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Fantasy Hall of Fame
Trouble with water / H. L. Gold --Nothing in the rules / L. Sprague de Camp --Fruit of knowledge / C. L. Moore --Tlon, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius / Jorge Luis Borges --Compleat werewolf / Anthony Boucher --Small assassin / Ray Bradbury --Lottery / Shirley Jackson --Our fair city / Robert A. Heinlein --There shall be no darkness / James Blish --Loom of darkness / Jack Vance --Man who sold rope to the gnoles / Margaret St. Clair --Silken-swift / Theodore Sturgeon --Golem / Avram Davidson --Operation afreet / Poul Anderson --That hell-bound train / Robert Bloch --Bazaar of the bizarre / Fritz Leiber --Come lady death / Peter S. Beagle --Drowned giant / J. G. Ballard --Narrow valley / R. A. Lafferty --Faith of our fathers / Philip K. Dick --Ghost of a Model T / Clifford D. Simak --Demoness / Tanith Lee --Jeffty is five / Harlan Ellison --Detective of dreams / Gene Wolfe --Unicorn variations / Roger Zelazny --Basileus / Robert Silverberg --Jaguar Hunter / Lucius Shepard --Buffalo gals, won't you come out tonight / Ursula K. Le Guin --Bears discover fire / Terry Bisson --Tower of Babylon / Ted Chiang.
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First published October 1, 1983
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About the author
Robert Silverberg
2,364 books1,609 followersThere are many authors in the database with this name.
Robert Silverberg is a highly celebrated American science fiction author and editor known for his prolific output and literary range. Over a career spanning decades, he has won multiple Hugo and Nebula Awards and was named a Grand Master by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America in 2004. Inducted into the Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame in 1999, Silverberg is recognized for both his immense productivity and his contributions to the genre's evolution.
Born in Brooklyn, he began writing in his teens and won his first Hugo Award in 1956 as the best new writer. Throughout the 1950s, he produced vast amounts of fiction, often under pseudonyms, and was known for writing up to a million words a year. When the market declined, he diversified into other genres, including historical nonfiction and erotica.
Silverberg’s return to science fiction in the 1960s marked a shift toward deeper psychological and literary themes, contributing significantly to the New Wave movement. Acclaimed works from this period include Downward to the Earth, Dying Inside, Nightwings, and The World Inside. In the 1980s, he launched the Majipoor series with Lord Valentine’s Castle, creating one of the most imaginative planetary settings in science fiction.
Though he announced his retirement from writing in the mid-1970s, Silverberg returned with renewed vigor and continued to publish acclaimed fiction into the 1990s. He received further recognition with the Nebula-winning Sailing to Byzantium and the Hugo-winning Gilgamesh in the Outback.
Silverberg has also played a significant role as an editor and anthologist, shaping science fiction literature through both his own work and his influence on others. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with his wife, author Karen Haber.
Robert Silverberg is a highly celebrated American science fiction author and editor known for his prolific output and literary range. Over a career spanning decades, he has won multiple Hugo and Nebula Awards and was named a Grand Master by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America in 2004. Inducted into the Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame in 1999, Silverberg is recognized for both his immense productivity and his contributions to the genre's evolution.
Born in Brooklyn, he began writing in his teens and won his first Hugo Award in 1956 as the best new writer. Throughout the 1950s, he produced vast amounts of fiction, often under pseudonyms, and was known for writing up to a million words a year. When the market declined, he diversified into other genres, including historical nonfiction and erotica.
Silverberg’s return to science fiction in the 1960s marked a shift toward deeper psychological and literary themes, contributing significantly to the New Wave movement. Acclaimed works from this period include Downward to the Earth, Dying Inside, Nightwings, and The World Inside. In the 1980s, he launched the Majipoor series with Lord Valentine’s Castle, creating one of the most imaginative planetary settings in science fiction.
Though he announced his retirement from writing in the mid-1970s, Silverberg returned with renewed vigor and continued to publish acclaimed fiction into the 1990s. He received further recognition with the Nebula-winning Sailing to Byzantium and the Hugo-winning Gilgamesh in the Outback.
Silverberg has also played a significant role as an editor and anthologist, shaping science fiction literature through both his own work and his influence on others. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with his wife, author Karen Haber.
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
June 20, 2016
It's inevitable with any anthology that I'll like some stories more than others, and in most cases I end up not liking some at all. I shouldn't have been surprised that this was still true even of an anthology that wasn't chosen by a single editor, but by vote of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America membership (as at about 1992, when the "and Fantasy" part was added to the organisation's title).
There are 30 stories. The rules limited each author to being represented by only one story, whichever one of theirs received the most votes, although in several cases there were multiple stories by the same author nominated. They're presented in chronological order, from 1939 (when Unknown magazine was founded as a venue for fantasy as we now know it) to 1990. Inevitably, most are famous classics in the field, and in many cases I've read them in other collections, but it's good to have them all in one place.
**** "Trouble With Water," H.L. Gold: as the editor notes, Campbell's Unknown published stories that - like the SF stories appearing in his better-known magazine Astounding - rigorously worked out the consequences of a single difference in the world, but chose a magical difference instead of a scientific difference. In this story, the protagonist is cursed by a water gnome to be unable to do anything with water (wash, drink, or touch). The characters are all stereotypes, mostly Jewish apart from the Irish cop, but they're affectionate stereotypes, and manage to have some dimension to them. It's amusing.
**** "Nothing In the Rules," L. Sprague de Camp: here, it's a mermaid in a swimming competition. It's a decent story, with comedy, drama and a touch of frustrated romance.
** "Fruit of Knowledge," C.L. Moore: I'm a big Moore fan, but I couldn't finish this story based on the Garden of Eden and the character Lilith from Jewish mythology. I found it heavy going, tedious even. Surely there's a better Moore story than this that could have been included; one of the Jirel of Joiry tales, for example. Though there was a hard limit of 17,500 words, and perhaps those stories are longer.
** "Tlon, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius," Jorge Luis Borges: I didn't finish this one either. It's about a fictional encyclopaedia that somehow becomes factual, but a lot of it is just infodump of the contents of the encyclopaedia, and it didn't keep my interest.
**** "The Compleat Werewolf," Anthony Boucher: a story from 1942 filled with humour and romance and action, it stands up well more than 70 years later.
"The Small Assassin," Ray Bradbury: I skipped this one, because although I admire Bradbury as a writer, I'm not actually much of a fan of his stories, if that makes any sense at all. I glanced at enough of it to decide that it was more or less horror, and I wasn't in the mood.
"The Lottery," Shirley Jackson: I skipped this one too, having read it before and not particularly wanting to read it again. It's a brilliant story, but dark.
**** "Our Fair City," Robert A. Heinlein: I'd just recently read this in another collection, and while I enjoyed it, I didn't want to read it again so soon. Humour, corrupt politicians, the citizens standing up against them, all good stuff.
**** "There Shall Be No Darkness," James Blish: another werewolf story, which I didn't feel belonged in this collection. The mood is horror, and the in-world explanation is SF; where's the fantasy? It's a decent enough story, though.
** "The Loom of Darkness," Jack Vance: I'm no fan of Vance's overwrought prose and distant, unemotional and unlikeable characters, so I didn't enjoy this particularly. Sword and sorcery, a rogue, but not a loveable one.
**** "The Man Who Sold Rope to the Gnolls," Margaret St Clair: again, more horror than fantasy, to me, but a good story that sustains a mocking, almost light tone against very dark events.
***** "The Silken-Swift," Theodore Sturgeon: I'd read this recently in the same collection as the Heinlein, so I didn't reread it, though it's an excellent story, emotionally powerful and beautifully written.
**** "The Golem," Avram Davidson: another Jewish author playing with Jewish stereotypes in a warm and affectionate way. The mundanity of the elderly couple plays against what I'm tempted to call the attempted darkness of the 'golem' - which is technological rather than magical, so this is, again, arguably SF, not fantasy.
**** "Operation Afreet," Poul Anderson: recently read in the other collection, not reread, and another werewolf story (making three werewolves in this volume). Again, too, humour and romance and action, and a well-written piece.
**** "That Hell-Bound Train," Robert Bloch: a deal-with-the-devil story, another common fantasy trope, particularly well executed by this master of the creepy, and closely approaching horror.
**** "The Bazaar of the Bizarre," Fritz Lieber: although I find the Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser stories, of which this is one, darker and grittier than I usually prefer, I still enjoy them because they're so well done and so atmospheric. Lieber was excellent at evoking the strange and sinister in a sword & sorcery setting, and that ability is on full display here.
**** "Come Lady Death," Peter S. Beagle: I've just read Beagle's latest novel, and it's interesting to compare it to this story from more than 50 years ago, early in his career. The story is much more mannered, with strong hints of literary descent from Poe's "Masque of the Red Death," but it's still powerful, and worthy of its inclusion here.
*** "The Drowned Giant," J.G. Ballard: a style of fantasy I don't have much time for, in which the fantastic enters the mundane world and is treated mundanely. Also a 'story' which is a description of a series of observations, not plotted, and on the whole I prefer even short stories to have a plot unless they're spectacular in some other way. This isn't.
*** "Narrow Valley," R.A. Lafferty: I'm not sure why this is the Lafferty story that always gets collected. He wrote others, I'm sure, just as good. But it's a quintessential Lafferty story: surreal characters and events, perhaps a bit flat, amusing in an offbeat way.
*** "Faith of Our Fathers," Philip K. Dick: like basically every Dick story ever, it's about what is real, and the untrustworthiness of perception and consciousness. The setting, in a world taken over by the Communist powers, is interesting, but I'm afraid I'm just not a big fan of this author's work. (Originally appeared in Harlan Ellison's Dangerous Visions anthology.)
**** "The Ghost of a Model T," Clifford D. Simak: a beautiful example of a story without much in the way of a plot, that's more about a character's realisations - and, in this case, memories and perspective on life - than any events or struggle, but nevertheless works. Simak evokes the setting so extremely well that a plot isn't really necessary.
**** "The Demoness," Tanith Lee: I'm not a particular fan of Lee's dark, sex-soaked stories, but she does them well, and this is a classic example of one. It did leave me with sympathy for the title character, which was quite an achievement, all things considered, so she gets a fourth star.
***** "Jeffty is Five," Harlan Ellison: a fine story, which I'd read before recently enough that I didn't reread it. Very human and moving.
*** "The Detective of Dreams," Gene Wolfe: I can hardly cavil at this being the story that represents Wolfe, since it's the only one of his I feel I mostly understand, and even sort of like a bit. What surprises me is that, apparently, a lot of other people like it too, despite its overt religious message. The 19th-century voice is beautifully and expertly done, though.
**** "Unicorn Variations," Roger Zelazny: I'm a huge Zelazny fan, though more of his novels than his short stories - not that his short stories aren't good, but the longer works give me more time to sink into his powerfully imaginative settings. This one isn't, maybe, as imaginative a setting as some, but the story of a chess game for high stakes is enjoyable, and the touches of whimsy are classic Zelazny.
*** "Basileus," Robert Silverberg: another author whose craft I appreciate but whose actual stories are not my favourites; there's something dark and cynical and alienated at the heart of them that puts me off. This tale of a programmer who fills his computer with angels is no exception.
**** "The Jaguar Hunter," Lucius Shepard: I haven't read a lot of Shepard, but this is an impressive story, with a lot of depth to it. It uses a South American setting to compare and contrast Western consumerism with the older ways, more in tune with nature, but also more violent and savage.
*** "Buffalo Gals, Won't You Come Out Tonight," Ursula K. Le Guin: I am a Le Guin fan, but more of some of her other work than of this. It's beautifully done, and incorporates rich material from Native American legend, but sometimes her stories lack story, to their detriment - at least in my eyes - and this is one of those.
*** "Bears Discover Fire," Terry Bisson: much awarded and frequently collected, but I've never quite seen what the fuss was about. Another more-or-less plotless story; a series of events happen, but for me they don't cohere together into an effective whole. I'm probably missing something.
**** "Tower of Babylon," Ted Chiang: with this story we are, in a sense, back at the beginning, because, like the stories in Campbell's Unknown magazine, it's a rigorously worked out exploration of a fantastical speculation, in this case about the structure of the universe (what if it was as some ancient civilisations believed?) The main character is somewhat flat, and largely there as an observer, but the working out of the premise is well enough done that I enjoyed it.
I don't know if there's an overall conclusion to be drawn from such a diverse collection stretching over more than 50 years. Early 90s SFF writers liked funny, action-packed werewolf stories? Stories can work without a plot if you do something else amazing? Rich description is a big help, but isn't essential? SF and horror stories sometimes get called fantasy? There's no one common factor in great fantasy stories? All of those seem to be true.
For me, some of these were amazing, others disappointing, but on average, they were fine, enjoyable pieces showcasing the considerable talents of their authors.
There are 30 stories. The rules limited each author to being represented by only one story, whichever one of theirs received the most votes, although in several cases there were multiple stories by the same author nominated. They're presented in chronological order, from 1939 (when Unknown magazine was founded as a venue for fantasy as we now know it) to 1990. Inevitably, most are famous classics in the field, and in many cases I've read them in other collections, but it's good to have them all in one place.
**** "Trouble With Water," H.L. Gold: as the editor notes, Campbell's Unknown published stories that - like the SF stories appearing in his better-known magazine Astounding - rigorously worked out the consequences of a single difference in the world, but chose a magical difference instead of a scientific difference. In this story, the protagonist is cursed by a water gnome to be unable to do anything with water (wash, drink, or touch). The characters are all stereotypes, mostly Jewish apart from the Irish cop, but they're affectionate stereotypes, and manage to have some dimension to them. It's amusing.
**** "Nothing In the Rules," L. Sprague de Camp: here, it's a mermaid in a swimming competition. It's a decent story, with comedy, drama and a touch of frustrated romance.
** "Fruit of Knowledge," C.L. Moore: I'm a big Moore fan, but I couldn't finish this story based on the Garden of Eden and the character Lilith from Jewish mythology. I found it heavy going, tedious even. Surely there's a better Moore story than this that could have been included; one of the Jirel of Joiry tales, for example. Though there was a hard limit of 17,500 words, and perhaps those stories are longer.
** "Tlon, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius," Jorge Luis Borges: I didn't finish this one either. It's about a fictional encyclopaedia that somehow becomes factual, but a lot of it is just infodump of the contents of the encyclopaedia, and it didn't keep my interest.
**** "The Compleat Werewolf," Anthony Boucher: a story from 1942 filled with humour and romance and action, it stands up well more than 70 years later.
"The Small Assassin," Ray Bradbury: I skipped this one, because although I admire Bradbury as a writer, I'm not actually much of a fan of his stories, if that makes any sense at all. I glanced at enough of it to decide that it was more or less horror, and I wasn't in the mood.
"The Lottery," Shirley Jackson: I skipped this one too, having read it before and not particularly wanting to read it again. It's a brilliant story, but dark.
**** "Our Fair City," Robert A. Heinlein: I'd just recently read this in another collection, and while I enjoyed it, I didn't want to read it again so soon. Humour, corrupt politicians, the citizens standing up against them, all good stuff.
**** "There Shall Be No Darkness," James Blish: another werewolf story, which I didn't feel belonged in this collection. The mood is horror, and the in-world explanation is SF; where's the fantasy? It's a decent enough story, though.
** "The Loom of Darkness," Jack Vance: I'm no fan of Vance's overwrought prose and distant, unemotional and unlikeable characters, so I didn't enjoy this particularly. Sword and sorcery, a rogue, but not a loveable one.
**** "The Man Who Sold Rope to the Gnolls," Margaret St Clair: again, more horror than fantasy, to me, but a good story that sustains a mocking, almost light tone against very dark events.
***** "The Silken-Swift," Theodore Sturgeon: I'd read this recently in the same collection as the Heinlein, so I didn't reread it, though it's an excellent story, emotionally powerful and beautifully written.
**** "The Golem," Avram Davidson: another Jewish author playing with Jewish stereotypes in a warm and affectionate way. The mundanity of the elderly couple plays against what I'm tempted to call the attempted darkness of the 'golem' - which is technological rather than magical, so this is, again, arguably SF, not fantasy.
**** "Operation Afreet," Poul Anderson: recently read in the other collection, not reread, and another werewolf story (making three werewolves in this volume). Again, too, humour and romance and action, and a well-written piece.
**** "That Hell-Bound Train," Robert Bloch: a deal-with-the-devil story, another common fantasy trope, particularly well executed by this master of the creepy, and closely approaching horror.
**** "The Bazaar of the Bizarre," Fritz Lieber: although I find the Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser stories, of which this is one, darker and grittier than I usually prefer, I still enjoy them because they're so well done and so atmospheric. Lieber was excellent at evoking the strange and sinister in a sword & sorcery setting, and that ability is on full display here.
**** "Come Lady Death," Peter S. Beagle: I've just read Beagle's latest novel, and it's interesting to compare it to this story from more than 50 years ago, early in his career. The story is much more mannered, with strong hints of literary descent from Poe's "Masque of the Red Death," but it's still powerful, and worthy of its inclusion here.
*** "The Drowned Giant," J.G. Ballard: a style of fantasy I don't have much time for, in which the fantastic enters the mundane world and is treated mundanely. Also a 'story' which is a description of a series of observations, not plotted, and on the whole I prefer even short stories to have a plot unless they're spectacular in some other way. This isn't.
*** "Narrow Valley," R.A. Lafferty: I'm not sure why this is the Lafferty story that always gets collected. He wrote others, I'm sure, just as good. But it's a quintessential Lafferty story: surreal characters and events, perhaps a bit flat, amusing in an offbeat way.
*** "Faith of Our Fathers," Philip K. Dick: like basically every Dick story ever, it's about what is real, and the untrustworthiness of perception and consciousness. The setting, in a world taken over by the Communist powers, is interesting, but I'm afraid I'm just not a big fan of this author's work. (Originally appeared in Harlan Ellison's Dangerous Visions anthology.)
**** "The Ghost of a Model T," Clifford D. Simak: a beautiful example of a story without much in the way of a plot, that's more about a character's realisations - and, in this case, memories and perspective on life - than any events or struggle, but nevertheless works. Simak evokes the setting so extremely well that a plot isn't really necessary.
**** "The Demoness," Tanith Lee: I'm not a particular fan of Lee's dark, sex-soaked stories, but she does them well, and this is a classic example of one. It did leave me with sympathy for the title character, which was quite an achievement, all things considered, so she gets a fourth star.
***** "Jeffty is Five," Harlan Ellison: a fine story, which I'd read before recently enough that I didn't reread it. Very human and moving.
*** "The Detective of Dreams," Gene Wolfe: I can hardly cavil at this being the story that represents Wolfe, since it's the only one of his I feel I mostly understand, and even sort of like a bit. What surprises me is that, apparently, a lot of other people like it too, despite its overt religious message. The 19th-century voice is beautifully and expertly done, though.
**** "Unicorn Variations," Roger Zelazny: I'm a huge Zelazny fan, though more of his novels than his short stories - not that his short stories aren't good, but the longer works give me more time to sink into his powerfully imaginative settings. This one isn't, maybe, as imaginative a setting as some, but the story of a chess game for high stakes is enjoyable, and the touches of whimsy are classic Zelazny.
*** "Basileus," Robert Silverberg: another author whose craft I appreciate but whose actual stories are not my favourites; there's something dark and cynical and alienated at the heart of them that puts me off. This tale of a programmer who fills his computer with angels is no exception.
**** "The Jaguar Hunter," Lucius Shepard: I haven't read a lot of Shepard, but this is an impressive story, with a lot of depth to it. It uses a South American setting to compare and contrast Western consumerism with the older ways, more in tune with nature, but also more violent and savage.
*** "Buffalo Gals, Won't You Come Out Tonight," Ursula K. Le Guin: I am a Le Guin fan, but more of some of her other work than of this. It's beautifully done, and incorporates rich material from Native American legend, but sometimes her stories lack story, to their detriment - at least in my eyes - and this is one of those.
*** "Bears Discover Fire," Terry Bisson: much awarded and frequently collected, but I've never quite seen what the fuss was about. Another more-or-less plotless story; a series of events happen, but for me they don't cohere together into an effective whole. I'm probably missing something.
**** "Tower of Babylon," Ted Chiang: with this story we are, in a sense, back at the beginning, because, like the stories in Campbell's Unknown magazine, it's a rigorously worked out exploration of a fantastical speculation, in this case about the structure of the universe (what if it was as some ancient civilisations believed?) The main character is somewhat flat, and largely there as an observer, but the working out of the premise is well enough done that I enjoyed it.
I don't know if there's an overall conclusion to be drawn from such a diverse collection stretching over more than 50 years. Early 90s SFF writers liked funny, action-packed werewolf stories? Stories can work without a plot if you do something else amazing? Rich description is a big help, but isn't essential? SF and horror stories sometimes get called fantasy? There's no one common factor in great fantasy stories? All of those seem to be true.
For me, some of these were amazing, others disappointing, but on average, they were fine, enjoyable pieces showcasing the considerable talents of their authors.
January 8, 2026
I found this book perusing the Science Fiction/Fantasy section of my library, looking for some of the classics—to my dismay, this was the closest I got to what I was looking for, but for the most part, I enjoyed it! When I was in college for a short spell, I took a class on Science Fiction and Fantasy, so I already knew how close these two genres are to each-other, but really reading solid examples of them for myself (reading in an academic setting, as a neurodivergent person, has never been a strength of mine so I really don’t remember much of what we read in class at all). Ironically enough, Robert Silverberg was the editor of the Science Fiction anthology that I had to have for that class, so I was excited to see more of his work and even read one of his pieces!
Trouble with Water, H.L. Gold (***)
This was definitely an interesting introduction to the anthology. I realize the stories were simply placed in chronological order, but it was also an easy story to set the stage for the genre and theme that strings everything together. It was relatively simple to understand, yet clever. I’m not huge on stories about elves and gnomes and the like, but I enjoyed it well enough.
Nothing in the Rules, L. Sprague de Camp (****)
As a queer and trans person, I know all too well the ways in which the ‘rules’ of sports affect our ability to play the way cis people do, and this story reminded me all too much of that. First they’re trying to argue what constitutes as human, then what constitutes as a woman—so familiar, but still uniquely strung together in a way that I enjoyed. This story was beautifully written and felt realistic as far as a story about mermaids go—if mermaids were real, this is how I see this situation going in the modern world.
Fruit of Knowledge, C. L. Moore (*****)
My favorite part of this story for me is that a biblical tale was considered, accurately, to be fantasy—there are way too many people in the world today taking Christian belief as scientific fact. I read a few reviews of this specific story where readers (men) were not interested in it—again, predictable, lol. I love the story of Lilith and this was an amazing rendition of that story, especially since I had only really read about her briefly in art historical and cultural context, never literature. I also love that this was written by a woman, because she really told us a story about this femme demon that is so scorned and hated in most contexts. Here, Lilith is given the opportunity to be the protagonist—you see what brought her to where she ended up, and Adam and Eve are really a beautiful after-thought compared to her.
Tlōn, Uqbar, Orbis Tirtius, Jorge Luis Borges (*)
I realize that there is probably a background and exposition that I’m missing from this story, but I just did not enjoy it at all. It was definitely interesting to read about a fantasy world that these real scholars were finding hints of in the real world, but I just found that some of the anecdotal parts didn’t really match up with the anthropological parts. I think maybe if there was more of the anecdotal, the anthropological and factual parts would’ve made more sense and been more enjoyable?
The Compleat Werewolf, Anthony Boucher (*****)
I LOVED this story so much. I wasn’t really sure how to feel because I had never really read werewolf stories of my own accord (except Twilight in high school, lol). This story really felt almost like The Shaggy Dog, that movie from the early 2000’s starring Tim Allen but in a Victorian setting. I immediately thought Wolfe Wolf was so comical and inviting to read about. I thought that the whole story was incredibly clever, fast-paced, and endearing—you really never knew what the next move was gonna be, especially when Wolfe takes down a fascist organization posing as a film company! Dogs? Anti-Fascism? It was a win-win for me!
The Small Assassin, Ray Bradbury (****)
If you’ve looked through any of my other readings and reviews on here (I mean why would you, lol? Who cares?), you know that I looooove Ray Bradbury with all my heart. In fact, when I picked this book up from the shelf at the library for the first time, I really took it home because I saw that Ray was in the Table of Contents. This was not a story about future societal trouble or the burden of future technology, though—this was really the perfect mixture of Science Fiction and Fantasy. I was so sure his story would be about science in a more specific sense, but he really only used it in a way that propelled the fantastical themes forward. I knew just where this story was headed, but I enjoyed the ride very much. As a person who has literally never wanted children, it was a very affirming story about the stresses and pains people go through having them, but in a very Steven King-esque way.
The Lottery, Shirley Jackson (****)
Seeing The Lottery in the Table of Contents of the book immediately made my stomach drop—this is probably one of the only stories I remember from high school English class. There is literally nothing like it—short, to the point, and horrifying. I love everything about it, except for the dark and heavy feeling I get when I think about it. The metaphor for society is perfect and we see it play out every single day—sacrificing our neighbors to feed a machine built on tradition that our fathers’ fathers’ fathers’ fathers insisted was important, but that we today don’t always understand or see as relevant. Reading it as a kid, I definitely just saw it as this dark story about a cult that kills someone every year to make the crops grow, but as an adult, I know that Shirley was really holding up the mirror to our current society.
Our Fair City, Robert A. Heinlein (*****)
This was not the story I was expecting to read from Heinlein—mind you, I haven’t read Stranger in a Strange Land in its entirety, but I was surprised nonetheless. I felt like this story was very tongue-in-cheek and comical, like The Compleat Werewolf, which was appreciated but unexpected. It did, however, have a fantastic lesson to it, and I couldn’t have been happier reading this. At first, it really feels like you’re just reading a story about a man who works in a parking lot and has a friend that’s a literal fart—but then, it all starts to unravel. Look at how fucking stupid these cops are! Look at how ridiculous the leaders in our fair city are! Look at the lengths the government will go to, following around a FART, arresting a man who is friends with a FART, spending real tax-payer money on containing…a FART. Five stars. Utterly fantastic.
There Shall Be No Darkness, James Blish (***)
I really can’t make hide or tail of this story, no pun intended. There were parts where I was sure I liked the story and parts where I wished so desperately to read anything else. I wasn’t prepared for another werewolf story, to begin with—the men really yearn for the wolf furry life, I guess! This story was much darker and longer than The Compleat Werewolf, unfortunately—in this story, the werewolf is in fact the villain. Maybe reading the Compleat Werewolf gave me the sense that the werewolf isn’t always evil—so seeing them jump right to ‘let’s kill this guy’ seemed a bit much. The whole story was just a hunting tale—trying to track down this man who turned into a wolf creature and ran away into the woods. I will give Blish the benefit that his writing style is beautifully done, but not much else enticed me about this—they killed off my favorite character!
The Loom of Darkness, Jack Vance (***)
This was another one of those stories where I really had no idea where it was headed. I feel like the plot, however, took a back seat to all of the fantastical setting and characters—sometimes I forgot why exactly the main character was going to wherever he as going and where he was even going to begin with. The ending was great, and of course I send my congratulations to Lith the golden witch, but there was so much nonsense that I didn’t really feel needed to be included in this story.
The Man Who Sold Rope to the Gnoles, Margaret St. Clair (****)
This was another one of those brief, silly stories that I deeply enjoy. Going from dense to dense to dense can be tiresome, so getting a little bit of goofy really helps when you’re reading a gargantuan anthology like this! This story was plain, simple, and predictable, but so so enjoyable still. It was concise like Nothing in the Rules and tongue-in-cheek like Our Fair City.
The Silken-Swift, Theodore Sturgeon (*****)
This was one of my favorite stories in the whole anthology—not necessarily because of the moral of the story, but definitely because of the writing style. There was so much beautiful descriptive work done here that all worked so well with the pace of the story, unlike The Loom of Darkness. FINALLY a story about a unicorn! FINALLY!! I loved the characters as well as the setting. I wasn’t a huge fan of the virginal discourse, but if you ignore that and just think of the unicorn’s trust being placed in someone who is pure of heart, like I did, you’ll enjoy it very much.
The Golem, Avram Davidson (*****)
This story was so motherfucking hilarious—at first I wasn’t really sure what was going on, but then I realized it’s literally just an old Jewish couple completely oblivious and perhaps just uninterested in the bloodthirsty creature that came to visit. It really reads like a Curb Your Enthusiasm or Seinfeld episode. I loved it so much.
Operation Afreet, Poul Anderson (*****)
Sir, a THIRD werewolf story has hit the Fantasy Anthology. This one was interesting at times and a bit of a bummer at times, but I think that may have just been the point. This story takes place in a fantasy world where witches and werewolves and weather machines exist—and they’re fighting the Arabs. All of this incredible technology and ability, and they are still madly worried about what the Arabs are doing. At first, I was a little bummed out because I couldn’t shake off the idea that people could ride on broomsticks and were somehow still caught up in a war with people who are different than them for really no reason—until I realized that was the whole point. This had to be a reflection on the fact that the modern world is so blessed with technology—flying machines, talking screens, the like—and yet we are constantly fighting a culture war. Beautiful. Five stars. Also, a little Easter Egg for me was that Poul Anderson grew up in Bristol, PA—which is where I work!
The Hell-Bound Train, Robert Bloch (*****)
Another story that I was just so in love with from beginning to end. I have a feeling like I may have read it before, or at least been assigned to read it before. I loved the message of the story, and what an intriguing set-up the writer used to get us to that conclusion—life is beautiful, and bottling up one beautiful moment and living in it forever will never be as satisfying as savoring every single second. Truly a classic.
The Bazaar of the Bizarre, Fritz Leiber (****)
I liked this story—great setting and characters, great descriptions, great pacing. The character descriptions, specifically of the wizards that were overlooking the main character’s training, were fantastic! I feel like it can be really hard to describe a character that is not human—but this was so vivid. Unlike the Loom of Darkness, though, that had a lot of exposition but kind of fell off with the plot, these details melded so well with the rest of the plot. There was never a moment that I wasn’t completely invested in everything.
Come Lady Death, Peter S. Beagle (*****)
Another story that I absolutely LOVED. The setting and characters, again, were so rich and interesting, and the plot was intriguing in a classical sort of way. I loved imagining this big, magical ball that an aristocratic woman was throwing in order to meet Death—and she was beautiful and youthful and mysterious, but not at all what I was expecting!
The Drowned Giant, J. G. Ballard (*****)
I could see people not liking this story, but as a connoisseur of the macabre, I was so invested. There wasn’t really much more of a plot than the narration of this giant’s body gracefully and gruesomely decaying before the narrator’s very eyes. The way the town really crowded around this humongous marvel, using it as a play area, a meeting area, and then slowly using the parts for their own architectural and resourceful purposes was so rich and beautiful to read. I enjoyed every moment of it.
Narrow Valley, R. A. Lafferty (*****)
Was definitely not expecting a story like this to be written by a white man—a story where natives benefit from the Homestead Act AND stick it to every single other person that tries to take it from them? We love to see it, honestly. This was another one of those stories that had humorous parts and for that, I thoroughly enjoyed it.
Faith of Our Fathers, Philip K. Dick (****)
I was definitely excited to finally find the real, solid, dystopian-future sort of science fiction in this book. Philip K. Dick is known for stories about robots and oppressive power dynamics, and I was super hype to read something from him. This story did absolutely have fantasy elements in it, but for the most part it did give me Blade Runner vibes. The basis that the U.S. lost the Cold War and were taken over by Asian countries was crazy to me because I don’t see a world, as a leftist, where these countries would ever have an interest in taking over our craphole, but the premise of the rest of the plot was awesome.
The Ghost of a Model T, Clifford D. Simak (*****)
Another relatively brief story that I deeply, deeply loved. I often dwell on nostalgia, and it was nice to see a world where that nostalgia was okay and not necessarily entirely detrimental. If it was more Science Fiction-leaning, I’m sure it would’ve had a darker implementation, but this story felt soft and maybe even a little lighthearted for me.
The Demoness, Tanith Lee (***)
This story would definitely be something for the Fairy Smut girlies to enjoy, but for me it felt a little tired—a woman whose pussy game strikes men deaf, dumb, and blind? The woman gains an intense infatuation for the man who wouldn’t fall under her spell? And then she gets killed at the end? I dunno, the writing style was beautiful and the pacing was great, but otherwise it wasn’t necessarily my favorite.
Jeffty is Five, Harlan Ellison (****)
Another story I really liked because the premise was really interesting—Jeffty is five. Everyone else gets older, the narrator gets older, but Jeffty stays five. This is not seen as a good thing, either—these parents are yearning for retirement. They are wasting away, wishing this kid would just sprout a few inches and leave the nest. The ending was sad, of course, because Jeffty ends up staying five until his dying breath, but the writing style was beautiful and the storytelling was great!
The Detective of Dreams, Gene Wolfe (***)
This story was a little long for me, and I feel like the ending didn’t really justify the means. I really wish there had been more fantastical stuff, but it was just a guy searching for someone people keep seeing in their dreams. I didn’t even really enjoy the people reliving their dreams, though I thought I would. It just felt a little dull for me.
Unicorn Variations, Roger Zelazny (*****)
I have actually read a story, apparently, by this author before—in my Science Fiction Anthology, I saw that he had written a story called A Rose for Ecclesiastes. I don’t remember it very well, but I am intrigued to perhaps read it again because of how much I loved this story. I think unicorn stories might just be my favorite because I love unicorns, but this one was not your normal unicorn story like the Silken-Swift. The premise that when Earth animals go extinct, cryptids replace them, was both sad and scary, but also an intriguing premise. The setting of the story, a ghost town in New Mexico, was also very interesting. The symbolism of them hatching it out over chess in the Wild West was so cool. I also loved when the narrator went to the Redwood forest and met a Sasquatch—then proceeded to play chess with him, as well. The ending was even incredibly cute, when all the cryptids come to the bar that the main character has built in the Wild West to appease the unicorn. This would make an amazing movie.
Basileus, Robert Silverberg (****)
This story really intrigued me because I LOVE the biblical imagery of the angels. I also thought it was so ironic how the main character was uploading all the angels to his computer, since there was a church in the news that uses an AI-generated version of Jesus for them to talk to. Robert Silverberg is a fantastic storyteller, and I almost feel bad that it took me this long to read some of his work—really creative and unexpected in the best ways.
The Jaguar Hunter, Lucius Shepard (*****)
Another story I was very surprised to learn was written by a white man—a story where a man struggles between abandoning his indigenous identity in order to appease his wife and acquire much-needed money, or give in to the mysteries of death and alternate worlds. As a gay, I sure did love all the breasting-boobily nonsense that came with reading about the Jaguar lady—get you some, buddy! Even more, though, I loved the way he did indeed leave the world he lived in and go after the Jaguar lady and her world. I hated that wife! I know I was supposed to, but I was gonna be really pissed if he went back to her!
Buffalo Gals, Won’t You Come Out Tonight, Ursula K. Le Guin (*****)
This was one hell of a story. I also read The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas by the same author, which I also remember enjoying, but this story kept me hooked the whole time—I didn’t want it to end. This was another story that I felt had an indigenous sort of tone to it, with the animals taking on different forms (really really well written, btw), the magical elements, and the question of wether this little girl belonged with them. The story was so beautifully written and every single character was my favorite character—I could put myself right in the desert with those animal people!
Bears Discover Fire, Terry Bisson (*****)
One thing you gotta know about me, is that I love bears. Bears are probably my favorite animal—their little ears, the fact that they are so friend-shaped, the fact that they make the best cartoons because they are just SO CUTE! I was so ready to love this story. I was like hell yeah, why don’t bears get to use fire in the real world? This story was another one that I could see being super adaptable as a film—I loved the way the elderly mother stayed with the bears until she passed away, but then when the narrator came back to see them again, he didn’t really feel like he belonged there. There were really so many beautiful, well written moments in this story.
Tower of Babylon, Ted Chiang (****)
It is an absolute crime that this book only has ONE writer that is not white and they leave him way at the end of the book—from the reviews I was reading of this book, some people do not dedicate themselves to reading every single story, and sometimes just fall off when they’re bored of the book. I’m glad I got to the end. This was a really interesting story, especially for myself who has studied art history for a long time and was always fascinated by ancient architecture. I loved the connection to God—or Yahweh—and the culture that was built around building this enormous tower. They were building it for God—there was a question about wether or not God would approve of a tower that would take them all the way to the heavens, but at the end it was very clear that God does not care either way. Really beautifully written, with lots of informative exposition, great dialogue and interactions between characters, and incredible intertwining of the fantastical and the historical.
Trouble with Water, H.L. Gold (***)
This was definitely an interesting introduction to the anthology. I realize the stories were simply placed in chronological order, but it was also an easy story to set the stage for the genre and theme that strings everything together. It was relatively simple to understand, yet clever. I’m not huge on stories about elves and gnomes and the like, but I enjoyed it well enough.
Nothing in the Rules, L. Sprague de Camp (****)
As a queer and trans person, I know all too well the ways in which the ‘rules’ of sports affect our ability to play the way cis people do, and this story reminded me all too much of that. First they’re trying to argue what constitutes as human, then what constitutes as a woman—so familiar, but still uniquely strung together in a way that I enjoyed. This story was beautifully written and felt realistic as far as a story about mermaids go—if mermaids were real, this is how I see this situation going in the modern world.
Fruit of Knowledge, C. L. Moore (*****)
My favorite part of this story for me is that a biblical tale was considered, accurately, to be fantasy—there are way too many people in the world today taking Christian belief as scientific fact. I read a few reviews of this specific story where readers (men) were not interested in it—again, predictable, lol. I love the story of Lilith and this was an amazing rendition of that story, especially since I had only really read about her briefly in art historical and cultural context, never literature. I also love that this was written by a woman, because she really told us a story about this femme demon that is so scorned and hated in most contexts. Here, Lilith is given the opportunity to be the protagonist—you see what brought her to where she ended up, and Adam and Eve are really a beautiful after-thought compared to her.
Tlōn, Uqbar, Orbis Tirtius, Jorge Luis Borges (*)
I realize that there is probably a background and exposition that I’m missing from this story, but I just did not enjoy it at all. It was definitely interesting to read about a fantasy world that these real scholars were finding hints of in the real world, but I just found that some of the anecdotal parts didn’t really match up with the anthropological parts. I think maybe if there was more of the anecdotal, the anthropological and factual parts would’ve made more sense and been more enjoyable?
The Compleat Werewolf, Anthony Boucher (*****)
I LOVED this story so much. I wasn’t really sure how to feel because I had never really read werewolf stories of my own accord (except Twilight in high school, lol). This story really felt almost like The Shaggy Dog, that movie from the early 2000’s starring Tim Allen but in a Victorian setting. I immediately thought Wolfe Wolf was so comical and inviting to read about. I thought that the whole story was incredibly clever, fast-paced, and endearing—you really never knew what the next move was gonna be, especially when Wolfe takes down a fascist organization posing as a film company! Dogs? Anti-Fascism? It was a win-win for me!
The Small Assassin, Ray Bradbury (****)
If you’ve looked through any of my other readings and reviews on here (I mean why would you, lol? Who cares?), you know that I looooove Ray Bradbury with all my heart. In fact, when I picked this book up from the shelf at the library for the first time, I really took it home because I saw that Ray was in the Table of Contents. This was not a story about future societal trouble or the burden of future technology, though—this was really the perfect mixture of Science Fiction and Fantasy. I was so sure his story would be about science in a more specific sense, but he really only used it in a way that propelled the fantastical themes forward. I knew just where this story was headed, but I enjoyed the ride very much. As a person who has literally never wanted children, it was a very affirming story about the stresses and pains people go through having them, but in a very Steven King-esque way.
The Lottery, Shirley Jackson (****)
Seeing The Lottery in the Table of Contents of the book immediately made my stomach drop—this is probably one of the only stories I remember from high school English class. There is literally nothing like it—short, to the point, and horrifying. I love everything about it, except for the dark and heavy feeling I get when I think about it. The metaphor for society is perfect and we see it play out every single day—sacrificing our neighbors to feed a machine built on tradition that our fathers’ fathers’ fathers’ fathers insisted was important, but that we today don’t always understand or see as relevant. Reading it as a kid, I definitely just saw it as this dark story about a cult that kills someone every year to make the crops grow, but as an adult, I know that Shirley was really holding up the mirror to our current society.
Our Fair City, Robert A. Heinlein (*****)
This was not the story I was expecting to read from Heinlein—mind you, I haven’t read Stranger in a Strange Land in its entirety, but I was surprised nonetheless. I felt like this story was very tongue-in-cheek and comical, like The Compleat Werewolf, which was appreciated but unexpected. It did, however, have a fantastic lesson to it, and I couldn’t have been happier reading this. At first, it really feels like you’re just reading a story about a man who works in a parking lot and has a friend that’s a literal fart—but then, it all starts to unravel. Look at how fucking stupid these cops are! Look at how ridiculous the leaders in our fair city are! Look at the lengths the government will go to, following around a FART, arresting a man who is friends with a FART, spending real tax-payer money on containing…a FART. Five stars. Utterly fantastic.
There Shall Be No Darkness, James Blish (***)
I really can’t make hide or tail of this story, no pun intended. There were parts where I was sure I liked the story and parts where I wished so desperately to read anything else. I wasn’t prepared for another werewolf story, to begin with—the men really yearn for the wolf furry life, I guess! This story was much darker and longer than The Compleat Werewolf, unfortunately—in this story, the werewolf is in fact the villain. Maybe reading the Compleat Werewolf gave me the sense that the werewolf isn’t always evil—so seeing them jump right to ‘let’s kill this guy’ seemed a bit much. The whole story was just a hunting tale—trying to track down this man who turned into a wolf creature and ran away into the woods. I will give Blish the benefit that his writing style is beautifully done, but not much else enticed me about this—they killed off my favorite character!
The Loom of Darkness, Jack Vance (***)
This was another one of those stories where I really had no idea where it was headed. I feel like the plot, however, took a back seat to all of the fantastical setting and characters—sometimes I forgot why exactly the main character was going to wherever he as going and where he was even going to begin with. The ending was great, and of course I send my congratulations to Lith the golden witch, but there was so much nonsense that I didn’t really feel needed to be included in this story.
The Man Who Sold Rope to the Gnoles, Margaret St. Clair (****)
This was another one of those brief, silly stories that I deeply enjoy. Going from dense to dense to dense can be tiresome, so getting a little bit of goofy really helps when you’re reading a gargantuan anthology like this! This story was plain, simple, and predictable, but so so enjoyable still. It was concise like Nothing in the Rules and tongue-in-cheek like Our Fair City.
The Silken-Swift, Theodore Sturgeon (*****)
This was one of my favorite stories in the whole anthology—not necessarily because of the moral of the story, but definitely because of the writing style. There was so much beautiful descriptive work done here that all worked so well with the pace of the story, unlike The Loom of Darkness. FINALLY a story about a unicorn! FINALLY!! I loved the characters as well as the setting. I wasn’t a huge fan of the virginal discourse, but if you ignore that and just think of the unicorn’s trust being placed in someone who is pure of heart, like I did, you’ll enjoy it very much.
The Golem, Avram Davidson (*****)
This story was so motherfucking hilarious—at first I wasn’t really sure what was going on, but then I realized it’s literally just an old Jewish couple completely oblivious and perhaps just uninterested in the bloodthirsty creature that came to visit. It really reads like a Curb Your Enthusiasm or Seinfeld episode. I loved it so much.
Operation Afreet, Poul Anderson (*****)
Sir, a THIRD werewolf story has hit the Fantasy Anthology. This one was interesting at times and a bit of a bummer at times, but I think that may have just been the point. This story takes place in a fantasy world where witches and werewolves and weather machines exist—and they’re fighting the Arabs. All of this incredible technology and ability, and they are still madly worried about what the Arabs are doing. At first, I was a little bummed out because I couldn’t shake off the idea that people could ride on broomsticks and were somehow still caught up in a war with people who are different than them for really no reason—until I realized that was the whole point. This had to be a reflection on the fact that the modern world is so blessed with technology—flying machines, talking screens, the like—and yet we are constantly fighting a culture war. Beautiful. Five stars. Also, a little Easter Egg for me was that Poul Anderson grew up in Bristol, PA—which is where I work!
The Hell-Bound Train, Robert Bloch (*****)
Another story that I was just so in love with from beginning to end. I have a feeling like I may have read it before, or at least been assigned to read it before. I loved the message of the story, and what an intriguing set-up the writer used to get us to that conclusion—life is beautiful, and bottling up one beautiful moment and living in it forever will never be as satisfying as savoring every single second. Truly a classic.
The Bazaar of the Bizarre, Fritz Leiber (****)
I liked this story—great setting and characters, great descriptions, great pacing. The character descriptions, specifically of the wizards that were overlooking the main character’s training, were fantastic! I feel like it can be really hard to describe a character that is not human—but this was so vivid. Unlike the Loom of Darkness, though, that had a lot of exposition but kind of fell off with the plot, these details melded so well with the rest of the plot. There was never a moment that I wasn’t completely invested in everything.
Come Lady Death, Peter S. Beagle (*****)
Another story that I absolutely LOVED. The setting and characters, again, were so rich and interesting, and the plot was intriguing in a classical sort of way. I loved imagining this big, magical ball that an aristocratic woman was throwing in order to meet Death—and she was beautiful and youthful and mysterious, but not at all what I was expecting!
The Drowned Giant, J. G. Ballard (*****)
I could see people not liking this story, but as a connoisseur of the macabre, I was so invested. There wasn’t really much more of a plot than the narration of this giant’s body gracefully and gruesomely decaying before the narrator’s very eyes. The way the town really crowded around this humongous marvel, using it as a play area, a meeting area, and then slowly using the parts for their own architectural and resourceful purposes was so rich and beautiful to read. I enjoyed every moment of it.
Narrow Valley, R. A. Lafferty (*****)
Was definitely not expecting a story like this to be written by a white man—a story where natives benefit from the Homestead Act AND stick it to every single other person that tries to take it from them? We love to see it, honestly. This was another one of those stories that had humorous parts and for that, I thoroughly enjoyed it.
Faith of Our Fathers, Philip K. Dick (****)
I was definitely excited to finally find the real, solid, dystopian-future sort of science fiction in this book. Philip K. Dick is known for stories about robots and oppressive power dynamics, and I was super hype to read something from him. This story did absolutely have fantasy elements in it, but for the most part it did give me Blade Runner vibes. The basis that the U.S. lost the Cold War and were taken over by Asian countries was crazy to me because I don’t see a world, as a leftist, where these countries would ever have an interest in taking over our craphole, but the premise of the rest of the plot was awesome.
The Ghost of a Model T, Clifford D. Simak (*****)
Another relatively brief story that I deeply, deeply loved. I often dwell on nostalgia, and it was nice to see a world where that nostalgia was okay and not necessarily entirely detrimental. If it was more Science Fiction-leaning, I’m sure it would’ve had a darker implementation, but this story felt soft and maybe even a little lighthearted for me.
The Demoness, Tanith Lee (***)
This story would definitely be something for the Fairy Smut girlies to enjoy, but for me it felt a little tired—a woman whose pussy game strikes men deaf, dumb, and blind? The woman gains an intense infatuation for the man who wouldn’t fall under her spell? And then she gets killed at the end? I dunno, the writing style was beautiful and the pacing was great, but otherwise it wasn’t necessarily my favorite.
Jeffty is Five, Harlan Ellison (****)
Another story I really liked because the premise was really interesting—Jeffty is five. Everyone else gets older, the narrator gets older, but Jeffty stays five. This is not seen as a good thing, either—these parents are yearning for retirement. They are wasting away, wishing this kid would just sprout a few inches and leave the nest. The ending was sad, of course, because Jeffty ends up staying five until his dying breath, but the writing style was beautiful and the storytelling was great!
The Detective of Dreams, Gene Wolfe (***)
This story was a little long for me, and I feel like the ending didn’t really justify the means. I really wish there had been more fantastical stuff, but it was just a guy searching for someone people keep seeing in their dreams. I didn’t even really enjoy the people reliving their dreams, though I thought I would. It just felt a little dull for me.
Unicorn Variations, Roger Zelazny (*****)
I have actually read a story, apparently, by this author before—in my Science Fiction Anthology, I saw that he had written a story called A Rose for Ecclesiastes. I don’t remember it very well, but I am intrigued to perhaps read it again because of how much I loved this story. I think unicorn stories might just be my favorite because I love unicorns, but this one was not your normal unicorn story like the Silken-Swift. The premise that when Earth animals go extinct, cryptids replace them, was both sad and scary, but also an intriguing premise. The setting of the story, a ghost town in New Mexico, was also very interesting. The symbolism of them hatching it out over chess in the Wild West was so cool. I also loved when the narrator went to the Redwood forest and met a Sasquatch—then proceeded to play chess with him, as well. The ending was even incredibly cute, when all the cryptids come to the bar that the main character has built in the Wild West to appease the unicorn. This would make an amazing movie.
Basileus, Robert Silverberg (****)
This story really intrigued me because I LOVE the biblical imagery of the angels. I also thought it was so ironic how the main character was uploading all the angels to his computer, since there was a church in the news that uses an AI-generated version of Jesus for them to talk to. Robert Silverberg is a fantastic storyteller, and I almost feel bad that it took me this long to read some of his work—really creative and unexpected in the best ways.
The Jaguar Hunter, Lucius Shepard (*****)
Another story I was very surprised to learn was written by a white man—a story where a man struggles between abandoning his indigenous identity in order to appease his wife and acquire much-needed money, or give in to the mysteries of death and alternate worlds. As a gay, I sure did love all the breasting-boobily nonsense that came with reading about the Jaguar lady—get you some, buddy! Even more, though, I loved the way he did indeed leave the world he lived in and go after the Jaguar lady and her world. I hated that wife! I know I was supposed to, but I was gonna be really pissed if he went back to her!
Buffalo Gals, Won’t You Come Out Tonight, Ursula K. Le Guin (*****)
This was one hell of a story. I also read The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas by the same author, which I also remember enjoying, but this story kept me hooked the whole time—I didn’t want it to end. This was another story that I felt had an indigenous sort of tone to it, with the animals taking on different forms (really really well written, btw), the magical elements, and the question of wether this little girl belonged with them. The story was so beautifully written and every single character was my favorite character—I could put myself right in the desert with those animal people!
Bears Discover Fire, Terry Bisson (*****)
One thing you gotta know about me, is that I love bears. Bears are probably my favorite animal—their little ears, the fact that they are so friend-shaped, the fact that they make the best cartoons because they are just SO CUTE! I was so ready to love this story. I was like hell yeah, why don’t bears get to use fire in the real world? This story was another one that I could see being super adaptable as a film—I loved the way the elderly mother stayed with the bears until she passed away, but then when the narrator came back to see them again, he didn’t really feel like he belonged there. There were really so many beautiful, well written moments in this story.
Tower of Babylon, Ted Chiang (****)
It is an absolute crime that this book only has ONE writer that is not white and they leave him way at the end of the book—from the reviews I was reading of this book, some people do not dedicate themselves to reading every single story, and sometimes just fall off when they’re bored of the book. I’m glad I got to the end. This was a really interesting story, especially for myself who has studied art history for a long time and was always fascinated by ancient architecture. I loved the connection to God—or Yahweh—and the culture that was built around building this enormous tower. They were building it for God—there was a question about wether or not God would approve of a tower that would take them all the way to the heavens, but at the end it was very clear that God does not care either way. Really beautifully written, with lots of informative exposition, great dialogue and interactions between characters, and incredible intertwining of the fantastical and the historical.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 18, 2012
this anthology really deserves 3.5 stars but i don't want to round up in this case.
it's a huge collection, which i really liked, and some of the authors i'd never heard of before really surprised me and i loved their work. also to my surprise i've actually read quite a few of the stories before, unbeknownst to me, since they weren't by the authors names who i recognized straight off.
i don't think the editors did a good job at all. that's my problem. you have such a huge repertoire to choose from, even back when the book was published, and these are the stories you choose from authors such as pkd and ellison and tanith lee to throw in here? REALLY? le guin i can understand, as the more i read her work the less i like anything she writes. but i also feel like many of the stories didn't even belong, as they were neither sci-fi or fantasy but bizarre instead. and even when this book was published i can think of other authors of the genres who won the same awards who would have made far better replacements for some of those published.
i felt it odd that the editors felt like reaching so far back into the repertoires of these authors and their works, avoiding at all costs anything remotely modern even if it fit the criteria better and was better written. just because it's old doesn't mean it's good. ground-breaking perhaps, but not necessarily better.
but i did like so many of the stories, so i can't knock the whole book. i have a new host of authors to look to for other reading material, which is why i even bother with short story collections anyway.
it's a huge collection, which i really liked, and some of the authors i'd never heard of before really surprised me and i loved their work. also to my surprise i've actually read quite a few of the stories before, unbeknownst to me, since they weren't by the authors names who i recognized straight off.
i don't think the editors did a good job at all. that's my problem. you have such a huge repertoire to choose from, even back when the book was published, and these are the stories you choose from authors such as pkd and ellison and tanith lee to throw in here? REALLY? le guin i can understand, as the more i read her work the less i like anything she writes. but i also feel like many of the stories didn't even belong, as they were neither sci-fi or fantasy but bizarre instead. and even when this book was published i can think of other authors of the genres who won the same awards who would have made far better replacements for some of those published.
i felt it odd that the editors felt like reaching so far back into the repertoires of these authors and their works, avoiding at all costs anything remotely modern even if it fit the criteria better and was better written. just because it's old doesn't mean it's good. ground-breaking perhaps, but not necessarily better.
but i did like so many of the stories, so i can't knock the whole book. i have a new host of authors to look to for other reading material, which is why i even bother with short story collections anyway.
September 3, 2007
Definitely a great intro to the world of the fantasy short story, although some of the material will be overly familiar to the long-time fan. Props to this book for including my favorite Peter S. Beagle short story, "Come Lady Death."
August 1, 2016
For a Fantasy "best of" collection I was really disappointed. Much preferred "Epic: Legends of Fantasy" (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1...)
January 26, 2018
DNF, seemed more like horror stories than fantasy. 1 Star
May 23, 2020
"Trouble with Water," by H.L. Gold (1939): 3
- So, this is a really bad story, but not necessarily in a way that antagonizes me against it, and maybe especially because it’s so bad. Because it can’t help but wear its amateurnish so lightly, because this reads like the most benign version of many daytrading amateur stories. And there’s something nice maybe(?) in that attempt. Or, maybe I’m just being charitable to this and not to the other on account of some faux-nostalgia for early 50s New York. And here we do have an affable-enough Jewish man, clearly mining something out of the mix of cultures in the city, and envisioning a real working-class mensch, beset by life on all sides, just trying to get by. It’s just too bad the story’s so hackneyed--man meets and gets cursed by water gnome, water flees from him, meets Irish friend, and they find way to break the curse. Still, there is something folklorish about its composition and telling that nicely makes its failures less than genre failures and more in line with a type of communal telling and narrative I’m less familiar with, and maybe less predisposed to simply dismiss wholesale. Also, based on the construction of this anthology, this so clearly speaks of a titan in the field being honored on account of that fellow-feeling, although he’s a publisher and not a writer.
"Nothing in the Rules," by L. Sprague de Camp (1939): 3
- Good god, this book. Another interminable piece of belated juvenalia; fantasy as adult bedtime story. These are the types that I could either write two pages or two sentences about, and both are about as deserving--former, cause it's filled with clear allusions to the class, status, and precise time and place of its construction and author, as well as just as many interesting markers revealing aspects of genre literature history and it's estranged relationship to the broader literary world, and the other just because it's decades-old weak genre writing, meriting not too much thought either now or then. The story: what if a mermaid swam in a meet?!
“That Hell-Bound Train,” by Robert Bloch (1958): 7.5
- An ultimately shallow tale, a famous one at that, and you see the connections between the two: like the workman’s ditty framing the story, Bloch’s largely smuggled in a folk tale in horror clothes, as evidenced by the flattened “horror”, the breezy narrative development, the moral message of the immoral tale, and the demotic affectations of style and substance. Take from those what you will, but it creates a certain constrained spectrum of quality control — as hard to rise above a certain level as it is to fall below it.
- So, this is a really bad story, but not necessarily in a way that antagonizes me against it, and maybe especially because it’s so bad. Because it can’t help but wear its amateurnish so lightly, because this reads like the most benign version of many daytrading amateur stories. And there’s something nice maybe(?) in that attempt. Or, maybe I’m just being charitable to this and not to the other on account of some faux-nostalgia for early 50s New York. And here we do have an affable-enough Jewish man, clearly mining something out of the mix of cultures in the city, and envisioning a real working-class mensch, beset by life on all sides, just trying to get by. It’s just too bad the story’s so hackneyed--man meets and gets cursed by water gnome, water flees from him, meets Irish friend, and they find way to break the curse. Still, there is something folklorish about its composition and telling that nicely makes its failures less than genre failures and more in line with a type of communal telling and narrative I’m less familiar with, and maybe less predisposed to simply dismiss wholesale. Also, based on the construction of this anthology, this so clearly speaks of a titan in the field being honored on account of that fellow-feeling, although he’s a publisher and not a writer.
"Nothing in the Rules," by L. Sprague de Camp (1939): 3
- Good god, this book. Another interminable piece of belated juvenalia; fantasy as adult bedtime story. These are the types that I could either write two pages or two sentences about, and both are about as deserving--former, cause it's filled with clear allusions to the class, status, and precise time and place of its construction and author, as well as just as many interesting markers revealing aspects of genre literature history and it's estranged relationship to the broader literary world, and the other just because it's decades-old weak genre writing, meriting not too much thought either now or then. The story: what if a mermaid swam in a meet?!
“That Hell-Bound Train,” by Robert Bloch (1958): 7.5
- An ultimately shallow tale, a famous one at that, and you see the connections between the two: like the workman’s ditty framing the story, Bloch’s largely smuggled in a folk tale in horror clothes, as evidenced by the flattened “horror”, the breezy narrative development, the moral message of the immoral tale, and the demotic affectations of style and substance. Take from those what you will, but it creates a certain constrained spectrum of quality control — as hard to rise above a certain level as it is to fall below it.
June 16, 2016
“The Fantasy Hall of Fame” introduces the Sci-Fi/Fantasy reader to fantasy stories that the ‘Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America’ felt deserved a place of prominence in the world of speculative fiction. They selected 30 stories from 1939 -1990 that they considered classics.
It ranges from the humorously unserious good natured fun of fantasy to the more serious thought provoking ideas fantasy has to offer. It includes the lighthearted, the terrifying, the morality tale and the mini-epic. Most of the stories are written by writers known for their science fiction.
This anthology contains….
a man whom water cannot touch, a mermaid who enters a swimming completion, 2 tales of biblical fiction, an encyclopedia from another world, 3 tales of werewolves one involving fighting Nazis, another one that takes place at a dinner party and one where the werewolf is involved in a magical war where the enemy has a jinni for a weapon, a killer baby, a classic dystopian tale involving rocks, an intelligent whirlwind, 2 tales of sword and sorcery, creatures called Gnoles, a unicorn and a unholy virgin, a confused golem, a deal with the devil, a ball where death is the guest of honor, a dead giant washed on the shores of a village and how the locals react to it, a valley that could have been designed by time lords, a drug induced version of god, a time-traveling intelligent model-t, a woman who sucks the life out of men and who chases one that got away, a boy who perpetually stays five (perhaps the best in the collection) a detective mystery involving dreams, a chess match with a unicorn for the fate of the world, computer generated angels, a girl who can transform into a jaguar, a girl who stumbles into a strange world of north American desert animals, and the evolution of bears.
This walk through the halls of fame has some real masterpieces worth reading, some stories worth forgetting and a few that belong somewhere else. If I were picking out the stories, there are quite a few I would throw out and others I would bring in and of course some I would leave as is. It’s overall an entertaining (if long) read of some truly great fantasy stories. Grade B
It ranges from the humorously unserious good natured fun of fantasy to the more serious thought provoking ideas fantasy has to offer. It includes the lighthearted, the terrifying, the morality tale and the mini-epic. Most of the stories are written by writers known for their science fiction.
This anthology contains….
a man whom water cannot touch, a mermaid who enters a swimming completion, 2 tales of biblical fiction, an encyclopedia from another world, 3 tales of werewolves one involving fighting Nazis, another one that takes place at a dinner party and one where the werewolf is involved in a magical war where the enemy has a jinni for a weapon, a killer baby, a classic dystopian tale involving rocks, an intelligent whirlwind, 2 tales of sword and sorcery, creatures called Gnoles, a unicorn and a unholy virgin, a confused golem, a deal with the devil, a ball where death is the guest of honor, a dead giant washed on the shores of a village and how the locals react to it, a valley that could have been designed by time lords, a drug induced version of god, a time-traveling intelligent model-t, a woman who sucks the life out of men and who chases one that got away, a boy who perpetually stays five (perhaps the best in the collection) a detective mystery involving dreams, a chess match with a unicorn for the fate of the world, computer generated angels, a girl who can transform into a jaguar, a girl who stumbles into a strange world of north American desert animals, and the evolution of bears.
This walk through the halls of fame has some real masterpieces worth reading, some stories worth forgetting and a few that belong somewhere else. If I were picking out the stories, there are quite a few I would throw out and others I would bring in and of course some I would leave as is. It’s overall an entertaining (if long) read of some truly great fantasy stories. Grade B
September 3, 2013
This is a collection of 22 short stories that have a fantasy theme. They aren't the most modern of stories, as the book was first published in 1983, but the stories are great. Some of my favourites...
"The Sword of Welleran" where ghostly heros come back from the dead to save a city they love.
"The Women of the Wood" where a lonely traveller becomes embroiled with saving a wood from destruction.
"The Valley of the Worm" where a hero has to destroy a hellish worm like beast that haunts the nearby valley.
"Black God's Kiss" where a brave commander travels into hell to find a weapon aginst her oppressors.
"Mazirian the Magician" where an evil magician persues a mystery woman through the woods.
"The Silken Swift" My absolute favourite, where an evil girl gets her comeuppance at the hands of a mythical beast.
"Pretty Maggie Moneyeyes" about a haunted gambling machine.
Just right for dipping in and out of as the thought takes you, or devouring in one go.
"The Sword of Welleran" where ghostly heros come back from the dead to save a city they love.
"The Women of the Wood" where a lonely traveller becomes embroiled with saving a wood from destruction.
"The Valley of the Worm" where a hero has to destroy a hellish worm like beast that haunts the nearby valley.
"Black God's Kiss" where a brave commander travels into hell to find a weapon aginst her oppressors.
"Mazirian the Magician" where an evil magician persues a mystery woman through the woods.
"The Silken Swift" My absolute favourite, where an evil girl gets her comeuppance at the hands of a mythical beast.
"Pretty Maggie Moneyeyes" about a haunted gambling machine.
Just right for dipping in and out of as the thought takes you, or devouring in one go.
Read
February 6, 2013This book was amazing! i love the ending it was the most intense part! i recommend this book for people that are into anthology,fantasy, and action a book filled with packed info its interesting to know about this book because of all the true facts you may think by looking at the cover its not a good book it may seem boring but actually no that's not true the thing is the facts are all TRUE! and that surprised me and seriously surprisingly i loved the book and i think you would too (: give it a try!
February 7, 2011
A classic compendium of stories. Enjoy old favorites (The Lottery by Shirley Jackson) and be introduced to those you should have read. That said, I found the quality of the stories a bit variable, ranging from outstanding to just head-scratching (still no idea what archetypal fairy tale Gene Wolfe was referencing in The Detective of Dreams).
January 27, 2012
Niejednego zdziwić może, jak szeroko pojmowanym gatunkiem jest fantasy. I taka też jest ta antologia. Niewiele tu opowiadań kojarzących się z "typowym" fantasy. Poziom bardzo różny, z kilkoma perełkami i kilkoma nieporozumieniami, przeważają jednak całkiem niezłe utwory. Zaskakujące jest to, że nie znalazło się tu ani jedno opowiadanie Roberta E. Howarda o Conanie.
Read
August 22, 2008Fantasy Hall of Fame by Robert Silverberg (1998)
maybe-try-again-later
June 6, 2011All the stories seemed so depressing. Maybe I was just short storied out...
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