A Treasury of Modern Fantasy edited by Terry Carr and Martin Harry Greenberg (1981, 588 pages) – In the spirit of full disclosure, this volume is not what one usually thinks of with the terms like “modern” (stories written from the twenties and seventies) and “fantasy” (no wizards, dragons, or fairies). This tome almost reads like a textbook of Who’s Who with some of the greatest short story writers of the century and some of the scariest stories of my childhood. Here are some of […]
Has everyone been reading Nalo Hopkinson without me?
Sometimes, when one is introduced to a gifted writer who has been crafting fine works for going on two decades, one feels both excited to have found such a trove and yet irritated to have not known about her sooner. This is how I feel after reading Nalo Hopkinson’s first novel Brown Girl in the Ring, published in 1998. The novel won several awards and was nominated for a Philip K. Dick Award. It is an absolutely fascinating combination of dystopian future, Caribbean folk tale, […]
If I ever meet her, I will embarrass Ursula K. Le Guin with my fangirl weeping.
The Tombs of Atuan is the story of Tenar. According to the Priestesses of the Tombs, Tenar was the reborn spirit of the First Priestess. Tenar is taken from her family at five years old and sent to the Tombs, where no man, not even the Godking himself, can enter, to train to serve the Nameless Ones, to live the life she has lived hundreds of times previously. After a year her name is taken from her and she is only ever to be Ahra, […]
A Circus I Really Wished Was Real
Half Cannonball!!!!!! And I’ve reached my reading goal! This is my second read of this book and I think I loved it more than the first time. The Night Circus is centered around a magical challenge vetted between a magician’s daughter, Celia, and a mysterious ‘man in a grey suit’ and his protégé Marco. The two players are chosen against their will to compete in a game of skill until their masters decide who has bested the other. Their playing field is a circus, populated […]