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I finally had a chance to read through my contributor’s copy of Rich Horton’s Fantasy: The Best of the Year 2008 (which includes my story “Save Me Plz”). If you come across this book in a store, I recommend you do a quick read-through of “Buttons” by William Alexander, which in only two pages will forever change the way you look at crosswalk buttons. Another story that packs a big punch in just a few pages is “Something in the Mermaid Way” by Carrie Laben, which appears to be her first published story, and which concerns a family who manufactures tiny fake mermaid-corpse souvenirs by combining fish and monkey parts. My favorite stories from the book were: “Sir Hereward and Mister Fitz Go to War Again” by Garth Nix (about a musketeer-style adventurer and his creepy animated puppet sidekick, Mr. Fitz — the characterization of Mr. Fitz really made this story for me), “The Cambist and Lord Iron” by Daniel Abraham (an extremely sharp and engaging “fairytale of economics” full of delightful twists), and “Singing of Mount Abora” by Theodora Goss (an elegantly crafted piece in which a fairy tale and the travails of a contemporary grad student turn out to be interconnected in mind-bending ways). Two others that have really stuck with me were Erik Amundsen’s “Bufo Rex,” a vivid, grotesque, and thoroughly bizarre tale about the adventures of a frog, and “Brother of the Moon” by Holly Phillips, a story about a modern-day prince on an enigmatic mission. (I really liked the ending of this one.) |
Geeks Guide to the Galaxy
Geek's Guide to the Galaxy is a podcast hosted by author David Barr Kirtley and produced by Lightspeed Magazine editor John Joseph Adams. The show features conversations about fantasy & science … Read more
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