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A review by nini23
The New Voices of Fantasy by Eugene Fisher, Brooke Bolander
5.0
4.5 stars rounded up to 5
The title of this short speculative fiction collection is misleading, as some have pointed out, because the word 'new' implies these authors featured are wet around the ears unknown newbies. Nothing could be further from the truth as almost all these authors are well-established and won or been nominated for almost every fantasy award under the sun for their work: Nebula, Hugo, Campbell, British Fantasy, World Fantasy Award among others. For myself, I am well-acquainted with fantasy works of Max Gladstone mainly from his superb Craft Sequence novels, which I consider to be the most original and among the best of fantasy works. I have previously read the excellent short stories of Amal El-Mohtar, JY Yang and Ben Loory. As an aside, Seasons of Glass and Iron (winner of 2017 Hugo, 2016 Nebula and 2017 Locust for Short Story) by Amal El-Mohtar published in Uncanny Magazine was so memorably good and highly recommended.
Why 5 stars? I have read quite a few anthologies of fantasy this year and they have almost all been disappointing with more mediocre ones than outstanding ones, even with 'big name' fantasy authors as contributors. With this collection, the opposite is true. Almost every work is a work of art and imagination, beautifully crafted of high quality. As noted before, the majority of the works have been published previously and recognized with prestigious fantasy awards. I read the stories with rapt attention and never lost interest. After finishing some, I leaned back with a satisfied sigh while being in awe of the authors' talents. While order and sequence shouldn't matter, it was satisfying that the collection was book-ended by two particularly strong works: “Hungry Daughters of Starving Mothers” by Alyssa Wong and “The Pauper Prince and the Eucalyptus Jinn” by Usman T. Malik.
Other brilliant works were: “The Cartographer Wasps and Anarchist Bees” by E. Lily Yu, “Jackalope Wives” by Ursula Vernon and “Tiger Baby” by JY Yang. As some reviewers have pointed out, some of the stories deal with non-conformity and some have a theme/topic without being pedantic. Skillful writing was found in “The Tallest Doll in New York City” by Maria Dahvana Headley, “The One They Took Before” by Kelly Sandoval, “Tornado’s Siren” by Brooke Bolander, “Selkie Stories are for Losers” by Sofia Samatar and “The Husband Stitch” by Carmen Maria Machado. Each of the stories is enough to trigger a full book club discussion and which stories people take to is interesting in itself.
I cannot recommend this collection highly enough. Full of magic, imagination and talent.
The title of this short speculative fiction collection is misleading, as some have pointed out, because the word 'new' implies these authors featured are wet around the ears unknown newbies. Nothing could be further from the truth as almost all these authors are well-established and won or been nominated for almost every fantasy award under the sun for their work: Nebula, Hugo, Campbell, British Fantasy, World Fantasy Award among others. For myself, I am well-acquainted with fantasy works of Max Gladstone mainly from his superb Craft Sequence novels, which I consider to be the most original and among the best of fantasy works. I have previously read the excellent short stories of Amal El-Mohtar, JY Yang and Ben Loory. As an aside, Seasons of Glass and Iron (winner of 2017 Hugo, 2016 Nebula and 2017 Locust for Short Story) by Amal El-Mohtar published in Uncanny Magazine was so memorably good and highly recommended.
Why 5 stars? I have read quite a few anthologies of fantasy this year and they have almost all been disappointing with more mediocre ones than outstanding ones, even with 'big name' fantasy authors as contributors. With this collection, the opposite is true. Almost every work is a work of art and imagination, beautifully crafted of high quality. As noted before, the majority of the works have been published previously and recognized with prestigious fantasy awards. I read the stories with rapt attention and never lost interest. After finishing some, I leaned back with a satisfied sigh while being in awe of the authors' talents. While order and sequence shouldn't matter, it was satisfying that the collection was book-ended by two particularly strong works: “Hungry Daughters of Starving Mothers” by Alyssa Wong and “The Pauper Prince and the Eucalyptus Jinn” by Usman T. Malik.
Other brilliant works were: “The Cartographer Wasps and Anarchist Bees” by E. Lily Yu, “Jackalope Wives” by Ursula Vernon and “Tiger Baby” by JY Yang. As some reviewers have pointed out, some of the stories deal with non-conformity and some have a theme/topic without being pedantic. Skillful writing was found in “The Tallest Doll in New York City” by Maria Dahvana Headley, “The One They Took Before” by Kelly Sandoval, “Tornado’s Siren” by Brooke Bolander, “Selkie Stories are for Losers” by Sofia Samatar and “The Husband Stitch” by Carmen Maria Machado. Each of the stories is enough to trigger a full book club discussion and which stories people take to is interesting in itself.
I cannot recommend this collection highly enough. Full of magic, imagination and talent.