Book Description
The provocative bestseller She’s Not There is the winning, utterly surprising story of a person changing genders. By turns hilarious and deeply moving, Jennifer Finney Boylan explores the territory that lies between men and women, examines changing friendships, and rejoices in the redeeming power of family. Told in Boylan’s fresh voice, She’s Not There is about a person bearing and finally revealing a complex secret. Through her clear eyes, She’s Not There provides a new window on the confounding process of accepting our true selves.
“Probably no book I’ve read in recent years has made me so question my basic assumptions about both the centrality and the permeability of gender, and made me recognize myself in a situation I’ve never known and have never faced . . . The universality of the astonishingly uncommon: that’s the trick of She’s Not There. And with laughs, too. What a good book.” —Anna Quindlen, from the Introduction to the Book-of-the-Month-Club edition.
Customer Reviews:
Overall a pleasant book.......2007-10-03
It is very interesting the past people that she did run into from her previous life as a male. However, one thing that sort of threw me off about the book was how it seemed to be disjointed and went from one time to a totally different time. I am still grateful for her courage in writing on it and have not been able to progress too far into the book so it may change my ideas, but I am just grateful that there are books dealing specifically with transitioning.
3.5 Stars ... A Moving and Amazing Story .......2007-06-27
This is the story of Jenny Boylan born James Boylan and her journey to become the woman she always believed she was.
Jenny Boylan undergoes a sex change operation so she can live out the rest of her life as a woman. This book tells us some of that story and what it was like for Jenny to be trapped inside the wrong body her whole life.
A thoughtful story...This book makes you question how much of who we are is unchangeable and how much is malleable? What does it mean to truly love someone? Why is it so hard for some to accept people who are different? Especially when we are really so much more alike than not?
I really enjoyed the Afterword by Richard Russo he offers a different perspective to the transformation of Jim to Jenny and shares insights to her story that she can't offer.
The sense of humor throughout this book was great. What an amazing, brave and difficult journey. She might not be an astronaut but she's pretty courageous none the less.
I find the topic of gender studies interesting and I have recently read two other books dealing with gender issues. If you enjoyed this book you might also want to read Why Gender Matters: What Parents and Teachers Need to Know about the Emerging Science of Sex Differences and Self-Made Man: One Woman's Journey into Manhood and Back I thought they were both very interesting and insightful.
Left me feeling sad.......2007-05-26
I give this book 4 stars because of it's easy readability and interesting(!) subject matter.A book to cetainly make one wonder and have sympathy for what some humans must suffer through. I liked the writing style (I know some readers/reviewers have not).
But the story to me is just so sad. I finished reading this a couple of weeks ago and wanted to see if my feelings "settled" a bit but they have not. I was not convinced by the end of the book that Jenny had found the peace she was searching for by changing genders. I don't know why but I "liked" the author better in the beginning when she was still James. I guess I bonded with him as a he. After the gender reassignment surgery I just wasn't "convinced" of Jenny's femaleness. Wearing skirts, long hair and diet cokes have nothing to do with femininity in my opinion.Kind of pathetic attempts actually. I realize some of that was his-into-her way of outwardly showing society who she "really" was/is. And I think some of it was dry humor, but I didn't laugh. I thought in the end it was pretty crummy what he/she did to his/her family/loved ones. I certainly wish Jenny peace and happiness but the book and story left me feeling sad and wondering if she's not "there" where in the world is she....now. Is she "there" now? And is her inner world so much different/better to her now as a woman?
Been there.......2007-05-24
Have no problems with which sex you're to show to the world? You're very fortunate. I've been in this world of sexual dysphoria for 40+ years and it's difficult to live normally. This book set everyone straight about this condition.
Support for Transgenders.......2007-05-10
This story of a transgender trying to get by in today's world is captivating and makes a great case study.
Average customer rating:
- Murder by Sound, Again
- wonderful novel
- Good ingredients but needs work
- Local Perspective
- Compelling with well developed characters
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She's Not There
Mary-Ann Smith
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ASIN: 0786016582 |
Book Description
FBI agent Poppy Rice is, rather unwillingly, taking time off to recuperate from injuries sustained on the job. A few days into her ill-conceived vacation on Block Island with Joe, her sometime-lover and soul mate, she happens upon a corpse dumped in the middle of the road. The body of the victim, a young girl from a summer camp for overweight teenagers, is painfully contorted, her face frozen in a death scream. There are no visible wounds and the cause of death is a mystery. Although Poppy is no stranger to gruesome scenes, she is so disturbed by the murder that she can't help but defy her orders to rest. Then, just as she begins poking around, another body is found in the same condition as the first; this time, the pathologist reveals another similarity-the eardrums of both girls were ruptured. Now Poppy must get to the killer before the killer gets to any more girls. With no clue as to the murderer's method or motive, she's going to need all the help she can get. But in the close-knit, tight-lipped Block Island community, secrets are kept-even deadly ones.
Customer Reviews:
Murder by Sound, Again.......2007-05-31
The book was a fun read, and I guessed the means long before it was revealed, because it was in fact the "means" used in the Dorothy Sayers classic, The Nine Tailors. In the Sayers novel, the "murder by sound" was unintentional, but appears to have caused the same cadavaric spasms. I kept waiting for Poppy to bring up Sayers' use of that method.
wonderful novel.......2004-05-09
Apparently for a "reviewer" here, there is some confusion about what a novel is and what fiction is. Speaking as a novelist whose novels are all set in real places (where else should they be set? Anytown, USA? An imaginary generic Eastern European village? The planet Zurgle?), I can say that SHE'S NOT THERE is a wonderful work of fiction for many reasons, and one of them is, in fact, the way the setting embraces the plot. Lively, imagnative, witty, suspenseful -- this is one of Smith's best. I can't wait for her forthcoming Poppy Rice novel next month!
Good ingredients but needs work.......2003-09-11
I got this book because I had just been down in the RI/CT area and the premise sounded interesting. In fact, the plot was interesting, the concepts were good and the method of murder something I have never heard of in real life or in books so that was intriguing. The writing style is not that great, conversations are sometimes hard to follow and some scenes seem repetitive and the pace could have been picked up. Also the heroine is imbued with too much goodness : the "native Block Islanders" are described as keeping to themselves yet they take to her immediately? And can she really cure an alcoholic by meeting him??
All in all the author has great ideas and shows great promise but needs a better editor.
Local Perspective.......2003-03-06
Let me mention upfront that I live on Block Island. Not a native, but I moved here and live on the Island year round. I got the book because of the nature of it's setting, not the storyline or the author.
I found the book slow without a "hook" to keep my interest. The storyline is unimaginative. The "real" story, it seems, is the Island and island live and characters. To that end the author goes to great pains to write as if she actually knew anything about the island. However, beyond some topographical knowledge, she has none. Indeed, she completely distorts the live and people here. To be sure, we actually have a complete police department, Police Chief and all. Moreover they do live in nice homes, not broken down lean-tos. As for the "rich" natives riding in customized, fancy cars, I have never seen a single one. These are just a few examples of many.
Now don't get me wrong, I believe very much in "poetic license" but not under the cloak of personal, intimate knowledge of a place and people. Clearly, as the previous reviews show, the author dupes readers with her alleged knowledge when in reality there is none. In an interview to our local paper she explained this complete lack of local knowledge and distortion by calling her work "fiction". I would accept her rational, had she desribed a "fictional" place. Instead the author has gone through all her pains of picking a real place, seemingly describing this real place and people who live here.
So - if you like slow, unimaginative stories about a real location distorted by ignorance, this one's for you.
Compelling with well developed characters.......2003-02-10
Block Island is the perfect place for FBI agent Poppy Rice to recuperate--along with her lover, ATF agent Joe Barnow. Admittedly, the law on Block Island is comprised of one aging Constable and an alcoholic state trooper, but that's all right. There was never any crime on Block Island. At least there wasn't until Poppy almost runs over the body of an overweight teenage girl twisted and tortured in death.
A con man has opened a camp for overweight girls on Block Island and someone is targetting the girls. Joe goes into retreat, unwilling to accept the possibility that his island harbors a serpent in its heart, so it's up to Poppy, along with alcoholic Fitzy, to get to the bottom of the case. Bumbling officials in Rhode Island and in the Center for Disease Control end up making things more difficult for Poppy.
Author Mary-Ann Tirone Smith writes a compelling page turner. Her descriptions of the people of this north-eastern island are convincing and three-dimensional. Poppy is sympathetic and smart, without being superwoman. I especially enjoyed the character of Fitzy--a hugely damaged individual who battles himself and his own fears.
Book Description
This digital document is an article from Risk & Insurance, published by Thomson Gale on September 15, 2005. The length of the article is 2278 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.
Citation Details
Title: On the case: catastrophic nurse case manager Liz Zemke has an intimate understanding of what her patients need--she's been there herself. After losing a limb to a work-related accident a decade ago, Zemke rallied and poured herself into a new career in case management. Zemke uses her own experience to help guide her patients back to the land of the living (and working).(WORKERS' COMP)
Author: Michelle Kerr
Publication:
Risk & Insurance (Magazine/Journal)
Date: September 15, 2005
Publisher: Thomson Gale
Volume: 16
Issue: 11
Page: 26(2)
Distributed by Thomson Gale
Average customer rating:
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She's Not There
Colin Cdwzym Mys505 Blunstone
Manufacturer: WHEEZY MULTIMEDIA
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Average customer rating:
- A Good Batch of Stories
- A good bet for solid science-fiction stories
- Taken together the 2 yrs bests make a wonderful whole.
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Year's Best SF 3
David G. Hartwell
Manufacturer: Eos
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ASIN: 0061059013 |
Amazon.com
This is the third installment of David G. Hartwell's annual Year's Best collection, and he writes that it is "full of science fiction--every story in the book is clearly that and not something else."
Hartwell chose 22 stories this time around, a healthy increase from last year's collection. (This doesn't represent more pages, but rather in selecting stories of shorter length, Hartwell was able to fit more of them into the same space.) As usual, Hartwell does a masterful job of picking wonderful works from a variety of venues, and the names here include Ray Bradbury, William Gibson, and Gene Wolfe. This is the perfect collection for readers seeking stories that are quintessentially science fiction. Year's Best SF is rapidly becoming one of the most important annual anthologies in the science fiction field. --Craig Engler
Book Description
Enjoy today's most awesome and innovative science fiction, chosen by acclaimed editor David G. Hartwell from the best short fiction published over the last year.
Like its two distinguished processors, Year's Best SF 3 is a cybercopia of astonishing stories from familiar favorites and rising stars, all calculated to blow your mind, scorch your, senses, erase your inhibitions, and reinitialize your intelligence.
With stories from:
Gregory Benford, Terry Bisson, Greg Egan, William Gibson, Nancy Kress, Robert Silverberg, Gene Wolfe and more...
Download Description
"
Enjoy today's most awesome and innovative science fiction, chosen by acclaimed editor David G. Hartwell from the best short fiction published over the last year.
Like its two distinguished processors, Year's Best SF 3 is a cybercopia of astonishing stories from familiar favorites and rising stars, all calculated to blow your mind, scorch your, senses, erase your inhibitions, and reinitialize your intelligence.
With stories from:
Gregory Benford, Terry Bisson, Greg Egan, William Gibson, Nancy Kress, Robert Silverberg, Gene Wolfe and more... "
Customer Reviews:
A Good Batch of Stories.......2003-07-29
The one piece of dross comes from an unexpected source: William Gibson and his story "Thirteen Views of a Cardboard City". It's a minute, camera-eye examination of a cardboard structure in a Tokyo subway and obviously inspired by J.G. Ballard's work. I detected no point to the series of descriptions, or, indeed, anything of a fantastical or science fictional nature.
Nancy Kress' "Always True to Thee, in My Fashion" gives us a witty satire with a world where the seasonal variations of fashion cover not only clothes but also your pharmaceutically modulated attitudes.. The caged dinosaur of Gene Wolfe's "Petting Zoo" represents not only the lost childhood of the story's protagonist but a vitality lost from the race of man. Tom Cool gives us "Universal Emulators" with its future of economic hypercompetition that has created a black market for those who impersonate, in every way, the few employed professionals. In effect, the emulators grant them an extra set of hands. Its plot and characters would have done Roger Zelazny proud.
The voice of past science fiction writers echos through many of the anthology's best stories. Jack London's _The Sea Wolf_ provides the inspiration for Michael Swanwick's "The Wisdom of Old Earth". Its heroine realizes, despite whatever dangers she overcomes guiding posthumans through the Pennsylvania's jungles, she will never bootstrap herself into being their equal. H.G. Wells looms over Robert Silverberg's "Beauty in the Night". Its child hero undertakes the first successful assassination of the brutal aliens that have occupied Earth, but his reasons have more to do with his oppressive father rather than the aliens' behavior. John C. Wright's "Guest Law" is a welcome return to the flashy decadence of Cordwainer Smith's fiction. Its hero, a slave-engineer, watches in disgust as his aristocratic overlords corrupt the customary requirements of hospitality to justify piracy in deep space. Gregory Benford's "The Voice" responds to Ray Bradbury's _Fahrenheit 451_. Here the convenience of implanted intelligent agents, hooked up to a computer network, led to literacy fading, and not a repressive regime of firemen. Benford agrees with Bradbury about literacy's value but also undercuts him on the supremacy of writing as a means of communication.
James Patrick Kelly and Brian Stableford tackle similar themes in two excellent tales about children, the needs they fufill for parents, and the possiblity of replacing them with surrogates. The heroine of Kelly's "Itsy Bitsy Spider", estranged from her actor father for 23 ages, is horrified to discover that her enfeebled father's legal guardian is also equipped to simulate her as a child. Stableford's "The Pipes of Pan" has a future recovering from ecological catastrophe where real children are not allowed. However, parents can have children genetically altered to never age and reproduce. But those children suddenly start growing up.
Jack Williamson's "The Firefly Tree" is a Bradbury-like tale of aliens who travel far but whose invitation to join an intergalactice republic goes no further than a farm boy. Though I usually hate stories narrated by smart-alecky teenagers, I didn't mind S.N. Dyer's "The Nostalginauts" with its problem of time travelers going back 25 years to reminisce about their younger selves. The technological speculations of Greg Egan's "Yeyuka" are interesting. However, I didn't find the political criticisms inherent in this story of First World companies exploiting the misery of a Third World cancer epidemic that convincing or plausible, and they seemed a bit of a repeat of those in his novel _Distress_. While Terry Bisson's "An Office Romance" was fun and poked fun at, in passing, Microsoft and those who find the computer screen a satisfying substitute for the world outside, its romance, in the bowels of a computer system, reminded me of _Tron_ in that both stories borrowed computer terminology to create a cyberverse that only superficially resembles the real thing.
Inspiring two works in this book, Ray Bradbury also puts in a direct appearance with "Mr. Pale". As to be expected with Bradbury, its superficial science fiction trappings clothe a fantasy tale of a doctor encountering a desperate Death aboard a spaceship.
The abrupt ending of Tom Purdom's "Canary Land" is at odds with what, at first, seems a tale of corporate espionage on the moon. However, Purdom's real story centers around the bitter experiences of an American immigrant to an Asian dominated lunar society and how his life replays the themes of past immigrants. R. Garcia y Robertson's "Fair Verona" features a virtual-reality obsessed hunting guide who discovers that the joys of his Renaissance Verona might not live up to rescuing a real damsel in danger of being murdered. Kim Newman's "Great Western" has some problems. Rather than just examine the real effects of an alteration to past events, it seeks to gain some signifcance by throwing together a mishmash of non-contemporenous events and cultural icons. Here we have mad cow disease, British political disputes about privatization, and the aftermath of a war fought to free England's serfs. Newman makes the whole thing readable by using the plot of the movie and novel _Shane_, but it doesn't say anything interesting about culture or history.
Paul Levinson's "The Mendelian Lamp Case" has a great premise: a forensic scientist encountering a centuries-old battle between groups that practice genetic engineering via old practices of selective breeding. However, while the biological speculations are detailed and interesting, Levinson should have provided more details about the Amish genetic engineers and their foes. It would have been nice to know their exact motives for spreading allergies, disease, and general social unrest. Michael Moorcock's "London Bone" has plenty of interesting details about London geography and history. However, I think a little too much of the cantankerous Moorcock showed through in its complaints about British and American culture.
The anthology also has a couple of humorous stories. "Turnover", by Geoffrey A. Landis centers around a real scientific question about the seemingly uniform age of Venus' craters. Katherine MacLean's puzzling, but somewhat funny, "Kiss Me" involves several questions about frogs, including what happens when you kiss them.
A good bet for solid science-fiction stories.......1998-11-14
As with most anthologies, there are some hits and misses depending on the reader's personal taste. Easily recognizable SF conventions are recognizable in some, but a new, intriguing spin is put on them to put things in a new light. Some stories, however, are just bizarre. "Thirteen Views of a Cardboard City" by William Gibson is just that, thirteen views of a city at different angles and locations. My favorites were "Petting Zoo" by Gene Wolfe, "The Firefly Tree" by Jack Williamson, "The Nostalginauts' by S.N. Dyer, "The Voice" by Gregory Benford, "Mr. Pale" by Ray Bradbury, and "Great Western" by Kim Newman. There were other good ones, but these stand out.
Taken together the 2 yrs bests make a wonderful whole........1998-08-13
They complement each others strengths & weakness quite well. Dozois chooses more long serious stuff while Hartwell chooses more short humorous stuff. Humor & shorts was the one area I thought Dozois' was weak, but Hartwell's covers that pretty well. To be brutally honest though this isn't quite as impressive as Dozois' usually is. There were fewer stories I hated, but also fewer that impressed me. In its defense it did a better job with the truly SHORT stories & three of that kind were by "legends" in the field. Legends meaning those respected for decades. Williamson's surprised me by being more aware of the modern world then I expect a 90 yr old be. If that's sounds insulting let me say it was more aware of the modern world then I'll probably be at 90. It was nice to see a Katherine MacLean story anywhere since her works have largely disappeared. Vintage Bradbury's still in print so it wasn't really necessary to pick one of his stories except to have a big name linked to the anthology. Bisson's story about office romance is the kind of story I usually don't like, but I was surprised to find it was one of the ones I liked best. It was a great deal more risque then the others & since some seemed Young Adult I was surprised by it. By the way the risque parts were what I meant by "kind of story I usually don't like" well that & the computer jargon was a bit heavy. The Kress, Dyer, & Purdom I enjoyed in Asimov's. Tom Cool's was also good, but that name is so goofy I'm guessing it has to be real. Benford's "Voice" retread old ground, but I liked it anyway. I could go on & on & rate each story, but I'll stop there. In Dozois' a story generally amazes or infuriates me, in Hartwell's I generally liked it or was indifferent. I didn't avoid reading some the way I do with Dozois' so I'm of a mostly mixed opinion. Nevertheless if Rusch is coming out with one I think I'd probably stop buying this one before I'd stop buying Dozois'. One last thing "Turnover" by Landis was neat in that it talked about a scientific debate I'd just recently heard about, but I think he wrote "Ouroboros" which was the best short/humorous story I'd read last year. I hope it's in Dozois', but his isn't really good with short humorous stories. Oh well I still have the issue of Asimov's it's in I was just hoping it would get recognition. I just mentioned that because some reviewer was saying Landis wrote more worthy stories that year, but I thought I understood the choice since he was trying to counter-balance Dozois'lack of short/humorous stories.
Average customer rating:
- good anthology
- Another winning collection of short fantasy
- Excellent Anthology
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Year's Best Fantasy 3 (Year's Best Fantasy)
Kathryn Cramer
Manufacturer: Eos
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ASIN: 0060521805
Release Date: 2003-06-24 |
Book Description
Following the popular Years Best SF series, acclaimed editor David Hartwell collects the very best fantasy short stories of the last year in the Years Best Fantasy 3, a harvest of shimmering beauty and powerful writing. Established masters rub elbows with rising stars and together give us a dazzling treasure trove of stories rich with imagined lands and sharply drawn characters.
Contributors to the first two Years Best Fantasy titles included New York Times bestselling authors Terry Goodkind and George R. R. Martin, plus acclaimed authors Nicola Griffith, Nalo Hopkinson, Michael Moorcock and more.
㟔hese stories have only been published in magazines毬aces like Realms of Fantasy and The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction 埡nd specialized, small press anthologies. This is their first appearance together in book form.
Download Description
The door to fantastic worlds, skewed realities, and breathtaking other realms is opened wide to you once more in this third anthology of the finest short fantasy fiction to emerge over the past year, compiled by acclaimed editor David G. Hartwell. Rarely has a more magnificent collection of tales been contained between book covers -- phenomenal visions of the impossible-made-possible by some of the field's most accomplished literary artists and stellar talents on the rise. Year's Best Fantasy 3 is a heady brew of magic and wonder, strange journeys and epic quests, boldly concocted by the likes of Ursula K. Le Guin, Michael Swanwick, Tanith Lee, and others. Step into a dimension beyond the limits of ordinary imagination . . . and be amazed!.
Customer Reviews:
good anthology.......2007-03-18
Usually I buy an anthology just for one or two stories by my favourite authors. I picked this one up for the Nalo Hopkinson story, 'Shift,' which turned out to be about Ariel & Caliban from The Tempest, but I was pleasantly surprised to find several other stories I liked. Neil Gaiman's story is good, of course, and is a tribute to Ray Bradbury, about a gathering of the seasons. Michael Swanwick has two stories in this Year's Best, and both turn out to be really short; 'Five British Dinosaurs' and 'Cecil Rhodes in Hell' are both funny, but in different ways. 'The Pagodas of Ciboure' I had read in some other anthology a long time ago, and liked. What city dweller knew slugs could be so fearsome? I was a little disappointed in the Ellen Klages story, since I was hoping for a lot from it, but Naomi Kritzer's 'Comrade Grandmother' made up for it. It's a terrific story about Baba Yaga's participation in World War II. And of course there's an Ursula K Le Guin story too. All in all, a great anthology.
Another winning collection of short fantasy.......2003-09-03
Once again, it's time for the annual Year's Best Fantasy volume, edited by David G. Hartwell. This year's version, volume 3, has even more goodness than last year's version did. Twenty-nine stories in all, ranging from short 3-page stories to 40 page ones, by some of the biggest names in the field. This is the perfect sampler to see what's going on in the Fantasy world, to see who the up-and-comers are, and get a taste of what they're offering. On the strength of some of the stories in this volume, I'm definitely going to check out a couple that I've never tried before.
I'd say that this volume is better than last year's edition, just because there weren't any stories that I didn't like. There were some that were weaker than others, of course, but no real clunkers in the bunch. It has fantasy for every taste, from urban fantasy to other worlds, if you've got a taste for the stuff, this book will satiate it. I will, of course, include a list of the stories at the end of the review so you can check them out and see if there are any authors that you particularly like.
I love the short fiction format, especially when it's done well. There are some standout entries in this year's edition, capped off with a short little piece by Michael Swanwick called "Five British Dinosaurs." This one is extremely short, but a lot is carried in a small package. It's about the discovery of dinosaur bones in Great Britain in the 19th century, along with the discovery that there are some living specimens hanging around in the British aristocracy. This story is hilarious and I found myself laughing throughout it's brief span. The thought of a walking dinosaur speaking in proper British English, disputing the reconstruction of the bones of his ancestors, is priceless. Swanwick gives the dinosaurs a lot of personality, along with a lot of arrogance. "Things were definitely better run in the Mesozoic?But mammals knew their place then." Swanwick has the honour of being the only person with two stories included, but they are both very short and so I figure Hartwell decided that he could afford the space.
Another standout is Steve Popkes and his story, " A Fable of Saviour & Reptile." This is a re-telling of the Jesus story, from the point of view of a talking turtle that befriends Jesus when he's young. The turtle is suitably haughty, given his long life span and his infinite patience (given the fact that it takes him a long time to get anywhere). It's an interesting take on the whole Messiah story, but if you can get past the irreligious tone of the story, it is very heartwarming. Hartwell warns in his prologue to it "Do note the word 'fable' in the title." While it gives an alternate view of Jesus and his life (including filling in the missing thirty or so years that the Bible doesn't include), it is very respectful the idea behind the story. The turtle is characterized wonderfully, and Jesus is too if you can get past the fact that he does drink when he's younger (getting a little drunk with the turtle) and he has a wife and son. It's a story about the power of myth and how humans can attach meaning to anything if it will help them get through life and possibly throw off the yoke of oppression. There are some very touching moments and conversations between the two of them, especially when the turtle comforts Jesus in his cell right before he's crucified. This is probably the best story in the book, and I am definitely going to track down some more by this guy.
Other particularly good stories are Kage Baker's "Her Father's Eyes" (a tale of a young girl and the boy she meets and befriends on a plane), Neil Gaiman's "October in the Chair" (a typical Gaiman tale about stories and the people who tell them, this time a group of god-like beings), and "A Prayer for Captain LaHire" by Patrice E. Sarath (a story of three knights who followed Joan of Arc until she burned, and the horror that they discover a fourth disciple has unleashed). Finally, there is P.D. Cacek's "A Book, by its Cover." This is a wonderful little tale about a Jewish boy in the aftermath of Kristallnacht in Berlin, and the bookshop owner who he believes is doing evil things afterward. It's has a wonderful message about books and the effects that they can have on a person.
If there are any weaknesses in the book, they are purely my personal feeling. I'm not a big fan of Tanith Lee, though I know that she is very popular. Thus, her story "Persian Eyes" didn't do a whole lot for me. In it, a Roman noble family is destroyed by the work of a slave girl and her magic eyes. It was more interesting to me than her entry in last year's book, but not by much. Also, "The Pagodas of Ciboure" just dragged on a little too long for my tastes. In it, a sick boy is healed by some French fairy creatures called "pagodas," though he has to save them from an onslaught of slugs first. It's cute, and it's well-told, but it's just too long.
That being said, I did enjoy even those stories. This is just a top-notch collection of short fantasy. Hartwell has done it again, pulling together a varied group of stories that can't help but satisfy. If you're a fantasy fan and like the short fiction genre, this is definitely the book for you. Hartwell has another winner, and I can't wait for next year's edition.
David Roy
Excellent Anthology.......2003-07-08
Most of the anthologies I've read in the genre of Fantasy/Scifi and horror are mixed bags of personal likes and dislikes of the editors...some of which are a bit too gory, too 'realistic' or just have what I'd like to call 'fantasy around the edges'. This series is really 'the best'...not the usual commercially bland mixes (see, Bob Silverberg's Legends), but a good mix of quirky, new authors as well as some well known names (Gene Wolfe, Tanith Lee) with a nice blend of both light hearted and serious fantastic tales. Standouts would be: Gene Wolfe's From the Cradle, Naomi Kritzer's Comrade Grandmother, and Michael Swanwick's Five British Dinosaurs.
Product Description
Vintage paperback original. Includes stories by L. Sprague de Camp, Karl Edward Wagner, Clark Ashton Smith and others.
Customer Reviews:
As usual, a so-so collection.............2007-03-29
Just another average anthology. Contents include: 'Eudoric's Unicorn' by L Sprague de Camp; 'Shadow of a Demon' by Gardner Fox; 'Ring of Black Stone' by Pat McIntosh; 'The Lonely Songs of Laren Dorr' by George R. R. Martin; 'Two Suns Setting' by Karl Edward Wagner; 'The Stairs in the Crypt' by Clark Ashton Smith; 'The Goblin Blade' by Raul Garcia Capella; 'The Dark King' by C. J. Cherryh; 'Black Moonlight' by Lin Carter; 'The Snout in the Alcove' by Gary Myers; 'The Pool of the Moon' by Charles R Saunders
Worth paying only a little for the Clark Ashton Smith story. Karl Edward Wagner is a great writer, but the Kane short stories were never too great.
Average customer rating:
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The Year's Best Fantasy Stories: 3 (Year's Best Fantasy)
Manufacturer: DAW
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
Science Fiction & Fantasy | Subjects | Books | Authors, A-Z | Books on CD | Books on Cassette | Fantasy | Gaming | Large Print | Media | Science Fiction | Writing
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ASIN: 0879973382 |
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