who went to a bar every week to boast about their lives and blow off steam and who decided to hunt a unicorn months after magical animals begin returning to a park in their city, just because they could. Because when you see something magical and amazing the natural reaction some men would have is to kill it, just for the triumph of it, unfortunately. I certainly sympathized with the protagonist It still wasn't a fun story.
I give up, I can't force myself to read these stories anymore, skipping a few to…
Vylar Kaftan - Godivy - I did not know she was a woman, or I forgot. She's had some very good stories in the last few years, I was interested to see this story from almost a decade ago. It was very short, only three pages long. It was totally weird and different and creative. I don't know if I exactly liked it, but I liked having it in the book. It gives it balance and humor and oddness and a huge dash of creativity. It was a good editing choice.
Skipped an author again to…
Ben Peek - The Funeral, Ruined - Another story about a soldier who was against people becoming AI after death and her lover who disagreed. Lots of angst, not much city. It was fine. The dreaded fine.
Kaaron Warren - Down to the Silver Spirits - I'm a fan of this Australian author, whose work I can't find enough of up here in the U.S. It was pretty good, kind of typical of what I know of her work, being kind of creepy and also based on understandable human experiences and emotions. It was the story in the book that was easiest to relate to, Warren wasn't trying so damn hard, she scaled it back and wrote a skilled short story. The story was definitely one of the most memorable in the book, if not the most memorable. It was sad how far these people would go to become parents, but it was also pretty believable. That's always the trick in horror or UF in the modern world, anchor it in something that makes total sense, that feels really real, so then the fantastic part has a foundation that keeps it from seeming too wild and crazy. A leads to B to C.
Skipped a few to…
Anna Tambour - Age of Fish, Post-flowers - A weird and kind of hard to follow, but kind of interesting, post-apocalyptic story set in New York City. Her ideas about how apartment dwellers might survive using window boxes among other things were good. It was confusing though.
Skipped one…
Catherynne M. Valente - Palimpsest - One of her more straightforward stories in a weird way. Compared to many of the stories in the book as well, it was easier to figure out what was going on with the surreal points of view switching between the "real" world and the "dream" world. (How do we know what's real?) It was weird and charming in that Valente way, though it didn't have a punch at the end like some of her stories do, or if it did then I didn't get it, that's certainly possible.
—- Holy moly, I put this review aside for a few days to do other things and in the meantime came across a reference to Sedia's work and saw that this book won the World Fantasy Award for best anthology! I have no idea how that is possible. All of the stories were mediocre at best, I just do not get that at all. Other than wanting to commend the well-rounded line-up of authors, as usual I don't understand the people who judge short stories at all. And the story by Cat Sparks won an Aurealis Award too. They usually have good taste. I liked the story actually, it just had a bad ending, but tons of short stories do, even in great books. You'll see my comments below about skipping stories and having to plow through the book. It was a tough one to get through. I'm stumped about this award thing. Maybe some of the stories I skipped were fantastic, but I doubt it.
Jess Nevins - Urban Fantasy - The most dull Forward ever. It could have been interesting, but it was really a chance for the author to write about the history of urban fantasy, his field of research, and then he said that none of what he'd written for pages actually applied to the book, only the last page or so actually was applicable. It was boring and way too intellectual with very little of value to this book. None of his Forward mattered because what was relevant to this book and what we think of as urban fantasy actually started in 1980 anyway. Only the short section at the end where he commented on the stories in the book was helpful or interesting.
Forrest Aguirre - Andretto Walks the King's Way - I wasn't impressed by this story about a medieval plague. It was not a fun opener for the book, a very bad choice. A really unpleasant story in pretty much every way. Maybe if it had been in the middle of the book it would have seems kind of ironic though. Ha, ha, plague kills lots of people, but one guy recovers! And it's just the beginning, ain't city life great?
Hal Duncan - The Tower of Morning's Bones - This story was one of the reasons I wanted to continue reading the book after I read Rambo's story, I've had ebooks of Vellum and Ink to read for many years. But boy was this over-written and hard to plow through. It was confusing and hard to figure out what the heck was going on because there were so many words describing every tiny thing but meaning very little. It should have been cool, it had a lot of mythological elements and characters focused through the lens of the underworld, and I love mythology. But I kept having to read paragraphs over and over again to try to figure out what the heck was going on, and that wasn't fun. He just made it too complicated in trying to give it a rich and ornate style. It needed to be scaled back two notches. But I give it points for ambition and scope. And if did have a lot of cool elements.
Richard Parks - Courting the Lady Scythe - I skipped it twice, when it didn't appear to be to my taste my first time through the book and later because when a review of his books didn't lead me to believe I wanted to try any of them because they also weren't to my taste. If they'd looked good I'd have tried the story to check out his style.
Cat Rambo - The Bumbelty's Marble - This story is part of Rambo's Tabat series of short stories and novels. You can see the chronology and find links to many of the short stories on her website. It was OK. I enjoyed the round robin feeling, a bit like Joe Abercrombie's great story, Tough Times All Over, in Rogues. Not that it was quite as good as Abercrombie's, but it felt similar. For some reason Rambo's Tabat stories never seem to pack a punch, it isn't what I'm used to from her. I've read a lot of her short stories and they're usually fascinating or emotionally charged or pensive or daring, something memorable and creative. Her Tabat stories tend to fall kind of flat. I mostly enjoyed the tiny bit of the city of Tabat that got filled in, a glimpse of the market, the parks, the sewers, and more Beasts.
Jay Lake - Promises; A Tale of the City Imperishable - I almost liked it. I was intrigued by the city because I read in the Forward that this was part of series of stories that Lake had written. I see now that he wrote two novels about the City as well. And the story was engaging, in a dark and grimy kind of way. And orphan Girl starts off with a group of women, Nurses, who make Oliver's Fagin seem kind. But she rises through the ranks in the organization through a series of brutal loyalty and skills tests. It was compelling. But then I didn't get the point of the end at all. Other than she turned into what she hated. It was too ambiguous. It sort of showed why, but then it didn't, so it left her seeming weak. Why do short stories always have such crappy endings?
Greg van Eekhout - Ghost Market - (If this isn't good then I quit, this book is too hard to get through.) - Yay, finally a good one! A very short story, three and three-quarters pages, with high impact about a hidden corner of a flea market where the items up for sale are the ghosts, or maybe the memory's of ghosts, of people's lives. I wonder why I haven't seen more of his stories in anthologies and magazines? It says in the back that he wrote a lot. Maybe he got busy writing the novels and I missed them because I found him after he stopped writing short stories. Oh well. FYI, I only liked his first book, Norse Code, but I really like his new series, the Daniel Blackland series, you should check it out.
Cat Sparks - Sammarynda Deep - This is the one that won the Aurealis Award. I kept trying at first to figure out where and when they were on Earth. I thought Sammarynda could be Samarinda and Makesa could be Makassar, but those are in Indonesia and that didn't make sense with the Bedouin trader. Then I saw that the world had two moons, so I realized this was probably actually science fiction/fantasy and not historical fantasy. I found those aspects of these story intriguing, I liked that the people had a culture other than Caucasian American or European. I get so tired of the white-washing of the future I see the vast majority of the time, it's one of my big pet peeves. It's patently false and incredibly boring. So, hmm, I mostly liked the story. It was going great, but again it had a weak ending. It didn't show why Jahira knew that what came up from the water was a fusion of the two when it was just a female, why did she think it was any part of Orias? I'd have been standing there waiting for him to follow the girl up. Or how the heck she was going to protect her on a small island of people who would want to kill her. And if the people were so suspicions and superstitious then why was Jahira the only one looking out for a survivor? Endings of short stories suck 95% of the time but I don't have to like it. But I guess the story did get me more interested in Sparks, who I've heard good things about.
Steve Berman - Tearjerker - This was one of his Fallen Area stories, which is absolutely my modern UF genre. An area in Philly has gone terribly wrong, apparently extra-dimensional. People are either normal, have weird powers or are mutated. The area is walled off and quarantined by the U.S. government. I'd like to read more of these stories but I could only find one from 2001 online. I'm not a big fan of collections so it's unlikely I'll get one of his just to check these out, but I might if I really like that story too. LGBT stories (his specialty) aren't a particular draw for me, but a good story is a good story. This particular story was pretty good, with the usual sort of crappy ending. The setting and situation he created with the Fallen Area was great, I'd love to read a novel about it. Maybe it's too big for short stories. Or maybe most people are just crappy short story writers. It's harder than writing a book. As evidenced by this anthology. But I'm happy to have read this one, it was definitely worth my time to "meet" him.
Stephanie Campisi - The Title of this Story - I couldn't concentrate on it, I tried a couple of times, but even though it seemed to have some interesting ideas, it just didn't grab me. I never finished it.
Mark Teppo - The One That Got Away - Not fun, a story about four guys who went to a bar every week to boast about their lives and blow off steam and who decided to hunt a unicorn months after magical animals begin returning to a park in their city, just because they could. Because when you see something magical and amazing the natural reaction some men would have is to kill it, just for the triumph of it, unfortunately. I certainly sympathized with the protagonist It still wasn't a fun story.
I give up, I can't force myself to read these stories anymore, skipping a few to…
Vylar Kaftan - Godivy - I did not know she was a woman, or I forgot. She's had some very good stories in the last few years, I was interested to see this story from almost a decade ago. It was very short, only three pages long. It was totally weird and different and creative. I don't know if I exactly liked it, but I liked having it in the book. It gives it balance and humor and oddness and a huge dash of creativity. It was a good editing choice.
Skipped an author again to…
Ben Peek - The Funeral, Ruined - Another story about a soldier who was against people becoming AI after death and her lover who disagreed. Lots of angst, not much city. It was fine. The dreaded fine.
Kaaron Warren - Down to the Silver Spirits - I'm a fan of this Australian author, whose work I can't find enough of up here in the U.S. It was pretty good, kind of typical of what I know of her work, being kind of creepy and also based on understandable human experiences and emotions. It was the story in the book that was easiest to relate to, Warren wasn't trying so damn hard, she scaled it back and wrote a skilled short story. The story was definitely one of the most memorable in the book, if not the most memorable. It was sad how far these people would go to become parents, but it was also pretty believable. That's always the trick in horror or UF in the modern world, anchor it in something that makes total sense, that feels really real, so then the fantastic part has a foundation that keeps it from seeming too wild and crazy. A leads to B to C.
Skipped a few to…
Anna Tambour - Age of Fish, Post-flowers - A weird and kind of hard to follow, but kind of interesting, post-apocalyptic story set in New York City. Her ideas about how apartment dwellers might survive using window boxes among other things were good. It was confusing though.
Skipped one…
Catherynne M. Valente - Palimpsest - One of her more straightforward stories in a weird way. Compared to many of the stories in the book as well, it was easier to figure out what was going on with the surreal points of view switching between the "real" world and the "dream" world. (How do we know what's real?) It was weird and charming in that Valente way, though it didn't have a punch at the end like some of her stories do, or if it did then I didn't get it, that's certainly possible.
October 2, 2017
More accurately, I liked things about it. I think many of the stories are beautifully written, but I also think they are written in a style that was quite popular for a few years but seems to have fallen from favor: lots of imagery, focus on the dark and dire, no clearcut plots or character development. I don't know how well this style of fantastical story telling holds up over time; certainly, there were points where I didn't think I was going to finish the book. So mixed feels on the end product, many pretty words, authors who are good with pretty words, kinda wanted something else? I think if you like Valente's "Palimpsest," this anthology would be something you would probably enjoy.
April 28, 2022
An interesting enough collection of short stories. Some better than others, some lean heavily into abstraction- which is fine, just not necessarily my speed.
April 22, 2009
I had read the back cover, so I knew not to expect "urban fantasy" in any of its older, more genre-specific senses; Sedia simply looked at "urban" settings for a range of traditional to futuristic fantasy. Unfortunatly, as with many (particularly modern) short story collections, I found this a very mixed bag. There was one that was absolutely unreadable (and I can read nearly anything, and for the length of a short story usually will) and another that I skimmed most of, having discovered that we seemed to have the middle chapter of rather bad novel: a number that were tolerable at short-story length but neither interesting nor enjoyable, and a handful that I acutally liked, and kept me reading 'til the end. It was really the more genre-traditional ones that I liked; a handful of more traditional fantasies (The Title of This Story, Courting the Lady Scythe, The Bumplety's Marble), a couple of more classic urban fantasies (Ghost Market, The Somnambulist), and a rather odd cyber-fantasy of sorts, They Would Only Be Roads.
Read
August 12, 2010GOT THIS OUT OF THE LIBRARY. LOOKS WONDERFULfff.
1st Story is very good. 2nd story has some astonishing language in it, but I may have to re-read it to appreciated what I just read. Excellent Anthology. I don't have the book with me for a story-to-story rating. but some of them were excellent. I remember likeing the Jay Lake one enought that it inspires me to read Madness of Flowers. (already read the 1st novel inthe series)
1st Story is very good. 2nd story has some astonishing language in it, but I may have to re-read it to appreciated what I just read. Excellent Anthology. I don't have the book with me for a story-to-story rating. but some of them were excellent. I remember likeing the Jay Lake one enought that it inspires me to read Madness of Flowers. (already read the 1st novel inthe series)
November 24, 2008
So, so beautiful. This is a collection of short stories based on the theme of Urban Fantasy. The stories are alternately rich, intoxicating, funny, and dark. If you like de Lint's or Gaiman's work, you will probably like this book very much.
April 12, 2009
a very interesting collection of relatively current urban fantasy. a pretty broad sample of styles and subject matter. issues i may have with specific stories contained here are balanced by other stories in the volume. some good territory to explore.
might-read
August 23, 2015I remember disliking many of the stories. If I reread this, I'll read only stories from authors I like.
September 24, 2016
These stories were just too depressing for me. I don't usually like short stories, but I do like bizarre fiction, so I thought I'd give it a try. I gave up after reading a few of them.
December 11, 2017
Muito legal descobrir, com essa coletânea, que a fantasia urbana vai muito além do que as obras com atmosfera mais "clássica" que conhecemos. Algumas histórias eu sequer classificaria como urbana antes de ler o prefácio e ler os contos selecionados. Como em toda antologia (ainda mais com uma grande quantidade de textos, como é o caso), minha avaliação dos contos oscilou consideravelmente. Há contos que eu achei bem fraquinhos, outros que eu não consegui entender (mas a culpa deve ser minha hahaha) e, por outro lado, há alguns contos MUITO bons. Os meus destaques foram o "Ghost market" do Greg van Eekhout, "Promises; a tale of the city imperishable" do Jay Lake e "Sammarynda deep", da Cat Sparks. Não curti muito a ordem dos contos: achei os primeiros os mais esquisitos e até ininteligíveis pra mim, e os três melhores contos na minha opinião estão em sequência. Acho que vale a leitura pra entender que a fantasia urbana tem muitas nuances.
May 31, 2025
A good read, but an odd collection. Sedia's Editor's Note says that the stories were selected "because they share the insight into the cities as living entities", and Jess Nevins' introduction speaks of the cities as "supporting characters" - but I only got that feeling from the final story in the collection, "Palimpsest" by Catherynne M. Valente. Some of the stories don't even have a setting I recognise as urban, including some of the best ones, like "Sammarynda Deep" (Cat Sparks). What a lot of them do have is a sort of haunting quality, among them "The Tower of Morning's Bones" (Hal Duncan), "Ghost Market" (Greg van Eekhout), "Painting Haiti" (Michael Jasper) and "Down to the Silver Spirits" (Kaaron Warren). Sometimes the landscape contributes to that eeriness, but it's as often a rural landscape or a seascape as an urban one. I don't know which came first, the title or the collection; both strike me as worthwhile, but I find myself mystified by the conjunction.
September 16, 2019
My feelings after finishing the stories in this collection are mostly confusion and dissatisfaction. Most of the stories ended but didn't come to a conclusion. I was left wondering, "Okay but, what happened then?" Others were written in esoteric, 'meaningful' language that made it even harder to figure out what was going on.
May 12, 2025
The anthology features a diverse array of authors, including Cat Sparks, Jay Lake, and Catherynne M. Valente, each contributing unique narratives that explore the concept of cities as living, breathing entities.
November 18, 2021
Une brilliant star for the Somnanbulist, one dreamy star for Palimpseste. The rest was a terrible pain to read, ranging from plain boring to very baldy written.
March 8, 2023
This collection of urban fantasy stories was a bit hit and miss for me. I only really liked a couple of them.
March 10, 2017
Is it terrible to say that I found the Foreword the most interesting piece in this book? I like that it set out the history of urban fantasy especially ones with a 'city' as central to the works. I actually added about 7 books onto my tbr from the foreword (mostly classics!). I found, however, that I only liked about 1/3 of the stories in this anthology. The rest I found to be either confusing or just plain dislike. Then again, it usually takes me a bit of time to get used to an author's voice/pacing and I find short-stories rather tough to chew. Therefore, when I just got used to or starting liking the story, it's over :(
I found the idea of this anthology fascinating which is why I picked it up but I didn't find the stories that captivating.
I found the idea of this anthology fascinating which is why I picked it up but I didn't find the stories that captivating.
January 9, 2012
I find that I really love Urban Fantasy, I love walking through weird cities in my mind. There are some truly awesome stories in this collection, where an amazingly deep and lively world is created in just a handful of pages. I hope some of the authors decide to write novels set in their cities.
Some notable highlights from the collection:
Hal Duncan's The Tower of Morning's Bones. In true Hal Duncan fashion, it's rather hard to say what the hell it is about..it seems to be about a singer who sings a world into being every morning. In any case, it evokes a lot of images and feelings.
Richard Parks' Courting the Lady Scythe. This is probably my favourite story in the collection. It is about a young man who falls in love with the executioneress of his city. A complex mythology is hinted at and partly explored in the course of the story, and I'd really love to know more about this world.
The same goes for Cat Rambo's The Bumblety's Marble, which has pixies and undead running about. Apparently she was writing a novel set in the same world at the time the collection was edited. I'll have to find out if it's available.
Promises by Jay Lake is set in his City Imperishable, just like the Flowers books, which I really loved. In this story, we follow a member of a sisterhood through the different tests to be passed in order to rise through the hierarchy. A really intense and emotional story. Sacrifices would have been another fitting title.
Greg van Eekhout's Ghost Market is set in our world, although you can buy ghosts on the black market. I'd like to read more about this setting too.
Tearjerker by Steve Berman reminded me a bit of the Wildcards setting. Something has happened that makes people change in strange ways. A little girl weeps drugs, a man communicates through producing writing on his skin. And then there is a mysterious sisterhood.
Godivy by Vylar Kaftan is a Kafkaesque nightmare where humans mate with photocopiers and office plants. Very strange, but interesting.
Down to the Silver Spirits by Kaaron Warren is one of the creepiest things I've read lately. A group of women go to desperate lengths to conceive children, and the result is not quite what they were hoping for...
Palimpsest by Catherynne Valente is obviously set in the same world as her novel of the same title, and some of the text overlaps, although in general the story and the novel follow different people through the city of Palimpsest, which you can only access by having sex with someone who has been there once.
Some notable highlights from the collection:
Hal Duncan's The Tower of Morning's Bones. In true Hal Duncan fashion, it's rather hard to say what the hell it is about..it seems to be about a singer who sings a world into being every morning. In any case, it evokes a lot of images and feelings.
Richard Parks' Courting the Lady Scythe. This is probably my favourite story in the collection. It is about a young man who falls in love with the executioneress of his city. A complex mythology is hinted at and partly explored in the course of the story, and I'd really love to know more about this world.
The same goes for Cat Rambo's The Bumblety's Marble, which has pixies and undead running about. Apparently she was writing a novel set in the same world at the time the collection was edited. I'll have to find out if it's available.
Promises by Jay Lake is set in his City Imperishable, just like the Flowers books, which I really loved. In this story, we follow a member of a sisterhood through the different tests to be passed in order to rise through the hierarchy. A really intense and emotional story. Sacrifices would have been another fitting title.
Greg van Eekhout's Ghost Market is set in our world, although you can buy ghosts on the black market. I'd like to read more about this setting too.
Tearjerker by Steve Berman reminded me a bit of the Wildcards setting. Something has happened that makes people change in strange ways. A little girl weeps drugs, a man communicates through producing writing on his skin. And then there is a mysterious sisterhood.
Godivy by Vylar Kaftan is a Kafkaesque nightmare where humans mate with photocopiers and office plants. Very strange, but interesting.
Down to the Silver Spirits by Kaaron Warren is one of the creepiest things I've read lately. A group of women go to desperate lengths to conceive children, and the result is not quite what they were hoping for...
Palimpsest by Catherynne Valente is obviously set in the same world as her novel of the same title, and some of the text overlaps, although in general the story and the novel follow different people through the city of Palimpsest, which you can only access by having sex with someone who has been there once.
May 7, 2012
I'm lobbing this one back to my to-read shelf. I got really stuck in the middle. So many of these stories had interesting concepts, but the execution left much to be desired. And it was all so depressing! Where's the wonder? Somewhere in this book it bills these authors as the writing descendents of the great writers of urban fantasy, including Charles De Lint. Well, they can't be that without the wonder - and I found wonder to be seriously lacking in these stories. I do want to finish, though. I haven't gotten to most of the stories that people cited as favorites in their reviews. Hoping it gets better when I try it again!
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Well, I did make a bid to finish this book. I started each story, but if it didn't grab me I moved on. I think I read only two stories in the last half of the book the whole way through. Stories that I really enjoyed were: "The Title of This Story Is", "The Somnabulist", "The Ghost Market", "Promises: A Tale of the City Imperishable", "Sammarynda Deep", and I thought "The One That Got Away" was an interesting take on the unicorn hunt. Some stories had a potentially interesting premise or world, but it just wasn't well realized. And I still think that the editor was convinced that dark and gritty means urban because there weren't any hopeful, wonder-filled stories in the second half either.
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Well, I did make a bid to finish this book. I started each story, but if it didn't grab me I moved on. I think I read only two stories in the last half of the book the whole way through. Stories that I really enjoyed were: "The Title of This Story Is", "The Somnabulist", "The Ghost Market", "Promises: A Tale of the City Imperishable", "Sammarynda Deep", and I thought "The One That Got Away" was an interesting take on the unicorn hunt. Some stories had a potentially interesting premise or world, but it just wasn't well realized. And I still think that the editor was convinced that dark and gritty means urban because there weren't any hopeful, wonder-filled stories in the second half either.
November 2, 2013
I'm not going to declare that a lot of the stories in this collection that I didn't care for are bad--they all seem to be competently written. I think this is just more of a situation where the editor and I had a disagreement of taste.
A lot of these stories are intensely image-based, wandering, almost plotless--virtuoso displays of surreal world-building. It's really not my thing. I'd been meaning to read Catherynne M. Valente's "Palimpsest" for some time, and while it's got some lovely prose, it just didn't do much for me. I had some similar issues with "The Age of Fish, Post-Flowers", "The Title of the Story", and "The Tower of Morning's Bones". The worst offender is "Alex and the Toyceivers", which is apparently the latest in a series of stories and the beginning of a novel and makes basically no sense by itself.
On the other hand, for near-Halloween reading, there were some nicely creepy pieces here. "Courting the Lady Scythe" is somewhat predictable but nonetheless enjoyable. "Ghost Market" involves the search for stolen souls. "Down to the Silver Spirits" questions how far people would be willing to go to conceive a child while "The One That Got Away" does the same for a good story. "The Somnabulist" features a woman who is so much more competent in her dreams than she realizes.
Overall, it's an ok collection, but I don't think it's quite my style.
(Note: I'm an internet-acquaintance of one of the authors.)
A lot of these stories are intensely image-based, wandering, almost plotless--virtuoso displays of surreal world-building. It's really not my thing. I'd been meaning to read Catherynne M. Valente's "Palimpsest" for some time, and while it's got some lovely prose, it just didn't do much for me. I had some similar issues with "The Age of Fish, Post-Flowers", "The Title of the Story", and "The Tower of Morning's Bones". The worst offender is "Alex and the Toyceivers", which is apparently the latest in a series of stories and the beginning of a novel and makes basically no sense by itself.
On the other hand, for near-Halloween reading, there were some nicely creepy pieces here. "Courting the Lady Scythe" is somewhat predictable but nonetheless enjoyable. "Ghost Market" involves the search for stolen souls. "Down to the Silver Spirits" questions how far people would be willing to go to conceive a child while "The One That Got Away" does the same for a good story. "The Somnabulist" features a woman who is so much more competent in her dreams than she realizes.
Overall, it's an ok collection, but I don't think it's quite my style.
(Note: I'm an internet-acquaintance of one of the authors.)
June 13, 2016
Anthologies are a great way to sample new authors or genres. Fantasy is one of my favorite genres, though I often get frustrated with the epic-style multi-book series that populate the field. After completing a lengthy universe of a read, a small book of short stories helps me kick the brain back in to normal-lit gear.
Paper Cities is a collection of fantastic stories set in urban landscapes. Having recently read a few of China Mieville's works (which I would place firmly into the urban fantasy sub-genre), I was curious to sample other writers. However, I have a hard time classing some of the included stories into the genre. Mieville's fantasy city of New Crobuzon is almost a self-aware entity and plays almost a character roll in his Perdido Street Station. Most of the stories in this anthology fall short of that, and although this doesn't negate their worth as stories, it makes it hard for me to view them as good entries for this particular anthology. Check out my book blog for reviews of some of my favorite stories: http://tenthousandbooks.blogspot.com/...
Don't expect an earth-moving read from Paper Cities, but keep your mind open and perhaps you'll find new places to send your imagination.
Paper Cities is a collection of fantastic stories set in urban landscapes. Having recently read a few of China Mieville's works (which I would place firmly into the urban fantasy sub-genre), I was curious to sample other writers. However, I have a hard time classing some of the included stories into the genre. Mieville's fantasy city of New Crobuzon is almost a self-aware entity and plays almost a character roll in his Perdido Street Station. Most of the stories in this anthology fall short of that, and although this doesn't negate their worth as stories, it makes it hard for me to view them as good entries for this particular anthology. Check out my book blog for reviews of some of my favorite stories: http://tenthousandbooks.blogspot.com/...
Don't expect an earth-moving read from Paper Cities, but keep your mind open and perhaps you'll find new places to send your imagination.
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