Review: The Very Best of Fantasy & Science Fiction, Vol 2 by Various Authors

Title: The Very Best of Fantasy & Science Fiction Vol. 2
Author: Various Authors

Publication Date: August 28th, 2012

Publisher: Tachyon Publications

Genre: Fantasy/Sci-Fi

Pages: 432

ISBN: 1616961635

Source: ARC from Publisher

Rating: 

Synopsis (from Goodreads):

Fantasy & Science Fiction continues to showcase some of the most famous authors writing in any genre. The magazine jumpstarted the careers of bestselling authors such as Roger Zelazny, Bruce Sterling, and Jane Yolen and continues to champion bold new crossover talents including Paolo Bacigalupi and Ken Liu. 

Now drawing upon F&SF's impressive history of classic and contemporary tales, this extraordinary companion anthology revisits and expands upon sixty-five years' worth of top-notch fiction. These broad-ranging, award-winning tales appeal to readers of genre fiction and beyond, exploring alternate history, time travel, urban fantasy, virtual reality, modern myth, horror, interstellar travel, epic fantasy, mystery, and space opera. 

  

"The Third Level" by Jack Finney 

"Fondly Fahrenheit" by Alfred Bester 

"The Cosmic Charge Account" by C. M. Kornbluth 

"The Anything Box" by Zenna Henderson 

"The Prize of Peril" by Robert Sheckley 

"---All You Zombies---" by Robert A. Heinlein 

"Green Magic" by Jack Vance 

"The Doors of His Face, the Lamps of His Mouth" by Roger Zelazny 

"Narrow Valley" by R. A. Lafferty 

"Sundance" by Robert Silverberg 

"Attack of the Giant Baby" by Kit Reed 

"The Hundredth Dove" by Jane Yolen 

"Jeffty Is Five" by Harlan Ellison 

"Salvador" by Lucius Shepard 

"The Aliens Who Knew, I mean, Everything" by George Alec Effinger 

"Rat" by J. P. Kelly 

"The Friendship Light" by Gene Wolfe 

"The Bone Woman" by Charles de Lint 

"The Lincoln Train" by Maureen McHugh 

"Maneki Neko" by Bruce Sterling 

"Winemaster" by Robert Reed 

"Suicide Coast" by M. John Harrison 

"Have Not Have" by Geoff Ryman 

"The People of Sand & Slag" by Paolo Bacigalupi 

"Echo" by Liz Hand 

"The New York Times at Special Bargain Rates" by Stephen King 

"The Paper Menagerie" by Ken Liu

The Very Best of Fantasy & Science Fiction vol. 2 is the second compendium of the most famous and well written short stories to ever grace the pages of an already prolific magazine through its 65 year history. Fantasy and Science Fiction magazine has been the premier publication for the genre, and has showcased some of the most inventive and creative writers in any genre. 

I love these short story compilation books. Getting to experience different worlds, characters, atmospheres and themes every 20 pages or so is a real treat sometimes. Even more of a treat is the fact that each story was incredible in its own right. Before each story is a blurb about the author and some background on the stories wherever possible. This really helps you change gears from story to story and helps to give a greater appreciation for the work in relation to the era it was written. 

The stories themselves cover the full spectrum of sci-fi and fantasy and speculative fiction. Everything from the classic styles to contemporary and Avant-Garde pieces found their place amongst the pages. I salute the editor for avoiding a common pitfall with compilations, by including a bit of everything instead of sticking to one type or subgenre or style. On top of that, every story was interesting and entertaining; really showing off where Sci-Fi & fantasy has come from and where they are going. That being said, even the older stories didn’t show their age in a bad way.  

Usually it’s easy for me to pick a favorite and least favorite story in a compilation such as this, however I found that I enjoyed them all, and never found myself trying to speed through one to get to the next. They all have such different subject matter and style that picking one favorite would be a futile exercise. The setting and gritty futuristic feel in Winemaster was one that I enjoyed but I could just as easily pick any title out of a hat and tell you all the things I enjoyed about it. If I had to find anything negative about it, it would be that the titles could have used a bit of organization, and possibly some more background info about the stories and authors, but really that is nit-picking. Any fan of sci-fi, horror, fantasy or plain old fiction would be happy to count this collection as a part of their own. 

Review: Lore: Tales of Myth and Legend Retold by Various Authors

Title: Lore: Tales of Myth and Legend Retold 

Authors: Brinda Berry, Cate Dean, Jayne A. Knolls, Karen Y. Bynam, Laura Diamond, Theresa DaLayne

Publication Date: March, 2014

Publisher: Sweet Biscuit Publishing LLC.

Genre: Fantasy

Pages: 283

ISBN13: 978-0991632015

Source: ARC from Publisher

Rating:

Synopsis (from Goodreads):

A collection of six folklore retellings that will twist your mind and claim your heart.

SHIMMER: A heartbroken boy rescues a mermaid… but is it too late to save her?

BETWEEN is about a girl, a genie, and a ton of bad decisions.

SUNSET MOON: Eloise doesn’t believe in Native American magic–until the dreamcatcher spiders spin her down an unknown path.

THE MAKER: An incapacitated young man bent on revenge builds a creature to do it for him.

A BEAUTIFUL MOURNING: The story of a Maya goddess torn between duty and love, and the ultimate sacrifice she must make to achieve true happiness.

THE BARRICADES: When a human girl risks everything to save the life of an Eternal prince, will their feelings for each other change the world they know, or tear it apart?

A | B&N | Gr

Brinda Berry lives in the southern US with her family and two spunky cairn terriers. She has a BSE in English and French and a MEd in Learning Systems Technology. She's terribly fond of chocolate, coffee, and books that take her away from reality. She doesn't mind being called a geek or “crazy dog lady”. When she's not working the day job or writing a novel, she's guilty of surfing the internet for no good reason. 

Karen Y. Bynum is an author of young adult paranormal romance. Her novel Witch Way to Turn is published through Lyrical Press. She grew up in Hickory, North Carolina where mountains and magic surrounded her. Even as a child, she wrote her own faery tales and prattled incessantly to her imaginary friends. 

After graduating from UNC Charlotte with a Bachelor’s degree in Mass Media Communications, she went on to become certified in culinary arts from The Art Institute of Charlotte. But it wasn’t until her aerospace engineer husband accepted a job in Virginia and they relocated that she knew what she wanted to be when she grew up.

Karen enjoys reading, tweeting, writing and spending time with her husband and their spoiled rotten Vizsla named Rusty.

Laura Diamond is a board certified psychiatrist and author of all things young adult paranormal, dystopian, and horror. She’s a lucid dreamer, meaning she can direct her dreams while they’re happening. When she’s awake, she pens stories from her dreams and shares them with her readers. 

Laura has many published titles including the Pride Series (New Pride, Shifting Pride, and Tsavo Pride), the Endure Series (Endure and Evoke), The Zodiac Collector, a novella Sunset Moon in the Lore anthology, and several shorts stories. When she’s not writing, she is working at the hospital, blogging at Author Laura Diamond--Lucid Dreamer, and renovating her 225+ year old fixer-upper mansion.

Theresa DaLayne is a north-south-east-western kind of girl with a quirky personality to match her nomad life. Born in California, she migrated to three different cities in Washington State, a tiny island in Alaska, North Carolina, and finally to the suburbs of Ohio where she currently lives with her husband, three kids, vegetarian cat, and her ungrateful fish.

Always on the lookout for a new story, Theresa is a shameless eavesdropper and will take anyone who provides inspiration and mold them into a character without a second thought. She enjoys writing both paranormal and contemporary stories, considering her mind wanders between worlds of fantasy while she’s forced to live in the real world, very much against her will.

Hi there - thanks for checking in. My name is Cate Dean, and I write romantic suspense and paranormal, with some action packed YA paranormal and fantasy thrown in.

I am a huge history buff, and with my English/Irish heritage, I have always gravitated to English history. That love has taken me across the pond on a regular basis for the last 15 years. Now I get to combine the thrill of being in a country I love with my research addiction. :)

      Lore: Tales of Myth and Legend Retold is a collection of short stories that all follow the theme of myths and legends. Like most anthologies, there were strong and weak stories in here. Some of them contained stories that were rounded and well-developed. They were more satisfying in terms of content. Others could probably use more work. They just weren't to my taste and I either couldn't get into the story, didn't like the characters, or the story itself was flat.

My favorite was A Beautiful Mourning. This one I would give 5 stars because it used the most mythology and I enjoyed every element of the story. It was the strongest one by far.

My least favorite was The Maker. I felt like none of the characters were likeable and I just couldn't get into the story. That doesn't mean that someone else wouldn't enjoy it, but it just didn't suit my tastes. I'd give this one two stars.

The other stories are between 3 and 4 stars. They were pretty good, other than a few flaws I made have found or elements that I disliked. But for the most part, they were good.

This was a pleasant collection of stories, and as anthologies go, I enjoyed most of it. If you have an interest in mythology and legends, then you will enjoy Lore.

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Review: Wonderstruck (A Collection of Inspiration) by Various Authors

Title: Wonderstruck

Author: Various Authors

Publication Date: June 12th, 2013

Publisher: Clean Teen Publishing

Genre: YA Paranormal Fantasy

Pages: 488

ISBN13: 978-0-98947-011-7

Source: ARC from Publisher

Rating:

Synopsis (from Goodreads):
When you look at a picture, what do you see? We gave authors around the world the challenge to write a story based on a set of five images. More than thirty authors rose to that challenge and created an amazing young adult anthology of drabbles, short stories, novelettes and novellas for you to enjoy. Flip the pages and prepare to be Wonderstruck! 

Dive into a world where wind is a power that feeds the flames and love makes everything more complicated. A life where a scorned bride can cause a great deal of trouble and a place where silence as you will find out has a lot to say. Find yourself in a future where a powerful enemy can only be stopped by the most dangerous weapon of all: the truth. All of this and more lies within these very pages... Are you ready? 

Wonderstruck is Clean Teen Publishing's first break through Young Adult anthology. All stories within this book have fallen within our YA rating scale, however, not all stories have young adult characters. You will find a great deal of entertainment within Wonderstruck that is appropriate for readers of all ages. 

A | Gr 

Full Bios on Authors Here

Radeyeh H. Ali

Gabrielle Arrowsmith

Beau Barnett

Jennifer Bull

Liana Chau

Meme Collier

Leah D.W.

Maren Dille

Kati Ellis

Julie Gilbert

Lisa Goldman

Dominique Goodall

Brenna Harden

Sandra Havriluk

Sacha Hope

Erin Liles

B.T. Lyons

Julie Marcinik

Mia Marin

Miranda Maurin

Jon Messenger

Veronica Morfi

Ifeoma Ofuani

Paula Phillips

Jocelyn Sanchez

Cindy Saunders

Clemy W. Thompson

Dana Wright

  I'm a part of some Writers Guilds in my area, and one of the exercises we do is a writing prompt. A slideshow of images is put before us, and we write whatever comes to mind in the amount given based on one or all of the images. It actually makes a really good spontaneous exercise, and it's interesting to hear what everyone comes up with. We all think on different planes, and often times I'm surprised at the result. This is the concept of Wonderstruck. 

Note to the reader: this book is pretty big, but it's actually a really light read! It's full of dribbles, novelettes, novellas, and short stories based on 5 picture prompts. As you can see above, there are SEVERAL authors involved, some who are award-winners, others who are just emerging with their craft. Needless to say, there is a lot of variety in this book, and don't let the size scare you!

Sometimes anthologies are difficult to get into because the writing is inconsistent between authors, so I usually have to brace myself between stories, especially when I was really getting attached to one. I will say that the showcased authors were very good, and I really enjoyed their works. It was also a good start for several of the other emerging authors, and many of them I enjoyed watching their talents blossom as well. I'm sure each person that reads this collection will enjoy different stories of their own kind. "Heartkeeper" was definitely one of my favorites and one that I would recommend.

I really liked the variety! Not all of the works were predictable or ended well, but I honestly like open ends and dynamic plots. I can't say that I loved EVERY story, but I would still say this is worth the reader deciding!

If you want a book you can take with you and read between your busy schedule, Wonderstruck is perfect. Not to mention, it has a gorgeous cover.