Modern Classics of Fantasy

Modern Classics of Fantasy

This wonderful collection celebrates fantasy's heydey with 33 masterpieces of short fiction, ranging from 1940s stories by L. Sprague de Camp, H. L. Gold, Fritz Leiber, and Manly Wade Wellman to more recent tales by such towering modern talents as Peter S. Beagle, Terry Bisson, James P. Blaylock, Suzy McKee Charnas, John Crowley, Tanith Lee, Ursula K. Le Guin, Lucius Shepard, Michael Swanwick, JaneYolen, and Roger Zelazny.

Just as Gardner Dozois's anthology Modern Classics of Science Fiction (SMP, 1992) has helped new generations of readers and old fans discover the genre's finest short stories, so too shall this volume allow readers to find in one volume more than two dozen masterworks of fantasy.This is the kind of assortment that can hook a reader on short fantasy. Thirty-two good stories--some previously anthologized, some hot off the press ("Beauty and the Opera" by Suzy McKee Charnas appeared in July 1996), and a few once considered classic, but now nearly forgotten (Thomas Burnett Swann is rapidly falling out of sight)--offer entertainment for every taste. Many of the stories ("The Overworld" by Jack Vance, and "The Changeling" by Michael Swanwick) also offer continuation elsewhere as part of a longer work.

Gardner Dozois's emphasis is on magazine fiction. As such, it's an interesting view of the evolution and increasing sophistication of the "pulps"--and their readers. For this reason this would be an excellent text for a course on modern fantasy writing. Stories from Asimov Science Fiction Magazine, which Dozois edits, are prominent among the recent pieces. Providing a brief history of 20th-century fantasy, the introduction seems written with the new reader in mind.









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