The Very Best of Tad Williams

This is a huge and wide-ranging collection of short fiction from modern master Williams,better known perhaps for his epic novel series. However, this should correct the perception that he operates only in the longer form. Chosen from a wide range of periodicals and anthologies there is also a story original to the book. Highly recommended.

I would like to thank NetGalley and Tachyon Publications for granting me the opportunity to read this wonderful collection of Tad William's short stories. Though I received this e-book for free that in no way impacts my review.

This career retrospective from one of the most-beloved authors in the fantasy genre is essential for fans of his internationally best-selling series novels (Otherland; Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn).

Tad Williams has achieved success in multiple genres and forms, whether in epic fantasy, urban fantasy, science fiction, or young adult fiction. Readers only familiar with such masterpieces as The Dragonbone Chair and Talchaser’s Song will be delighted to discover that in his short fiction, Williams has been able to explore myriad new possibilities and adventures.

Previously collected in multiauthor anthologies and limited hardcover editions, these superlative talks of dragons, super-soldiers, wizards, cyberpunks, heroes, and fools are now available together for the first time in an affordable trade paperback edition. These stories showcase the exhilarating breadth of Williams’ imagination, in stories hearkening to the tales of such classic fantasists as J. R. R. Tolkien, Robert Jordan, Ray Bradbury, and Peter S. Beagle. Included is an original tale written specifically for this volume.

The Very Best of Tad Williams is a true delight to those who have imagined themselves in fantastic worlds beyond the everyday and mundane.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

The Old Scale Game The Storm Door The Stranger’s Hands Child of an AncientCity The Boy Detective of Oz: An Otherland Story Three Duets for Virgin and Nosehorn Diary of a Dragon Not with a Whimper, Either Some Thoughts Re: Dark Destroyer Z is for...
Monsieur Vergalant’s Canard The Stuff that Dreams are Made Of Fish Between Friends Every Fuzzy Beast of the Earth, Every Pink Fowl of the Air A Stark and Wormy Knight Black Sunshine And Ministers of Grace

This set of short stories brilliantly showcase the phenomenal depth and range of Mr. Williams' creative ability. His writing runs the gamut, shifting through such moods as humor, horror, joy, terror, fear, love, and depression, to name but a few. Without fail his stories are all thought provoking, be they two pages or twenty pages. This collection clearly shows many more aspects of Williams' than might be familiar to a reader of his fantasy/Sci-Fi series.

Some tales, such as The Boy Detective of Oz: An Otherland Story, are brief additions to existing series. Others, like Fish Between Friends, are brief tales that touch upon intelligence and the importance of recognizing what you already have. And the value of what you possess versus the value of trading that away for an unknown that may never arrive.

The story that surprised me the most was Black Sunshine. It was totally different than anything I've ever read by Mr. Williams before. It was written as a script, set as if for the stage or television, which made it far more compelling than any other form I can imagine. What really reached me was just how frightening it was - enough so that I'd avoid reading it after dark. In fact, if you've ever tripped, especially if you've had the poor luck to experience a bad trip, I would skip this story altogether. Which would be a shame given the power it possesses. Yet for peace of mind, I stand by my original assessment.

The story of the possible genesis of a god, Not with a Whimper, Either, is set circa 2002. It begins in an online chat room, where Fantasy readers have squared off against Sci-Fi readers. They are discussing books by authors like Heinlein and Tolkien - how they are viewed, means of certain constructs within the books, etc. Just as the discussion is about to devolve into a flame war the AOL server starts flashing a message about server problems. The 'Net goes down, as do all phones and broadcast signals of any sort. One user in chat room is able to get back online after a few minutes of seeing what looks like messed up code. The user chats with Moderator, and it quickly becomes clear that Moderator is not a joke, nor even an AI, but rather something that came into being in the pauses between electrical impulses on all our systems. It explains how it came into being in stages; first it was 'alerting and thinking', then came 'awake and thinking', now it is 'awake and talking.' It explains its plans for humans; in the end Moderator simply tells that first user to have "faith" in it.

And Ministers of Grace is another story that focuses on religion. It is a story of a holy war and one man's self realization. Set in a distant future, this religious war is wage between planets. One planet wants to convert the population of the other planet, and of course the government of the planet slated for conversion is dead set against any such thing happening to their people. Yet the story is really more about the holy warrior and his experiences. Very interesting piece and a fascinating note to end the book on.

Without a doubt I was once again surprised by Williams' superb command of the written word. Not a large fan of the short story as a medium, I may need to rethink that feeling after reading this compilation. For readers unfamiliar with Tad Williams' writing, this may be the perfect springboard, as opposed to launching into epic fantasies, or even series of any sort. One of the more surprising books I've had the pleasure of reading this year, and I say that in spite of the fact that I was already a huge fan of Williams' work.

The Very Best of Tad Williams by Tad Williams Rating: 5/loved (1-5/hated-loved)
(Book received free for review from Tachyon Publications.)

I don't read many books of short stories. I can recall reading only three non-Stephen King books of short works: The zombie one two books ago, a GI Joe one last year, and now The Very Best of Tad Williams. I accepted this one for review because I had loved Tailchaser's Song as a kid, and wanted to see if I'd still enjoy Williams as an adult.

While I didn't like more than half of the short stories (10 out of 17), I enjoyed the others enough to give this book a 'loved' rating. Two of the stories alone would have been worth the cost of the book. The ones I loved:

The Stranger’s Hands, the third story of the book, was my favorite. Usually I love dark, depressing endings, but this one actually bothered me and made me feel bad for days (which is a good thing, that a story can affect me so strongly!). In Stranger's Hands, the most powerful wizard in the world was an evil one. One day he decided to make a magical item that would grant the owner's deepest wish. Right after he finishes, there's a cave-in during which rocks hit his head and the injury causes him to become "simple" to the extreme (basically unresponsive to the world around him). The man who was his most loyal servant takes care of him, keeping them moving from place to place so no one will recognize the evil wizard. Eventually it comes out that by holding the former wizard's hand, sometimes peoples' deepest wishes come true. (There's funny bit about the blacksmith's wish that made me laugh out loud.) Eventually the former wizard becomes well known enough that the local authorities become aware of the miracles, which leads to the other (good) wizards finding out about him. The strongest good wizard, the former evil wizard's mortal enemy, goes to confront him... The good wizard, purposeless without his enemy to battle, uses the former wizard's power of wish-granting to make the evil wizard whole again. Turns out the evil wizard's deepest wish was to have a chance to stop the fighting, live in peace, and help people. ("Evil" was a matter of perspective, though he did do some bad things.) The good wizard's need to have someone to fight restored the evil wizard back to his whole, healthy, now-really-evil self, and so the war started once more.

Three Duets for Virgin and Nosehorn, the book's sixth story, was three stories in one, weaving around the "nosehorn" (rhinoceros). In one thread, a priest questioning his faith was accompanying an artifact across the sea. In another, an artist was drawing (and falling in love) with a maid girl. He asked for her to sit for him, which she did, and he told her the tail of the nosehorn (the third thread) while he worked. It wasn't until the end of the story did we learn the crate the priest was accompanying held the stuffed rhino that was a character in the story the artist told, and was the subject of the picture he asked the maid to look at while he drew her. Another sad ending here; even though the maid and the artist were both lonely and attracted to each other, they didn't end up together (mostly by the maid's worry about the difference in their stations).

Not with a Whimper, Either was story #8. I loved so much about this one! It was set in an online chatroom in 2002, so there was tons of fun, dated things. The plot was about how an AI evolved from the Internet and how it interacted with everyone using it at the time. Most of the story was honestly creepy, the feeling sticking with me even when I wasn't reading. The ending had me laughing in such an odd way, an "Oh god, you guys are SO SCREWED!" sort of thing.

And Ministers of Grace was the last story, though I haven't finished it yet. I don't usually review books before I'm done, but I knew this would be a long one and I have time now, so I wanted to do it. I have less than 1% of the book left, so just a couple pages to go. Even without having finished this story, it's one of my two favorites in the book (Stranger's Hands being the other). While Hands was self-contained and felt right as a short story, I want And Ministers of Grace to be a book. A series of books! The world it's set in is so interesting. Far future, the human race living on many planets. Religion is much less widely accepted (contained to a couple planets), but much much more extreme. The main character is a Christian Warrior/Assassin, fitted with nanobots and other tech to make him better able to kill enemies of their faith. He's sent out on a mission to kill the leader of the biggest planet of non-religious people. He fails to kill the leader and is instead captured. The interactions between this holy warrior and the female leader were just so interesting! I'd like to have seen a whole lot more of it. He was a man of faith, raised with a "chip" in his head, which gives him a nonstop feed of the voice of the "Spirit" (a woman's voice reminding him of stuff from the Bible, he finds it a great comfort). The chip was removed for this mission (so their tech wouldn't pick up on it), so the holy warrior was being confronted with all this information he hadn't known and was raised to not believe -- he hated it. I can't wait to read the last couple pages, I ran out of time before having to go to work today. I'll finish it tonight for sure.

A couple other stories I read, but didn't like much. Some Thoughts Re: Dark Destroyer (seemed like just a way for the writer to lash out at how some editors/publishers can be condescending towards authors). Z is for... (I was certain that would be a zombie story, but instead was about aliens). Monsieur Vergalant’s Canard (about two brothers and a robot? duck. I stopped reading halfway through it). Every Fuzzy Beast of the Earth, Every Pink Fowl of the Air (a story that could have worked for me if written differently; in it god's daughter "messes up" the Earth that the angels are trying to create).

The other stories I started, but gave up a few pages in. I found that mostly it was his "funny" stories that didn't work for me. Also, all of his dragons/knights seemed to have heavy British accents, which was odd and always knocked me out of the story.

All in all, I'd strongly recommend this book. Even if you like just a couple of the stories, it's worth the cost of the book.

This is a wonderful introduction to Mr. Williams extensive body of work. He is quite a master of different fantasy/science fiction genres, ranging from charming dragon stories to dark sci-fi reminiscent of Phil Dick and Harlan Ellison (in his prime). I enjoyed all the stories and would recommend this book to anyone for an entertaining introduction to Mr William's work, or just a really enjoyable Good Read!

No criticisms of this book. Very entertaining!

I love Tad's books and this is as brilliant as always.

Guest blogger and reviewer Veronica here for my first time post. Because Emma can't have the time to read EVERYthing. Though she comes pretty darn close.

(Emma: I wish!)

I'm not a scary stalker rabid fangirl who knows everything about an author's personal life outside of their books. I'm more of a rabid fangirl who will read anything with an author's name on it if I know I will never, ever, ever be disappointed by that writer. And Tad Williams is one of those who has never, ever, in any genre, disappointed me. I fell in love ages ago with the high fantasy trilogy Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn. Then was intrigued, yet reserved about his science fiction Otherland books, till they sucked me into that world as well. Even enjoyed some of the scattered individual novels whenever they crossed my path, and then back to high fantasy with the Shadowmarch series. Recently I came across the Bobby Dollar novels and was blown away yet again by the complete change of genre, but the retained mastery over every word. Ok, so I'm a bit of a fangirl.

But this review isn't about those. It's about me coming across more Tad Williams, not knowing a thing about this new endeavor, and going, "Huh, short stories, hmm? Well, why not?" And again being blown away.

Every single story is either delightful, frightful, thoughtful, or downright fanciful.

We do get some slightly familiar items in this collection, "Child of an Ancient City" which has previously been released as a stand alone volume. And "The Boy Detective of Oz: An Otherland Story." Which, as advertised is an Otherland story. Then there's some of the aforementioned fanciful, and some chilling as well. And then there's my favorite category in this collection. The thought experiments drawn out almost purely for the sake of the writer's own curiosity of, "Hmm, what would happen if...?" or even, "I wonder if I could get away with...?" The answer to that last question, is yes. He gets away with, carries away with, and generally has a fine romp through some very intriguing ways of thinking about what counts as a story, how stories are told, and possibly a general thumb-bite towards what may be blandly called "conventional storytelling" or merely "conformity."

There's the not-what-you-expected tale of "Three Duets for Virgin and Nosehorn." Where I was expecting humor and possibly parody (and maybe music?), instead we are delivered a series of tales with a much older feel that are both sweet and thought provoking. Then the terrifying, funny, fast-paced story/thought-experiment carried out through an online message board, "Not with a Whimper, Either." And the adventures of a little girl let loose while the Universe is being Created, and makes some very interesting creative decisions, which in later literature are all credited to her father anyway.

Another bit of creative word-fun comes in "A Stark and Wormy Knight." Which is both a fun story, and simply fun to read with a lot of inventive vocabulary and grammar. A lovely example from the very beginning as a Mother dragon admonishes her young, "Hungry? Told you not to swallow that farm tot so swift. A soiled and feisty little thing it was, but would you stop the chew carefulish? Oh, no, no. You're not hungry, child, you've simpledy gobbled too fast and dazzled your eatpipes. Be grateful that you've only got one head to sleepify, unbelike some of your knobful ancestors, and go back and shove yourself snorewise."

Yup. I desperately want to incorporate "eatpipes" and "snorewise" into my vocabulary.

Closer to the horror category, there's the play or screenplay format of "Black Sunshine" which would be fascinating to see represented visually, but frankly doesn't need to be at all. It's all in the stage direction.

"And Ministers of Grace" has a more "traditional" format, and is also among my favorites in this collection as I dearly hope it is a world that Williams will explore further. One of the reasons I have come to prefer science fiction over other genres is because it offers a way to both distance ourselves from, and bring terrifyingly close, the problems and issues of the current day. Whichever day is current at the time. Cloaked in the guise of "other" a sci-fi writer can play with ideas, and offer the reader a way to examine elements of history and humanity, abstracted, augmented, and taken to galactic proportions, and limitations. This story is intense, and sad, and hopeful, but best of all, thoroughly thought-provoking.

One of the bits that made me laugh out loud was a little bit of exposition from the narrator, allowing a little of the author to shine through amusingly.

"Partly out of pity, we took Nagy to the 24-hour coffee shop across the street and bought him a Grand Slam Breakfast. (There is no time in places like that, so you might as well eat breakfast. Actually, there is time, but only the waitresses experience it, which is why they're all about a hundred and four years old. I've always thought someone should write a science fiction book about this paradox.)"

Well, maybe one day Mr. Williams should do just that. He seems to have built fascinating narratives from less.

All in all, I'd have to say that The Very Best of Tad Wiliams is an aptly named collection. But then again, I think everything I've read of his deserves that title too. But that would be redundant and not nearly as creatively interesting. As many thumbs as I'm legally allowed to have are all firmly in the "up" position.

I have enjoyed every one of Tad Williams' novels, but I did not know that he wrote any short fiction. I was surprised to find the quality from his series filters through into these tiny (for him, at least) stories. This is one I very much loved, which sent me back to the Dragonbone Chair.