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Flights of Fantasy
This is an anthology of eleven fantasy stories, each one revolving around flying creatures, collected and edited by Mercedes Lackey.
Falcons, eagles, hawks, owls...griffins, firebirds, phoenix--real or imaginary, they have fascinated humanity for millennia. These ruthless predators appeared on the walls of Egyptian tombs, in ancient Persian and Indian miniatures, on the illuminated pages of medieval manuscripts, and topped the standards of Roman legions. In literature and mythology raptors abound, from the Native American Thunderbird to the Arabian roc--a bird of prey so large it carried off elephants--to m'lady's "pet" falcon, a conceit which has no basis in reality. No other animal has so capture the imagination of humankind.
A licensed wild bird rehabilitator, Mercedes Lackey has brought together original stories about fantastic flying creatures by such acclaimed writers as Mike Resnick, Diana Paxson, Lawrence Watt-Evans, and S.M. Sirling, Martin Harry Greenberg, Josepha Sherman, Lawrence Watt-Evans, Samuel C. Conway, Susan Shwartz, Nancy Asire, Jody Lynn Nye. Mercedes also includes a never-before-published novella of her own.
The tale of Hrafn-bui / Diana Paxson
A question of faith / Josepha Sherman
Taking freedom / S.M. Stirling
A gathering of bones / Ron Collins
Night flight / Lawrence Watt-Evans
A buzzard named Ranibowitz / Mike Resnick
Tweaked in the head / Samuel C. Conway
One wing down / Susan Shwartz
Owl light / Nancy Asire
Eagle's eye / Jody Lynn Nye
Wide wings / Mercedes Lackey
Falcons, eagles, hawks, owls...griffins, firebirds, phoenix--real or imaginary, they have fascinated humanity for millennia. These ruthless predators appeared on the walls of Egyptian tombs, in ancient Persian and Indian miniatures, on the illuminated pages of medieval manuscripts, and topped the standards of Roman legions. In literature and mythology raptors abound, from the Native American Thunderbird to the Arabian roc--a bird of prey so large it carried off elephants--to m'lady's "pet" falcon, a conceit which has no basis in reality. No other animal has so capture the imagination of humankind.
A licensed wild bird rehabilitator, Mercedes Lackey has brought together original stories about fantastic flying creatures by such acclaimed writers as Mike Resnick, Diana Paxson, Lawrence Watt-Evans, and S.M. Sirling, Martin Harry Greenberg, Josepha Sherman, Lawrence Watt-Evans, Samuel C. Conway, Susan Shwartz, Nancy Asire, Jody Lynn Nye. Mercedes also includes a never-before-published novella of her own.
The tale of Hrafn-bui / Diana Paxson
A question of faith / Josepha Sherman
Taking freedom / S.M. Stirling
A gathering of bones / Ron Collins
Night flight / Lawrence Watt-Evans
A buzzard named Ranibowitz / Mike Resnick
Tweaked in the head / Samuel C. Conway
One wing down / Susan Shwartz
Owl light / Nancy Asire
Eagle's eye / Jody Lynn Nye
Wide wings / Mercedes Lackey
309 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published December 1, 1999
3 people are currently reading
448 people want to read
About the author
Mercedes Lackey
432 books9,561 followersMercedes entered this world on June 24, 1950, in Chicago, had a normal childhood and graduated from Purdue University in 1972. During the late 70's she worked as an artist's model and then went into the computer programming field, ending up with American Airlines in Tulsa, Oklahoma. In addition to her fantasy writing, she has written lyrics for and recorded nearly fifty songs for Firebird Arts & Music, a small recording company specializing in science fiction folk music.
"I'm a storyteller; that's what I see as 'my job'. My stories come out of my characters; how those characters would react to the given situation. Maybe that's why I get letters from readers as young as thirteen and as old as sixty-odd. One of the reasons I write song lyrics is because I see songs as a kind of 'story pill' -- they reduce a story to the barest essentials or encapsulate a particular crucial moment in time. I frequently will write a lyric when I am attempting to get to the heart of a crucial scene; I find that when I have done so, the scene has become absolutely clear in my mind, and I can write exactly what I wanted to say. Another reason is because of the kind of novels I am writing: that is, fantasy, set in an other-world semi-medieval atmosphere. Music is very important to medieval peoples; bards are the chief newsbringers. When I write the 'folk music' of these peoples, I am enriching my whole world, whether I actually use the song in the text or not.
"I began writing out of boredom; I continue out of addiction. I can't 'not' write, and as a result I have no social life! I began writing fantasy because I love it, but I try to construct my fantasy worlds with all the care of a 'high-tech' science fiction writer. I apply the principle of TANSTAAFL ['There ain't no such thing as free lunch', credited to Robert Heinlein) to magic, for instance; in my worlds, magic is paid for, and the cost to the magician is frequently a high one. I try to keep my world as solid and real as possible; people deal with stubborn pumps, bugs in the porridge, and love-lives that refuse to become untangled, right along with invading armies and evil magicians. And I try to make all of my characters, even the 'evil magicians,' something more than flat stereotypes. Even evil magicians get up in the night and look for cookies, sometimes.
"I suppose that in everything I write I try to expound the creed I gave my character Diana Tregarde in Burning Water:
"There's no such thing as 'one, true way'; the only answers worth having are the ones you find for yourself; leave the world better than you found it. Love, freedom, and the chance to do some good -- they're the things worth living and dying for, and if you aren't willing to die for the things worth living for, you might as well turn in your membership in the human race."
Also writes as Misty Lackey
Author's website
"I'm a storyteller; that's what I see as 'my job'. My stories come out of my characters; how those characters would react to the given situation. Maybe that's why I get letters from readers as young as thirteen and as old as sixty-odd. One of the reasons I write song lyrics is because I see songs as a kind of 'story pill' -- they reduce a story to the barest essentials or encapsulate a particular crucial moment in time. I frequently will write a lyric when I am attempting to get to the heart of a crucial scene; I find that when I have done so, the scene has become absolutely clear in my mind, and I can write exactly what I wanted to say. Another reason is because of the kind of novels I am writing: that is, fantasy, set in an other-world semi-medieval atmosphere. Music is very important to medieval peoples; bards are the chief newsbringers. When I write the 'folk music' of these peoples, I am enriching my whole world, whether I actually use the song in the text or not.
"I began writing out of boredom; I continue out of addiction. I can't 'not' write, and as a result I have no social life! I began writing fantasy because I love it, but I try to construct my fantasy worlds with all the care of a 'high-tech' science fiction writer. I apply the principle of TANSTAAFL ['There ain't no such thing as free lunch', credited to Robert Heinlein) to magic, for instance; in my worlds, magic is paid for, and the cost to the magician is frequently a high one. I try to keep my world as solid and real as possible; people deal with stubborn pumps, bugs in the porridge, and love-lives that refuse to become untangled, right along with invading armies and evil magicians. And I try to make all of my characters, even the 'evil magicians,' something more than flat stereotypes. Even evil magicians get up in the night and look for cookies, sometimes.
"I suppose that in everything I write I try to expound the creed I gave my character Diana Tregarde in Burning Water:
"There's no such thing as 'one, true way'; the only answers worth having are the ones you find for yourself; leave the world better than you found it. Love, freedom, and the chance to do some good -- they're the things worth living and dying for, and if you aren't willing to die for the things worth living for, you might as well turn in your membership in the human race."
Also writes as Misty Lackey
Author's website
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
June 10, 2021
Read as part of my ongoing shelf audit. Verdict: Nothing really memorable here.
...except, that is, for the deeply unsettling cover. The more I look at it the more I hate it. Why does the hawk have human eyes? Why does it have delicate wispy eyelashes? Why does it have EYEBROWS???? And why in the world is it crying?
It's extra bizarre since the reason this book exists is that Lackey herself is a falconer and avian rehabber, so one would think an anthology she put together about her passion would have a less horrifyingly anthropomorphized cover.
That said, the stories were... fine. They were entertaining and nothing was terrible, but I didn't love any of them either. Lackey's own "Wide Wings" was the most enjoyable, though the pacing was very uneven. Several stories decided to delve into the idea of 'tribal' peoples having mystical connections to birds which... sure is a decision, I guess. Overall, it definitely feels like a passion project, and I hope that everyone involved had fun, but I don't particularly care myself. To the used bookstore it goes!
...except, that is, for the deeply unsettling cover. The more I look at it the more I hate it. Why does the hawk have human eyes? Why does it have delicate wispy eyelashes? Why does it have EYEBROWS???? And why in the world is it crying?
It's extra bizarre since the reason this book exists is that Lackey herself is a falconer and avian rehabber, so one would think an anthology she put together about her passion would have a less horrifyingly anthropomorphized cover.
That said, the stories were... fine. They were entertaining and nothing was terrible, but I didn't love any of them either. Lackey's own "Wide Wings" was the most enjoyable, though the pacing was very uneven. Several stories decided to delve into the idea of 'tribal' peoples having mystical connections to birds which... sure is a decision, I guess. Overall, it definitely feels like a passion project, and I hope that everyone involved had fun, but I don't particularly care myself. To the used bookstore it goes!
September 19, 2017
I picked up this book because of the novella by Mercedes Lackey that's included. I thoroughly enjoyed Lackey's "Wide Wings".
The collection is a mixed-bag with some stories being more appealing than others--but overall the collection is better than most. None of the stories was bad.
The stories were very different from one another in style, tone and content similar only in their inclusion of flying creatures.
I enjoyed Nye's "Eagle's Eye" "Night Flight" by Watt-Evans had an undertone of humor and sarcasm(?) which I didn't pick up until the end.
The collection is a mixed-bag with some stories being more appealing than others--but overall the collection is better than most. None of the stories was bad.
The stories were very different from one another in style, tone and content similar only in their inclusion of flying creatures.
I enjoyed Nye's "Eagle's Eye" "Night Flight" by Watt-Evans had an undertone of humor and sarcasm(?) which I didn't pick up until the end.
August 4, 2025
Reasonably pleasant though unmemorable anthology (I've just re-read it after a good number of years because I didn't remember any of the stories in it - and I don't expect them to stick much this time either). A couple of the stories are quite good, and all are true stand-alone (no taster-bits from novels) - only Lackey's own has a connection to a novel and there's no major link.
September 10, 2024
I picked this up solely to read Mercedes Lackey's epilogue to Black Swan - 'Wide Wings'. But the rest of the stories were OK. I learned a LOT about birds of prey, since these all fall into the realism category of fantasy. These authors know a lot about birds and want to tell you about it!
August 18, 2023
A pleasant collection of stories.
July 18, 2014
I enjoyed all of the stories in this anthology and it was hard to pick just one that I liked better than any other. There are eleven short stories in total and each one has a flying creature in it, hence the title of the anthology. Sometimes the flying was tenuous but over all each story was like a perfect jewel in a pretty necklace. Each one an individual but each also enhancing the next.
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April 25, 2017"Flights of Fantasy (Daw Book Collectors, No. 1141) by Mercedes Lackey (1999)"
February 20, 2017
Read it on a flight to San Diego.
February 3, 2015
very disappointing as no strong characters that you fall in love with one of the worst anthologies I sat through
April 5, 2019
hands down
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews