What do you think?
The Alchemy Press Book of Urban Mythic
There is magic on the urban streets. The Mythic are alive and creating chaos in a city near you. Fourteen fantastic fables by weavers of wonder: Adrian Tchaikovsky, Kate Griffin, Mike Resnick, Gaie Sebold, Christopher Golden, Alison Littlewood, Jaine Fenn, Jonathan Oliver, Graham Edwards, Anne Nicholls, Ian Whates, Joyce Chng, Zen Cho and James Brogden. Here are tales of magic and horror; ancient curses and modern charms; strange things in the Underground; murder and redemption; corporate cults and stalwart guardians; lost travellers and wandering gods; fortune tellers and urban wizards; dragons, fae and unspeakable beasts.
- GenresFantasyShort Stories
270 pages, Paperback
First published October 14, 2013
About the author
Jan Edwards
41 books43 followersJan Edwards - winner of the Arnold Bennett Book Prize with Winter Downs - Bunch Courtney Investigation #1.
She also has the Winchester Slim Volume prize and British Fantasy KEW award. Plus a joint British Fantasy Award for best Small Press (Alchemy Press).
Her latest book. In Her Defence - Bunch Courtney Investigation #2 is available now in paper and kindle formats!
Her short fiction can be found in crime, horror and fantasy anthologies in UK, US and Europe.
Jan edits anthologies for The Alchemy Press and Fox Spirit Press, and has written for Dr Who spinoffs with Reel Time Pictures as well as a short story in the accompanying book.
More details available at : http://janedwardsblog.wordpress.com/
Newsletter signup https://www.facebook.com/Janedwardsbo...
She also has the Winchester Slim Volume prize and British Fantasy KEW award. Plus a joint British Fantasy Award for best Small Press (Alchemy Press).
Her latest book. In Her Defence - Bunch Courtney Investigation #2 is available now in paper and kindle formats!
Her short fiction can be found in crime, horror and fantasy anthologies in UK, US and Europe.
Jan edits anthologies for The Alchemy Press and Fox Spirit Press, and has written for Dr Who spinoffs with Reel Time Pictures as well as a short story in the accompanying book.
More details available at : http://janedwardsblog.wordpress.com/
Newsletter signup https://www.facebook.com/Janedwardsbo...
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
September 16, 2019
This is a mildly entertaining mainly British urban fantasy story collection. None of the material even borders on Weird Fiction, with one exception I note later in this review. As I have written elsewhere, Weird is more a literary technique than it is a genre. Either these authors lack the ambition to write Weird, or they lack knowledge of the technique involved. The stories in this collection are straight-up urban fantasy with a twist of horror on the side in most of them.
Most of the stories are okay, solid threes. A few are not good; twos at best. These can be found in the middle of the book. In an otherwise solid if not great collection, these three lemons stand out for their poor quality, so I will mention them by name.
The first is "The Seeds of a Pomegranate" by Anne Nicholls. The problem isn't that the story is set in the Indian culture. That would be a plus for me. It's that what the writer writes makes little sense to me. The technique is very amateurish, and it's impossible to tell whose point of view is being used from paragraph to paragraph.
The next story "Family Business" by Adrian Tchaikovsky suffered because it read like an excerpt from a longer work. Not only do I think I would have disliked the longer work, I couldn't make sense of the shorter one, ripped from context as it was.
The last subpar story was by someone named Jaine Fenn. Called "Not the Territory" this was actually not the story. I have no idea how to say what this story was about, much less summarize a plot point.
Some of the stories were good, not great, but stories I was glad to have read when I finished.
My favorite was "The Wizard of West 34th Street" by Mike Resnick. It takes place in New York and is about an accidental apprentice. The premises are familiar, novice tries to get financial advice and gets more than he bargains for when he gets recruited to take over the advisor role. I really like the unfamiliar resolutions Resnick found for our hero in this story.
"The Fish-Bowl" by Zen Cho is a guilty pleasure. It's about a fish that grants wishes but exacts a heavy price from the wisher. This was the only story in the collection that I can say was Weird, written from an Asian perspective at that! I've never before heard of Asians writing Weird. I also never saw this ending coming. Wow!
My third favorite story was by Gaie Sebold, titled "Underground". It's about an office drone worker bee in the big city who didn't realize there was more to his job until too late. The element that worked best for me in this story was the romance between the two principal characters. It was convincing, fun to read, and written with a sophisticated deft touch.
Recommended for the urban fantasy lover who likes a British writer's take on the genre, meaning it is less hero-protagonist centered and more odd-situation type stories.
Most of the stories are okay, solid threes. A few are not good; twos at best. These can be found in the middle of the book. In an otherwise solid if not great collection, these three lemons stand out for their poor quality, so I will mention them by name.
The first is "The Seeds of a Pomegranate" by Anne Nicholls. The problem isn't that the story is set in the Indian culture. That would be a plus for me. It's that what the writer writes makes little sense to me. The technique is very amateurish, and it's impossible to tell whose point of view is being used from paragraph to paragraph.
The next story "Family Business" by Adrian Tchaikovsky suffered because it read like an excerpt from a longer work. Not only do I think I would have disliked the longer work, I couldn't make sense of the shorter one, ripped from context as it was.
The last subpar story was by someone named Jaine Fenn. Called "Not the Territory" this was actually not the story. I have no idea how to say what this story was about, much less summarize a plot point.
Some of the stories were good, not great, but stories I was glad to have read when I finished.
My favorite was "The Wizard of West 34th Street" by Mike Resnick. It takes place in New York and is about an accidental apprentice. The premises are familiar, novice tries to get financial advice and gets more than he bargains for when he gets recruited to take over the advisor role. I really like the unfamiliar resolutions Resnick found for our hero in this story.
"The Fish-Bowl" by Zen Cho is a guilty pleasure. It's about a fish that grants wishes but exacts a heavy price from the wisher. This was the only story in the collection that I can say was Weird, written from an Asian perspective at that! I've never before heard of Asians writing Weird. I also never saw this ending coming. Wow!
My third favorite story was by Gaie Sebold, titled "Underground". It's about an office drone worker bee in the big city who didn't realize there was more to his job until too late. The element that worked best for me in this story was the romance between the two principal characters. It was convincing, fun to read, and written with a sophisticated deft touch.
Recommended for the urban fantasy lover who likes a British writer's take on the genre, meaning it is less hero-protagonist centered and more odd-situation type stories.
February 7, 2014
There is nothing I like more in my urban fantasy than a dose of magical London of the sort found in Neil Gaiman's
Neverwhere
, China Miéville's
Un Lun Dun
, Ben Aaronovitch's
The Folly
series, Tom Pollock's
The Skyscraper Throne
series, and Rosie E. Best's
Skulk
, to name but a few. So to be offered a chance to explore more of these magical metropolises (metropoli?) in The Alchemy Press Book of Urban Mythic wasn't one I was about to refuse. And by no means are all of these stories set in London, and even more surprising most of my favourites from the anthology weren't even set in London.
Urban Mythic's first volume – the second has just been announced – contains a strong set of stories. What I really loved was the diversity contained in the stories; from the settings to the ethnicities portrayed to the mythical underpinnings, the anthology travelled the globe in every direction. There are Chinese dragons, American wizards, djinns, banshees and some supernatural beings I couldn't even name with certainty. All of the stories were quite enjoyable but there were five that stood out to me.
Graham Edwards – A Night to Forget
A Night to Forget is a curious story of a young woman who is still dealing with the consequences of an acid assault and after a number of years finally learns the truth about what happens that night. It asks the question whether sometimes it is better, or perhaps the better term would be preferable, to forget or remember certain facts, especially if they are painful and allows our protagonist to make her own choice. I like the emotional overtones of the story and there was a twist I hadn't seen coming.
Anne Nicholls – The Seeds of a Pomegranate
I loved the diversity of the characters in this story and the djinn. All of the characters in the story are people on the outside, different because of who they are. Nisha and her husband are immigrants, Zoe is a recent transplant from Rutland to London, and Bosh is – well, he's Bosh and what makes him truly different isn't the fact that he's gay, but the fact that he is a techno wizard and bonded to a magical spirit in the form of a dog. But by the end of the story there is a sense of homecoming that is almost palpable. I really loved these characters and I would love to see more of them in the future.
Adrian Tchaikovsky – Family Business
I loved the tone and setting for Family Business, which in some ways rather reminded me of the Guy Ritchie film Snatch . It also seemed only an outtake from a larger story; at the end of the story there remained several questions I'd love to be able to get answers for, such as who is the Other, where did Tarrant, Winston and their siblings come from and what would happen if they went back? It's also convinced me that I want to read more of Tchaikovsky's work as I really enjoyed his writing.
Zen Cho – Fish Bowl
This story might seem to be about a magical fish, but it seems to me far more about the pressures placed upon teenagers these days by their parents, often with the best intentions, but harmful nonetheless. I really loved the tragedy of this story and I'm still not sure whether the fish was a malicious entity or not. In addition, Zen Cho's sense of place and her ear (pen?) for dialogue are exquisite. Fish Bowl was a quietly impressive story that will remain with me for a long while.
Jonathan Oliver – White Horse
Jonathan Oliver's story resonated deeply with me as it is about a woman trying to reach the love of her life who is depressed and closed off to the world around him. Her feelings of helplessness and frustration at not being able to fix things for him were all too recognisable to me, having been on both sides of the divide. I loved how Imogen realises through the story that she can't fix things for others, but she can be there next to them while they do it themselves. All of this is woven into a narrative involving the White Horse of Uffington, past lives and dream horses in a way that was infinitely attractive to me.
I really enjoyed The Alchemy Press Book of Urban Mythic. It was a great collection of stories, none of which disappointed really. If you'd like to discover more flavours of urban mythic and some wonderful stories, The Book of Urban Mythic is a good one to pick up. I'll be very much looking forward to see what the editors include in their second volume.
This book was provided for review by the publisher.
Urban Mythic's first volume – the second has just been announced – contains a strong set of stories. What I really loved was the diversity contained in the stories; from the settings to the ethnicities portrayed to the mythical underpinnings, the anthology travelled the globe in every direction. There are Chinese dragons, American wizards, djinns, banshees and some supernatural beings I couldn't even name with certainty. All of the stories were quite enjoyable but there were five that stood out to me.
Graham Edwards – A Night to Forget
A Night to Forget is a curious story of a young woman who is still dealing with the consequences of an acid assault and after a number of years finally learns the truth about what happens that night. It asks the question whether sometimes it is better, or perhaps the better term would be preferable, to forget or remember certain facts, especially if they are painful and allows our protagonist to make her own choice. I like the emotional overtones of the story and there was a twist I hadn't seen coming.
Anne Nicholls – The Seeds of a Pomegranate
I loved the diversity of the characters in this story and the djinn. All of the characters in the story are people on the outside, different because of who they are. Nisha and her husband are immigrants, Zoe is a recent transplant from Rutland to London, and Bosh is – well, he's Bosh and what makes him truly different isn't the fact that he's gay, but the fact that he is a techno wizard and bonded to a magical spirit in the form of a dog. But by the end of the story there is a sense of homecoming that is almost palpable. I really loved these characters and I would love to see more of them in the future.
Adrian Tchaikovsky – Family Business
I loved the tone and setting for Family Business, which in some ways rather reminded me of the Guy Ritchie film Snatch . It also seemed only an outtake from a larger story; at the end of the story there remained several questions I'd love to be able to get answers for, such as who is the Other, where did Tarrant, Winston and their siblings come from and what would happen if they went back? It's also convinced me that I want to read more of Tchaikovsky's work as I really enjoyed his writing.
Zen Cho – Fish Bowl
This story might seem to be about a magical fish, but it seems to me far more about the pressures placed upon teenagers these days by their parents, often with the best intentions, but harmful nonetheless. I really loved the tragedy of this story and I'm still not sure whether the fish was a malicious entity or not. In addition, Zen Cho's sense of place and her ear (pen?) for dialogue are exquisite. Fish Bowl was a quietly impressive story that will remain with me for a long while.
Jonathan Oliver – White Horse
Jonathan Oliver's story resonated deeply with me as it is about a woman trying to reach the love of her life who is depressed and closed off to the world around him. Her feelings of helplessness and frustration at not being able to fix things for him were all too recognisable to me, having been on both sides of the divide. I loved how Imogen realises through the story that she can't fix things for others, but she can be there next to them while they do it themselves. All of this is woven into a narrative involving the White Horse of Uffington, past lives and dream horses in a way that was infinitely attractive to me.
I really enjoyed The Alchemy Press Book of Urban Mythic. It was a great collection of stories, none of which disappointed really. If you'd like to discover more flavours of urban mythic and some wonderful stories, The Book of Urban Mythic is a good one to pick up. I'll be very much looking forward to see what the editors include in their second volume.
This book was provided for review by the publisher.
February 17, 2014
This is one of the best urban fantasy anthologies I've read in a long, long time. Here are stories set in an urban environment, on the streets of London and other places, yet with a large helping of myth and magic. The writing of all the stories is always crisp and engrossing. I was especially taken by the stories by Mike Resnick, Adrian Tchaikovsky and Kate Griffin -- but in fact all are good.
October 13, 2014
A brilliant collection of short stories. There is a good mix of horror,twist in the tale and social comment. The settings too range from the Far East to the London underground. I found them riveting and would happily recommend them to anyone who has an interest in the paranormal and of course the urban mythic.
October 27, 2013
Also available as a Kindle edition. Excellent reading!
January 10, 2019
Goodreads ate my review and now it's been too long for me to remember the details. :( I listed out my favorites and least favorites and everything.
July 5, 2014
Some of the stories were really great to read but some others not so much, I think it is down personal taste as I have discussed this book with a friend who liked some of the stories I didn't and vice-versa. I personally didn't like some of the stories as they seemed as though they were cut from longer stories and the sense of them thus disappeared, or the story itself made no sense to begin with, yet this is just a handful if that and I couldn't get into them, although I didn't stop reading any of the stories. The ones I did like were wonderful, and I've looked up the authors to find other novels or short stories to read. A couple of the stories were amazing, had me actually wondering if what was being written about was indeed true I was that sucked in! Anthologies can usually be hit or miss, love or hate them, this one sits in the middle for me, but I wouldn't tell anyone not to read it, I would say read it and make up your own mind!
November 24, 2013
14 great urban fantasy tales - available in print and ebook/kindle editions.
June 26, 2021
A very hit-and-miss collection that goes for the obvious - almost all of the entries are either about occult investigators fighting monsters or immortals that live among us. Still, there are enjoyable stories from Gaie Sebold, Kate Griffin, and Mike Resnick, and there's a very nice piece from Jonathan Oliver.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews