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Year's Best Fantasy 3
The Barnes & Noble Review
Out of the thousands of fantasy short stories published every year, editor extraordinaire David G. Hartwell has once again compiled his annual "best of" anthology for 2002. Longtime fans of Hartwell's Year's Best fantasy and science fiction collections will undoubtedly rank his newest collection as one of strongest fantasy anthologies they've ever read.
Out of the thousands of fantasy short stories published every year, editor extraordinaire David G. Hartwell has once again compiled his annual "best of" anthology for 2002. Longtime fans of Hartwell's Year's Best fantasy and science fiction collections will undoubtedly rank his newest collection as one of strongest fantasy anthologies they've ever read.
Hartwell begins the introduction with what I consider an understatement: "It was an especially good year for fantasy short fiction in 2002, and we wish this book could have been twice as long so we could have fit in a bunch of longer stories that are just as good as the ones collected here." Included in the meaty 29-story collection are literary gems by some of the biggest names in the genre -- Ursula K. Le Guin, Charles de Lint, Tanith Lee, Gene Wolfe, Neil Gaiman, Michael Swanwick, and Nalo Hopkinson, just to name a few.
From the first story, Kage Baker's dark WWII fairy tale "Her Father's Eyes," to the very last, R. Garcia y Robertson's "Death in Love," a story about the Demi-Goddess of Death falling in love with the captain of an invading armada, this collection is indeed the best of the best. Simply stated, Year's Best Fantasy 3 is a celebration of fantastic storytelling by some of the masters of the genre. Paul Goat Allen
502 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published June 24, 2003
7 people are currently reading
169 people want to read
About the author
Kathryn Cramer
56 books41 followersKathryn Cramer lives in Westport, NY. She is an editor of the Hieroglyph project sponsored by the Center for Science and the Imagination at Arizona State University. Her story, "Am I Free to Go?" was published by Tor.com in December 2012.
She co-edited the Year's Best Fantasy and Year's Best SF series with David G. Hartwell. Her most recent historical anthologies include The Space Opera Renaissance and The Hard SF Renaissance, both co-edited with Hartwell. Their previous hard SF anthology was The Ascent of Wonder (1994).
She is working on a film adaptation of her story "You, in Emulation" with director Edward Cornell.
She co-edited the Year's Best Fantasy and Year's Best SF series with David G. Hartwell. Her most recent historical anthologies include The Space Opera Renaissance and The Hard SF Renaissance, both co-edited with Hartwell. Their previous hard SF anthology was The Ascent of Wonder (1994).
She is working on a film adaptation of her story "You, in Emulation" with director Edward Cornell.
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June 23, 2024
An important opening point:
Goodreads credits Kathryn Cramer as the sole editor of this anthology. It was actually edited by Cramer and David G. Hartwell; in fact, Hartwell's name is the only one appearing on the book cover.
-----------------------------------
CONTENTS
● Introduction - Kathryn Cramer & David G. Hartwell
●Fiction:
• "Her Father's Eyes" - Kage Baker
• "Want's Master" - Patricia Bowne
• "October in the Chair" - Neil Gaiman
• "Greaves, This is Serious" - William Mingin
• "Shift" - Nalo Hopkinson
• "A Book, by Its Cover" - P. D. Cacek
• "Somewhere in My Mind There Is a Painting Box" - Charles de Lint
• "The Pyramid of Amirah" - James Patrick Kelly
• "Our Friend Electricity" - Ron Wolfe
• "Social Dreaming of the Frin" - Ursula K. Le Guin
• "Five British Dinosaurs" - Michael Swanwick
• "The Green Word" - Jeffrey Ford
• "The Comedian" - Stepan Chapman
• "The Pagodas of Ciboure" - M. Shayne Bell
• "From the Cradle" - Gene Wolfe
• "Sam" - Donald Barr
• "Persian Eyes" - Tanith Lee
• "Travel Agency" - Ellen Klages
• "A Fable of Savior and Reptile" - Steven Popkes
• "Comrade Grandmother" - Naomi Kritzer
• "Familiar" - China Miéville
• "Honeydark" - Liz Williams
• "A Prayer for Captain La Hire" - Patrice E. Sarath
• "Origin of the Species" - James Van Pelt
• "Tread Softly" - Brian Stableford
• "How It Ended" - Darrell Schweitzer
• "Cecil Rhodes in Hell" - Michael Swanwick
• "Hide and Seek" - Nicholas Royle
• "Death in Love" - R. Garcia y Robertson
I have only reviewed one other volume in this series, Year's Best Fantasy 9. I gave that a five star rating and noted that the stories included two World Fantasy Award winners as well as two other runners-up, a Hugo Award winner and a runner-up, two Nebula Award nominees, and an Aurora Award winner.
Year's Best Fantasy 3 is far from that distinguished. There are some fine stories here, but none, I think, that will show up in anthologies thirty years hence. There are also some stories that I don't even like.
Nalo Hopkinson's story "Shift" takes characters from Shakespeare's The Tempest and puts them in a modern-day story, much of it concerning race relations. I don't think that it is successful.
'Familiar" by China Miéville is a deliberately disgusting horror story. It finished in third place for a Locus Award.
Michael Swanwick is the only author with two entries in this book, both of them short non-stories. The single page "Cecil Rhodes in Hell" assumes that Rhodes not only was a bad man, he reveled in his evil. "Five British Dinosaurs" has five vignettes relating to dinosaurs in Britain. Two of them treat them as subjects for study by paleontologists. In the other three, dinosaurs are in modern England. I found these quite funny (especially "Yaverlandia bitholus"). This was nominated for a British Science Fiction Award.
There are three stories about the wonders of books. "Travel Agency" by Ellen Klages tells about the marvelous places to which books can take people, especially children. This is brief and very sweet.
In P. D. Cacek's "A Book, by Its Cover" (perfect title), all the books in a bookseller's shop in Germany are burned by Nazis on Kristallnacht. This is much more of a tragedy than one might think, as the bookseller's young neighbor discovers. I don't think that the premise makes much sense, but the tale is moving nonetheless.
Gene Wolfe's story "From the Cradle" is described in its editorial introduction as "a fantasy love story set in the future (we hope you will not hold a few SF elements against it)..." It is not, I think; it is, rather, a science fiction story with, possibly, some elements of fantasy. This is a very Wolfeian story, with multiple tales within the main story. A bookshop is given an old book to sell on consignment; the book will know when the correct buyer comes along.
Fairy tales may be the first glimpse children have of the worlds of fantasy. Neil Gaiman's "October in the Chair" takes a setting from an old Czech fairy tale, "The Twelve Months," and adapts it as a fine modern ghost story. The only problem is that it stops with the interior story still unfin
Naomi Kritzer's story "Comrade Grandmother" takes the Slavic mythological female Baba Yaga and combines her with Russia in World War II trying to repel the invading German army. This is also a love story, in which a brave woman makes desperate bargains.
Jeffrey Ford's "The Green Word" is also a sort of fairy tale, longer than the other two. King Pious is troubled by dwellers in the woodlands of his realm. Those people refuse to accept the true faith, "ignorantly worshipping trees and bushes, the insubstantial deities of sunlight and rain." They even practice witchcraft. Pious holds a tournament, inviting knights from other kingdoms. One of the challengers comes from Pious's own kingdom: Vertuminus, a man made of living wood.
"The Pagodas of Ciboure" by M. Shayne Bell takes elements from French fairy tales and combines them with some fact. These pagodas are not buildings; they are small living creatures made of pieces of glass, crystal, jewels, and porcelain. In 1885, Maurice Ravel was a ten year old boy visiting Ciboure. He had what appears to be some kind of blood dyscrasia and was in danger of dying. He came across a settlement of pagodas, who were threatened by invading slugs. Maurice and the pagodas are able to help each other. This is one of my favorite stories in this anthology. It was nominated for a Nebula Award.
Steven Popkes's story is certainly not a fairy tale, but it is a kind of fable: "A Fable of Savior and Reptile." The reptile, who narrates the story, is a turtle, intelligent and capable of speech; the Savior is Jesus. They meet repeatedly through Jesus's life, which is quite different from that portrayed in the Bible.
Horror stories - and stories that border on being horror stories - make up a significant part of this anthology. It is not always possible to say where boundaries occur, so I suspect that people (including some of the authors) might disagree with my categorizing some of these as horror. I note that the Gaiman story, which I would not include in this group, has also appeared in a horror anthology, which is certainly understandable.
I have already mentioned China Miéville's "Familiar" in this category. Two of the other stories are among my favorite entries in this book.
I first read this book around twenty years ago. Rereading it now, I had largely forgotten details of most of these stories. Not so with "Hide and Seek" by Nicholas Royle; this I remembered well. A father with two young children is taking care of them while his wife is at a meeting. He is also caring for a neighbor's young girl. The man suggests they play hide and seek. This does not go as expected.
As much as I like "Hide and Seek," I think that "Persian Eyes" by Tanith Lee may be a better story. A slave woman in Rome has been moved from household to household, because the men of each home become too interested in her. Not just interested - enthralled.
There Is a monster in "A Prayer for Captain La Hire" by Patrice E. Sarath, but it is not a supernatural one. Some ten years after the horrible death of Joan of Arc, one of her former comrades-in-arms, La Hire, receives a message from another of their company, Gilles de Rais, asking for his help. La Hire recruits two more of his former companions, de Metz and de Poulengy, and they ride on to de Rais's castle. They have heard terrible
rumors about de Rais, but surely they can not be true.
That story combines horror and religion. So also does "The Pyramid of Amirah" by James Patrick Kelly, in which the religion seems to be not Christianity but Islam. In what appears to be the not far distant future, the United States has adopted a religion which includes the practice of walling up young girls in pyramids built around their own houses. They have food and water and might live a long time. The ending of the story seems to me to imply that this might not be evil.
In 1946, a young girl (soon to start kindergarten) is riding on a train with her parents in "Her Father's Eyes" by Kage Baker. Her father was recently discharged from the service. The girl herself was recently very ill, almost dying. At some point, a movie-star-lovely couple with a little boy sit opposite them. The children talk and draw pictures together. The boy, obviously frightened, says that he was adopted but he is now "almost seven... And they only like new things." The girl tries to help, with unexpected results.
That story is set shortly after the end of World War II. "Tread Softly" by Brian Stableford begins during World War I. The narrator, perhaps not the most reliable of narrators, has been wounded despite being a conscientious objector, losing the sight of one eye. Convalescing in England, he is told of a rug dealer who might have carpets made by "the dream-weavers of Kharshahar," of which he has some prior knowledge. These are magic carpets. They do not fly; they are "capable of absorbing and influencing the dreams and daydreams of their owners." The narrator gets such a carpet, knowing that it is a "spoiled" carpet, "more likely to advance despair than hope," "a source of nightmares." But he is hopeful that he can "redeem" the carpet. The title has, I believe, a two-fold meaning. Explicitly it means that he "was able to tread so softly upon the gentle pile of [his] magic carpet." I am sure that this is also a reference to the line from William Butler Yeats, "Tread softly because you tread on my dreams."
I don't think that Ron Wolfe's story "Our Friend Electricity" is primarily a horror story but it certainly has some elements of horror. The narrator, a book editor, meets and falls in love with a woman, who seems to be obsessed with "the old - the real Coney Island." And well she might be, because in one avatar that is where - and when - she lived. The historical material about an elephant and a man named "Skip" Dundy is evidently accurate. As with "Her Father's Eyes," this is more sad than frightening.
I suspect that most people wouldn't consider Liz Williams' story "Honeydark" to be horror, but it is somewhat frightening. A fifty year old political figure in Constantinople in the early 1920s decides to give up his life, leaving his family and his position of authority and, without telling anyone where he is going (which he does not know himself), leaves the city and travels through rural areas, finally stopping in a remote village. He knows that he might be pursued, by both people and "janissaries," sinister armored cyborgs. (A science fictional touch in an otherwise non-science fictional story.) He stays with a family that includes a young girl, Melissa, keeper of the bees. (This is not mentioned in the story, but "melissa" is the Greek word for bee.) This is not entirely a typical village, and the bees are not typical either.
The groupings I have made thus far are very loose. Nobody reading, say, "Persian Eyes" and "Hide and Seek" is likely to think them very similar. The remaining stories will each stand alone.
There are only three comic entries in this anthology, "Five British Dinosaurs," William Mingin's "Greaves, This Is Serious," and "Origin of the Species" by James Van Pelt. "Greaves" is a dark but humorous parody of P. G. Wodehouse's tales of Jeeves, the perfect butler, and Bertie Wooster, his less than ambitious employer. The Wooster character, here called Ferdinand Brewster, is a shining example of fatuous, totally selfish indolence, and his butler, Greaves, assists him in ways that might not be considered commendable. This must be almost meaningless to anyone not familiar with the Jeeves stories; I found it very funny.
Stepan Chapman's story "The Comedian" might sound like a comic tale, but it is not. It is narrated by a man who is a member of a family that all develop some extraordinary power in adolescence. He tells of his older brother, who developed a kind of telekinesis, but in a very limited manner; the only things that he can move with his mind are beings who once lived but are now dead. He occasionally uses this ability for jokes - and eventually, while still in high school, needs to use it for a very different task. (By the way, a.comment in the editorial introduction to the story says that the "older brother uses his telekinetic powers to become popular in high school." That is not correct.)
One of the most unusual entries in this book is "Social Dreaming of the Frin" by Ursula K. Le Guin. The Frin are people who live on another "plane." They seem essentially like people on our plane, with one significant difference; they dream together. The dreams of people in a neighborhood mingle with those of everyone near them. And not just people: the dreams of animals mix in as well. People do not eat animals; how could you eat a being you had shared dreams with? They have sheep just for wool, cows just for milk, pigs just for...I have no idea. Companionship, maybe?
Patricia Bowne has a story that is part of a series, set mostly, I believe, in the Royal Academy of the Arcane Arts and Sciences in Osyth. These stories are evidently not primarily about the students but about the staff. In "Want's Master" (a title that I don't understand; perhaps I missed the explanation), the central character is the Academy's Development Officer, William Harrison Gracile. Gracile is an enchanter; who better to be raising money from donors? Seeking contributions, he meets with an extremely wealthy woman, an enchanter herself, who is easily able to resist Gracile's pleas. Later they are both at a fund-raising party. Also present is a female member of the teaching staff in the Department of Demonology, who is the Vice-President of the Alliance for Ethical Lechery. Magic of more than one kind takes place.
"How It Ended" by Darrell Schweitzer at first seems to be a traditional story of an aging knight and his wife. He had fought in the Crusades long ago, is master of his lands, and has raised three fine sons. But he is troubled by a recurring dream of a young knight lying dead in a field. This has an ending that I found surprising - and quite satisfactory.
What is a fantasy anthology without a were-creature or two? All adolescents go through changes; some go through very big changes indeed. In "Origin of the Species" by James Van Pelt, a high school freshman feels that he is changing in two ways: for the first time, he is seriously interested in a female classmate, and he knows that he is coming into an unusual family heritage.
Charles de Lint has a wonderful ability to weave fantasy and ordinary life together. Many of his stories are set in a common background in and around the city of Newford. "Somewhere in My Mind There Is a Painting Box" (terrible title!) Is set on a farm and in the nearby woods. Seventeen year old Lily is walking through the woods when she comes across an artist's paintbox, obviously long abandoned. Lily, a budding artist herself, finds that the box had belonged to a well-known local artist, who, with another painter, had disappeared in those woods twenty years earlier. Magic, Lily finds, was involved in their disappearance and magic helps determine the rest of the story.
If you were to ask someone who never reads fantasy to describe what they think fantasy stories are like, I think that they might describe something like "Death in Love" by R. Garcia y Robertson. This is the longest story in this book and, in my opinion, one of the best. It is set in a version of our world long ago, but many details are very different. Lady Kore, Demi-Goddess of Death, Dark Daughter to the Goddess-on-Earth, is the all too human ruler of Seagate. Sea Beggars, who seem rather like Vikings, come to Seagate in a small armada. They say that they are fleeing from the mysterious and evil Black Sails. Lady Kore, riding aloft on a roc, tries to make things come out well for all involved. This is a world that includes Cathay, but both natural science and technology are different from the world we know. A fun, complicated tale.
The last story that I will discuss is my favorite in this anthology. I suspect that mine is very much a minority opinion. According to the science fiction and fantasy website ISFDb, the only time this story has ever been reprinted is in this anthology. Nonetheless, I think that "Sam" by Donald Barr is excellent. Barr, who wrote little in this field, died the year after this book was published. (As an aside, he was the father of former United States Attorney General William Barr.)
"Sam" is a brief tale of a man much beloved by his co-workers who is fired from his job, for reasons that are never stated. People from his company try to keep in touch, but he never responds. In a rather short time he is forgotten - entirely. His former co-workers no longer even remember that he existed. But one person whom Sam had only met once suddenly recalls Sam's extraordinary kindness and determines to help.
I was years away from retirement when I first read this. I liked it very much then; having retired since then, I love it now. Not many stories in this collection could be regarded as hopeful; this one is.
So: twenty-nine stories, most of them good. But just "good" isn't what I want - or what I expect - in a "Best of the Year" anthology. Some of the authors here whose work I have often loved seem to me to be not at their best. I think the stories here by Neil Gaiman, Ursula Le Guin, Michael Swanwick, Jeffrey Ford, Gene Wolfe, and Ellen Klages - giants all - are good, but none of them seem to me to be more than "good." The stories by Tanith Lee, Kage Baker, M. Shayne Bell, Brian Stableford, and Charles de Lint are fine, as are some by people with whose work I was less familiar: William Mingin, Ron Wolfe, Stepan Chapman, Donald Barr, Patrice E. Sarath, Nicholas Royle, and R. Garcia y Robertson. (I am aware that my unfamiliarity with some of these authors does not mean that they are not generally highly regarded.) In summation, I think this is a good anthology but not an outstanding one.
Goodreads credits Kathryn Cramer as the sole editor of this anthology. It was actually edited by Cramer and David G. Hartwell; in fact, Hartwell's name is the only one appearing on the book cover.
-----------------------------------
CONTENTS
● Introduction - Kathryn Cramer & David G. Hartwell
●Fiction:
• "Her Father's Eyes" - Kage Baker
• "Want's Master" - Patricia Bowne
• "October in the Chair" - Neil Gaiman
• "Greaves, This is Serious" - William Mingin
• "Shift" - Nalo Hopkinson
• "A Book, by Its Cover" - P. D. Cacek
• "Somewhere in My Mind There Is a Painting Box" - Charles de Lint
• "The Pyramid of Amirah" - James Patrick Kelly
• "Our Friend Electricity" - Ron Wolfe
• "Social Dreaming of the Frin" - Ursula K. Le Guin
• "Five British Dinosaurs" - Michael Swanwick
• "The Green Word" - Jeffrey Ford
• "The Comedian" - Stepan Chapman
• "The Pagodas of Ciboure" - M. Shayne Bell
• "From the Cradle" - Gene Wolfe
• "Sam" - Donald Barr
• "Persian Eyes" - Tanith Lee
• "Travel Agency" - Ellen Klages
• "A Fable of Savior and Reptile" - Steven Popkes
• "Comrade Grandmother" - Naomi Kritzer
• "Familiar" - China Miéville
• "Honeydark" - Liz Williams
• "A Prayer for Captain La Hire" - Patrice E. Sarath
• "Origin of the Species" - James Van Pelt
• "Tread Softly" - Brian Stableford
• "How It Ended" - Darrell Schweitzer
• "Cecil Rhodes in Hell" - Michael Swanwick
• "Hide and Seek" - Nicholas Royle
• "Death in Love" - R. Garcia y Robertson
I have only reviewed one other volume in this series, Year's Best Fantasy 9. I gave that a five star rating and noted that the stories included two World Fantasy Award winners as well as two other runners-up, a Hugo Award winner and a runner-up, two Nebula Award nominees, and an Aurora Award winner.
Year's Best Fantasy 3 is far from that distinguished. There are some fine stories here, but none, I think, that will show up in anthologies thirty years hence. There are also some stories that I don't even like.
Nalo Hopkinson's story "Shift" takes characters from Shakespeare's The Tempest and puts them in a modern-day story, much of it concerning race relations. I don't think that it is successful.
'Familiar" by China Miéville is a deliberately disgusting horror story. It finished in third place for a Locus Award.
Michael Swanwick is the only author with two entries in this book, both of them short non-stories. The single page "Cecil Rhodes in Hell" assumes that Rhodes not only was a bad man, he reveled in his evil. "Five British Dinosaurs" has five vignettes relating to dinosaurs in Britain. Two of them treat them as subjects for study by paleontologists. In the other three, dinosaurs are in modern England. I found these quite funny (especially "Yaverlandia bitholus"). This was nominated for a British Science Fiction Award.
There are three stories about the wonders of books. "Travel Agency" by Ellen Klages tells about the marvelous places to which books can take people, especially children. This is brief and very sweet.
In P. D. Cacek's "A Book, by Its Cover" (perfect title), all the books in a bookseller's shop in Germany are burned by Nazis on Kristallnacht. This is much more of a tragedy than one might think, as the bookseller's young neighbor discovers. I don't think that the premise makes much sense, but the tale is moving nonetheless.
Gene Wolfe's story "From the Cradle" is described in its editorial introduction as "a fantasy love story set in the future (we hope you will not hold a few SF elements against it)..." It is not, I think; it is, rather, a science fiction story with, possibly, some elements of fantasy. This is a very Wolfeian story, with multiple tales within the main story. A bookshop is given an old book to sell on consignment; the book will know when the correct buyer comes along.
Fairy tales may be the first glimpse children have of the worlds of fantasy. Neil Gaiman's "October in the Chair" takes a setting from an old Czech fairy tale, "The Twelve Months," and adapts it as a fine modern ghost story. The only problem is that it stops with the interior story still unfin
Naomi Kritzer's story "Comrade Grandmother" takes the Slavic mythological female Baba Yaga and combines her with Russia in World War II trying to repel the invading German army. This is also a love story, in which a brave woman makes desperate bargains.
Jeffrey Ford's "The Green Word" is also a sort of fairy tale, longer than the other two. King Pious is troubled by dwellers in the woodlands of his realm. Those people refuse to accept the true faith, "ignorantly worshipping trees and bushes, the insubstantial deities of sunlight and rain." They even practice witchcraft. Pious holds a tournament, inviting knights from other kingdoms. One of the challengers comes from Pious's own kingdom: Vertuminus, a man made of living wood.
"The Pagodas of Ciboure" by M. Shayne Bell takes elements from French fairy tales and combines them with some fact. These pagodas are not buildings; they are small living creatures made of pieces of glass, crystal, jewels, and porcelain. In 1885, Maurice Ravel was a ten year old boy visiting Ciboure. He had what appears to be some kind of blood dyscrasia and was in danger of dying. He came across a settlement of pagodas, who were threatened by invading slugs. Maurice and the pagodas are able to help each other. This is one of my favorite stories in this anthology. It was nominated for a Nebula Award.
Steven Popkes's story is certainly not a fairy tale, but it is a kind of fable: "A Fable of Savior and Reptile." The reptile, who narrates the story, is a turtle, intelligent and capable of speech; the Savior is Jesus. They meet repeatedly through Jesus's life, which is quite different from that portrayed in the Bible.
Horror stories - and stories that border on being horror stories - make up a significant part of this anthology. It is not always possible to say where boundaries occur, so I suspect that people (including some of the authors) might disagree with my categorizing some of these as horror. I note that the Gaiman story, which I would not include in this group, has also appeared in a horror anthology, which is certainly understandable.
I have already mentioned China Miéville's "Familiar" in this category. Two of the other stories are among my favorite entries in this book.
I first read this book around twenty years ago. Rereading it now, I had largely forgotten details of most of these stories. Not so with "Hide and Seek" by Nicholas Royle; this I remembered well. A father with two young children is taking care of them while his wife is at a meeting. He is also caring for a neighbor's young girl. The man suggests they play hide and seek. This does not go as expected.
As much as I like "Hide and Seek," I think that "Persian Eyes" by Tanith Lee may be a better story. A slave woman in Rome has been moved from household to household, because the men of each home become too interested in her. Not just interested - enthralled.
There Is a monster in "A Prayer for Captain La Hire" by Patrice E. Sarath, but it is not a supernatural one. Some ten years after the horrible death of Joan of Arc, one of her former comrades-in-arms, La Hire, receives a message from another of their company, Gilles de Rais, asking for his help. La Hire recruits two more of his former companions, de Metz and de Poulengy, and they ride on to de Rais's castle. They have heard terrible
rumors about de Rais, but surely they can not be true.
That story combines horror and religion. So also does "The Pyramid of Amirah" by James Patrick Kelly, in which the religion seems to be not Christianity but Islam. In what appears to be the not far distant future, the United States has adopted a religion which includes the practice of walling up young girls in pyramids built around their own houses. They have food and water and might live a long time. The ending of the story seems to me to imply that this might not be evil.
In 1946, a young girl (soon to start kindergarten) is riding on a train with her parents in "Her Father's Eyes" by Kage Baker. Her father was recently discharged from the service. The girl herself was recently very ill, almost dying. At some point, a movie-star-lovely couple with a little boy sit opposite them. The children talk and draw pictures together. The boy, obviously frightened, says that he was adopted but he is now "almost seven... And they only like new things." The girl tries to help, with unexpected results.
That story is set shortly after the end of World War II. "Tread Softly" by Brian Stableford begins during World War I. The narrator, perhaps not the most reliable of narrators, has been wounded despite being a conscientious objector, losing the sight of one eye. Convalescing in England, he is told of a rug dealer who might have carpets made by "the dream-weavers of Kharshahar," of which he has some prior knowledge. These are magic carpets. They do not fly; they are "capable of absorbing and influencing the dreams and daydreams of their owners." The narrator gets such a carpet, knowing that it is a "spoiled" carpet, "more likely to advance despair than hope," "a source of nightmares." But he is hopeful that he can "redeem" the carpet. The title has, I believe, a two-fold meaning. Explicitly it means that he "was able to tread so softly upon the gentle pile of [his] magic carpet." I am sure that this is also a reference to the line from William Butler Yeats, "Tread softly because you tread on my dreams."
I don't think that Ron Wolfe's story "Our Friend Electricity" is primarily a horror story but it certainly has some elements of horror. The narrator, a book editor, meets and falls in love with a woman, who seems to be obsessed with "the old - the real Coney Island." And well she might be, because in one avatar that is where - and when - she lived. The historical material about an elephant and a man named "Skip" Dundy is evidently accurate. As with "Her Father's Eyes," this is more sad than frightening.
I suspect that most people wouldn't consider Liz Williams' story "Honeydark" to be horror, but it is somewhat frightening. A fifty year old political figure in Constantinople in the early 1920s decides to give up his life, leaving his family and his position of authority and, without telling anyone where he is going (which he does not know himself), leaves the city and travels through rural areas, finally stopping in a remote village. He knows that he might be pursued, by both people and "janissaries," sinister armored cyborgs. (A science fictional touch in an otherwise non-science fictional story.) He stays with a family that includes a young girl, Melissa, keeper of the bees. (This is not mentioned in the story, but "melissa" is the Greek word for bee.) This is not entirely a typical village, and the bees are not typical either.
The groupings I have made thus far are very loose. Nobody reading, say, "Persian Eyes" and "Hide and Seek" is likely to think them very similar. The remaining stories will each stand alone.
There are only three comic entries in this anthology, "Five British Dinosaurs," William Mingin's "Greaves, This Is Serious," and "Origin of the Species" by James Van Pelt. "Greaves" is a dark but humorous parody of P. G. Wodehouse's tales of Jeeves, the perfect butler, and Bertie Wooster, his less than ambitious employer. The Wooster character, here called Ferdinand Brewster, is a shining example of fatuous, totally selfish indolence, and his butler, Greaves, assists him in ways that might not be considered commendable. This must be almost meaningless to anyone not familiar with the Jeeves stories; I found it very funny.
Stepan Chapman's story "The Comedian" might sound like a comic tale, but it is not. It is narrated by a man who is a member of a family that all develop some extraordinary power in adolescence. He tells of his older brother, who developed a kind of telekinesis, but in a very limited manner; the only things that he can move with his mind are beings who once lived but are now dead. He occasionally uses this ability for jokes - and eventually, while still in high school, needs to use it for a very different task. (By the way, a.comment in the editorial introduction to the story says that the "older brother uses his telekinetic powers to become popular in high school." That is not correct.)
One of the most unusual entries in this book is "Social Dreaming of the Frin" by Ursula K. Le Guin. The Frin are people who live on another "plane." They seem essentially like people on our plane, with one significant difference; they dream together. The dreams of people in a neighborhood mingle with those of everyone near them. And not just people: the dreams of animals mix in as well. People do not eat animals; how could you eat a being you had shared dreams with? They have sheep just for wool, cows just for milk, pigs just for...I have no idea. Companionship, maybe?
Patricia Bowne has a story that is part of a series, set mostly, I believe, in the Royal Academy of the Arcane Arts and Sciences in Osyth. These stories are evidently not primarily about the students but about the staff. In "Want's Master" (a title that I don't understand; perhaps I missed the explanation), the central character is the Academy's Development Officer, William Harrison Gracile. Gracile is an enchanter; who better to be raising money from donors? Seeking contributions, he meets with an extremely wealthy woman, an enchanter herself, who is easily able to resist Gracile's pleas. Later they are both at a fund-raising party. Also present is a female member of the teaching staff in the Department of Demonology, who is the Vice-President of the Alliance for Ethical Lechery. Magic of more than one kind takes place.
"How It Ended" by Darrell Schweitzer at first seems to be a traditional story of an aging knight and his wife. He had fought in the Crusades long ago, is master of his lands, and has raised three fine sons. But he is troubled by a recurring dream of a young knight lying dead in a field. This has an ending that I found surprising - and quite satisfactory.
What is a fantasy anthology without a were-creature or two? All adolescents go through changes; some go through very big changes indeed. In "Origin of the Species" by James Van Pelt, a high school freshman feels that he is changing in two ways: for the first time, he is seriously interested in a female classmate, and he knows that he is coming into an unusual family heritage.
Charles de Lint has a wonderful ability to weave fantasy and ordinary life together. Many of his stories are set in a common background in and around the city of Newford. "Somewhere in My Mind There Is a Painting Box" (terrible title!) Is set on a farm and in the nearby woods. Seventeen year old Lily is walking through the woods when she comes across an artist's paintbox, obviously long abandoned. Lily, a budding artist herself, finds that the box had belonged to a well-known local artist, who, with another painter, had disappeared in those woods twenty years earlier. Magic, Lily finds, was involved in their disappearance and magic helps determine the rest of the story.
If you were to ask someone who never reads fantasy to describe what they think fantasy stories are like, I think that they might describe something like "Death in Love" by R. Garcia y Robertson. This is the longest story in this book and, in my opinion, one of the best. It is set in a version of our world long ago, but many details are very different. Lady Kore, Demi-Goddess of Death, Dark Daughter to the Goddess-on-Earth, is the all too human ruler of Seagate. Sea Beggars, who seem rather like Vikings, come to Seagate in a small armada. They say that they are fleeing from the mysterious and evil Black Sails. Lady Kore, riding aloft on a roc, tries to make things come out well for all involved. This is a world that includes Cathay, but both natural science and technology are different from the world we know. A fun, complicated tale.
The last story that I will discuss is my favorite in this anthology. I suspect that mine is very much a minority opinion. According to the science fiction and fantasy website ISFDb, the only time this story has ever been reprinted is in this anthology. Nonetheless, I think that "Sam" by Donald Barr is excellent. Barr, who wrote little in this field, died the year after this book was published. (As an aside, he was the father of former United States Attorney General William Barr.)
"Sam" is a brief tale of a man much beloved by his co-workers who is fired from his job, for reasons that are never stated. People from his company try to keep in touch, but he never responds. In a rather short time he is forgotten - entirely. His former co-workers no longer even remember that he existed. But one person whom Sam had only met once suddenly recalls Sam's extraordinary kindness and determines to help.
I was years away from retirement when I first read this. I liked it very much then; having retired since then, I love it now. Not many stories in this collection could be regarded as hopeful; this one is.
So: twenty-nine stories, most of them good. But just "good" isn't what I want - or what I expect - in a "Best of the Year" anthology. Some of the authors here whose work I have often loved seem to me to be not at their best. I think the stories here by Neil Gaiman, Ursula Le Guin, Michael Swanwick, Jeffrey Ford, Gene Wolfe, and Ellen Klages - giants all - are good, but none of them seem to me to be more than "good." The stories by Tanith Lee, Kage Baker, M. Shayne Bell, Brian Stableford, and Charles de Lint are fine, as are some by people with whose work I was less familiar: William Mingin, Ron Wolfe, Stepan Chapman, Donald Barr, Patrice E. Sarath, Nicholas Royle, and R. Garcia y Robertson. (I am aware that my unfamiliarity with some of these authors does not mean that they are not generally highly regarded.) In summation, I think this is a good anthology but not an outstanding one.
May 18, 2020
I wasn’t terribly impressed with the stories in this anthology. I stopped reading this book to read a couple of more interesting novels. I had to get this book from the library twice because it was so easy to put down, that I ran out of time. Below are reviews of the stories I enjoyed the most.
Her Father's Eyes - Kage Baker, 2/5. Post WWII a young girl encounters a sad young boy on a train who is traveling with an unsettling man and a woman. The girl is afraid for the boy. We never learn what happens to him after he leaves the train.
A Book, by Its Cover - P.D. Cacek; 2/5. A Jewish boy has lost his family to the Nazis. He becomes suspicious of a bookseller who received visits from adults with children, but the children never reappear.
Somewhere In My Mind, There Is A Painting Box - Charles de Lint; 2/5. This is a story of young woman who would like to become an artist. She finds an old paint box in the woods that belonged to an artist who disappeared many years ago. Later she encounters his companion who seems shell shocked. She is eventually faced with a decision to embrace the small magics of our world or to migrate to the vivid and highly magical realm of the fairy folk. I thought the author did an excellent job of bringing the forest to life.
The Green Word - Jeffrey Ford; 4/5. This story describes the conflict between the forest people and the king who has invaded and usurped their lands. Using druidic magic vs. the mediaeval technology of the king, this story can be seen as the modern conflict of industrialization over the environment. I found it engaging and well written.
The Pagodas of Ciboure - M. Shayne Bell; 4/5. This charming story postulates that the composer Maurice Ravel had childhood leukemia and traveled to his grandmother’s home in Cibourne to rest and recuperate. There he encounters the ‘pagodas’ of French peasant folklore who build bodies out of broken china and glass. They are rumored to have healing powers as well. Maurice tries to secure their help, but is not sure if he has succeeded. Maurice risks his life to aid the pagodas when they are attacked by snails. Another story where the author does an excellent job of describing the landscape and setting the scene.
From the Cradle - Gene Wolfe; 3/5. A boy is a helper in a book store when an elderly woman comes in with a special old book to sell on consignment. The caveat is she will only sell to a person the book wants. Years pass without a sale. The boy grows into a lonely man and inherits the store. Along the way he reads and tries to make sense of some of the stories in the book. Finally a young woman expresses interest in the book. Mildly interesting twist at the end.
Travel Agency - Ellen Klages; 3/5. A very short story that reminds us of the books in which we have thoroughly immersed ourselves.
A Fable of Savior and Reptile - Steven Popkes; 2/5. Through the perspective of a tortoise, Jesus of Nazareth is depicted as a victim of circumstances more than the leader who founded Christianity. An odd little tale.
Comrade Grandmother - Naomi Kritzer; 3/5. Kritzer is the reason I picked up this anthology in the first place. Baba Yaga and a young heroic woman save Mother Russia during the siege of Stalingrad. The story captures the sacrifices and heroism of the Russian people and especially those of Stalingrad. I’ve read a lot about this siege, so this story might echo more for me than other readers.
Her Father's Eyes - Kage Baker, 2/5. Post WWII a young girl encounters a sad young boy on a train who is traveling with an unsettling man and a woman. The girl is afraid for the boy. We never learn what happens to him after he leaves the train.
A Book, by Its Cover - P.D. Cacek; 2/5. A Jewish boy has lost his family to the Nazis. He becomes suspicious of a bookseller who received visits from adults with children, but the children never reappear.
Somewhere In My Mind, There Is A Painting Box - Charles de Lint; 2/5. This is a story of young woman who would like to become an artist. She finds an old paint box in the woods that belonged to an artist who disappeared many years ago. Later she encounters his companion who seems shell shocked. She is eventually faced with a decision to embrace the small magics of our world or to migrate to the vivid and highly magical realm of the fairy folk. I thought the author did an excellent job of bringing the forest to life.
The Green Word - Jeffrey Ford; 4/5. This story describes the conflict between the forest people and the king who has invaded and usurped their lands. Using druidic magic vs. the mediaeval technology of the king, this story can be seen as the modern conflict of industrialization over the environment. I found it engaging and well written.
The Pagodas of Ciboure - M. Shayne Bell; 4/5. This charming story postulates that the composer Maurice Ravel had childhood leukemia and traveled to his grandmother’s home in Cibourne to rest and recuperate. There he encounters the ‘pagodas’ of French peasant folklore who build bodies out of broken china and glass. They are rumored to have healing powers as well. Maurice tries to secure their help, but is not sure if he has succeeded. Maurice risks his life to aid the pagodas when they are attacked by snails. Another story where the author does an excellent job of describing the landscape and setting the scene.
From the Cradle - Gene Wolfe; 3/5. A boy is a helper in a book store when an elderly woman comes in with a special old book to sell on consignment. The caveat is she will only sell to a person the book wants. Years pass without a sale. The boy grows into a lonely man and inherits the store. Along the way he reads and tries to make sense of some of the stories in the book. Finally a young woman expresses interest in the book. Mildly interesting twist at the end.
Travel Agency - Ellen Klages; 3/5. A very short story that reminds us of the books in which we have thoroughly immersed ourselves.
A Fable of Savior and Reptile - Steven Popkes; 2/5. Through the perspective of a tortoise, Jesus of Nazareth is depicted as a victim of circumstances more than the leader who founded Christianity. An odd little tale.
Comrade Grandmother - Naomi Kritzer; 3/5. Kritzer is the reason I picked up this anthology in the first place. Baba Yaga and a young heroic woman save Mother Russia during the siege of Stalingrad. The story captures the sacrifices and heroism of the Russian people and especially those of Stalingrad. I’ve read a lot about this siege, so this story might echo more for me than other readers.
June 28, 2011
This small paperback has been hiding from me for years, escaping my eye at the bottom of my box with books-to-read. I love anthologies, and while year's best anthologies must present the best of that particular year, these are often hard for me to read because I dont know what to expect in terms of theme and style.
However, looking at this anthology I find stories from a lot of masters that I respect. Masters like Michael Swanwick, Tanith Lee, Neil Gaiman and Liz Williams.
This is a review-in-progress and I will review the stories as I read them, starting with the very first story, of course.
Her Father's Eyes (by Kage Baker) is a hauntingly beautiful (and dark) story about a girl who meets a strange boy on a train. I am not sure that I really understood all the layers in this story, but there was certainly an element of the supernatural and even quite a bit of fairy tale here. I've wanted to read something from Kage Baker for years and this is a good place to start. (3 stars)
Want's Master (by Patricia Bowne) is the story about the enchanter Gracile. It presents a very weird setting with lots of magic, but also with Vice Presidents, academies and even cars. It was a little too contemporary for my liking. Or perhaps I just didn't get the setting. It is, however, easy to read. (1.5 stars)
October in the Chair (by Neil Gaiman) is the story of how October told a story to the rest of the months. Yeah, a wonderful way to start a story, a little strange, but wonderfully strange, and the story? Well, it concerns a named boy who runs away from home, only to find a new home... perhaps? This has Neil Gaiman written all over it and is definitely worth a read. (3 stars)
Greaves, This Is Serious (by William Mingin) is a weird little piece of fiction that didn't really speak to me. When something doesn't speak to me, I don't really make an effort to understand the story. I think this one was about death and dying. (0 stars)
Shift (by Nalo Hopkinson) is an even weirder piece of fiction with at least two narratives. It felt like the author thought she was being very clever, yet disguising her lack of story within her cleverness. I really didn't like this piece and since it was quite long, didn't finish it. How it made it into a "Best of" anthology is beyond me. (0 stars)
A Book, by Its Cover (by P.D. Cacek) is a story set in Germany under the second world war. It definitely has some nice ideas, but is still rather unfullfilling in some strange way - at least to me. (2 stars)
Somewhere In My Mind, There Is A Painting Box (by Charles de Lint) is a wonderful tale of imagination and fairy tales. A girl finds a painting box hidden in a forest and then a series of wonderful events start to unfold... but will she leave this world for Fairyland or will she stay and discover the magic of her world instead? Charles de Lint always delivers... and this tale is no exception! Wonderful! (5 stars)
The Pyramid of Amirah (by James Patrick Kelly) is the story of a lonely girl who watches the world from within her pyramid. It might have something to do with her mother's death, but then again, it might just be something else. A little too cryptic for me. (1.5 stars)
Our Friend Electricity (by Ron Wolfe) is a love story, but not an ordinary one. Its tone reminded me a bit of Palahniuk, Auster and Blaylock. It also had some Sturgeon within it - lots of puns. It almost threw me off by the end, but only almost. A great story. (4 stars)
Social Dreaming of the Frin (by Ursula K. Le Guin) is a strange treatise on dreaming amongst the alien Frin. It certainly has some interesting ideas, but doesn't seem all that fantastic to me - perhaps it is her choice of genre that confuses me. (2 stars)
Five British Dinosaurs (by Michael Swanwick) is five very short and very strange stories about dinosaurs discovered in Britain. There were some amusing moments, especially in the last of the five, but not a whole lot of meaning! (2 stars)
The Green Word (by Jeffrey Ford) is a story about King Pious and his battle against the forest people. It is epically told - almost as poetry. There is much to like here, even if you aren't a big fan of fairytales. Like Kage Baker, I've wanted to read something of Jeffrey Ford for years as well and this is a very good place to start. (4 stars)
The Comedian (by Stepan Chapman) is a modern fantasy with psychic powers. It tells the story of a young man named Shell and how his heart is broken by a girl named Bekka. From the intro I was almost certain that I wouldn't like this story much, but surprise... I did! Perhaps because it is very... human. (3 stars)
The Pagodas of Ciboure (by M. Shayne Bell) is about a sick boy named Maurice, who finds some strange creatures that may be able to help him with his illness. It is very straightforward and easy to read. I found myself transported to some forest outside Paris... at the mercy of the strange creatures called the Pagodas! (3 stars)
From the Cradle (by Gene Wolfe) is another great love story, a mix between sci-fi and fantasy. It centers around a boy named Michael and a strange book that is looking for an owner. It actually contains several minor stories within, as Michael gets to read some of the stories within the book. I love it! Oh, and it has a twist at the end. (4 stars)
Sam (by Donald Barr) is a weird story about... Sam. Basically, the question the author wants an answer to is... what happens when a person is forgotten? Does he vanish? It's a good philosophical question, but the question is... does it belong in a fantasy anthology? (2 stars)
Travel Agency (by Ellen Klages) is more of an idea than an actual story. Remember being a child, remember lying on your bed and reading a story... remember being transported into the book? (2.5 stars)
A Fable of Savior and Reptile (by Steven Popkes) is the tale of Jesus seen through the eyes of a tortoise. I am not religious and this story did not really open my eyes or anything. It is well-written, however. (1.5 stars)
Comrade Grandmother (by Naomi Kritzer) is another Baba Yaga story set during the second world war. It is well spun tale in the fairy tale tradition - but not for me. (2 stars)
Familiar (by China Mieville) is the story of a witch and his familiar. I may be the only one on this planet who does not understand how great China Mieville is... and this short story did not change that. It is confusing to say the least and far too long. (1 star)
However, looking at this anthology I find stories from a lot of masters that I respect. Masters like Michael Swanwick, Tanith Lee, Neil Gaiman and Liz Williams.
This is a review-in-progress and I will review the stories as I read them, starting with the very first story, of course.
Her Father's Eyes (by Kage Baker) is a hauntingly beautiful (and dark) story about a girl who meets a strange boy on a train. I am not sure that I really understood all the layers in this story, but there was certainly an element of the supernatural and even quite a bit of fairy tale here. I've wanted to read something from Kage Baker for years and this is a good place to start. (3 stars)
Want's Master (by Patricia Bowne) is the story about the enchanter Gracile. It presents a very weird setting with lots of magic, but also with Vice Presidents, academies and even cars. It was a little too contemporary for my liking. Or perhaps I just didn't get the setting. It is, however, easy to read. (1.5 stars)
October in the Chair (by Neil Gaiman) is the story of how October told a story to the rest of the months. Yeah, a wonderful way to start a story, a little strange, but wonderfully strange, and the story? Well, it concerns a named boy who runs away from home, only to find a new home... perhaps? This has Neil Gaiman written all over it and is definitely worth a read. (3 stars)
Greaves, This Is Serious (by William Mingin) is a weird little piece of fiction that didn't really speak to me. When something doesn't speak to me, I don't really make an effort to understand the story. I think this one was about death and dying. (0 stars)
Shift (by Nalo Hopkinson) is an even weirder piece of fiction with at least two narratives. It felt like the author thought she was being very clever, yet disguising her lack of story within her cleverness. I really didn't like this piece and since it was quite long, didn't finish it. How it made it into a "Best of" anthology is beyond me. (0 stars)
A Book, by Its Cover (by P.D. Cacek) is a story set in Germany under the second world war. It definitely has some nice ideas, but is still rather unfullfilling in some strange way - at least to me. (2 stars)
Somewhere In My Mind, There Is A Painting Box (by Charles de Lint) is a wonderful tale of imagination and fairy tales. A girl finds a painting box hidden in a forest and then a series of wonderful events start to unfold... but will she leave this world for Fairyland or will she stay and discover the magic of her world instead? Charles de Lint always delivers... and this tale is no exception! Wonderful! (5 stars)
The Pyramid of Amirah (by James Patrick Kelly) is the story of a lonely girl who watches the world from within her pyramid. It might have something to do with her mother's death, but then again, it might just be something else. A little too cryptic for me. (1.5 stars)
Our Friend Electricity (by Ron Wolfe) is a love story, but not an ordinary one. Its tone reminded me a bit of Palahniuk, Auster and Blaylock. It also had some Sturgeon within it - lots of puns. It almost threw me off by the end, but only almost. A great story. (4 stars)
Social Dreaming of the Frin (by Ursula K. Le Guin) is a strange treatise on dreaming amongst the alien Frin. It certainly has some interesting ideas, but doesn't seem all that fantastic to me - perhaps it is her choice of genre that confuses me. (2 stars)
Five British Dinosaurs (by Michael Swanwick) is five very short and very strange stories about dinosaurs discovered in Britain. There were some amusing moments, especially in the last of the five, but not a whole lot of meaning! (2 stars)
The Green Word (by Jeffrey Ford) is a story about King Pious and his battle against the forest people. It is epically told - almost as poetry. There is much to like here, even if you aren't a big fan of fairytales. Like Kage Baker, I've wanted to read something of Jeffrey Ford for years as well and this is a very good place to start. (4 stars)
The Comedian (by Stepan Chapman) is a modern fantasy with psychic powers. It tells the story of a young man named Shell and how his heart is broken by a girl named Bekka. From the intro I was almost certain that I wouldn't like this story much, but surprise... I did! Perhaps because it is very... human. (3 stars)
The Pagodas of Ciboure (by M. Shayne Bell) is about a sick boy named Maurice, who finds some strange creatures that may be able to help him with his illness. It is very straightforward and easy to read. I found myself transported to some forest outside Paris... at the mercy of the strange creatures called the Pagodas! (3 stars)
From the Cradle (by Gene Wolfe) is another great love story, a mix between sci-fi and fantasy. It centers around a boy named Michael and a strange book that is looking for an owner. It actually contains several minor stories within, as Michael gets to read some of the stories within the book. I love it! Oh, and it has a twist at the end. (4 stars)
Sam (by Donald Barr) is a weird story about... Sam. Basically, the question the author wants an answer to is... what happens when a person is forgotten? Does he vanish? It's a good philosophical question, but the question is... does it belong in a fantasy anthology? (2 stars)
Travel Agency (by Ellen Klages) is more of an idea than an actual story. Remember being a child, remember lying on your bed and reading a story... remember being transported into the book? (2.5 stars)
A Fable of Savior and Reptile (by Steven Popkes) is the tale of Jesus seen through the eyes of a tortoise. I am not religious and this story did not really open my eyes or anything. It is well-written, however. (1.5 stars)
Comrade Grandmother (by Naomi Kritzer) is another Baba Yaga story set during the second world war. It is well spun tale in the fairy tale tradition - but not for me. (2 stars)
Familiar (by China Mieville) is the story of a witch and his familiar. I may be the only one on this planet who does not understand how great China Mieville is... and this short story did not change that. It is confusing to say the least and far too long. (1 star)
February 2, 2024
There were a few bright spots in here, notably "A Prayer for Captain La Hire." But there was also a lot of complete trash. Much of it is only maybe-sort-of fantasy if you squint at it the right way. Much of it is absolute leftist poison, including one story which more or less says it's white women's fault that black men rape them or abandon them as single mothers.
The authors who wrote that and the editors who selected it are not stupid. They are evil.
The authors who wrote that and the editors who selected it are not stupid. They are evil.
December 15, 2025
I read this off and on across four years because that is how uninteresting most of the stories were. Maybe 2003 was a bad year for fantasy - which is a genre loosely defined here, ranging from magical realism to sci-fi to horror. The only stories that truly stood out to me were “The Green Word” by Jeffrey Ford and “Comrade Grandmother” by Naomi Kritzer.
August 20, 2014
An uneven, but quite interesting anthology that, on retrospect, offers and interesting look at early 21st century fantasy literature, with a handful of masterfully woven tales that might survive the test of time. From the gentle to the unsettling, this anthology cover a vast ground, from sword-and-sorcery to contemporary urban fantasy, as well as a few stories whose authors are heirs to Jorge Luis Borges. In my opinion, the most remarkable stories of this anthology include "October in the Chair" by Neil Gaiman (eventhough it's not Neil Gaiman's best), "Five British Dinosaurs" by Michael Swanwick, "A Fable of Savior and Reptile" by Steven Popkes, "Familiar" by China Miéville, "Travel Agency" by Ellen Klages, and "Comrade Grandmother" by Naomi Kritzer, all remarkable examples of how true fantasy literature goes beyond escapism and expands our imagination.
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August 22, 2008Year's Best Fantasy 3 (Year's Best Fantasy) by David Hartwell (2003)
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