Gamer Fantastic

by Martin H. Greenberg (Editor), Kerrie L. Hughes (Editor)

Let the games begin! These thirteen original stories by veterans of the fantasy realms take role-playing games and universes to a whole new level. From a teenager who finds a better future in virtual reality; to a private investigator hired to find a dying man's grandson in the midst of a virtual reality theme park; from a person gifted with the power to pull things out of books into the real world; to a psychologist using fantasy role-playing to heal his patients; from a gaming convention where the real winners may not be who they seem to be; to a multi-layered role-playing game that leads participants from reality to reality and games within games-these imaginative and fascinating new tales will captivate both lovers of original fantasy and anyone who has ever fallen under the spell of role-playing games.

Genres: Science Fiction, Fantasy, Anthologies, Short Stories

320 pages, Kindle Edition

First published May 22, 2009

About the author

Martin Harry Greenberg was an American academic and speculative fiction anthologist. In all, he compiled 1,298 anthologies and commissioned over 8,200 original short stories. He founded Tekno Books, a packager of more than 2000 published books. In addition, he was a co-founder of the Sci-Fi Channel.

For the 1950s anthologist and publisher of Gnome Press, see Martin Greenberg.

Reviews

[Thom · Rating 3 out of 5]

Collection of short stories connected to gaming (mostly RPG). The collection didn't rise above average for me - it was "good".

I particularly liked Escapism, Aggro Radius and Mightier than the Sword, though the last was only loosely about gaming.

Greenberg is the editor of a large number of collections, among them many "Cat Fantastic" books. Haven't read this one, and the better stories are likely to stick with me. Looking forward to reading others soon.

[Chris Merritt · Rating 4 out of 5]

A collection of 13 short stories all involving role-playing in one form or another. A couple of the stories I found rather bland but for the most part they were very good. Jim C. Hines' story "Mightier Than the Sword" I found especially clever and I was only disappointed that the story was a one-shot and not a side story from an already existing series. Ed Greenwood's eulogy for Gary Gygax was quite touching as well and does make you think about how much a simple game involving pencils, paper and dice has impacted our society. Overall a very enjoyable read.

[Jason · Rating 2 out of 5]

An uneven collection of stories dealing with the concept of RPGs. I wanted to like this more than I did. Several of the stories pushed into interesting territory and developed characters with some depth--David Levine's Aggro Radius, Steven Schend's Being Played, Kristine Kathryn Rusch's Game Testing, S. L. Farrell's The Gods of Every Other Wednesday Night. On the whole, though, the writing is dull, the characters flat, the situations contrived.

[Steven · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gamer Fantastic is a great anthology, and loads of fun for anyone who is a gamer (in any sense of the word) or knows one. From Chris Pierson's powerful opener, through Jim Hines' hilarious "Mightier Than the Sword", to Ed Greenwood's moving tribute to E. Gary Gygax, this anthology of 13 tales is solid through-and-through.

[Andrew · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great stories, some a little odd, but I have to say overall this is the best short story collection I've read in years. The whole book gets the 5 stars, not just the few authors I bought it for (Steve, Jim, and Ed). Great book and can't wait to see more.

[Brian Pettera · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just an awesome collection of gamer stories bt authors who are gamers. I'd recommend this to anyone. % Stars!

[Jason · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm actually reading this for the second time. It's that good!

[The Joy of Erudition · Rating 4 out of 5]

I rate this anthology on the strength of its best stories, because it wasn't those authors' faults that they had to share this book with the bad ones. In particular, I enjoyed "Game Testing", "Mightier than the Sword", "Aggro Radius", and "Escapism".

"Game Testing", the last and longest story in this collection, is the true highlight! A real page-turner with well-flowing prose, natural dialogue, clearly defined characters, and a great plot that I didn't want to end. I'll be looking for more from this author, Kristine Rusch. There were a small number of misspellings and revision errors -- the editors did not do their jobs -- but nothing editing couldn't fix.

"Mightier than the Sword" is a wisecracking urban fantasy focused on book magic, where certain people can pull things out of books, but only 3 times a year. Many real world authors and books are referenced, but the antagonist is a fictitious author with this power, whose books have newly become popular. Not a bad story, though this one doesn't have anything to do with gaming, despite being set at a SF/fantasy con.

"Aggro Radius" uses a non-linear format, going back and forth between the big chase scene and the events that led up to the chase, and I think it would have been much better simply linear, especially since one character is introduced after he's taken actions. Also named a location both "Annex" and "Annexe". Otherwise, this is a good Die Hard-like action story with good characters and setting, and some nice ideas.

In "Escapism", we see the horror of Switch's most memorable scene in The Matrix, writ large. Bravo, Chris Pierson!

I'm leaving my reviews of the other stories out of this main review, and focusing on the positive.

[Thistle · Rating 4 out of 5]

A collection of short stories about (wait for it) gamers and games. Mostly D&D, though a few were about LARPs or video games.

As almost always happens with these short story books, the first couple stories were great, and the last one was great as well. All the ones between them ranged from meh to okay. When I finish a collection of short stories, I always say that next time I'll just read the first and last couple, but I never follow through on that (I always think that this might be the time that there's a good one in the middle and I'll miss it).

The first story, Escapism, has to do with using virtual reality as an escape, though it has a wonderful twist -- not at all what I expected from the story. The second one, Gaming Circle, had a great twist as well, it surprised me in a fun way. The last story, Game Testing, might have been my favorite of the book. It was about the connection gamers can make with each other, and how a family can be chosen instead of the people you're born to (I'm smiling just thinking about the main character and her story!).

Those three stories were worth the price of the book, though it makes me grumpy to say so -- why aren't all the stories in it that good?

[Rogers Cadenhead · Rating 2 out of 5]

This anthology doesn't live up to the inventive premise of telling stories where roleplaying games and reality intersect. I was ready to quit after the introductory material and early stories all hammered the same worn-out joke about gamers being slovenly fast-food addicts, but I stuck around to see what Jim C. Hines would do with his story "Mightier Than the Sword." His entertaining tale was about libriomancers who could pull weapons and creatures out of SF/F novels, a premise he later expanded into a book of that name. I liked his references to real writers and novels, including a subtle, self-deprecating joke about himself. Reading Jody Lynn Nye's engaging "Roles We Play" about roleplaying being used as a therapeutic tool in the 19th century has motivated me to seek out her novels. Kristine Kathryn Rusch ended with an intriguing story about a magical RPG store in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin. The rest was forgettable, including a short perfunctory tribute to E. Gary Gygax after his death.

[Martin · Rating 2 out of 5]

Of the 13 stories, 3 were good enough for a typical issue of F&SF. It's a reminder to avoid Greenberg's anthologies of "originals."

[Maryjane Coons · Rating 4 out of 5]

I like anthology books.

[Russ · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a very fun and entertaining anthology of short stories that all have to do with role playing games. There were a lot of familiar authors in it and I only found one or two of the stories unsatisfying. Several were actually really good and left me wanting more. I would recommend this for people who actually play role playing games (I am not one of them) and for people who don't play but are familiar with role playing games (that's me). Also, fans of D&D setting novels will recognize many of the authors and will probably enjoy it.

[Jess · Rating 3 out of 5]

The quality of the short stories in this anthology is rather inconsistent, but the good ones raise interesting questions about the impact gaming has had on us, and give us both optimistic and depressing visions of how we will view gaming in the future. I felt that the stories selected were a bit too focused on the most common type of gaming we geeks encounter - D&D, WoW clones, with a focus on roleplaying in general - but then again, that would be what most readers have come to expect from the term "gaming".

[Steven · Rating 5 out of 5]

The stories I enjoyed in this the most were Kristine Katherine Rusch's "Game Testing"; Jody Lynn Nye's "The Roles We Play"; Chris Pierson's "Escapism"; Ed Greenwood's "Rescuing the Elf Princess Again"; and Jim Hines' "Mightier than the Sword".

Many fun reads in this collection, whether you know any of the authors or not (and Brian Thomsen's fairwell satire is all too biting if you can hear him cackling as he's writing it).

(For full disclosure, yes, I've got a story in this anthology too.)

[Tony Calder · Rating 3 out of 5]

Short story collections are usually a mixed bag - some good, some not so, and this is no exception. Although this collection has a higher percentage of good stories than many collections.

The theme for this collection is gaming - role-playing games, video games, even some board games, are all represented in this collection. So this book is more likely to appeal to gamers than to non-gaming genre readers.

[Luke · Rating 3 out of 5]

*Detailed review available at www.flamingnet.com*

I tried to get into this one, but I just couldn't seem to. The first few short stories were good, but it lost my interest after that. The only reason I'm giving this one three stars is because the first and second short stories were AMAZING! After that, I just couldn't keep going.

[Joshua · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is a very good read. All of the authors in the book are avid RPG fans and hardcore-D&D fans. If you like games this book is defintely one you should defintely pick up.

[Ernest · Rating 3 out of 5]

Stories based around gaming. Some are more fun than others.