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Modern Classics of Fantasy

by Gardner R. Dozois (Editor), James P. Blaylock (Contributor), Tanith Lee (Contributor), Damon Knight (Contributor), Fritz Leiber (Contributor), Roger Zelazny (Contributor), Jack Vance (Contributor), Bruce Sterling (Contributor) , more...

4.05 · rating details · 37 ratings · 3 reviews

This wonderful collection celebrates fantasy's heydey with 33 masterpieces of short fiction, ranging from 1940s stories by L. Sprague de Camp, H. L. Gold, Fritz Leiber, and Manly Wade Wellman to more recent tales by such towering modern talents as Peter S. Beagle, Terry Bisson, James P. Blaylock, Suzy McKee Charnas, John Crowley, Tanith Lee, Ursula K. Le Guin, Lucius Shepa...more

softcover, 672 pages

Published November 19th 1997 by St. Martin's Press

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Jul 02, 2008

Werner rated it

Recommends it for: All fans of speculative fiction

Shelves: fantasy, supernatural-fiction

The thirty authors of the selections here (Avram Davidson and Fritz Leiber are represented twice) include a roster of some of the best-known names in speculative fiction in the last 60 years of the 20th-century, plus some less well-known writers who deserve to be more famous. Dozois' definition of fantasy is broad, including pretty much anything supernatural as long as it isn't horrific, plus forays into soft sci-fi; Terry Bisson's "Bears Discover Fire" is an example of surrealism -an...moreThe thirty authors of the selections here (Avram Davidson and Fritz Leiber are represented twice) include a roster of some of the best-known names in speculative fiction in the last 60 years of the 20th-century, plus some less well-known writers who deserve to be more famous. Dozois' definition of fantasy is broad, including pretty much anything supernatural as long as it isn't horrific, plus forays into soft sci-fi; Terry Bisson's "Bears Discover Fire" is an example of surrealism -and one of the few works from that school that's really an good, readable story!--, and Charnas' take-off on The Phantom of the Opera is not speculative as such, but certainly exotic and macabre (and makes me want to read the original book). The tone of the stories varies from tragic and poignant to humorous, with settings from the past, present and future, and all around the world and on other worlds. A couple of stories, like Keith Roberts' "The Signaller," are explicitly pagan in their world-view; but a surprising number have a Christian message or favorably- treated Christian elements. Arrangement of the stories is mostly chronological (though T. H. White's "The Troll" is dated by a copyright renewal rather than by its original publication).

It's impossible for me to pick a single favorite story here; but if I'd try to narrow it down, some finalists would include: Manly Wade Wellman's Silver John story "Walk Like a Mountain;" Howard Waldrop's "God's Hooks!" White's "The Troll;" Thomas Burnett Swann's "The Manor of Roses;" Avram Davidson's Manatee Gal Ain't You Coming Out Tonight" and "The Golem;" Poul Anderson's Viking ghost story "The Tale of Hauk;" L. Sprague de Camp's "The Gnarly Man;" and Harold L. Gold's "The Trouble With Water." Other authors represented with quality pieces include Tanith Lee, Gene Wolfe, Judith Tarr, James P. Blaylock, and Bruce Sterling.

Naturally, in an anthology this thick, few readers will like all of the selections: I didn't care for the ones by Ursula LeGuin, Esther Freisner, or George Alec Effinger. But in the main, Dozois' editorial taste is impeccable; the overall quality of the other 29 stories makes this absolutely one of the best general collections of speculative fiction that I've ever come across. It's a reader's treasury --and an excellent sampler introducing the work of authors you find yourself wanting to get better acquainted with. (And the editor's appended list of "Recommended Reading" is a nice feature for helping you do it!) Dozois is also the editor of Modern Classics of Science Fiction and Modern Classics of Horror; I haven't read either of those --but I definitely want to someday.(less)

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Jun 17, 2011

John rated it

Shelves: sf-fantasy

Huge collection with lots of negligible stories but most of the significant authors (sans Tolkien, Anne McCaffrey, Emma Bull, R.A. McAvoy, R.A. Salvatore, C.J. Cherryh among others) active between WWII and the late 1990s in genre fantasy represented.

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Aug 22, 2008

bluetyson added it · review of another edition

Modern Classics of Fantasy by Gardner R. Dozois (1997)

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Jan 31, 2012

Igraine marked it as auf-gar-keinen-fall

Jan 28, 2012

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Shelves: fantasy, library

Jan 26, 2012

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Shelves: gifts

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About Gardner R. Dozois

Gardner Raymond Dozois (born July 23, 1947) is an American science fiction author and editor. He was editor of Asimov's Science Fiction magazine from 1984 to 2004. He has won multiple Hugo and Nebula awards, both as an editor and a writer of short fiction.
Wikipedia entry: Gardner R. Dozois

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