THIRD NAME'S A CHARM

Characters in this fantasy anthology wield magic, traverse otherworldly realms, and brave mythological creatures.

The 20 stories in this collection are an entertaining mix of traditional and urban fantasies. In K.A. Last’s opening story, “A Feather for a Kingdom,” a king sends his three sons on a quest to find three items. This mission will decide a successor, though Abner, the least popular son, discovers something beyond the items he’s searching for. Ora, a village woman in Rebecca Fittery’s delightful “Threads of Gold,” inadvertently vexes a fae, who curses her to speak nothing but lies for three days. (Now Ora can’t simply tell the king that she doesn’t want to be his queen.) Donna White’s “Some Gnarly Sea Monsters” is set in sunny California, where sisters looking for their missing triplet brother unravel startling ties to tentacled beings. Connecting these tales is a discernible theme of threes, found in the sisters who form the three Fates, an evil sorceress with a trio of names, and a woman who proves herself worthy of a magical realm by undergoing three mental and physical trials. A wonderful array of fantasy signposts pop up, from dragons, spirits, and unicorns to an elf and humanoid animals (such as the charismatic Pantherim in Ashley Steffenson’s “Amira and the Healing Flower”). Some tales feel like snapshots of more expansive lands; in “The Guardian of the Falling Rains,” B. Luna Covello describes a clearing “where a structure unlike any in my world stands—a tower crafted from intertwining vines and blossoms, pulsating with a life of its own. It sways gently as if caught in a breeze I cannot feel, dancing to a tune I cannot hear.” Stories belonging to this genre often unfold in abstruse worlds, but these authors excel at drawing readers in as efficiently as possible.

Effervescent characters, human or otherwise, fuel this collection of absorbing short stories.