The Big Book of Modern Fantasy

by Ann VanderMeer (Editor), Jeff Vandermeer (Editor), Maurice Richardson

From Ann and Jeff VanderMeer comes The Big Book of Modern Fantasy a true horde of tales sure to delight fans, scholars -- even the greediest of dragons. A VINTAGE ORIGINAL.

Step through a shimmering portal . . . a worn wardrobe door . . . a schism in sky . . . into a bold new age of fantasy. When worlds beyond worlds became a genre unto itself. From the swinging sixties to the strange, strange seventies, the over-the-top eighties to the gnarly nineties--and beyond, into the twenty-first century--the VanderMeers have found the stories and the writers from around the world that reinvented and revitalized the fantasy genre after World War II. The stories in this collection represent twenty-two different countries, including Russia, Argentina, Nigeria, Columbia, Pakistan, Turkey, Finland, Sweden, China, the Philippines, and the Czech Republic. Five have never before been translated into English.

From Jorge Luis Borges to Ursula K. Le Guin, Michael Moorcock to Angela Carter, Terry Pratchett to Stephen King, the full range and glory of the fantastic are on display in these ninety-one stories in which dragons soar, giants stomp, and human children should still think twice about venturing alone into the dark forest.

Completing Ann and Jeff VanderMeer's definitive The Big Book of Classic Fantasy, this companion volume to takes the genre into the twenty-first century with ninety-one astonishing, mind-bending stories.

Genres: Fantasy, Short Stories, Anthologies, Fiction, Speculative Fiction, Science Fiction Fantasy, Short Story Collection

896 pages, Paperback

First published July 21, 2020

About the author

Ann VanderMeer is an American publisher and editor, and the second female editor of the horror magazine Weird Tales. She is the founder of Buzzcity Press.

Her work as Fiction Editor of Weird Tales won a Hugo Award. Work from her press and related periodicals has won the British Fantasy Award, the International Rhysling Award, and appeared in several year's best anthologies. Ann was also the founder of The Silver Web magazine, a periodical devoted to experimental and avant-garde fantasy literature.

In 2009 "Weird Tales edited by Ann VanderMeer and Stephen H. Segal" won a Hugo Award for Best Semiprozine. Though some of its individual contributors have been honored with Hugos, Nebula Awards, and even one Pulitzer Prize, the magazine itself had never before even been nominated for a Hugo. It was also nominated for a World Fantasy Award in 2009.

Reviews

[Spencer Orey · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's a cool collection, and there's something wonderfully powerful about having a single book with stories from such a long time period of time. With a flick of the pages I can read from the 1950s or 2010.

That said, collecting important or notable or just plain good stories from such a long period of time is quite the task, no matter how big the book. This one is neither comprehensive nor exhaustive, and if you were hoping to hold in your hands one book to really understand fantasy and/or short stories, this isn't it. Is something like that possible? Probably not?

What's here instead is a nice spectrum of fantasy stories, including some by big literary names like Borges and Nabokov. I particularly liked the newly translated stories, which collectively make a statement about reading more widely outside of English language fantasy.

In the end, I think it's better to think of the stories here less as the big ones of the era (though some are!) and more like a bunch of stories that the editors liked. In that sense, the big book is great.

[Adina]

TEN ROUNDS WITH GRANDFATHER CLOCK Maurice Richardson
THE CIRCULAR VALLEY Paul Bowles
SIGNS AND SYMBOLS Vladimir Nabokov
THE ZAHIR Jorge Luis Borges
LIANE THE WAYFARER Jack Vance
POOLWANA’S ORCHID Edgar Mittelholzer
THE MAN WHO SOLD ROPE TO THE GNOLES Margaret St. Clair
O UGLY BIRD! Manly Wade Wellman
THE GOPHERWOOD BOX Abraham Sutzkever
MY LIFE IN THE BUSH OF GHOSTS (EXCERPT) Amos Tutuola
A VERY OLD MAN WITH ENORMOUS WINGS Gabriel García Márquez
THE ANYTHING BOX Zenna Henderson
LEAN TIMES IN LANKHMAR Fritz Leiber
THE DREAMING CITY Michael Moorcock
CRONOPIOS AND FAMAS Julio Cortázar
KAYA-KALP (METAMORPHOSIS) Intizar Husain
THE LAST DRAGON IN THE WORLD Tove Jansson
THE DROWNED GIANT J. G. Ballard
THE MONSTER Satu Waltari
NARROW VALLEY R. A. Lafferty
THE SINISTER APARTMENT Mikhail Bulgakov
THE ORIGIN OF THE BIRDS Italo Calvino
THE PREY Bilge Karasu
THE TOPLESS TOWER Silvina Ocampo
THE BARBARIAN Joanna Russ
THE YOUNGEST DOLL Rosario Ferré
THE ONES WHO WALK AWAY FROM OMELAS Ursula K. Le Guin
ARK OF BONES Henry Dumas
WINGED CREATURES Sylvia Townsend Warner
LINNAEUS FORGETS Fred Chappell
THE ERL-KING Angela Carter
THE GREAT NIGHT OF THE TRAINS Sara Gallardo
THE TALE OF DRAGONS AND DREAMERS Samuel R. Delany
THE WHITE HORSE CHILD Greg Bear
THE DREAMSTONE C. J. Cherryh
FIVE LETTERS FROM AN EASTERN EMPIRE Alasdair Gray
THE ICE DRAGON George R. R. Martin
ONE TIME Leslie Marmon Silko
SISTER LIGHT, SISTER DARK Jane Yolen
THE LUCK IN THE HEAD M. John Harrison
WARLOCK AT THE WHEEL Diana Wynne Jones
MRS. TODD’S SHORTCUT Stephen King
ON THE DARK SIDE OF THE STATION WHERE THE TRAIN NEVER STOPS Pat Murphy
AFTER THE HURRICANE Edgardo Sanabria Santaliz
THE GIRL WHO WENT TO THE RICH NEIGHBORHOOD Rachel Pollack
THE BYSTANDER Leena Krohn
WILD BOYS: VARIATIONS ON A THEME Karen Joy Fowler
THE MOLE KING Marie Hermanson
WHAT THE TAPSTER SAW Ben Okri
THE FOOL David Drake
THE FLYING CREATURES OF FRA ANGELICO Antonio Tabucchi
A MEXICAN FAIRY TALE Leonora Carrington
THE BOY IN THE TREE Elizabeth Hand
TV PEOPLE Haruki Murakami
ALICE IN PRAGUE OR THE CURIOUS ROOM Angela Carter
MOON SONGS Carol Emshwiller
THE LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF SHED NUMBER XII Victor Pelevin
THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE DRAGON Patricia McKillip
TROLL BRIDGE Terry Pratchett
LONGING FOR BLOOD Vilma Kadlečková
A BRIEF VISIT TO BONNYVILLE D. F. Lewis
TRAVELS WITH THE SNOW QUEEN Kelly Link
THE NEUROSIS OF CONTAINMENT Rikki Ducornet
THE DARKTREE WHEEL Rhys Hughes
FŒTUS Shelley Jackson
TAN-TAN AND DRY BONE Nalo Hopkinson
WHERE DOES THE TOWN GO AT NIGHT? Tanith Lee
POP ART Joe Hill
STATE SECRETS OF APHASIA Stepan Chapman
THE WINDOW Tatyana Tolstaya
THE WEIGHT OF WORDS Jeffrey Ford
ALL THE WATER IN THE WORLD Han Song
THE KITE OF STARS Dean Francis Alfar
MOGO Alberto Chimal
THE MALADY OF GHOSTLY CITIES Nathan Ballingrud
END OF THE LINE Aimee Bender
I LEFT MY HEART IN SKAFTAFELL Victor LaValle
THE GRASSDREAMING TREE Sheree Renée Thomas
LA PEAU VERTE Caitlín R. Kiernan
A HARD TRUTH ABOUT WASTE MANAGEMENT Sumanth Prabhaker
BUFO REX Erik Amundsen
THE ARREST OF THE GREAT MIMILLE Manuela Draeger
AUNTS Karin Tidbeck
FOR LIFE Marta Kisiel
THE SPRING OF DONGKE TEMPLE Qitongren
THE WORDEATERS Rochita Loenen-Ruiz
CREATURE Ramsey Shehadeh
BEYOND THE SEA GATE OF THE SCHOLAR-PIRATES OF SARSKÖE Garth Nix
THE BEAR DRESSER’S SECRET Richard Bowes
TABLE WITH OCEAN Alberto Chimal
THE JINN DARAZGOSH Musharraf Ali Farooqi

[mainelyreading · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am a junkie for an anthology that is curated by the Vandermeers. This couple is the gold standard for editing large collections of genre short fiction. This volume is a great companion (sequel?) to their classical fantasy anthology from last year. I have to admit, I like this one a little bit more. I found the representation of authors to be exceptional, and the chosen selections were outside the box from what one would expect to see here. I can’t wait to see what Jeff and Ann choose to anthologize next.

[Caitlin Waits · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book should perhaps be titled "The Big Book of Modernist Fantasy." While it covers a lot of ground from writers born in the late 1800s to those still writing today, it lacks some of the more modern, popular voices of the genre. (Robin McKinnley, Neil Gaiman, Mercedes Lackey, Holly Black) It does, however, include such notables as George R.R.Martin, Jane Yolen, and Sir Terry Pratchett. I generally love fantasy collections, and I have an entire shelf of Bordertown books, Charles de Lint short stories, and Firebird collections. This specific collection, however, left me less enchanted and more disappointed.

I began reading in sequential order and found I had to put the book down and move to a more haphazard approach. Many of the stories seem to tell rather than show, and so many of them have a Nihilistic bent. I missed the joy and the hope for humanity of writers like Lewis and Tolkien, and I felt the collection could use more Diana Wynne Jones and Terry Pratchett-esqe writing to counter the rather grim stories. Zenna Henderson's "The Anything Box" was a bright spot, and Ursala Le Guin's "The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas" is always timely, tragic, and inspiring. Terry Pratchett's "Troll Bridge" is a classic. However Geroge R. R. Martin's "The Ice Dragon" was unwieldy, and I could not get a handle on Nabokov's "Signs and Symbols" (although that seems to be the point, according to the blurb before).

This is a large compendium covering various important voices of the Fantasy Genre, largely published in the 20th century. Some of these stories are gems, some I would not have included. Overall, it feels like an attempt to impose some sort of literary agenda on a wildly undulating genre. But that's part of the fun of speculative fiction-- there is no right answer and we all bring different interpretations to the stories.

[Jen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Full disclosure: I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.

Don’t let the “modern” aspect of the title fool you; most of these stories are ones commonly considered to be classics. This collection covers fantasy stories published between 1945 and 2010, and it serves as a companion anthology to the VanderMeers’ The Big Book of Classic Fantasy, which covers pre-WWII fantasy stories. As with their other Big Book anthologies, the VanderMeers have worked hard to represent diverse voices here, although they note in their introduction that this is, admittedly, a bit less diverse than their other volumes.

The VanderMeers cast a wide net with this anthology, including stories from authors who aren’t typically considered part of the fantasy genre and drawing from everything from old SFF pulp magazines to literary magazines. In selecting stories, they tried to pick ones which 1) fit their broad definition of fantasy, 2) haven’t aged too poorly, 3) represent the spectrum of voices and styles present during the era. In this, I think they’ve done well. I can’t say all of the stories are a hit with me (indeed, this collection has a lower proportion of stories that I personally enjoyed than other collections of theirs, which is why I didn’t rate this higher), but I think this collection is well worth reading if you enjoy the fantasy stories of that era and want to see how the genre has evolved.

There are plenty of familiar names and stories in this anthology, including from Ursula K. Le Guin’s “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas” and Fritz Leiber’s “Lean Times in Lankhmar.” Other notable authors include Jorge Luis Borges, C. J. Cherryh, Samuel R. Delany, Diana Wynne Jones, Stephen King, Gabriel García Márquez, George R. R. Martin, Michael Moorcock, Garth Nix, Terry Pratchett, Joanna Russ, Jack Vance, and Jane Yolen. You’ll almost certainly notice many prominent fantasy authors missing from this collection (I did), and yet, given the inclusion of so many authors who don’t appear in other anthologies covering this period, I can’t really fault the VanderMeers in their selection.

All in all, this anthology is a must-read for fans of the “classic” fantasy stories they grew up reading. With a whopping 91 stories, there’s a lot here to explore, covering a wide range of styles and voices over a period of 65 years of fantasy fiction. As with any reprint anthology of classic works, you can find a lot of these stories elsewhere, but I guarantee that there are stories here that you haven’t read before, whether they’re translated works or stories that simply slipped into obscurity over the years. For those who are curious about the table of contents, however, I’ve listed it below.

Table of Contents:

Maurice Richardson: “Ten Rounds with Grandfather Clock”
Paul Bowles: “The Circular Valley”
Vladimir Nabokov: “Signs and Symbols”
Jorge Luis Borges: “The Zahir”
Jack Vance: “Liane the Wayfarer”
Edgar Mittelholzer: “Poolwana’s Orchid”
Margaret St. Clair: “The Man Who Sold Rope to the Gnoles”
Manly Wade Wellman: “O Ugly Bird!”
Abraham Sutzkever: “The Gopherwood Box”
Amos Tutuola: “My Life in the Bush of Ghosts (Excerpt)”
Gabriel García Márquez: “A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings”
Zenna Henderson: “The Anything Box”
Fritz Leiber: “Lean Times in Lankhmar”
Michael Moorcock: “The Dreaming City”
Julio Cortázar: “Cronopios and Famas”
Intizar Husain: “Kaya-Kalp (Metamorphosis)”
Tove Jansson: “The Last Dragon in the World”
J. G. Ballard: “The Drowned Giant”
Satu Waltari: “The Monster”
R. A. Lafferty: “Narrow Valley”
Mikhail Bulgakov: “The Sinister Apartment”
Italo Calvino: “The Origins of the Birds”
Bilge Karasu: “The Prey”
Silvina Ocampo: “The Topless Tower”
Joanna Russ: “The Barbarian”
Ferré, Rosario: “The Youngest Doll”
Ursula K. Le Guin: “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas”
Henry Dumas: “Ark of Bones”
Sylvia Townsend Warner: “Winged Creatures”
Fred Chappell: “Linnaeus Forgets”
Angela Carter: “The Erl-King
Sara Gallardo: “The Great Night of the Trains”
Samuel R. Delany: “The Tales of Dragons and Dreamers”
Greg Bear: “The White Horse Child”
C. J. Cherryh: “The Dreamstone”
Alasdair Gray: “Five Letters from an Eastern Empire”
George R. R. Martin: “The Ice Dragon”
Leslie Marmon Silko: “One Time”
Jane Yolen: “Sister Light, Sister Dark”
M. John Harrison: “The Luck in the Head”
Diana Wynne Jones: “Warlock at the Wheel”
Stephen King: “Mrs. Todd’s Shortcut”
Pat Murphy: “On the Dark Side of the Station”
Edgardo Sanabria Santaliz: “After the Hurricane”
Rachel Pollack: “The Girl Who Went to the Rich Neighborhood”
Leena Krohn: “The Bystander”
Karen Joy Fowler: “Wild Boys: Variations on a Theme”
Marie Hermanson: “The Mole King”
Ben Okri: “What the Tapster Saw”
David Drake: “The Fool”
Antonio Tabucchi: “The Flying Creatures of Fra Angelico”
Leonora Carrington: “A Mexican Fairy Tale”
Elizabeth Hand: “The Boy in the Tree”
Haruki Murakami: “TV People”
Angela Carter: “Alice in Prague or the Curious Room”
Carol Emshwiller: “Moon Songs”
Victor Pelevin: “The Life and Adventures of Shed Number XII”
Patricia McKillip: “The Fellowship of the Dragon”
Terry Pratchett: “Troll Bridge”
Vilma Kadlečková: “Longing for Blood”
D. F. Lewis: “A Brief Visit to Bonnyville”
Kelly Link: “Travels with the Snow Queen”
Rikki Ducornet: “The Neurosis of Containment”
Rhys Hughes: “The Darktree Wheel”
Shelley Jackson: “Fætus”
Nalo Hopkinson: “Tan-Tan and Dry Bone”
Tanith Lee: “Where Does the Town Go at Night?”
Joe Hill: “Pop Art”
Stepan Chapman: “State Secrets of Aphasia”
Tatyana Tolstaya: “The Window”
Jeffrey Ford: “The Weight of Words”
Han Song: “All the Water in the World”
Dean Francis Alfar: “The Kite of Stars”
Alberto Chimal: “Mogo”
Nathan Ballingrud: “The Malady of Ghostly Cities”
Aimee Bender: “End of the Line”
Victor LaValle: “I Left My Heart in Skaftafell”
Sheree Thomas: “The Grassdreaming Tree”
Caitlín R. Kiernan: “La Peau Verte”
Sumanth Prabhaker: “A Hard Truth About Waste Management”
Erik Amundsen: “Bufo Rex”
Manuela Draeger: “The Arrest of the Great Mimille”
Karin Tidbeck: “Aunts”
Marta Kisiel: “For Life”
Qitongren: “The Spring of Dongke Temple”
Rochita Loenen-Ruiz: “The Wordeaters”
Ramsey Shehadeh: “Creature”
Garth Nix: “Beyond the Sea Gate of the Scholar-Pirates of Sarsköe”
Richard Bowes: “The Bear Dresser’s Secret”
Alberto Chimal: “Table with Ocean”
Musharraf Ali Farooqi: “The Jinn Darazgosh”

[Christopher Sutch · Rating 3 out of 5]

This anthology is an unfortunate way for the VanderMeer's to end their co-editorial stint. Although I've had some quibbles with each of their previous large-press anthologies they were all, for the most part, fair and good representations of their respective genres (my favorite continues to be _The Weird_, but _The Big Book of Science Fiction_ and _The Big Book of Classic Fantasy_ were each also very good in their own right).

One of the problems with an anthology of fantasy is that there are _numerous_ subgenres and it is almost impossible to present an accessible collection that represents the _entirety_ of the genre (really a loosely tied-together set of genres) known as "fantasy." The VanderMeers can't be faulted for that, of course; indeed, they should be praised for their ambition. However, what they _can_ be faulted for is how they proceeded with this companion volume to _The Big Book of Classic Fantasy_. That anthology collected several important predecessors of several subgenres and did a fair job of representing several strains of fantasy that existed between 1802 and 1945. I had expected to see the continuing evolution of those subgenres over the course of the time frame represented by this anthology (1946-2010) as well.

This is not what this volume does. Instead, there vast portions of this collection are taken up by the descendants of surrealist fiction in various forms at the expense of several subgenres that are either not represented at all or only represented by one or two selections.

Considering that surrealism was _not_ a major focus of _The Big Book of Classic Fantasy_ the editorial choices to highlight that subgenre is a misstep that makes several stories in this volume unreadable (at worst) or too silly/cutesy to be borne (at best). Often the choices of authors in this subgenre comes down to who the VanderMeers personally know and have worked with at the expense of better and more justly renowned writers of fantasy (for example, writers such as Terry Brooks, Stephen R. Donaldson, Mervyn Peake, Marion Zimmer Bradley, Mercedes Lackey, or literally any author of "high" or "epic" fantasy are not included at all, even when the VanderMeers deliberately chose to include excerpts from novels by other writers and thus could have included portions of these authors' works in that form where shorter-form fiction was lacking or hard to come by).

There _are_ several good and important stories influenced by surrealism in this collection; my personal favorite was "The Drowned Giant" by J. G. Ballard. But as I mentioned above, there are far too many pages in this book that dragged on relentlessly with either nonsense or allegedly humorous works that more than once made me contemplate putting the book down and leaving it in disgust.

There _are_ gems among the dross, of course. Selections by Manly Wade Wellman, Fritz Leiber, George R. R. Martin (whom I'm not overly fond of, but whose story in this book is excellent), Kelly Link, Tanith Lee, Caitlin N. Kiernan and Garth Nix, among many others, are quite good and enjoyable contributions to the evolution of fantasy over the past half-century. And although I greatly admire and enjoy the work of Elizabeth Hand, and would have fully supported the inclusion of her work in an anthology like this if she actually wrote fantasy, I am seriously puzzled by the inclusion of her story "The Boy in the Tree," which is actually a science fiction story and only contains a small dollop of genre elements that could be faintly called "fantastic."

Sadly, overall, this anthology is an easy one to pass by: stick with the much better _The Big Book of Classic Fantasy_ and try more specialized subgenre anthologies instead.

[Marie-Therese · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 stars

An exceptional collection, vast in scope, diverse in style, including a number of works (even authors) never before translated into English.

While I didn't love everything in this massive volume (in fact, I actually found one of the "never before translated into English" novellas* almost unbearably kitschy and clichéd and suspect that this particular writer's absence in English is no great loss), I greatly admire the editors' commitment to featuring a very wide assortment of modern fantasy. This volume contains works that are: classic, popular, esoteric, forthright, depressing, inspirational, inscrutable, obvious, obscure, childlike, humorous, horrifying, exquisite, ugly, and everything in between. This is a truly expansive volume, a work determined to display modern fantasy in all its richness and diversity. It's unlikely that any single reader will enjoy everything contained herein (I certainly didn't) but I doubt that any thoughtful reader will find the time spent reading all these stories (and it is a considerable investment, even for those of us who read quickly) a waste.

I'm saddened that the the VanderMeers have decided that they're laying down their joint editorial hats and there won't be any more of these comprehensive volumes. I would have loved to see them tackle the horror/dark fantasy genre, or something a bit more specific like dystopian fiction, near future fiction, or climate fiction. But I also admire their willingness to make way for others-others who I am certain will value and acknowledge their contribution to the growth and maintenance of great international anthologies the way the VanderMeers have always praised and thanked those who went before them. This volume and its companion certainly belong alongside the classics edited by Borges, Bioy Casares and Ocampo and Alberto Manguel.

* 'For Life' by Marta Kisiel

[Aengus Schulte · Rating 5 out of 5]

It took me almost half a year to read this monolith of an anthology, and I loved every part of it. As an avid fantasy reader this was a wonderful combination of good ol' sword and sorcery adventures and deeper, more literary works. I can't wait to get started on its predecessor, the Big Book of Classic Fantasy!

[Briar Page · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another excellent anthology from the VanderMeers, showcasing an admirable range of different styles, subgenres, and translated work. As with THE WEIRD, I'm pretty sure anyone with any sort of affinity for fantastic fiction will find something to love somewhere in here.

[Colin · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very mixed bag of fantasy and weird short stories - there are some GREAT stories here, and there are also some very odd ones that I just could not enjoy. For the most part, it's a great collection, so I rate it 4/5, but that 1 star is lost because there were a few that just seemed mind-numbingly dull. As with any anthology, variety is to be expected . . .

[Kevin James · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 stars, an interesting and diverse anthology of stories but is very hit or miss

[Katie P · Rating 2 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book's predecessor (The Big Book of Classic Fantasy), but I'm calling this one quits at page 695 after reading the phrase "sexual fantasy" for what feels like the hundredth time (not the kind of fantasy I thought I was signing up for). Life is simply too short for "maybe the next story, someone will finally be normal to women/girls."

I did DNF ten of 74 stories on the way here for either being too incomprehensible (this collection tends toward the surreal, which occasionally falls flat) or for being too much like someone writing out their very, very specific fantasies with no real substance.

There were some really good highlights in those 64 stories:
The Fellowship of the Dragon by Patricia McKillip
Troll Bridge by Terry Pratchett
The Youngest Doll by Rosario Ferre
The Barbarian by Joanna Russ
The Man Who Sold Rope to the Gnoles by Margaret St. Clair
Kaya-Kalp (Metamorphosis) by Intizar Husain
O Ugly Bird! by Manly Wade Wellman
A Very Old Man With Enormous Wings by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
The Last Dragon in the World by Tove Jansson
The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas by Ursula K. Le Guin
Tan Tan and Dry Bone by Nalo Hopkinson
The Window by Tatanya Tolstaya

[Denice Langley · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love anthologies of any and every genre. They give the reader a fresh look at stories and authors we'd probably not read any other way and they serve as a series break to give a reader different materials and characters. The fantasy genre covers a huge landscape, from Disney princesses to Brothers Grimm. So many readers will say they don't like fantasy without realizing it's woven throughout their every day TBR pile.

The VanderMeer name is synonymous with collections of stories that span eras and genres. This volume is "modern" fantasy, those stories published after WWII. There are 91 short stories in this volume, a fair collection of famous and unknown authors from many different countries. The settings and characters are unique...that's one requirement of fantasy...and as in all collections, you'll love some and hate some and reread many of them. I know I did. This is a great read for anyone interested in fantasy or looking to expand their reading experiences.

[Sydney S · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars. Like most collections, this one has a range of stories: some good, some great, some not so good, some terrible. Mostly, these are good stories. And what a huge collection!

I must admit I didn't read every single story, I skipped around to authors I knew and then titles that sounded interesting to me, but I'd say I read at least 3/4 of them. This is a book I'd love to have on my shelf or on my coffee table. I bet its beautiful as a physical copy (it has to be huge!). This is my second experience with a "The Big Book of" collection, and I'm not disappointed. I'll definitely have to check out more like this.

[Ebenmaessiger · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Ten Rounds with Grandfather Clock" by Maurice Richardson: 5
- Oh no. This one was a mistake. Of course this book was going to frustrate me — take the Vandermeers’s preference for the sideways and the dreamlike and the oblique and the literary fantastical and combine with their interest in the weird and what do you get? A set up. Here we have a story, as tiring as it is short, premised fully upon one little bit of wordplay. What’s that? The boxer is the best of all TIME?! Well how about if the rest of the story is just him fighting a clock. He’s a clock boxer. And we’ll definitely still use a ton of watch and time metaphors too, don’t you worry about that. Oof.

"The Circular Valley" by Paul Bowles: 9
- So I might need to rescind my perturbation. This seems like a example of the best on offer for this type of literary minded fantastica: namely, the dual illustration/reimagining of a particular theme through the metaphorical lens of fantasy, and the general allure of genre qua genre (a story you’re interested in, in other words). Bowles nails it here: the latter being, there’s a demon haunting a valley in the Southwest (and primarily the abandoned monastery at the heart of it) and he jumps in and out of people, thereby experiencing their emotions and partially controlling them; the former being the strange feeling of “otherness” that can overcome people, experienced by some (monks) as evil, some (bandits) as nothing, and others (lovers) as licentious abandon.

"Signs and Symbols" by Vladimir Nabokov: 9
- fuck this. this dumb gene wolfe claptrap. I’d believe it was all a long running plot to expose the vanity and artlessness of readers if i could convince myself they didn’t get something from it. Although, that maybe describes Wolfe, BUT not Nabokov, for I feel that, for al the various and stupid and variously stupid “interpretations” of the story, this one is actually closest: that he explicitly tells a story in which a mad person is victim to an associative disorder, seeing meaning in random sign and symbol when we are explicitly told this is not the case, and in which he nonetheless creates PRECISELY the dead ends and false leads and ambiguous symbols and paper trails for in-the-dark sleuths to slam their head against for page after fruitless page (for real, google this story and interpretation and consider the pointless knots into which those sad few have tied themselves — for even if they do hit on something, it is so attenuated and qualified and flimsy as to be basically nothing regardless!) all the while completely skipping over the actual beauty (ie worth) on the page right beside them!! For example: looking at an old photo album: “here was aunt Rosa, a fussy, angular, wild-eyed old lady, who had lived in a tremulous world of bad news, bankruptcies, train accidents, and cancerous growths until the Germans put her to death, together with all the people she had worried about.” ... Jesus, it’s good. “all of this, and much more, she had accepted, for, after all, living does mean accepting the loss of one joy after another, not even joys in her case, mere possibilities of improvement. She thought if the recurrent waves of pain that for some reason or other she and her husband had had to endure; of the invisible giants hurting her boy in some unimaginable fashion; of the incalculable amount of tenderness contained in the world; of the fate of this tenderness, which is either crushed or wasted, or transformed into madness; of neglected children humming to themselves in unswept corners; of beautiful weeds that cannot hide from the farmer.” Again, note how in the “interpretation reviews” it is never these sections quoted, but instead those deliberately false leads Nabokov smartly litters throughout (ie here are the cards fallen on the floor, the girl on the bus looked like ____ , the labels on the candy said ____). It’s actually quite ingenuous (ie Nabokovian) to do both.

"The Zahir" by Borges: 8.25
- A less remarked upon mode of Borges was the ramble, the loose narrative slowly making its way to, if not a Point, then to some thing, some ending. It’s not the meticulous logic game of “Babel” or the tricksy false scholasticism of “Tlon, Uqbar, etc." It’s revelatory, in that it revels. Often in Argentina, yes, which we know, but often in itself (see the one-two move from cataloguing coins in culture to beside-himself, proto-libertarian reflection on money as a representative of “future time”) — a not quite on-brand style for the “unlike the novel, a short story can be essential” author. STORY: narrator, in the course of grieving the death of a blessed celebrity, acquires, soon passes on, and subsequently becomes obsessed by an old, strange coin, which Borges, as is his want, thoroughly historicizes and mythologizes through a combination of contrived and true anecdotes about its provenance. Thereafter does the madness take him whole.

"Liane the Wayfarer" by Jack Vance: 7
- Hard to get much of a sense of this outside the Dying Earth collection itself. It FEELS incomplete or abridged or chopped up, although it could just as easily not be. Regardless, I get a sense of some of the Vance-ness here, the ellipticality, the name playfulness, the slightly-off, extreme High mode. We’ll see.

"Poolwanna's Orchid" by Edgar Mittelholzer: 9
- Of the period and mode of British-adjacent children’s literature that — in its coy cruelty, twee prose, and flat affect — has garnered an adult appreciative appraisal, if not fandom. Mittelholzer’s work here is unlikely to break out of that in-between space, however, for its fantasy never fully exits the adolescent pool in which its swimming. That said, all those things it does, it does well. STORY: fantastical and real jungle creatures converse around a creature happily trapped in an orchid, and debate whether or not he can give them the honey from his orchid without said orchid punishing them, with the added incentive of a wicked rich “jee” threatening his friend unless the honey’s produced. The denouement: the rich jee gets a partial comeuppance, destined to be trapped in the orchid with Poolwanna and a friendly mosquito. It’s just all that — and a bit more in it’s telling.

"The Man Who Sold Rope to the Gnoles" by Margaret St. Clair: 7.25
- I can’t help but frame these — or at least attempt to do so — in light of my course, searching and twisting for meaning and reference, for socio-historical relevance and exit point. Here, try as I might, we’ve got instead a story of a salesman blinded by ambition and avarice to the danger his ambition had engendered (he’s selling wares to a family of mole like goblin rats, who, after a misunderstanding of payment, instead simply spit roast and eat him). There’s not REALLY even the swing around to the “rope” — ie, in which he’s hoisted by his own rope petard — and it’s simply there, next to him, as he’s done away with. The tone, though, is nice, and of the gentle malevolence school of playful fantasia.

"O Ugly Bird!" by Manley Wade Wellman: 6.5
- Interesting as a working-out of a sort of Appalachian fantasia, a backwoods picar. The story — in both content and telling — leaves a bit to be desired, especially the falling action, which has no desire to move beyond any expectations, and takes its sweet time not doing so, at that. But, again, that substantive conservatism is an essential element of so much fantasy, though, no? Oh well.

"The Gopherwood Box" by Abraham Sutzkever: 7.75
- Worth it just for this description: “the fiery tail of the war was still dragging through the dead city, like a part of a giant prehistoric creature.” As for the symbolic meaning of this short prose poem, it’s rendered more powerful in reflection than reading. STORY: such as it is, trampish man — although the key here is that the war is ever present as a background, causal hum — finds treasure, which turns out to be skull, which turns out to be his.

"My Life in the Bush of Ghosts" by Amos Tutuola: 9
- Excerpts tell us little, but what they tell us — complete meaning or interpretation is necessarily deferred, which make them strange inclusions in short story anthologies (save the ultimate rationale, surely at play for the Vandermeers, of broader exposure — so be it). There’s no more salient takeaway, then, than the strange diction Tutuola employs : repetitious, declarative, and detached. It both alienates and incorporates the reader. STORY: young boy runs into bush, has several harrowing , but subdued, run ins with the malicious but detached ghosts therein.

"The Anything Box" by Zenna Henderson: 7.25
- Worth considering what makes a story trite. Is it the conclusion or something more pervasive about the narrative as a whole? Regardless, here we have a trite story, but one that largely surpasses it for much of the telling, until the conclusion needlessly doubles down on precisely the idea that we already knew it was, and which we had had positive opinion about. That being, an elementary school teacher realizes that her troubled student is escaping into in imaginary realm in order to deal with her problems. Or, of course, is she? The more interesting possibility played with by Henderson is that this is true, and the teacher is tempted to take the ability from the student. Nonetheless, she gives it back at the end, and the student let her use it whenever she wants.

[Annie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Originally published on my blog: Nonstop Reader.

The Big Book of Modern Fantasy is a massive anthology of shorter speculative fiction and a sister volume to the Vandermeer's Big Book of Classic Fantasy. Due out 21st July 2020 from Knopf Doubleday on their Vintage imprint, it's 896 pages (for the print edition) and will be available in paperback and ebook formats. It's worth noting that the ebook format has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links. I've really become enamored of ebooks with interactive formats lately.

Every single story in this collection is top-shelf, there are no really weak stories. All of these have been published previously and date from 1946-2018. Many of the stories are quite difficult to find and several were new to me in any form. One reason I prefer collections and anthologies is that short fiction is really challenging. It's spare and the author doesn't have a wealth of wordage to develop characters or the plotting. Well written short fiction is a delight. I also love collections because if one story doesn't really grab me, there's another story just a few pages away. I can only recall a few times where I've read a collection (or anthology) straight through from cover to cover. This one I did. I even re-read the stories which I had read before.

The stories are very well curated in my opinion, and include titans of speculative fiction (Le Guin, Borges, Delany, and more too numerous to list) alongside authors lesser known (Zenna Henderson) or not generally associated with speculative fiction (Nabokov, Henry Dumas) but no less worthy of inclusion. Before I get the Zenna fan club after me, she's one my favorite authors and I still have my first edition (paperback) copies of The People: No Different Flesh, Pilgrimage, and The Anything Box, and I revisit them regularly. The inclusion of the titular short story, The Anything Box, fit well with the other stories in this anthology and I recommend her other work highly.

I am a fan of the Vandermeer's work as editors and writers and this is another top notch quality anthology, massive in scope and size. Five stars.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.

[Ann · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoy anthologies. The stories are shorter, there is a variety of themes and I can usually find a new author to enjoy. There are almost a 100 tales to read. Many of the authors are familiar and feature some of their earlier writings. The time line for this book covers the 1930's to today. This is the second book edited by Jeffrey VanderMeer recently. The subject matter covers a wide array. I received a copy of this ARC in exchange for a fair and honest review.

[David H. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Containing stories first published between 1946 and 2010, this anthology was quite the journey through fantasy history. One of the aims of the editors was to showcase a variety in style and origin, so we've got stories from pure fantasist to primarily literary writers, and from all around the world. Not every story worked well for me, but this is a book that's much more valuable in the whole than in its parts, and for that, I liked it. The introductory notes for each story were valuable in terms of placing the story or author into context for the most part.

This was my second "Big Book" anthology from the VanderMeers after Classic Fantasy, and I'm looking forward to continuing my journey with Science Fiction.

[Ken Richards · Rating 3 out of 5]

It is indeed what it says on the tin. A very large array of modern fantasy stories. Big names are here - Le Guin, King, Martin, Borges, Murakami, Nabokov and Calvino to name but a few.

There are well known fantasy authors from the Anglosphere (Leiber, Delany, Moorcock, Grey, Russ and Ballard) but importantly, many translations from the non-English speaking world. Europe and Africa (from the Maghreb to uttermost South), the East both near far and middle, Latin and South America.

A breath of fresh air to find a different perspective and approach to the field of fantasy.
Not all of the stories worked for me, but there was always another to enjoy among nearly a hundred.

I did tire of the printing in 2 columns to a page though! Ugh, don't wan't to see that again any time soon.

[Serenity Chaotic · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is the book that will never end! It will not get better my friends!

[Hollerache · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is one of a series of gigantic short story collections of a double-column, phone-bookish construction by Penguin/Vintage covering stories of a certain genre or sub-genre, each probably about the length of War and Peace. Unfortunately, I can't find a single comprehensive list everything in this series, but besides the 3 Big Books by the Vandermeers (Science Fiction, Modern Fantasy, Classic Fantasy - not counting The Weird, which has a similar format), there are at least a dozen Big Books of mostly mystery fiction edited by Otto Penzler. I think getting a Bible's worth of short stories in one volume, curated by an expert in a genre, is a pretty compelling proposition, even with how unwieldy these things are, and I'll almost certainly get started on another not long after this (or a book from one of the included authors).

The variety of stories in this collection is huge. You have a lot of low fantasy stories where besides one magical or fantastic conceit, the world is just like our modern one (The Drowned Giant, Pop Art, TV People, After the Hurricane, I Left My Heart in Skaftafell, End of the Line, Mrs. Todd's Shortcut, Narrow Valley, The Window, The Fool etc.) You have some of the sword and sorcery fiction people generally think of when they hear "fantasy" (Lean Times in Lankhmar, Beyond the Sea Gate, Troll Bridge, The Dreaming City etc.) You have quite a few fairy tale-style (including a Moomin story with illustrations - The Last Dragon in the World), "imaginative child" and high, unconventional fantasy stories (The Arrest of the Great Mimille, State Secrets of Aphasia etc.) There are some "world" stories of a folkloric flavour (e.g. The Jinn Darazgosh) and otherwise (come to think of it, I guess Borges and The Zahir would be considered "world"). There are some really unconventional ones I wouldn't even try to categorize.

The takeaway is that you'll probably be disappointed if you pick up this book expecting all Dungeons and Dragons! This is an extremely wide-ranging collection. I definitely felt re-educated on the subject of fantasy after finishing it. Despite the number of "imaginative child" and fairy tale-style stories here, there are enough stories with weird sex stuff (End of the Line) and gore and horror elements (Aunts) to make this collection inappropriate for kids. I wouldn't pick this up for bedtime stories! This collection was generally a fun and easy read, as you'd expect, with relatively few grim or oppressively literary stories.

My top story from this was Five Letters From an Eastern Empire. Other favourites were Troll Bridge, The Fool, Narrow Valley, The Weight of Words, Where Does the Town Go at Night, Beyond the Sea Gate of the Scholar Pirates at Sarskoë. I tended to be more into the low fantasy stories where there's one little wrinkle added to an ordinary world, like Asimov would tend to do in science fiction, and some of the sword and sorcery stories, over the fairy tale-style, "imaginative child", and extreme high fantasy stories.

My least favourites were Travels With the Snow Queen and On the Dark Side of the Station Where the Train Never Stops. Travels is a second-person story told from the perspective of a character ("you") whose personality is annoying and totally alien to me. I think my issue with On the Dark Side is similar: assuming excessive familiarity with the reader. But outside of these style issues, these stories are still okay. There were quite a few exotic "world" stories included that I didn't think rose to the level of the rest of the collection, e.g. Tan-Tan and Dry Bone, All the Water In the World, Mexican Fairy Tale.

Other spoilered thoughts:


For Life is like a cartoon pilot, how I imagine Ghoul School or Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends must be like (haven't watched either). It's not bad, though.

Mrs. Todd's Shortcut is notable for having been anthologized about 500 times. It's pretty good, minus the way Stephen King thinks "country" people talk in all his "rural Maine" stories.

The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas is, I think, not the epic own of utilitarian thinking some people think it is, but I'm sure a billion essays have been written covering every possible argument, so there's no point saying any more here.

[Dan'l Danehy-Oakes · Rating 5 out of 5]

At 860 large pages (plus some acknowledgements and such), each page with two columns of fairly small type, this is indeed a Big Book. It is also the last of the series (the previous volumes beingThe Weird, The Big Book of Science Fiction, and The Big Book of Classic Fantasy) the VanderMeers will, apparently, edit: to my disappointment, as I have deeply enjoyed every one of these.

Their modus operandi is to select stories from all over the globe -- there are stories here from every content except Antarctica. This gives a perspective, not only on the genre as a whole, but on things beyond what Anglophone fantasy has done, which suggests areas for growth (though not, one hopes, simple copying or cultural appropriation).

There is not a bad story in here; which is not to say that every story wowed me. More specifically:

At least one story (it took me a long time to read this and I'm not sure now) is an excerpt from a novel, and suffers a little from incompleteness.
There are a couple of storiesthat are not particularly to my taste, but which I can see are strong in their own right.
There are a couple of stories that surprised me, not because they don't necessarily deserve to be here, but because they are chestnuts by writers who could -- to my mind -- be better represented by some less-well-known story: notably Le Guin's "The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas," Ballard's "The Drowned Giant," and Moorcock's "The Dreaming City."


Stories that blew my mind, on the other hand, include Maurice Richardson's "Ten Rounds with Grandfather Clock" (the first story in the book), Gabriel Garcia Marquez's "A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings," Pat Murphy's "On the Dark Side of the Station Where the Train Never Stops," Tanith Lee's "Where Does the Town Go at Night?", Garth Nix's "Beyond the Sea Gate of the Scholar-Pirates of Sarskõe," and -- lest you think I only like stories with long titles -- Terry Pratchett's "Troll Bridge."

This is not to say that I didn't like most of the stories here, because I did. Those were just the ones to which, on quickly reviewing the table of contents, I would give an A+.

It's hard to say something summarizing about a project of this scope. I'll simply end by saying that, like its predecessors, this is an impressive -- no: a very impressive -- collection of stories.

[Lee Sharp · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thank you to The Big Book of Modern Fantasy and author Jeffrey S. VanderMeer for the chance to review this advanced reader's copy.

When it says Big Book in the title, you better believe it! It is a very deep pull from the roots of Fantasy. I wonder if Modern Fantasy is truly an accurate descriptive part of the title though, since many of the stories are pulled deep from archives in the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s, from a variety of old pulp magazines that serviced this genre. The author gave each author a 1 to 2 page biography, which also talked about how the chosen work fit within the historical and developmental context of the genre. There were some stories I loved and some I found myself either slogging through or leaving entirely after a couple of pages. Nonetheless, if you find yourself enjoying only half of the stories in this book, it is still a worthwhile purchase. It is interesting to read back to the roots of this literary field. Again, this massive collection has something for everyone, including a diverse cast of authors, in terms of national origin, gender, and personal backgrounds. The author's detailed biographies for the various contributors are a valuable addition to the book. For a book examining "Modern Fantasy", I would have prefered a heavier tilt towards works published after 2000, not before. This is a great coffee table book, but not a collection of stories to take on a mass transit platform for a light read, since it is so large.

[Dan Trefethen · Rating 3 out of 5]

“Big Book” is correct, about 900 pages of selected short fantasy from 1945 to 2010. The editors cut off the date at 2010 to give some time to evaluate the quality of published fantasy. Still, I felt this anthology was not up to the standards of the previous book, “The Big Book of Classic Fantasy”.

The stories in this volume range in length from short-shorts to novelettes. The styles vary dramatically too, from traditional narrative fantasy stories (about pirates, haunted houses and such) to very surreal, non-linear pieces that read like random imaginings. Once again the editors have striven to expose stories translated into English from other languages and cultures, and do a creditable job with this.

I did not enjoy this volume as much as its predecessor, perhaps due to the passage of time cementing the 'classic' nature of story-telling. This volume's tendency towards more experimental techniques left me cold, but your mileage may vary.

[Des Lewis · Rating 4 out of 5]

CAVEAT: I brought the above star rating down from five to four simply because it contains a brief story by myself!

THE WORDEATERS
by Rochita Loenen-Ruiz
“So many stories packed into books. So many words packed into libraries waiting to be tasted, and swallowed by people like me.”
A miraculous story of the sapient sapor of words as you ‘eat’ them from the pages in great soulful literature, and of how this phenomenon affects a childless couple, and the state of writer’s block. And the arrival of an Ariel of words as a surrogate child….
I already have believed that this big and packed book itself has its own such soul or ingested gestalt. This story must now be its emblem.
A fearless faith in fiction and its preternatural power as this site has long claimed.

The detailed review of this massive book posted elsewhere under my name is too long to post here.
Above is one of its observations.

[Nick · Rating 5 out of 5]

While I began this book by reading it sequentially, I ended up skipping around to sample many of the different authors. This volume is an impressive survey of post-WWII fantasy that includes many of the stalwarts of the genre, while also exposing readers to many less-famous authors, or those who are typically classified as outside the fantasy genre. I didn't adore every story in the volume and skipped portions of some if they did not engage my interest, but for a book this thorough, if there was a story I disliked, there was always a great new one shortly thereafter. This book is a treasure, as are the Vandermeers' other massive fiction anthologies, and I purchased a physical copy to complement my free advance ebook from Netgalley. Highly recommended.

[Groucho42 · Rating 1 out of 5]

Not good. First, it's "modern" only in the sense it isn't ancient Greek. It starts in the early 20th century. Second, the editors seem to be confused about the difference between fantasy and fantastic. A ghost or other singular supernatural event doesn't make a story fantasy. A consistent magical environment does that. In order to try for pretentiousness fantasy doesn't require, the editors focus on the fantastic, especially in the many translations that supposed give the collection culture they don't think would exist in the rich history of fantasy in the US. What fantasy that does exist is rather trite. Maybe it got better in the second half, but I didn't have any more patience for this travesty.

[K.C. Alpinus]

Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC!!

This book was an eclectic collection of stories from the 1800's on forward, which is an undertaking to say the least. There's a little bit of everyone and everything in this book, so I wouldn't recommend trying to read it from cover to cover; honestly, I would try taking small bites of authors that are familiar to you and then reading the next story or maybe jumping around a bit.

Some authors include Terry Pratchet, Nalo Hopkinson, and Ursula K. LeGuin. While I didn't read every story (it's taken me this long to get this far), I can confidently say that each of the stories that I did read were an absolute joy and I would love to read more from the VanderMeers sometime soon.

[Dawn · Rating 5 out of 5]

When they say "Big", this is a bit of an understatement. This collection is huge! There is an incredible selection of authors from all over the world, most of whom were unknown to me before picking up this book. Before each tale, there is a mini biography of the author which I enjoyed. But I enjoyed the stories more. This is an absolutely wonderful book that no fan of fantasy should miss out on.

My thanks to the author, publisher, and Edelweiss+ for a free copy to review. This review is entirely my own, unbiased, opinion.

[Steff Mother of Sphynx · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF I became so disheartened after reading unfulfilling story after unfulfilling story that I could not bring myself to even read those of the writers that I know. I’m not sure that Ann and Jeff have the same idea as me on what constitutes a “modern” fantasy, I knew before I had started that stories where supposed to be from the 1950s up, but, the first couple at least, I found had a clunky feel of times past.