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A review by rebeccacider
The Secret History of Fantasy by Octavia E. Butler, Kij Johnson, T.C. Boyle, Yann Martel, Peter S. Beagle, Jonathan Lethem, Ursula K. Le Guin, David G. Hartwell, Michael Swanwick, Gregory Maguire, Patricia A. McKillip, Francesca Lia Block, Neil Gaiman, Susanna Clarke, Stephen King, Terry Bisson, Robert Holdstock, Aimee Bender, Jeffrey Ford, Steven Millhauser, Maureen F. McHugh
4.0
This is an impressive collection of fantasy short stories, most of them from the last two decades. I enjoyed most of them unreservedly. There are also two excellent essays at the back about the history of fantasy and its relationship to the literary canon.
I didn't like the way that the book was packaged, with the tag line of "fantasy is back" - there has been a continuous tradition of thoughtful, well-written fantasy in the twentieth century; it's just been overlooked and then overshadowed by bad sword & sorcery paperbacks. I'm also wondering when fantasy set in invented worlds will join the quasi-canon of literary fantasy - everyone praises Tolkien and Le Guin, then proceeds to include mostly urban and historical fantasy in their short story collections.
Peter Beagle did good at including women writers, less good at representing non-white or non-class-privileged experiences.
Favorite stories: probably Stephen King's "Mrs. Todd's Shortcut," Terry Bisson's "Bears Discover Fire" (totally as good as the hype), Jeffrey Ford's "The Empire of Ice Cream," Kij Johnson's "26 Monkeys, Also the Abyss." And I'd already read and loved the Susanna Clarke short story.
I didn't like the way that the book was packaged, with the tag line of "fantasy is back" - there has been a continuous tradition of thoughtful, well-written fantasy in the twentieth century; it's just been overlooked and then overshadowed by bad sword & sorcery paperbacks. I'm also wondering when fantasy set in invented worlds will join the quasi-canon of literary fantasy - everyone praises Tolkien and Le Guin, then proceeds to include mostly urban and historical fantasy in their short story collections.
Peter Beagle did good at including women writers, less good at representing non-white or non-class-privileged experiences.
Favorite stories: probably Stephen King's "Mrs. Todd's Shortcut," Terry Bisson's "Bears Discover Fire" (totally as good as the hype), Jeffrey Ford's "The Empire of Ice Cream," Kij Johnson's "26 Monkeys, Also the Abyss." And I'd already read and loved the Susanna Clarke short story.