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3.67 AVERAGE
3.67 AVERAGE
A great range of stories. Standouts for me were Megan Lindholm's Community Service, Garth Nix's The Staff in the Stone, and Kate Elliott's Bloom.
Some stories were incredible, some bored me to tears. I discovered some new to me authors, so that was good.
There are some truly excellent stories in this collection. Definitely one of the best anthologies I've read. I highly recommend it for all fantasy fans.
Though, of course, there were also some meh stories. The most frustrating was George RR Martin's "A Night at the Tarn House." I couldn't even finish it because it didn't make sense. And it didn't make sense because it was set in the world of "Dying Earth" - a series by author Jack Vance - a series I have never read. The story was originally in a Dying Earth tribute anthology - which is a great place for it. But it made NO sense in this collection. The only people who will understand it are people familiar with the Dying Earth books. Why?! If you are writing a story for an anthology, then ALL readers need to be able to read and understand it. Ugh.
That was the only thing I hated about this anthology. The other stories are incredible (some more than others). So I'd still give it a read.
Though, of course, there were also some meh stories. The most frustrating was George RR Martin's "A Night at the Tarn House." I couldn't even finish it because it didn't make sense. And it didn't make sense because it was set in the world of "Dying Earth" - a series by author Jack Vance - a series I have never read. The story was originally in a Dying Earth tribute anthology - which is a great place for it. But it made NO sense in this collection. The only people who will understand it are people familiar with the Dying Earth books. Why?! If you are writing a story for an anthology, then ALL readers need to be able to read and understand it. Ugh.
That was the only thing I hated about this anthology. The other stories are incredible (some more than others). So I'd still give it a read.
Short story collection he was editing when he died, his estate published it. An ok collection of fantasy topped easily by the last story in it. The Fall and Rise of the House of the Wizard Malkuril, by Scott Lynch, was wonderful. The rest of the stories varied from 2 to 4, but that was a 5.
Can't really give it an honest rating because I only read a few of the stories, but I really liked the one by Scott Lynch.
adventurous
challenging
dark
hopeful
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
This is a very solid short story collection! As usual, I didn't love all of the stories, but I liked most of them. I was only bored with one near the end. They're very different, and you read stories set in medieval times as well as modern ones, which was a nice surprise. The ones I like the most were Community Service, The Friends of Masquelayne the Incomparable, The Staff in the Stone, The Wolf and the Manticore and The Fall and Rise of the House of the Wizard Malkuril. I'd read it again.
Gardner Dozois was a prolific editor of speculative fiction, and this is most likely his final project, having come to publication soon after his death in 2018. It's a series of stories about sorcery -- the companion to last year's Dozois fantasy collection The Book of Swords -- and that remit is wide enough to allow for some nice variation among the assembled entries, only one of which seems to have been previously released outside of this volume.
This is my fourth book of short stories from the editor, and it's an unusually strong selection. I keep coming back to Dozois because of his ability to find gems that I otherwise wouldn't have seen, but our tastes are different enough that his picks sometimes do little for me. And there are still one or two duds in The Book of Magic, but the average story quality in this assemblage is much higher than I've seen from him before.
As usual, there are some great new stories in here from authors I like already -- Garth Nix's "The Staff in the Stone"; Scott Lynch's "The Fall and Rise of the House of the Wizard Malkuril" -- some that immediately mark new authors for me to seek out further -- Kate Elliott's "Bloom"; Matthew Hughes's "The Friends of Masquelayne the Incomparable" -- and plenty of others that are no less fun to read. At their best, these tales of wizardry suggest whole worlds of invention happening just off their pages or offer intricate morality plays about the dangers of arrogance in spellcasting. It's overall a fitting send-off for an editor who clearly recognized magic when he saw it.
This is my fourth book of short stories from the editor, and it's an unusually strong selection. I keep coming back to Dozois because of his ability to find gems that I otherwise wouldn't have seen, but our tastes are different enough that his picks sometimes do little for me. And there are still one or two duds in The Book of Magic, but the average story quality in this assemblage is much higher than I've seen from him before.
As usual, there are some great new stories in here from authors I like already -- Garth Nix's "The Staff in the Stone"; Scott Lynch's "The Fall and Rise of the House of the Wizard Malkuril" -- some that immediately mark new authors for me to seek out further -- Kate Elliott's "Bloom"; Matthew Hughes's "The Friends of Masquelayne the Incomparable" -- and plenty of others that are no less fun to read. At their best, these tales of wizardry suggest whole worlds of invention happening just off their pages or offer intricate morality plays about the dangers of arrogance in spellcasting. It's overall a fitting send-off for an editor who clearly recognized magic when he saw it.
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
lighthearted
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
adventurous
funny
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
N/A
adventurous
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated