I really liked some of these stories while others were a big of a miss. But I find that tends to be the way with anthologies. There are definitely some gens in this book and some new authors to keep an eye on. Overall a good read.

[...]

The Pauper Prince and the Eucalyptus Jinn by Usman T. Malik - 3.5/5★
I really enjoyed the writing, the cultural references, the mystycism, the historical component. Although I liked the Islamic references, there were too many specific terms, hardly explained, that I had to look for on the internet, fragmenting and disrupting my reading; this made me think that the work was targeted to connoisseurs, an aspect that I don’t appreciate in a fantastical short story. Also, I’m not sure I totally got the cosmic implications and the end part..

SFF is ...changing. Long the bastion of men, especially white men, the genre's stories and boundaries are at last making room for a greater variety of voices and points of view. 2017 has been a particular great year for that in our corner of the woods with FIYAH Lit Magazine, showcasing African American SFF; Comic Con this summer celebrated more diverse characters in comic books and films, including a superb Muslim crimefighter; the Star Trek TV series franchise is being resurrected with black and Asian female crew members, as well as the usual undefined aliens; and of course, everyone is still vibrating over the Star Wars beloved General Leia and the new strong female leads in that world. All of this means that when we had the opportunity to read the New Voices in Fantasy Anthology, we both jumped at the chance.

New Voices is not a YA anthology, although there are contributors who write for YA and MG lit included, but we wanted to look it over anyway, because we strongly support diverse voices in science fiction and fantasy. So, without further ado:

Welcome to another edition of In Tandem, the read-and-review blog series where both A.F. and I give on-the-spot commentary as we read and blog a book together. (Feel free to guess which of us is the yellow owl and which of us is purple ...who's driving this bike??)
We are...
Two writers,
& Two readers,
Exploring one book...
In Tandem.


What would you do if a tornado wanted you to be its Valentine? Or if a haunted spacesuit banged on your door? When is the ideal time to turn into a tiger? Would you post a supernatural portal on Craigslist? In these nineteen stories, the enfants terribles of fantasy have entered the building—in this case, a love-starved, ambulatory skyscraper. The New Voices of Fantasy tethers some of the fastest-rising talents of the last five years, including Sofia Samatar, Maria Dahvana Headley, Max Gladstone, Alyssa Wong, Usman T. Malik, Brooke Bolander, E. Lily Yu, Ben Loory, Ursula Vernon, and more. Their tales were hand-picked by the legendary Peter S. Beagle (The Last Unicorn) and genre expert Jacob Weisman (The Treasury of the Fantastic). So go ahead, join the Communist revolution of the honeybees. The new kids got your back.

“This anthology represents some of the most exciting and interesting work in the fantasy field today, and anyone interested in the genre should read it immediately.” —Booklist ♦ “...a valuable snapshot of SF/F’s newest generation of writers.” —Publishers Weekly ♦ “A stellar anthology that proves not only that fantasy is alive and well, but that it will be for years to come.” —Kirkus

We received copies of this book courtesy of the publishing company, via NetGalley. You can find THE NEW VOICES OF FANTASY edited by Peter S. Beagle & Jacob Weisman at an online e-tailer, or at a real life, independent bookstore near you!



tanita: I don't know why, but I love, love, love anthologies. Maybe it's the little snippets of someone's work, which gives me a jumping-off point to getting to know them as a writer. Maybe it's the reality that sometimes, I don't have mental bandwidth for a long novel, but there's always time for a story. Maybe it's just that I have attention deficits. I enjoy how some stories turn out to be favorites, and others, not so much, which is always my experience - which makes even reading something I'm not sure I like A Good Thing. You were remarking the other day how hard it is to read them sometimes, though. I agree... this was both fun, and really hard!

sarah: I guess any "new voices" type of thing is going to be highly varied. It's hard for me to do more than a few stories a day... Is it weird that I find short stories require more stamina in a way than novels?
tanita: No, no - not at all. I had to put this down and come back to it repeatedly. For me, the issue with anthologies, where there are rich, fully realized stories is that I can't change lanes that fast. The finned Chevy of my imagination is hurtling down the dark freeway, weird sights blurring as I fly by... and then the story ...ends. I have to find where the car went and turn it around before I can start something new.

The stories featured in this collection were were fully realized, fully populated little worlds we spent time in. Which one was your favorite? Or, which two, probably, that you're having a hard time picking between?
sarah: I have to admit, I'm kind of a sucker for selkie stories--for anything based on myth, really--and so I think my favorite of the bunch is Sofia Samatar's "Selkie Stories Are for Losers." It also is a YA-friendly story, and was nominated for several awards. It does such an amazing job of doing what myths do best--they teach us something about ourselves, show us what already exists in our all-too-human hearts that has existed through history and across time. In the same way, the selkie has both a literal and a metaphorical role in Samatar's story.
tanita: Funny - for the selfsame reason, I kind of hate selkie stories; I find them tragically sad, which is why I loved the Samatar's story -- because her character, too, came from a place of where the story of selkies and sentient sea creatures IS traditionally tragic, and so she decided to reject those stories, in a show of bravado, despite that story being HER story. Similar in themes of loss of wildness and freedom was the story of the anarchist bees - and well done to that person for being able to portray a hivemind in a story - and of course, the Jackalope Wives... I am SO here for any Vernon story, anytime. While I had read this particular story before (which kind of detracts from the "new" voices in the title), I'm glad to see her non-kid work find a larger audience.
sarah: I also liked Ursula Vernon's "Jackalope Wives"--not surprisingly. I'm already a fan of her work for young readers (e.g. the Dragonbreath graphic novels).

Other stories I enjoyed were "Tornado's Siren" by Brooke Bolander for sheer uniqueness of concept; "Left the Century to Sit Unmoved" by Sarah Pinsker for being YA-friendly, very literary, and leaving the reader with intriguing questions; and "Here Be Dragons" by Chris Tarry for having an interesting new take on dragons and dragonslayers.
tanita: There were echoes, in "The One They Took Before," by Kelly Sandoval, of Seanan McGuire's EVERY HEART A DOORWAY trilogy that was really haunting, in combination with the weirdness of Craigslist. But, my favorite of the new-to-me pieces was Max Gladstone's "A Kiss With Teeth," which started off with me feeling pretty unsure of things... In a novel filled with pieces which will appeal to adults and teens alike, this is definitely an adult story. Parents looking back at their lives before becoming part of the Upright Citizens Brigade and remembering when once they were vampire and vampire hunter, when the night was filled with menace and promise and dangerous, obsessive romance... I adored it. I love that story because it's about maturing - and maturity is something you just don't read a whole lot about in speculative fiction, despite the thousand-year-lived vampires and the like that you get in urban fantasy. More often, you get the angst and drama of what happens when people live nearly forever and don't mature, but just... roll into later adulthood, still acting a fool. It was partly side-eyeing those types of stories, and partially celebrating settled, selfless, mature relationships. Which is super rare. Having read that, I'm very much open to finding Gladstone's other work for adults, in a way I wasn't prior to now (although, not going to lie - I have been struck by the wonderful representation on the covers of his books. I mean, look at this!).


sarah: Yes, I enjoyed the "but what happens AFTER?" approach of Gladstone's story--that was something I liked about "Here Be Dragons," too. There are so many tropes in fantasy, and that's not inherently bad, but fantastical creatures like dragons and vampires and werebeasts and whatnot have been done in the same way so many times (hence the trope, I suppose). Bringing a new approach to existing tropes is something that was well done in this anthology as a whole.

tanita: What else stood out to you about this collection in terms of theme or stylistic choices, or anything, really?
sarah: I wanted to just mention how much I enjoyed the variety and risk-taking in terms of form and storytelling approach--there were surprises at every turn, from unusual characters like bees, buildings, and ducks, to unique conceits of form like the how-to guide, Craigslist ad, and anthropological study. I really enjoyed "The Pauper Prince and the Eucalyptus Jinn" by Usman T. Malik for its sweeping, epic, multigenerational look at jinn mythology--great to see something that's not from the well-used Western mold. I'm already a fan of Rushdie, who similarly draws on the history and myth of the Indian Subcontinent, and I'm glad to see more writing in that vein.
tanita: Oh, yes! My main interest in choosing this anthology is that it is aimed at "new voices;" the overarching meaning, in this particular, is not solely stories I haven't yet read from "new" to the field authors, but additionally, nonwhite voices in fantasy, which brings that new vibe to the entire genre. Usman T. Malik allowed us to glimpse both old Lahore, new, busy Lahore, and the mental and physical and spiritual space in between, bridged by the character's life in the West. It was enchanting, in part because the story was about family stories, and how they stretch the truth and what we understand of truth through time. Wouldn't it be lovely, if an aging relative could remember themselves in another time, in their dementia -- and it would all be real? That... in a way would redeem old age and remakes it into something beautiful.

And, in a way, that's what the whole anthology does. Familiar bits of ephemera from our imaginations, from our urban myths and legends, from our cultures and our worlds have been transmuted into something both less familiar and more knowable, both more off-puttingly gross and horrible (and there are some prime bits of horror in this collection - eek), and more charmingly disturbing. This collection runs a good gamut. It's meaty stuff, and could easily be taken along to ease the pain of airports and train rides. It's absorbing and invites the reader to a feast of a thousand different senses. It's not our usual fare here at the Treehouse, but I'm glad we read it.

sarah: Me, too! It definitely fulfills our goal to read widely and diversely, something that we both try to do as much as possible--just not usually at the same time... In this case, though, a tandem review seemed like a good way to survey the gamut of stories in the anthology--we each responded to different ones, and as a result, hopefully, we were able to do it justice as a collection...and tempt you into picking it up, perhaps.

Thanks for joining us on our latest tandem review journey!

It was fun to read a themed SFF anthology that wasn't themed, if you see what I mean - not a book about magic, ghosts, the apocalypse (given current events I'm especially glad it wasn't about that) but which still had a focus: showcasing new voices. These are writers who've perhaps had a few stories published (in the case of Rajaniemi at least, a trilogy of novels) but who are still bringing something perceptibly different to the table - whether that be content, point of view or who they are.

Of course, what you regard as "new" will depend where you've coming from and what you read. For the record, I'd only heard of three of the authors here (Wong, Gladstone and Rajaniemi) before and I'd only read one, so for me, the book presented a lot of really new stuff and I look forward to following up many of these authors. Others may have encountered more of them before, but it's such a wide ranging collection that I hope everyone will see something new or different here.

So - what of the stories? They range from the apparent simplicity of the fairy story or fable ("Duck","The Cartographer Wasps and Anarchist Bees", “The Pauper Prince and the Eucalyptus Jinn”) to knotty horror ("Hungry Daughters of Starving Mothers", "The Haunting of Apollo A7LB") to fantasy romance (“The Tallest Doll in New York City”) adventure (“My Time Among the Bridge Blowers”) and all points in between. Many are multilayered, reflective stories - see for example how "Pauper Prince" and "Bridge Blowers" in particular both echo and critique the kind of story they appear, on the surface. There is a lot of dialogue with the existing body of SFF work going on here, though it doesn't stop the stories themselves being immediate, entertaining and fun.

In "Hungry Daughters of Starving Mothers" (Alyssa Wong) the balance of power - and danger - between Jen and the (frankly repellent) men she dates swings back and to, only made less stable by her supernatural abilities. Wong deftly wrongfoots the reader about where it is all going, creating something very disturbing indeed

"Selkie Stories are for Losers" (Sofia Samatar) plays games with the traditional selkie story, the unnamed protagonist both retelling examples of the story and embodying them (or is she?) It's a sweet, touching story in places ("Mona gets out, yanking the little piece of my heart that stays with her wherever she goes") but we don't know if there's a happy ending or not.

"Tornado’s Siren" by Brooke Bolander also has romance, and dash of humour as a tornado falls for Rhea (and why not?) Bolander makes this far fetched idea totally plausible and creates in Rhea a determined and self possessed hero who the reader is cheering on by the end. It's also pretty sharp: "You can't fall in love with destruction. What would that say about a person?"

"Left the Century to Sit Unmoved" (Sarah Pinsker) was my very favourite of these stories. It's an intensely moving, deeply imagined, account of a local place (a pool) and a custom (diving in from the top of a waterfall) that may or may not be linked to a series of disappearances - of what this means to one of the left behind, and of how the community bends and grows around the unexplained, like a tree enclosing a railing. Just mesmerising - at the same time totally mundane, and totally entrancing.

"A Kiss with Teeth" by Max Gladstone is a monster, rather than a horror, story, an imaging of how a vampire might fare in a domestic setting which - at the same time - has clever things to say about modern life, loneliness, the city... and even the plight of the overworked teacher. I don't think I'll soon forget the glimpse of tired Angela, in her one room apartment, at the end of a long day.

"Jackalope Wives" (Ursula Vernon) is another fairytale, loosely Native American in setting, almost a counterpoint to "Selkie Stories are for Losers". Here the transformed beast is rather different but the dynamic - about possession and control, about taming the wild - is the same. An old story in some ways but one that never stales.

"The Cartographer Wasps and Anarchist Bees" (E Lily Yu) reminded me of Animal Farm. It's a sort of fable, a story of bees and wasps, of colonialism, survival and evolution, very much a fable, deeply thought provoking and I think a tale one could return to again and again.

"The Practical Witch’s Guide to Acquiring Real Estate" (A. C. Wise) has more than a dash of humour as it informs the reader of all the ways to become a homeowner. But it becomes clear that for a witch, this isn't a matter of simply paying for a house - quite apart from the attendant dangers of local prejudice (which are spelled out in an almost unbearably sad section). No, it's more like a courtship, always with the possibility of heartbreak. Funny, yes, also sad and wise.

"The Tallest Doll in New York City" by Maria Dahvana Headley is a mesmerising little love story, set, of curse, on St Valentine's Day. Note perfect, it tales an outrageous concept and makes it works so well.

"The Haunting of Apollo A7LB" (Hannu Rajaniemi) is either a ghost story, or science fiction, or probably both. Apollo A7LB is a space suit displayed in a museum, and it seems that it's not as empty as you'd think.

"Here Be Dragons" (Chris Tarry) isn't really about dragon hunting. It's about domesticity, building a life and raising kids - and maturity. And immaturity. A very odd story, a very old story in many ways but perfectly told and among my favourites here.

"The One They Took Before" (Kelly Sandoval) might be part of an emerging genre, portraying what happens after the cool events of the fantasy story. I thought of Seanan McGuire's "Every Heart a Doorway" or Alan Garner's "Boneland" - both books that, in very different ways, explore the trauma of the survivor, as Sandoval does so well here. A striking and poignant story.

"Tiger Baby" (JY Yang) is, I think, about becoming oneself - and how this might not be quite what you expect - perhaps a common theme but here it's done in such a hauntingly beautiful way while also being so prosaic, centring on the day to day details of a life. Another of my favourites here

"The Duck" (Ben Loory) is about a duck, about love, about devotion... VERY fairytalelike, very beautiful.

"Wing" (Amal El-Mohtar) is a story about books, and people, and finding the right person, and the right book. A gem, and another of my favourites.

"The Philosophers" (Adam Ehrlich Sachs) is actually three stories, which look at aspects of the father-son relationship, making metaphors literal - about communication, about identity and being your own person - and inviting the reader to really think.

"My Time Among the Bridge Blowers" (Eugene Fischer) sees an explorer - perhaps not in our world - visiting a remote people who have an amazing talent. Can he bear to simply watch and wonder or will he interfere, setting in train future trouble for this already suffering tribe?

"The Husband Stitch"(Carmen Maria Machado) is a profound story that, slightly, broke my heart. It's a story of a life, with very little overt fantasy to it but... something... lurks in the background. One detail. One flaw in a relationship. Can you see it? Can you touch it? Will it matter, in the end?

"The Pauper Prince and the Eucalyptus Jinn" (Usman T. Malik) is the longest story in this book, practically a novella. It tells of a princess, a Jinn and a family legacy, drawing on a rich vein of Islamic folklore is a fresh and arresting way and using this to comment on the lives of modern-day Pakistani Americans. An absorbing story.

The collections as a whole is very strong, with something for everyone. They are all great stories, though different readers will have their favourites. Whether as a solid collection in its own right or as a sampler for these authors, I'd recommend this to anyone interested in where fantasy is going.

The New Voices of Fantasy spotlights nineteen breakout writers who are reinventing fantasy right now. Usman T. Malik, Sofia Samatar, Eugene Fischer, E. Lily Yu, Ben Loory, Maria Dahvana Headley, Ursula Vernon, Max Gladstone, and other emerging talents have been hand-picked by fantasy legend Peter S. Beagle (The Last Unicorn) and genre expert Jacob Weisman (Treasury of the Fantastic). International, cross-cultural, and fearless, many of these rising stars have just or are about to publish their first novels and collections. They bring you childhood stories gone wrong, magical creatures in heat, a building that’s alive and full of waiters, love, ducks, and a new take on a bloodsucking fiend. (via Goodreads)
"Hungry Daughters of Starving Mothers" needs a trigger warning for murder, anti-chinese slurs, and cannibalism. "Selkie Stories are for Losers" needs a TW for suicide mention, suicide attempt by nonMC

One of my favorites was A.C. Wise's The Practical Witch's Guide to Acquiring Real Estate. It was stunning and delightful.

The Haunting of Apollo A7LB was also really awesome. I loved the idea of the spacesuit, and what goes on.

Carmen Maria Machado's The Husband Stitch was familiar to me, as a fan of Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark - pulling from several familiar tales, but putting her own stunning twist into it, and making us care deeply for the girl with the ribbon, instead of having her be an oddity.

I really enjoyed this anthology and I look forward to what comes next from each of these authors!

An excellent collection of contemporary fantasy short stories. I'd already read 8 out of the 19 stories, but I enjoyed rereading them. I'd also already read 15 of the authors, so it's nice to know I'm keeping up with new fantasy authors!

If you're on the hunt for some new authors, this is a great collection to read. It's also interesting to note that of the 19 stories, only 2 were 2nd world fantasy. The other 17 stories were rooted in this world. But what all of these stories tend to do is use fantasy as a metahpor for something about living, and I love that. There are some really powerful stories in this collection.

“Hungry Daughters of Starving Mothers” by Alyssa Wong: A lot of Wong's short stories (if not all) deal with a monstrous feminine and relationships among women. This is no exception. I mistakenly thought I'd read this before, so I'm glad it was in this collection. 4/5

“Selkie Stories are for Losers” by Sofia Samatar: And the protagonist has good reason for thinking so (the title). I really enjoy this story. This is my third time reading it, I believe. 4.5/5

“Tornado’s Siren” by Brooke Bolander: So good! A tornado falls in love with a little girl, and follows her the rest of her life. Such a fantastic story. 5/5

“Left the Century to Sit Unmoved” by Sarah Pinsker: In a small town, a waterhole sometimes swallows people, and a folklore has developed around it. A teenage girl dares to jump regularly. I've read this before, but had forgotten I had because the title doesn't really hint at the story. I really don't like the title, but the story is great. 4.5/5

“A Kiss with Teeth” by Max Gladstone: A vampire tries to live a normal human life and do the right thing for his family. Fun story. 4/5

“Jackalope Wives” by Ursula Vernon: Animal transformation story set in the West. I love this story so much. Also a re-read for me, but it's just perfect. Moves me every time. 5/5

“The Cartographer Wasps and Anarchist Bees” by E. Lily Yu: A political allegory between bees and wasps. Cool concept. A reread that was better the 2nd time around. 4/5

“The Practical Witch’s Guide to Acquiring Real Estate” by A. C. Wise: A handbook about the ways witches can go about finding a house. I would choose 'Taming.' Another reread, but still cute. 4/5

“The Tallest Doll in New York City” by Maria Dahvana Headley: The Chrsyler Building takes a walk in the 1930s, and waltzes with the Empire State Building. A reread. 3/5

“The Haunting of Apollo A7LB” by Hannu Rajaniemi: A old spacesuit is haunted, and when a rich internet mogul smuggles it, it insists on visiting an old acquintance. First time reading this author. 3/5

“Here Be Dragons” by Chris Tarry: A retired fake dragon hunter returns home to be a stay-at-home dad. But can he settle down to this life? New author for me, and I really enjoyed it. 4/5

“The One They Took Before” by Kelly Sandoval: Oh, those faeries and their pet humans. This short story tells of woman after she returns home from a year in Faerie. How can she ever return to normal? 4/5

“Tiger Baby” by JY Yang: A woman feels she's more tiger than human. 3.5/5

“The Duck” by Ben Loory: A fable about a duck that falls in love with a rock. 3/5

“Wing” by Amal El-Mohtar: A woman wears a book necklace with a secret written inside. Lovely language, as always with Amal. 4.5/5

“The Philosophers” by Adam Ehrlich Sachs: A recursive story about sons translating a book as they slowly acquire a disability that leaves them unable to speak or move anything but a single body part. 2/5

“My Time Among the Bridge Blowers” by Eugene Fischer Original Story: A quasi-anthropologist travels to a remote village to learn the customs of its people, people his culture has attempted to colonize. Good story that felt like something larger. 4/5

“The Husband Stitch” by Carmen Maria Machado: A modern retelling of the folktale "The Girl with the Green Ribbon," one of my favorites growing up. This was my third time reading this short story, and the most effective. I kept thinking about the man who murdered his wife recently on a cruise ship, for laughing at him. 4.5/5

“The Pauper Prince and the Eucalyptus Jinn” by Usman T. Malik: A grandfather tells his grandson a story of a Princess and a jinn, and when the grandson grows into an adult and his grandfather dies, he discovers the story may be a lot more complicated and magical than his grandfather led him to believe. Another reread. 4/5

Thanks to Netgalley and Tachyon Press for providing me with a free copy in exchange for an honest review.

(Posted on Goodreads 07/31/2017]
(Posted on Book Riot 100 Must Read SFF Short Story Collections 07/25/2017)
(Posted on Book Riot Peak Over Our Shoulders 08/03/2017)
[posted on Amazon 08/09/2017]
[Posted on Personal Blog 08/09/2017]

This is not your typical fantasy read. There are definitely a couple of fantasy stories in this collection but I'd say most of them almost felt more like a horror/eerie/creepy type story. I can definitely see reading this more around Halloween time. I gave this a 3 out of 5 because while some of the stories were really good and I thoroughly enjoyed them, others I could not get into at all and found myself just wanting them to be over. When I think of fantasy I guess I usually imagine elves, dragons, fae, mermaids, etc. and this collection really doesn't have any of those. Would I have liked it better had I known the stories weren't my typical fantasy read? Probably not. I could tell from the very first story that these were different and I read the rest of the book with that in mind. I also felt like several of the endings were lacking. On several occasions I would be reading and all of a sudden it would end...with no explanations or sense of fulfillment.

This collection was... a bit of an experience. And not as fantastic as I would've liked it to be.

While I'll be mentioning thoughts on each story separately, I would like to say a few words about the collection as a whole. First of all, this is more speculative fiction than fantasy. Barely any of these take place in a different world, and barely any have standard plots. Instead, with a few exceptions, most are brief ruminations on a certain topic. I have to admit, I found that element fairly boring. Many of these started fantastically and ended just blah.

♔ Hungry Daughters of Starving Mothers by Alyssa Wong - ★★★★★
This one is basically terrifying. A girl uses Tinder to find dates and feed off their gross thoughts about her body. Yet on one date, she feasts off a murderer and becomes addicted. There's also a maybe-romance between her and her best friend. I adored this story, although I felt that the end fizzled a little. The writing and atmosphere is pitch-perfect, I adored the characters... just great. Probably my favorite of all the stories.
You can read this here.

♔ Selkie Stories are for Losers by Sofia Samatar - ★★★
This follows– um, I'm not quite sure, because this really didn't feel resolved or completed. I liked the writing and the atmosphere, but the execution of the storyline was mediocre. Also appreciate that both of the first two stories were both a little gay.

♔ Tornado’s Siren by Brooke Bolander - ★★★
This follows a girl in love with a tornado. It's... weird. I love the idea, but I didn't emotionally connect with anything here. The magical realism feel is nice, at least.

♔ Left the Century to Sit Unmoved by Sarah Pinsker - ★★★★
This is a slice-of-life about people living near a pond in their small town. I LOVED the beginning. Absolutely adored the writing, loved the themes, was so excited to see what the solution is. I thought this would blow my mind. It unfortunately didn't. These open endings have got to go.

♔ A Kiss with Teeth by Max Gladstone - ★★★
It's a coming of age story, but with a really old vampire instead of a teen. I was honestly kind of surprised I enjoyed this, after I found the beginning badly written and slightly stalker-ish. But this quickly turned into an interesting story about accepting faults in love. I especially loved reading about Vlad and Sarah's little family.

♔ Jackalope Wives by Ursula Vernon - ★★★★★
This is a story about wanting what you can't have and having what you can't want. It's... eerie. I feel like this will be polarizing, but I loved it. And yes, it is about jackalope wives. Go figure.

♔ The Cartographer Wasps and the Anarchist Bees by E. Lily Yu - ★★★
I don't think I understood this? The themes about human empowerment are clear, but there's no thesis to it, I guess. It is very well-written.

♔ The Practical Witch’s Guide to Acquiring Real Estate by A. C. Wise - ★★
Meh. I think I have to agree with Melanie when I say this was kind of pointless. It's a guide for witches building houses.

♔ The Tallest Doll in New York City by Maria Dahvana Headley - ★★★★
This was so weird but so creative and atmospheric. It follows a group of buildings that are dating. I said weird, don't blame me. I don't even know if I understood all of it; is it time neutral or something? Yet I ended the story with happiness rather than with a desire for more.

♔ The Haunting of Apollo A7LB by Hannu Rajaniemi - ★★★★
The first line of this story is freaking amazing; I actually planned to take a break from this collection until I saw the first line. And thankfully I really enjoyed this!! It's a story of lost love and dreams. Be warned it's far less creepy than its blurb.

♔ Here Be Dragons by Chris Tarry - ★★
This follows a man who is always leaving his parents to make money off townspeople via slaying fraudulent dragons. I thought this was going to be some story of redemption after being a terrible father, but it's so... ugh. There's this vibe of “women are the right parents for children and men pitching in is just a bonus” which... no. I kind of enjoyed the middle of this story, but the end ruined it for me by going back on all the potential for character development.

♔ The One They Took Before by Kelly Sandoval - ★★★
Maybe more of a 2.5, because I legitimately have no fucking clue what this is about. Nice writing though.

♔ Tiger Baby by JY Yang - ★★★★
This was so weird, and yet here I am with your latest four-star review. This follows a girl who believes she is truly a tiger. The ending is just as odd as the rest, but I really enjoyed something about it. I'd like to analyze this one - I feel as if it will be quite hit-or-miss, with some adoring this story and some hating it. And this will sound odd, but I appreciate the amount of stories in this collection with badass gay Asian girls as protagonists.

♔ The Duck by Ben Loory - ★★★
This follows a duck who falls in love with a rock. I know what you're thinking - he's weird. An odd duck, if you will. But truly, that's the point. This story is truly about accepting your friends for who they are. It's a sweet theme and a sweet story. Unfortunately, I found this a bit lacking. The themes lacked the depth of development I wanted, due to the ridiculously short length.

♔ Wing by Amal El-Mohtar - ★★★★
This is a story about how love should be accepting. Following a girl with a book around her neck, a girl with a secret, we see how love should come about. It's quite short, but I enjoyed this a lot. There are some fabulous and quotable lines in here.

♔ The Philosophers by Adam Ehrlich Sachs - ★★★
This is a series of vignettes about fathers and sons. And no, there aren't any girl characters. Go figure. The first story is about generations trying to communicate and bad translating methods. The second story is about recognizing parental faults and hats. The last story isn't about fathers at all, it's about creating paradoxes through assassinating your relatives. But it was probably my favorite of all these.

♔ My Time Among the Bridge Blowers by Eugene Fischer - ★★★★
This is a story about colonialism. Readers will be drawn to the themes and message of this, as well as the complex and intriguing worldbuilding. Why couldn't this be a full book?

♔ The Husband Stitch by Carmen Maria Machado - ★★★★★
I read this earlier due to Melanie's awesome recommendation. This is a story about being consumed by men and losing your own agency. It's a story about how much you can give before you break. And that's all I'm really going to say about it. This is one you really have to experience on your own. One thing is clear, though; it's worth the read. There were a few metaphors here I only understood on the second go due to me being exhausted when I first read it, which is really upsetting - I feel like this would be my fave rather than my second fave otherwise.

♔ The Pauper Prince and the Eucalyptus Jinn by Usman T. Malik - ★
I'm going to be totally honest here - I hated this. It's really well-written, and I'm sure many will appreciate it if they “get it”. But I could not get past the length. This takes up an entire 25% of the story collection. Twenty. Five. Percent. That's not short. That's a 75 page story. And it didn't need to be so long!! This easily could've been twenty pages and fantastic, if a little confusing. Confusing short stories are fun and make you think. Confusing long stories are annoying. This was the latter. It's an overwritten mess that keeps touching on cosmology but doesn't make any sense.

Wow. Hard times are good for great writing and serious reading. Here are serious practitioners of fantasy and lovers of language, tinged with truth and mudded with blood and myth. Many of the writers have won or been nominated for awards, and they know their stuff. Buy it, read it, and dream larger, possibly darker, definitely deeper dreams. Each story is a portal to a different world. Each is a literary gem, shining like a necklace of stars in the hands of a dragon. Even the ones that you may not like are beautiful. It was edited by Peter Beagle, after all. Delightful, but not light reading, highly recommended.

I really enjoyed this great mix of fantasy stories. I'm not a great lover of fantasy novels generally but this collection had me hooked! My favourite story was Jackalope Wives but the thing I enjoyed most about the collection as a whole is the range of cultural influences and backgrounds of the authors.

We've come to the realisation that short story collections just aren't for us because in order to review them properly, you must read every short story. Stop. And then review.

That just doesn't work for us and we can honestly tell you that we remember nothing that happened from what we've read.

A collection of fantasy stories from relatively new authors.
Review:

Most of the stories in this anthology are fairly strong, and none are terrible. There are several that could have used a stronger editorial hand, and some deal with very familiar themes without adding anything new to them. The strongest stories are:

notableJackalope Wives by Ursula Vernon – the dangers of desire. Strongly reminiscent of Ursula Le Guin, but very nicely written.
notableThe Cartographer Wasps and the Anarchist Bees by E. Lily Yu – the political systems of hymenopterae. I liked this less than when I first read it, but it’s still innovative, well written, and interesting.
Here be Dragons by Chris Tarry – the life of a fake dragon hunter. A familiar concept, but largely well executed.
Tiger Baby by JY Yang – a girl who dreams of her real self. A nice concept. As with several of the stories in this anthology, it weakens at the end, but it’s largely well done.
Wing by Amal El-Mohtar – a mysterious girl with a secret. Again, the ending could have been stronger, but a largely successful mood piece.

All in all, an interesting but not exceptional collection.

So many authors are the reason I picked this one up - it would probably be easier to list those I haven't yet come across yet. This is however a collection of people fairly new to the scene (last four or so years until now), and an excellent starting point for people who may not have come across them yet - get in on the ground floor, type of thing, so you can follow what are sure to be excellent bibliographies.

“Hungry Daughters of Starving Mothers” by Alyssa Wong

It would drive you crazy if you could see the thoughts of anyone you concentrated on - especially if you focused on their worst thoughts and memories. Imagine it's what you digest - what you feed on.

We see Jen on a tinder date who notes her date wants to split her open and glory at her insides. It's just as well for the rest of the women on tinder that Jen has the ability to suck out every thought in his mind and leave him a maybe-dead mess in an alleyway - something she's seemingly inherited from her mother who has a home filled with 'hissing (...) ugly, bottled remains of her paramours'. Who wouldn't want to read more? Jen's problem is she has a sweet friend, Aiko, who's becoming more and more alluring. Scared that she won't be able to resist hurting her, she pushes her away instead and retreats to her mothers home, and distracted, then gets herself into a whole lot of trouble.

This is sweet and perfectly delivered. Wong is certainly someone to keep an eye on - every piece she's had published so far it a wonder to read and sometimes a little hard hitting.

“Selkie Stories are for Losers” by Sofia Samatar

A girl loses her mother the usual selkie way - comes across a certain coat by accident, and never sees her mother again.

She looks after herself best she can. It's almost easier for her to look out for Mona, a girl she meets through work, who cries sometimes and worries her suicidal mother is going to drag her back to Egypt. They plan instead to go to Colorado together. They're together in their grief, both abandoned by their parents.

This is a beautiful piece of work - totally normal in its everyday life of going to work, avoiding creeps, driving out late at night and sneaking back home. You can't help but wish them both the best, and hope they make it to The Centennial State.

“Tornado’s Siren” by Brooke Bolander

Rhea can talk to tornados. The first time is when she's nine, alone at home through some sort of mixup with her family, but living in a wild weather area she knows what to do. She drags the cat and supplies into the bathtub and huddles down for the wait... and it's only when the roof is ripped free and she screams, that it goes away.

Tornadoes come and go on other significant moments of stress in her life, and as soon as she can he marries young and escapes to sunny California because it's not normal to be chased by lovelorn winds of terror, is it?

This is an awesome piece. As someone who lives in a place that was totally flattened by a cyclone a few years before I was born (so going to places like England where they actually have history in beautiful old buildings is like a drug to me), I can fully appreciate the power of the weather and how it can move you.

“Left the Century to Sit Unmoved” by Sarah Pinsker

A hungry and deep water pool will take you if you dive instead of jump, or tempt it by saying 'one more jump'. Always go with a buddy, and jump one at a time so if one is taken, the others can escape. Shay knows many who've been taken - Kendra, Grant... and her own brother, Nick.

Shay pieces together what Nick left behind, and what she knows from others. And like the story before this, it captures at what mercy we are at when it comes to nature, and ends on a punch that's both beautiful and eerie at the same time - as well as full of hope, if you look at it in a certain way. It's becoming increasingly harder to pick a favourite from this anthology.

“A Kiss with Teeth” by Max Gladstone

Vlad is a vampire. He's lived through much - countless lifetimes, and has experienced all there is to experience. Now, though, he lives in a concrete jungle with a wife and 7yo son, he works as an accountant, and plays catch in the evenings. His son is struggling with school, and so he meets with his teacher in order to discuss what can be done. And from here lies disaster.

This is a good, strong story - twisting certain tropes and giving depth and feeling to the usual vampire/midlife crisis story. It's elegant, and gives strength to the usual vampire myth, making it seem as though they really are ancient and powerful beings who can sit silently in the shadows and observe us.

“Jackalope Wives” by Ursula Vernon

'A little magic is worse than none,' is probably one of the best lines I've read in ages.

Jackalope wives. Long legged girls who dance in the moonlight, all curves and firelight, until they're spooked and they dart away into the nothing, never to be caught. Until one is, and like most fantasy, there's a tinge of horror in the good ones.

There's a human boy with a little magic in him. He's tall and dark and causes the girls to swoon - though he's not swoon worthy, and that's the difference. He does something that either proves he's too kind to a fault, or not kind enough... but definitely too cruel. His grandma will make everything alright again though.

And she does. This story is even more perfect than you think possible, as it defies what you hope will happen and manages to give you an ending even better than you were hoping for.

“The Cartographer Wasps and Anarchist Bees” by E. Lily Yu

This short story is too big to be summarised in a simple paragraph review and nothing I can write will do it justice. An envoy of wasps are moved on by heartless humans, and their new residence encroaches on an established bee hive, who will struggle to share the natural resources. The wasps have higher learning - their homes are beautiful maps that are true masterpieces, whilst the bees have never known of paper and ink until now.

The title reveals enough - there are anarchist bees, and slowly, generation by generation (as anarchy is hereditary you see) the wasps' undoing is beautifully orchestrated. This entire piece is beautiful, and a tale to be savoured slowly.

“The Practical Witch’s Guide to Acquiring Real Estate” by A. C. Wise

This one is a lot of fun, being exactly what it says in the title. Wise takes us through a practical guide for buying, squatting, or growing a house with hints and tips, do's and do not do's, and it's all a bit of fun.

There's not much to review - other than saying it's well written and enjoyable, and probably one of my favourite pieces in the book so far!

“The Tallest Doll in New York City” by Maria Dahvana Headley

Possibly the most unique story in this collection, which is saying something after reading The Cartographer Wasps and Anarchist Bees. Set in New York, as we can see from the title, the story is told by a waiter in one of the fanciest buildings there is. It's Valentine's Day, and in this the buildings have life. On this special day, they match up, and overall it's really quite magical - something you can only see happening in a magical city such as New York, or perhaps London.

I've been keeping an eye out for Headley's work ever since getting an ARC of Magonia and whoa - this is just as special. Surreal and beautiful, this sets out to achieve a lot, and absolutely manages it.

“The Haunting of Apollo A7LB” by Hannu Rajaniemi

Hazel is sitting in her house, in mourning, when her evening is interrupted with something literally from her past. She has a history with NASA, and uses the skills she learned there to get the facts out of this stranger that's turned up on her doorstep - it doesn't hurt that she was involved in making the spacesuit this guy is wearing, and that she probably understands more that's been happening in his life than he does.

There's a lot to this, and being Rajaniemi some of it is subtle, at least for the majority of the short piece. It's really quite wonderful, and it makes me want to re-watch Hidden Figures because it's just so good.

“Here Be Dragons” by Chris Tarry

Trigger warnings. Don't like how the subject was handled at all. Hard pass.

“The One They Took Before” by Kelly Sandoval

Kayla knows exactly what's going on when people start to disappear - she's experienced it before, and she's back now, but everything aches at her to return against all sense. Her cats help, but food barely sates her and she can't play her guitar, can't apply for jobs, can't do anything. To return would be losing, but what kind of living is she in now?

A beautiful take on those who step into the world of the fae and what it's like to return. Such a relief to be back here after the previous, and goes very nicely if you're also recently reading Seanan McGuire's Wayward Children series.

“Tiger Baby” by JY Yang

A woman is plagued by dreams of what she feels is her true self - a tiger - and it juxtaposes against her real life which isn't overly great. She yearns to be able to leave everything behind and be who she should be, as someone born in the year of the tiger and not compatible with this world. 

Somehow I felt this one fell a little flat, as while I can relate to the character from everything of not really fitting in and being born in the same year, I didn't really feel relief or happiness for the character for the ending. It seemed a little too easy, somehow. I am however really looking forward to her work from Tor that's coming out soon.

“The Duck” by Ben Loory

A duck somehow falls in love with a rock, and though the other ducks laugh at him (well, all but one), he has to ask himself what will happen, as his love is so great something has to, otherwise he feels he'll explode. One duck, the one who didn't laugh, tries to help. She agrees that something has to be done, and so she calls the rest of the ducks to hep (which they do, for all ducks are brothers - I loved that line), and together they try to carry it to a cliff. They'll throw it off, and something will - it just has to happen!

This is a lovely tale, and I really enjoyed it. It was a bit cute, a bit funny, and didn't take itself too seriously. Just made you smile throughout, which is sometimes uncommon with short stories. 

“Wing” by Amal El-Mohtar

A girl drinks her tea and reads a book in a cafe. 

A girl sits beneath a chestnut tree and reads, and shares bread and honey with another girl when approached. 

But to neither does she tell her secret. This she only shares with one, who does the same - the boy with a matching book on a cord, secured around his neck. 

Amal's words are always beautiful and this is some of her best. It's right up there with The Truth About Owls, and makes you just want to shove it at people saying 'if you only read one, please read this one!' The less said about it the better, as it's such a lovely tale you need to come to it yourself, and find the meaning you want in it. 

“The Philosophers” by Adam Ehrlich Sachs

The relationships of a boy and their father, presented in a triptych fashion. Good writing, but didn't really present anything 'wow' to me that I can review. All about expectations, choosing whether to try to live up to them or not, and whether you will be who you will be, or who someone else wants you to be, or shapes you that way.

“My Time Among the Bridge Blowers” by Eugene Fischer

A man travels, searching for the Bridge Blowers, and what we have are his travel notes as if we're watching a travel documentary by Palin or Lumley. For fans of Marie Brennan, this was quaint and peaceful and a bit of a character study, but not much else to say about it other than that.

“The Husband Stitch” by Carmen Maria Machado

I confess I'm a little confused at the ordering of the short stories in the collection, as putting this piece after two fairly simple stories that don't really have much you can say about them, after Amal's which is beautiful, and this one which, again, you need to come to it yourself to find whatever meaning you wish from it, but it is undoubtably powerful and feminist and deserves all the applause. I'd love an audio version of this, and to see/hear it performed at Worldcon. 

This piece is a little more horror-bent than the majority of the collection, which only works even more in its favour. I'm certainly going to be keeping an eye on whatever else Machado has out already, and what she comes out with next. 

“The Pauper Prince and the Eucalyptus Jinn” by Usman T. Malik

A boy grows up listening to a story his grandfather tells, of a pauper princess who had a tea store in the shade of a eucalyptus tree, in which a jinn resided. The tale tells of a place that seems a very long way from where they now reside in Florida, where even when they speak to each other in Urdu it's like they're in another world entirely.

Possibly the longest piece in this collection, but being Usman it manages to be worth it. As the grandfather's story dominates the boy's life, it overwhelmed the story too (in a good way) for the little it takes up, and pages and pages after are about the boy - now grown up - and his journey to find answers, meanings, an end to the story that sustained him as a kid. 

It's a grand ending to this anthology, and lovely throughout.

A strong collection of entries from various "new" authors in the realm of fantasy and science-fiction-writing,. Although I have read some passages and stories from this list in recent years, this compendium offers a nice crosshatch of speculative fiction that mostly stays away from high and epic fantasy tropes. Some of my favorite stories include those from Alyssa Wong, Peter Beagle, and Max Gladstone. I was surprised to discover how many stories relied on modern and future technologies.

I don't have many complaints about the authors and stories chosen, although there were a couple of passages that I felt were some half-formed ideas, or didn't interest me as much as the others. I did come away from this experience having a few new authors from whom I want to seek out further published work. Recommended!

As a huge fan of fantasy, I loved this collection of new authors. There were a lot of good gems in this anthology. If you're a fan of all kinds of fantasy (high, modern, etc), give this anthology a read.

A fine introduction for readers looking for a taste of fantasy writers who are just beginning to affect the movement of the genre. A few of these stories are award nominees, and a few of these writers have won awards for their ground breaking work. A nice addition to any fantasy collection

A collection to highlight upcoming voices in fantasy. I know a lot of these authors from being a fan of some of these authors. They all write in what could be considered a new era of fantasy, one that tries to push the boundaries of the already fantastical. A couple of these stories I'd read before and loved. I enjoyed quite a lot of them, although I am not sure a few are fantasy as much as about human nature, and some are on the border of speculative, scifi and fantasy, which I'm not too much of a stickler to care about. Overall, a great collection that encapsulates the breadth of what is being done with fantasy in today's publishing. My favorites were Hungry Daughters of Starving Mothers, Tornado's Siren, Left the Century to Sit Unmoved, A kiss with Teeth, Jackalope Wives, The Tallest Doll in New York City, The One they took before, The Pauper Prince and the Eucalyptus Jinn.

This is one of the best fantasy collections I’ve read in a long time. It is a lovely blend of fascinating and disturbing (mostly) urban fantasy stories pulling from and playing with folklore and mythology. Most are already award-winning stories. All are compelling and they are great examples of a diverse field of up and coming stars including Sofia Samatar, Max Gladstone, Ursula Vernon, E. Lily Yu, Maria Dahvana Headley, Hannu Rajaniemi, Amal El-Mohtar, Usman T. Malik just to name a few of the 19 authors.
My favorites included “Jackalope Wives” by Vernon which shows a wise grandmother having to clean up a mess made by her foolish grandson. I loved Headley’s “The Tallest Doll in New York City” in which the Chrysler Building is done waiting for the Empire State Building to make its move. “The Haunting of Apollo ACLB” by Rajaniemi is a funny and sad ghost story. And “The Practical Witch’s Guide to Acquiring Real Estate” by A. C. Wise is an informative and humorous brochure. Gladstone’s “A Kiss with Teeth” looks at the dangers of trying to fit in versus being your authentic self. Brooke Bolander’s love-struck tornado! Sarah Pinsker’s pond that may or may not disappear people. Kelly Sandoval’s story of a woman adjusting to life after being away a year and a day. Really, these stories were all so good!

Sadly uneven. While there were a few really beautiful stories, overall I found this anthology not as great as it could have been. Peter S. Beagle and Jacob Weismann collected short stories by authors they think will influence the future of fantasy. As such this is a very varied anthology with different outlooks on what constitutes "fantasy" as a genre. There were some really innovative story telling techniques employed and some stories I really adored - but some felt flat for me. I guess that is always going to be the case when it comes to anthologies this broad.

It took me a while to get into this collection as the first five stories did not particularly wow me. While I thought "Tornado's Siren" (about a tornado who is in love with a girl) had a really interesting premise, the execution, especially in regards to the characters, fell flat for me; whereas "A Kiss with Teeth" just bored me to death - a vampire as a urban dad with midlife crisis just is not something I am very interested in. This is exemplary of how much of the collection read for me: many stories were just boring or not as well rounded as I would have liked.

But still, there were some stories I really, absolutely, completely adored:

Jackalope Wives by Ursula Vernon: wimsy, sad, poignant, and reminiscent of classical fairy tales with a twist: very much my thing.

The Haunting of Apollo A7LB by Hannu Rajaniemi: funny, quiet, political, unexpected, and wonderfully hopeful.

The One They Took Before by Kelly Sandoval: mean, sad, wonderful, difficult to get into at first but very rewarding in the end (oh the ending was so beautiful and hopeful and sad).

The Husband Stitch by Carmen Maria Machado: stunning, weird, feminist, sad, dark, wonderful. My absolute favourite of the bunch. And I am glad because I have been wanting to read her forthcoming debut collection for a while and now I cannot wait. This is just my type of dark magical realism that I adore in short stories. If you only read one of those stories: read this one.

I think this collection is broad enough to offer something for everybody - while this is a strength it also is a weakness as I found the anthology too uneven for my taste.