New York Fantastic: Fantasy Stories from the City that Never Sleeps

by Paula Guran (Editor)

An intriguing but insular man with telekinetic powers becomes New York City’s greatest superhero . . . A love affair blossoms between the Empire State Building and the Chrysler Building . . . There are tunnels under New York that do not appear on any map . . . Being a Manhattan real estate broker for supernaturals is a real challenge . . . Editor and anthologist Paula Guran collects a diverse array of unusual and memorable tales set in the Big Apple, from a who’s-who of New York Times bestsellers and Hugo and Nebula Award-winning writers including George R. R. Martin, Peter Straub, Naomi Novik, Maria Dahvana Headley, Holly Black, and many more. Anyone who’s visited New York, New York knows what a “magical” place it is; these stories reveal just how marvelous, extraordinary, mysterious, and even occasionally eerie a truly fantastic city can be.

Genres: Fantasy, Short Stories, Urban Fantasy, Anthologies, Magic, Fiction

424 pages, Kindle Edition

First published November 7, 2017

About the author

Paula Guran is senior editor for Prime Books. She edited the Juno fantasy imprint from its small press inception through its incarnation as an imprint of Pocket Books. She is also senior editor of Prime's soon-to-launch digital imprint Masque Books. Guran edits the annual Year's Best Dark Fantasy and Horror series as well as a growing number of other anthologies. In an earlier life she produced weekly email newsletter DarkEcho (winning two Stokers, an IHG award, and a World Fantasy Award nomination), edited Horror Garage (earning another IHG and a second World Fantasy nomination), and has contributed reviews, interviews, and articles to numerous professional publications.

Reviews

[TL *Humaning the Best She Can* · Rating 2 out of 5]

DNF at 65%

Started off good and so so (see my status updates for ratings) but then some started going downhill and I lost interest in continuing with the other stories.

Originally, I was going to spread this out to the new year, reading a handful or couple of stories at a time *shrugs* oh well, on to the next.

[Gala · Rating 4 out of 5]

Це хороша книжка для недільного вечірнього читання. Всі історії об'єднані місцем, але настрій та стиль різний, міське фентезі, антиутопії, американська готика (власне Капелюх, оповідання в стилі АГ одне з моїх улюблених в цій книзі) і.т.д. Колись я обов'язково її перечитаю.

[Clare O'Beara · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really enjoyed some of the tales, particularly Naomi Novik's one about vampires, long-lived with deep pockets, pushing up the price of housing, and Peter Beagle's amiable amble with centaurs through Central Park. Karl Bunker gives perhaps the best researched story, about digging the foundations for the Brooklyn Bridge in 1871. Another nice one was a tale of a pooka arriving with the early Irish immigrants. There's a Native shapeshifter as well, a polar bear waheela.

I don't like horror, dark stories full of swearing, unpleasantness, violence and non-fantasy in a book of fantasy, so the rest of the tales were not so good for me. Other readers may enjoy more. Decide if the tales you like are worth buying the book for and balance out the ones you don't like. Not all the stories have adult content but the book as a whole is an adult read.

I read an e-ARC through Net Galley and Fresh Fiction. This is an unbiased review.

[Kara]

After 76 pages, I am going to DNF this. I loved Naomi Novik's story, but it's clear to me that not a lot of thought was put into these. They almost feel like last-minute hackjob additions. Sorry, I know that's rude, but I read five stories, and four out of five of those were not very good or well-written. I just wasn't impressed.

Look, I know this is an anthology and I should give the other authors a chance, but I've not been having great luck with anthologies as a general rule, and I am starting to think short stories are just not for me.

So I'm putting this aside, though I do wish others would give it a chance.

[Cindy · Rating 3 out of 5]

This anthology had more misses than hits for me.

[Ann · Rating 5 out of 5]

It seems books in my to be read stack seem to come in groups. This is an anthology of short stories of paranormal activities all set in New York City. Covering all time frames, there are historic , present and futurist tales. Many of the authors are familiar names if you like fantasy genre. This is a truly magical set of stories, all perfect length for summer deck reading.

[L · Rating 3 out of 5]

A lot more misses than hits in this one. I also felt like nearly half the stories were either not fantasy or not New York based. I was also not expecting quite so much ending ambiguity.

[Joanna · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a fun collection that helped me grow my to-read shelf by a few new (to me) authors. I really enjoyed some of these voices a lot.

[Klobetime · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is an unusual and uneven collection of short stories, each with a heavy fantasy element and all set in New York City. In one memorable (but odd) story the city itself is a character; "The Tallest Doll in New York City" by Maria Dahvana Headley tells of a time when the Chrysler Building takes a walk with the Empire State Building. My favorite tale was "Shell Games" by George R. R. Martin; it details the origin story of the hero named The Great and Powerful Turtle from the Wild Cards series, a favorite from my college days. Another great one is "Priced to Sell" by Naomi Novik following real estate brokers trying to find housing for vampires and other monsters. Other authors I like that have stories here include Elizabeth Bear, Peter Straub, and N.K. Jemisin. Others aren't very good though; Seanan McGuire's "Red as Snow" and Peter S. Beagle's "The Rock in the Park" are especially mundane. Despite the irregularity of quality, I expect there is something in here for everyone to enjoy.

First Sentence (from the introduction):

New York City is a very real place, but no one can deny it is also somewhere magic occurs and all sorts of fantastical things happen.

[Debbie Tremel · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ho Hum

I've read few authors who can write a really good short story, and there were probably only two in this whole collection I thought were good. There were some I didn't make it through, one I quit almost immediately because the first paragraph was so poor, and most that I read all the way, but realized the journey was pointless or just plain uninteresting. There's a couple gems but I don't think I'd recommend wading through the others to find them.

[E · Rating 3 out of 5]

An uneven collection- with stories I really liked and a handful I couldn't finish. I should round this up to 3.5 stars for the real estate one, the bridge one, and two of my favorites by N.K. Jemisin and Daniel Jose Older. But since those last two weren't new discoveries, I will keep this at 3. Solid premise, uneven execution.

[Elise - ABook&ACup · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some really good stories, some not so good and some editing mistakes... my favorite? Naomi Novik's one!

[Lindsay · Rating 5 out of 5]

A number of quirky fun short stories - I thoroughly enjoyed them.

[Rue · Rating 5 out of 5]

Simply amazing

I adored this anthology. I read it straight through, and it was brilliant. I highly recommend reading it. Not a robot, simply can't be detailed, I have a headache.

[Artem Huletski · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 звезды за разнообразие, впрочем, вряд ли я буду помнить хоть один из этих рассказов через полгода.

[Polina · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pork pie hat, shell games