When fine writer and expert editor Dozois beckons, authors deliver—and this surely will be one of the year’s essential...
Dozois, an indefatigable editor (The Year's Best Science Fiction: Thirty-Fourth Annual Collection, 2017, etc.), introduces an all-new compendium of 16 original stories, many set in their authors’ established fantasy universes.
In his extensive and knowledgeable introduction, Dozois explains that the term “sword & sorcery” was coined by fantasy great Fritz Leiber (the Fafhrd/Gray Mouser yarns) and ranges from its birth in the old pre–WWII pulps through Tolkien up to today’s doorstoppers and blockbusters. Many of the entries group themselves naturally. K.J. Parker and, less successfully, Cecelia Holland take up the theme of revenge. Other authors expose the moral ambiguities implicit in much of the subgenre’s culture (Ken Liu, Ellen Kushner), and a Rich Larson standout features a pair of curiously principled rogues. Of those set in established worlds, Robin Hobb writes of FitzChivalry Farseer and the Red Ship raiders; Matthew Hughes draws inspiration from Jack Vance’s renowned Dying Earth scenario; Walter Jon Williams offers a promising sampler of a forthcoming series; Garth Nix’s tales of Sir Hereward and the sorcerously animated ventriloquist’s dummy, Master Fitz, are justly famous; Elizabeth Bear writes enthrallingly about the Dead Man, formerly an emperor’s guard, and his companion mercenary, the Gage, a brass automaton with a human soul, the stars of her latest novel and series; Lavie Tidhar weighs in with one of his guns-and-sorcery tales about Gorel of Goliris; and, disappointingly, George R.R. Martin offers an undramatic, ultraviolent chronicle set in an era well before the current Game of Thrones books. The remainder defy classification. Kate Elliott’s fine effort portrays a mysterious exile from the spirit world who challenges the emperor of Rome; Daniel Abraham captivates with his fine knotty tale of a thief, a prince, and a mysterious magic tower; C.J. Cherryh wonders what happened after Beowulf slew the monster Grendel; and a thrill-a-minute yarn from Scott Lynch somewhat resembles a sorcerous Raiders of the Lost Ark.
When fine writer and expert editor Dozois beckons, authors deliver—and this surely will be one of the year’s essential anthologies.Pub Date: Oct. 11, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-399-59376-5
Page Count: 544
Publisher: Bantam
Review Posted Online: Aug. 5, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2017
Generous in its vision and fun to read. Likely to be a big book—and, soon, a big movie, with all the franchise trimmings.
Self-assured, entertaining debut novel that blends genres and crosses continents in quest of magic.
The world’s not big enough for two wizards, as Tolkien taught us—even if that world is the shiny, modern one of the late 19th century, with its streetcars and electric lights and newfangled horseless carriages. Yet, as first-time novelist Morgenstern imagines it, two wizards there are, if likely possessed of more legerdemain than true conjuring powers, and these two are jealous of their turf. It stands to reason, the laws of the universe working thus, that their children would meet and, rather than continue the feud into a new generation, would instead fall in love. Call it Romeo and Juliet for the Gilded Age, save that Morgenstern has her eye on a different Shakespearean text, The Tempest; says a fellow called Prospero to young magician Celia of the name her mother gave her, “She should have named you Miranda...I suppose she was not clever enough to think of it.” Celia is clever, however, a born magician, and eventually a big hit at the Circus of Dreams, which operates, naturally, only at night and has a slightly sinister air about it. But what would you expect of a yarn one of whose chief setting-things-into-action characters is known as “the man in the grey suit”? Morgenstern treads into Harry Potter territory, but though the chief audience for both Rowling and this tale will probably comprise of teenage girls, there are only superficial genre similarities. True, Celia’s magical powers grow, and the ordinary presto-change-o stuff gains potency—and, happily, surrealistic value. Finally, though, all the magic has deadly consequence, and it is then that the tale begins to take on the contours of a dark thriller, all told in a confident voice that is often quite poetic, as when the man in the grey suit tells us, “There’s magic in that. It’s in the listener, and for each and every ear it will be different, and it will affect them in ways they can never predict.”
Generous in its vision and fun to read. Likely to be a big book—and, soon, a big movie, with all the franchise trimmings.Pub Date: Sept. 13, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-385-53463-5
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: April 5, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2011
BOOK REVIEW
A captivating start to what promises to be an epic post-apocalyptic fable.
The first volume in Carey’s Rampart trilogy is set centuries into a future shaped by war and climate change, where the scant remains of humankind are threatened by genetically modified trees and plants.
Teenager Koli Woodsmith lives in Mythen Rood, a village of about 200 people in a place called Ingland, which has other names such as “Briton and Albion and Yewkay.” He was raised to cultivate, and kill, the wood from the dangerous trees beyond Mythen Rood’s protective walls. Mythen Rood is governed by the Ramparts (made up entirely of members of one family—what a coincidence), who protect the village with ancient, solar-powered tech. After the Waiting, a time in which each child, upon turning 15, must decide their future, Koli takes the Rampart test: He must “awaken” a piece of old tech. After he inevitably fails, he steals a music player which houses a charming “manic pixie dream girl” AI named Monono, who reveals a universe of knowledge. Of course, a little bit of knowledge can threaten entire societies or, in Koli’s case, a village held in thrall to a family with unfettered access to powerful weapons. Koli attempts to use the device to become a Rampart, he becomes their greatest threat, and he’s exiled to the world beyond Mythen Rood. Luckily, the pragmatic Koli has his wits, Monono, and an ally in Ursala, a traveling doctor who strives to usher in a healthy new generation of babies before humanity dies out for good. Koli will need all the help he can get, especially when he’s captured by a fearsome group ruled by a mad messianic figure who claims to have psychic abilities. Narrator Koli’s inquisitive mind and kind heart make him the perfect guide to Carey’s (Someone Like Me, 2018, etc.) immersive, impeccably rendered world, and his speech and way of life are different enough to imagine the weight of what was lost but still achingly familiar, and as always, Carey leavens his often bleak scenarios with empathy and hope. Readers will be thrilled to know the next two books will be published in short order.
A captivating start to what promises to be an epic post-apocalyptic fable.Pub Date: April 14, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-316-47753-6
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Orbit/Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Jan. 12, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2020
PERSPECTIVES
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