![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Entry tags:
New Magics: An Anthology of Today’s Fantasy Edited by Patrick Nielsen Hayden
The Blurb On The Back:
Open the door to New Magics ...
Here is National Book Award winner Ursula K. Le Guin with a tale of wizardry from the world of her Earthsea books. Here is Orson Scott Card, author of Ender's Game, with the original story of Prentice Alvin in an alternate, magical nineteenth century America. Here is Coraline author Neil Gaiman with a story of chivalry, with a distinctly modern twist. Here are werewolves and princesses, battles and enchantments, and great stories from Jane Yolen, Harry Turtledove, Charles de Lint, Emma Bull, and others.
Whimsical or harrowing, irreverent or sublime, each of these stories is an adventure in imagination especially selected for today's generation of young readers.
All of the stories in this book are well written, which is exactly what you'd expect given the calibre of the writers that The Blurb On The Back highlights and the fact that this collection has been edited by Patrick Nielsen Hayden, a man who carries a lot of respect within the SF and fantasy community. However, I'm at something of a loss to explain what this collection is intended to do.
Published in 2004, the title of the book describes it as an Anthology of Today's fantasy but a cursory look at the copyright information near the front cover reveals that Neil Gaiman's very entertaining take on the grail myth was copyrighted in 1992, Orson Scott Card's Prentice Alvin story dates from 1986 (as does Ellen Kushner's 'Charis'. In fact, much of the fiction in this book is copyrighted from the 1990s and of the two stories copyrighted in this century, Ursula Le Guin's 'The Bones Of The Earth' dates from 2001, that's three years before this book. In short, for a book about today's fantasy, of the twelve stories in total only two can be said to meet the 'today' criteria.
My suspicion, given that the book is aimed at the 13 year up market, is that this is supposed to serve as an introduction to the wide world of fantasy for teenagers who otherwise might be suspicious. Nielsen Hayden's introduction hints at this with his emphasis on how fantasy is not all about knights and strange new worlds and certainly the emphasis of the stories in this collection leans heavily towards what might be termed urban fantasy. I find it sad that this aim could not be done with some newer stories, although I cannot fault any of the individual tales within the collection (and indeed, I've been tempted to give the Prentice Alvin series a try, despite never having been struck with Ender's Game).
Neil Gaiman's 'Chivalry' is probably my favourite in the collection, written in a sparse style but full of dry humour. I also found Jane Yolen's 'Mama Gone' to be a genuinely moving take on the vampire legend, albeit one that has a slightly contrived set up and 'Jo's Hair' by Susan Palwick is an interesting piece of fanfic-gone-legit. Least favourite story was a tie between Andy Duncan's 'Liza and the Crazy Water Man' (which is good on conveying a feel for the 1930s, but I got the twist early on and found myself twiddling my thumbs until the Big Reveal) and Emma Bull's 'A Bird That Whistles' (mainly because I've never been much for moody, good looking elves).
The Verdict:
It's worth a look but don't go in expecting the latest in cutting edge, up-to-the-minute fantasy fiction. These are well crafted stories, but don't necessarily reflect current trends, although they may well tip you off to some writers who are perhaps no longer in the forefront of the genre.
Open the door to New Magics ...
Here is National Book Award winner Ursula K. Le Guin with a tale of wizardry from the world of her Earthsea books. Here is Orson Scott Card, author of Ender's Game, with the original story of Prentice Alvin in an alternate, magical nineteenth century America. Here is Coraline author Neil Gaiman with a story of chivalry, with a distinctly modern twist. Here are werewolves and princesses, battles and enchantments, and great stories from Jane Yolen, Harry Turtledove, Charles de Lint, Emma Bull, and others.
Whimsical or harrowing, irreverent or sublime, each of these stories is an adventure in imagination especially selected for today's generation of young readers.
All of the stories in this book are well written, which is exactly what you'd expect given the calibre of the writers that The Blurb On The Back highlights and the fact that this collection has been edited by Patrick Nielsen Hayden, a man who carries a lot of respect within the SF and fantasy community. However, I'm at something of a loss to explain what this collection is intended to do.
Published in 2004, the title of the book describes it as an Anthology of Today's fantasy but a cursory look at the copyright information near the front cover reveals that Neil Gaiman's very entertaining take on the grail myth was copyrighted in 1992, Orson Scott Card's Prentice Alvin story dates from 1986 (as does Ellen Kushner's 'Charis'. In fact, much of the fiction in this book is copyrighted from the 1990s and of the two stories copyrighted in this century, Ursula Le Guin's 'The Bones Of The Earth' dates from 2001, that's three years before this book. In short, for a book about today's fantasy, of the twelve stories in total only two can be said to meet the 'today' criteria.
My suspicion, given that the book is aimed at the 13 year up market, is that this is supposed to serve as an introduction to the wide world of fantasy for teenagers who otherwise might be suspicious. Nielsen Hayden's introduction hints at this with his emphasis on how fantasy is not all about knights and strange new worlds and certainly the emphasis of the stories in this collection leans heavily towards what might be termed urban fantasy. I find it sad that this aim could not be done with some newer stories, although I cannot fault any of the individual tales within the collection (and indeed, I've been tempted to give the Prentice Alvin series a try, despite never having been struck with Ender's Game).
Neil Gaiman's 'Chivalry' is probably my favourite in the collection, written in a sparse style but full of dry humour. I also found Jane Yolen's 'Mama Gone' to be a genuinely moving take on the vampire legend, albeit one that has a slightly contrived set up and 'Jo's Hair' by Susan Palwick is an interesting piece of fanfic-gone-legit. Least favourite story was a tie between Andy Duncan's 'Liza and the Crazy Water Man' (which is good on conveying a feel for the 1930s, but I got the twist early on and found myself twiddling my thumbs until the Big Reveal) and Emma Bull's 'A Bird That Whistles' (mainly because I've never been much for moody, good looking elves).
The Verdict:
It's worth a look but don't go in expecting the latest in cutting edge, up-to-the-minute fantasy fiction. These are well crafted stories, but don't necessarily reflect current trends, although they may well tip you off to some writers who are perhaps no longer in the forefront of the genre.