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A review by chirson
The New Voices of Fantasy by Eugene Fisher, Brooke Bolander
4.0
Re-reading in The New Voices of Fantasy made me realise that, despite what I'd thought, I never reviewed this when I first read it. But I think that's not a terrible thing; upon re-read, I liked it better. It's satisfying, beautiful and sad. I loved the ending.
It's also interesting how, similarly to Sarah Canary, this reads as either genre or mainstream, selkies in the eye of the beholder.
Merged review:
I received the electronic ARC of this from NetGalley and publisher in exchange for an honest review. My opinions are entirely my own.
Seriously uneven, but the strong stories outnumber the weak ones. Overall, The New Voices of Fantasy clearly is an accomplished work. It does what it has surely set out to do: offers a strong and relatively diverse overview of some of the most interesting perspectives in the field today. Still, it is not without some problems of its own.
I honestly loved Machado's, Wong's, Samatar's, Pinsker's and Vernon's stories, but these were writers (and, in some cases, stories) I was already familiar with. I was very glad to read my first fiction from E.Lily Yu and A.C.Wise, whose stories were clever and touching, and original. I think Malik and Sachs were quite good, though not unproblematic (particularly in Malik's case, where the story erases women both literally and figuratively, and never overcomes that problem). Alas, a few stories felt ultimately skippable, and two made me actively angry (Gladstone and Tarry) and left me thinking that the authors didn't think their ideas and the implications they posed through quite well enough.
The best stories of this collection would have been enough to justify its existence; other good stories made for gripping reading; I think a few stories could have been cut resulting in a stronger average, but it was certainly interesting to see what’s happening in the genre right now, according to the editors. What it seems to be is blending of boundaries between literary and genre fantastical stories (as well as horror); significant amount of interest in queer and underprivileged perspectives; a diversity of both authors and subject matter; attempts at grappling with toxic masculinity (unfortunately, not always successfully). That, on the whole, seems to bode quite well. I certainly have been reminded of and acquainted with a few authors to look out for in the future.
(For a more lengthy review singling out individual stories, more useful for readers who have already read the stories themselves, see my blog.)
It's also interesting how, similarly to Sarah Canary, this reads as either genre or mainstream, selkies in the eye of the beholder.
Merged review:
I received the electronic ARC of this from NetGalley and publisher in exchange for an honest review. My opinions are entirely my own.
Seriously uneven, but the strong stories outnumber the weak ones. Overall, The New Voices of Fantasy clearly is an accomplished work. It does what it has surely set out to do: offers a strong and relatively diverse overview of some of the most interesting perspectives in the field today. Still, it is not without some problems of its own.
I honestly loved Machado's, Wong's, Samatar's, Pinsker's and Vernon's stories, but these were writers (and, in some cases, stories) I was already familiar with. I was very glad to read my first fiction from E.Lily Yu and A.C.Wise, whose stories were clever and touching, and original. I think Malik and Sachs were quite good, though not unproblematic (particularly in Malik's case, where the story erases women both literally and figuratively, and never overcomes that problem). Alas, a few stories felt ultimately skippable, and two made me actively angry (Gladstone and Tarry) and left me thinking that the authors didn't think their ideas and the implications they posed through quite well enough.
The best stories of this collection would have been enough to justify its existence; other good stories made for gripping reading; I think a few stories could have been cut resulting in a stronger average, but it was certainly interesting to see what’s happening in the genre right now, according to the editors. What it seems to be is blending of boundaries between literary and genre fantastical stories (as well as horror); significant amount of interest in queer and underprivileged perspectives; a diversity of both authors and subject matter; attempts at grappling with toxic masculinity (unfortunately, not always successfully). That, on the whole, seems to bode quite well. I certainly have been reminded of and acquainted with a few authors to look out for in the future.
(For a more lengthy review singling out individual stories, more useful for readers who have already read the stories themselves, see my blog.)