Locus Online: 2007 SF/F/H Books on Year's Best Lists

Locus Online has tabulated the science fiction, fantasy and horror books that have appeared on various year's best lists, inluding Amazon.com, Publishers Weekly, Time Magazine, Newsweek, Entertainment Weekly, Library Journal, Salon.com, New York Times, and Los Angeles Times, as well as genre publications SF Site, Bookgasm, Fantasy Magazine, and Strange Horizons. Also tabulated are Jeff VanderMeer and Claude Lalumière's essays for Locus Online. The present the 12 most cited works, and I'm very proud to see both Ian McDonald's Brasyl(appearing on five lists) and Kay Kenyon's Bright of the Sky(3 lists). Of course, if they'd included the recent American Library Association’s Reading List Awards, then those numbers would have been 6 and 4!

MIND MELD: What Purpose Does Short Fiction Serve?

SF Signal is back with another installment of Mind Meld, this one asking What Purpose Does Short Fiction Serve? In addition to Yours Truly, entertaining and erudite responses can be read by the likes of such notables as Gardner Dozois, Ellen Datlow, Jonathan Strahan, Jane Yolen and others.

The Yiddish Policemen's Union: The Film

I find the Coen brothers very hit or miss, but I love that they are out there. Miller's Crossing is among my top five favorite films of all time. I am one of the few folks who was bored by Fargo, and I actually stopped watching The Ladykillers half way through. But I love O Brother, Where Art Thou? enough to put it in a Top 20 list.

So while I don't love every Coen brothers' film, I love that they are out there, pushing the envelope, making such unique offerings. Everything they do is worth seeing, even when it doesn't work for me personally, and at least one of their films is among my favorite films of all. So I'm pretty excited to learn they're going to be doing Michael Chabon's The Yiddish Policemen's Union as their film-after-next.

Big Big Congratulations...

...to Fiona Kai Avery and Benjamin David Kelly on their engagement! Very, very happy for you both!

More of Me in the Matrix

Lon Cohen posts an excerpt from our interview on his website, wherein, I am delighted to learn, that I am a pirate. How is that, you say? Why, "Lou Anders is a pirate in the sense that not only does he look like one, but he displays his buccaneering ways by looting the English speaking world’s best Science Fiction and Fantasy authors for his booty at Pyr, the imprint that he currently helms as editorial director. Fortunately, pirate Lou Anders is a formidable and likeable hero, champion of expert writing, great cover art and highly crafted anthologies." Argh!

The full interview appears in Matrix magazine #186, and Lon notes, "We went on and on. Anyone interested in reading/publishing the full interview please contact me at lon at lonscohen dot com."

I cannot wait for this!

I am really excited about this book. I think the move to commission an actual bit of physical hardware for the cover is an inspired bit of brilliance too, as I think the truth of whether steampunk really is "the hottest trend in science fiction" as Solaris proclaims depends largely on whether all the steampunkophiles residing in other media (games, cinema, fashion-culture, etc..) can be induced to follow the path back to its literary roots. The big question for me is whether this anthology, and the other one,will be "all the steampunk anyone needs" or the launch of the next thing. Either way, whether it's the end-all/be-all or just the inception, I'm pretty sure Extraordinary Engines is a must-have for any serious SF reader and collector. Certainly for this collector.

Podcasts: What Makes a Cover Work

Uploaded today to Tor and Forge Books' podcast page, part one of a panel discussion on book covers with Irene Gallo, John Picacio, Tom Kidd, Jacob Weisman and Yours Truly. This was recorded at the Saratoga Springs’ World Fantasy in November. Here's the direct link.

ALA's Reading List Awards

Via SFSignal: The American Library Association's first Reading List Awards for genre fiction has been announced. The list, chosen by a council of "ten librarians who are experts in readers' advisory and collection development" includes two Pyr titles: Ian McDonald's Brasyland Kay Kenyon's Bright of the Sky.

Woo-hoo!

Trapped in the Matrix

I haven't seen them yet, but I am excited to report that the BSFA's Vector magazine #253 is out and contains a review of Fast Forward 1: Future Fiction from the Cutting Edge,while their recent Matrix magazine #186 features an interview with yours truly, conducted by Lon Cohen.

More details when I have them.

The Event Horizon's Been Breached

Congratulations to Cory and Alice on the birth of their daughter, Poesy Emmeline Fibonacci Nautilus Taylor Doctorow. Life changes forever. All good.

Fast Forward 1 : The "Bestestest" Book!

David G. Hartwell and Kathryn Kramer have announced the table of contents for their upcoming Year's Best SF 13, and I am rather thrilled to be able to tell you now what I've been sitting on for a month, which is that no less than FIVE stories from my own anthology, Fast Forward 1: Future Fiction from the Cutting Edge, have made the book!

This brings the count of stories from Fast Forward 1 to 7 tales, being reprinted a total of 9 times, across the 4 major Year's Best titles forthcoming this year. The breakdown:

Science Fiction: The Best of the Year, 2008 Edition,ed. Rich Horton:
"Wikiworld," Paul Di Filippo
"Jesus Christ, Reanimator," Ken MacLeod

The Best Science Fiction And Fantasy Of The Year, Volume 2ed. Jonathan Strahan:
"Jesus Christ, Reanimator," Ken MacLeod

The Year's Best Science Fiction: Twenty-Fifth Annual Collection,ed. Gardner Dozois:
"Sanjeev and Robotwallah," Ian McDonald

Year's Best SF 13,ed. David G. Hartwell & Kathryn Cramer:
"Aristotle OS," Tony Ballantyne
"Plotters and Shooters," Kage Baker
"No More Stories," Stephen Baxter
"They Came From the Future," Robyn Hitchcock
"Sanjeev and Robotwallah," Ian McDonald

I'm sufficiently thrilled that I hope I can be forgiven for rerunning this:

“…so good that I suggest Pyr wait a year and republish it with the title Best Science Fiction of 2007. This is an important book that can move science fiction one step closer to the 'literature' shelf, if it so desires....Anders has coaxed such incredible goodness out of these writers that if you only read one or two stories a month, it’s better than a year’s subscription to most of the genre magazines out there...With a deep bench of talent and a perfectly paced setlist, Lou Anders has made made a book that truly represents its own theme. Fast Forward has the potential to be the future of short-form science fiction.” -Bookgasm.com

If I Look Fat, It's Just 'Cause Everything's Bigger in Texas

Last Friday (1/25/08) it was my privilege to be in Texas, giving a workshop entitled "Fast Forward: Science Fiction," hosted by the Central Texas Library Systems, at the Georgetown Public Library. Here's the description:

"Lou Anders, Editorial Director of Pyr Books will share his vision of the future - and his knowledge of the Science Fiction genre – with CTLS member library staff, volunteers, board and Friends. Lou will discuss the various Sci Fi sub-genres and authors who are currently popular. He’ll also recommend authors and titles to include in a beginning Science Fiction core collection."

There were about 50 people in the audience, give or take. Some enthusiastic readers, some fans of media SF, some who'd never read it before. And me, basically trying to split the middle between media SF fans and those who wouldn't touch the stuff, trying to pull both sides towards an understanding of and appreciation for the literature. So, how did it go?

Awesome! I'd been warned that due to the horrendous nature of Friday traffic in Austin, I shouldn't be offended when folks made a beeline for the door come 3pm. Instead, they mobbed the front, asking about books and titles and authors. Many explained that they read SF as children and were now inspired to read again. Several said it was the most interesting topic they'd done so far. A few said their spouses read and now they didn't think it so strange...

Here I am with Pat Tuohy, Executive Director of Central Texas Library System (CTLS, Inc.). I'm sorry I didn't get a picture with Jennifer Patterson, who hired me, but she was too busy facilitating (and very well). She made the whole trip very enjoyable.

And as you can see, lots of the staff were decked out in Spock Ears, alien antennae, etc... One "Scully" from the X-Files that I thought was a real FBI agent for a nanosecond or two. (Some post-911 homeland security thing I don't know about libraries?) And here's a shot of an appropriately dejected Marvin from Hitchhiker's Guide. Plastic aliens and ray guns on every table, and a Star Wars "space cake" that was a very unhealthy looking chemical deep blue but quite tasty. Also a flutist playing "genre music'" during the lunch of "chicken in solar sauce!!" I had a blast!

Thursday night at the San Gabriel House was wonderful - a 1908 bed and breakfast across from Southwestern University. And thanks to Chris Roberson and Allison Baker for putting me up Friday night, and for John Picacio for trekking over from San Antonio to hang with us. Thanks to all and everyone for a great time.

Metatemporal Detective: Best of 2007

Claude Lalumière has posted his SF, Fantasy, and Horror in 2007: Recommended Reading list for LocusOnline.

One of ours pops up under Collections:

"Michael Moorcock's The Metatemporal Detective(Pyr) is good pulp-fuelled fun, filled with stories that deftly pastiche many modes of popular fiction, though these tales might be somewhat arcane for readers not overly familiar with Moorcock's multiverse and his recurring cast of dimension-hopping characters and doppelgangers."

2007: The Best of the Year (Locus Online)

Jeff Vandermeer has posted his 2007: The Best of the Year list over on LocusOnline. I'm thrilled to see a these Pyr mentions.

From the Best Novels list:

"On the science fiction side, Ian McDonald reaffirmed his excellence with Brasyl,which contains three separate narrative strands describing the Brazil of past, present, and future. The novel is a tour de force of storytelling momentum, with a level of invention that represents a master at the top of his form. McDonald is an amazing stylist, yes, but here it’s all about motion. He does a wonderful job of including his trademark detailed and inventive description while making sure nothing in this complex, often beautiful novel is static."

and

"Kay Kenyon's Bright of the Sky,after a slow first seventy pages, knocked my socks off with its brilliant evocation of a quest through a parallel universe that has a strange river running through it. Unique in conception, like Larry Niven's Ringworld, this is the beginning to what should be an amazing SF-Fantasy series."

From the Best Anthologies list:

" Another first volume of a new original series, the Lou Anders-edited Fast Forward 1 featured thought-provoking speculative takes on making sense of our (post)modern world by, among others, Ken MacLeod, Gene Wolfe, and Nancy Kress. Consistently interesting, this SF anthology fills a gap, as most of the current spate of anthologies seems skewed toward the fantasy side of things."

And from Notable Reprints:

"...The Blade Itselfby Joe Abercrombie, a rough-and-tumble, bold new voice in the heroic fantasy ranks."

All good to read!

I've Been Wiki'd

Wikipedia contributor Ntnon has been busy. He's already edited sites for Chris Roberson, Jess Nevins, Win Scott Eckert, John Picacio, and Michael Moorcock, as Roberson recounted earlier. Today, I was delighted to discover that he's built a whole site for yours truly. I'm enormously flattered, and a little humbled by the scope of it.

"Lou Anders is an American editor, author and journalist, primarily of science fiction/fantasy articles and short stories."

And, uh, novels. And speaking of, I just noticed someone else put up a page for The Metatemporal Detective. Thanks! And thank you Ntnon!

A BSFA nomination for Brasyl

The British Science Fiction Association has announced the nominees for the 2007 British Science Fiction Association Awards:

BEST NOVEL

• Alice in Sunderland by Bryan Talbot (Jonathan Cape)
• Black Man by Richard Morgan (Gollancz)
• Brasyl by Ian McDonald (Gollancz)
• The Execution Channel by Ken MacLeod (Orbit)
• The Prefect by Alastair Reynolds (Gollancz)
• The Yiddish Policemen's Union by Michael Chabon (Fourth Estate)

BEST SHORT FICTION

• "Lighting Out" by Ken MacLeod (disLocations; NewCon Press)
• "Terminal" by Chaz Brenchley (disLocations; NewCon Press)
• "The Merchant and the Alchemist's Gate" by Ted Chiang (F&SF, September)
• "The Gift of Joy" by Ian Whates (TQR)
• "The Sledge-Maker's Daughter" by Alastair Reynolds (Interzone #209)

BEST ARTWORK

• "Cracked World" by Andy Bigwood (cover of disLocations anthology, published by NewCon Press)
• "H P Lovecraft in Britain" by Les Edwards (cover of chapbook by Stephen Jones, published by the British Fantasy Society)
• "Lunar Flare" by Richard Marchand (cover of Interzone #211)
• "Metal Dragon Year" by Kenn Brown (cover of Interzone #212)

BSFA FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY AWARD: BEST NOVEL OF 1958

• A Case of Conscience by James Blish (first published by Ballantine)
• Have Spacesuit, Will Travel by Robert A Heinlein (first published in F&SF, August - October 1958)
• Non-Stop by Brian Aldiss (first published by Faber & Faber)
• The Big Time by Fritz Leiber (first published in Galaxy, March/April 1958)
• The Triumph of Time by James Blish (first published by Avon; subsequent UK title A Clash of Cymbals)
• Who? by Algis Budrys (first published by Pyramid)

The Data Point of Optimism

Over on Wired.com, I was delighted to see Clive Thompson on Why Sci-Fi Is the Last Bastion of Philosophical Writing. Perhaps guilty of a little hyperbole, Clive nonetheless warms the cockles of my heart when he declares that, "If you want to read books that tackle profound philosophical questions, then the best — and perhaps only — place to turn these days is sci-fi. Science fiction is the last great literature of ideas."

Clive opines that contemporary literature has "dropped the ball," postulating that, "After I'd read my 189th novel about someone living in a city, working in a basically realistic job and having a realistic relationship and a realistically fraught family, I ... started to feel like I'd been reading the same book over and over again."

Clive then asks why SF don't get no respect, and concludes that it's because of our high pain threshold for bad prose and outdated portrayals of women. He sees hope in the mainstream persons of Roth, McCarthy, Chabon and others who are taking up the SF paints.

But while I love to see the above roster of writers turning to our tools, I think we have our own prose stylists who can compete, and always have. Certainly I'd put the best of Sturgeon or Delaney up against anything today, and as for today, Ian McDonald can certainly hold his own alongside literary novels. In fact, not five minutes ago, I finished reading Paolo Bacigalupi's contribution to Fast Forward 2, a wonderful 10,000 word novelette called "The Gambler" which is going to blow you all away in October. He blogs about its genesis here. In the meantime, I'd love to know what Clive Thompson would make of either McDonald's Brasylor Bacigalupi's rapidly approaching collection, Pump Six and Other Stories. And Clive, if you find this on the Google Alert or the trackback, I'll gladly send you Fast Forward 1 now and 2 when it's out.

SciFiNow: Best of 2007

Just got the news that SciFiNow magazine, one of Britain's premiere sf media mags, has released their Best Books of 2007. And among the list, Ian McDonald's Brasyl,and Michael Moorcock's The Metatemporal Detective.

Here's the full list:

1) Halting State (Stross) - ORBIT
2) Stealing Light (Gibson) – TOR UK
3) Brasyl (McDonald) – PYR/GOLLANCZ
4) The Metatemporal Detective (Moorcock) - PYR
5) Helix (Brown) - SOLARIS

Congratulations to Ian and Mike! We're very proud.

SFSite's Best of 2007

Greg L. Johnson of SFSite has posted his Best of 2007 list, a list of "the ten science fiction and fantasy books that I liked the most in 2007." And wouldn't you know it, Pyr takes the # 2 and # 1 spot.

Greg's #2 choice for 2007 is Ian McDonald's Brasyl,of which he says, "With wit and stunning imagery, Ian McDonald takes us to a near-future, and a distant past, that is as strange as any alien world. ...a story that masterfully blends history, character, Portuguese street slang and cosmological speculation, meeting both the requirements of hard SF and literary style along the way."

And coming in at #1, Kay Kenyon's Bright of the Sky,which "lies somewhere between Gene Wolfe's The Book of the Sun and Karl Schroeder's Ventus, and was, for me, the one book of the year that, once I started reading, was impossible to put down."

Congratulations to both Ian and Kay!

io9.com and Borderlands Books

If I was on the fence about Gawker's new io9.com blog, this piece on Borderlands Books has put me over the edge. This kind of support for /shout out to independent booksellers is fantastic. And Borderlands is the perfect store to kick it off. When I lived in San Francisco, I made a point of going weekly, and really miss the readings there.

But I wasn't really on the fence, after reading this from editor Annalee Newitz: “We don’t see it as a niche entertainment site. We see it as a pop culture site. So much of our mainstream culture is now talked about and thought about in science-fictional terms. I think that’s why people like William Gibson and Brian Aldiss are saying there’s no more science fiction because we are now living in the future. The present is thinking of itself in science-fictional terms. You get things like George Bush taking stem cell policy from reading parts of Brave New World. That’s part of what we are playing with. We are living in world that now thinks of itself in terms of sci-fi and in terms of the future.”

Stargate, the People and Me

So, congratulations to Joseph Mallozzi, as Stargate: Atlantis has just won The People's Choice Award.

And thank you to Joseph Mallozzi's fans, as Fast Forward 1: Future Fiction from the Cutting Edgewas just chosen by his people as their choice as the SF selection in his book club. Which is very nice.

Here are the relevant bits.

Meanwhile, as readers of this blog will know, I often bemoan the discrepancies between SF literature and cinema, so I'm delighted to know that Joseph is such an avid and informed reader of science fiction and fantasy books. If everyone in Hollywood were like him, we'd have a much different industry.

Mind Meld: Today's SF Authors Define Science Fiction (Part 1)

Another great Mind Meld from SFSignal. I'm not in "Today's SF Authors Define Science Fiction (Part 1)", but you know it's a topic near and dear to me. Best answers this time out are by Matthew Jarpe, Chris Roberson, Adam Roberts, and Paul Di Filippo. By "best" I mean most useful, to me, in my subjective opinion and for my own purposes in articulating why I work in this field and not in the mystery/thriller genre or something else. Which is not to disagree with those who describe SF as a marketing category, or a nonexistent territory, or a set of fun props. Because, as John Scalzi points out, it is all those things too, and rises above them on a case by case basis solely on the skill level and intent of its practitioner.

You can probably guess how I feel about this, "There's nothing special about science fiction, just as there's nothing special about any other movement or genre out there." But I'm working on both a talk I have to give at the end of this month on this very topic, AND the introduction for Fast Forward 2, so I'll save my response/energy for those.

PKD, I Love You

I woke up to some big news this morning. Adam Roberts' Gradisilhas been short-listed for the Philip K. Dick Award. This is fantastic, and utterly deserved - I've been a big fan of Adam's long before I edited him, and I'm absolutely thrilled.

Also very happy for my friends Sean Williams and Elizabeth Bear, and my new friend Jon Armstrong. I read Grey last year and loved it. Congrats to everybody!

Here's the full press release:

2007 Philip K. Dick Award Nominees Announced

The judges of the 2007 Philip K. Dick Award and the Philadelphia SF Society are pleased to announce seven nominated works that comprise the final ballot for the award:

GREY by Jon Armstrong (Night Shade Books)
UNDERTOW by Elizabeth Bear (Bantam Spectra)
FROM THE NOTEBOOKS OF DR. BRAIN by Minister Faust (Del Rey)
NOVA SWING by M. John Harrison (Bantam Spectra)
GRADISIL by Adam Roberts (Pyr)
ALLY by Karen Traviss (Eos)
SATURN RETURNS by Sean Williams (Ace Books)

First prize and any special citations will be announced on Friday, March 21, 2008 at Norwescon 31 at the Doubletree Hotel Seattle Airport, SeaTac, Washington.

The Philip K. Dick Award is presented annually with the support of the Philip K. Dick Trust for distinguished science fiction published in paperback original form in the United States. The award is sponsored by the Philadelphia Science Fiction Society and the award ceremony is sponsored by the NorthWest Science Fiction Society. Last year's winner was SPIN CONTROL by Chris Moriarty (Bantam Spectra) with a special citation to CARNIVAL by Elizabeth Bear
(Bantam Spectra). The 2007 judges are Steve Miller, Chris Moriarty (chair), Steven Piziks, Randy Schroeder, Ann Tonsor Zeddies.

For more information, contact the award administration:
David G. Hartwell (914) 769-5545.
Gordon Van Gelder (201) 876-2551
For more information about the Philadelphia Science Fiction Society,
http://www.psfs.org/:
Contact Gary Feldbaum (215) 563-2511
For more information about Norwescon: http://www.norwescon.org/:
Contact NorthWest SF Society: (360) 438-0871

Michael Moorcock: 50th Greatest Post-war British Author

The Times Online have just released their list of The 50 Greatest British Writers Since 1945. Quite a few genre names on the list, including Tolkien, Lewis, Pullman and Rowling, and also, coming in at number 50, our own Michael Moorcock. They say, " Most of Moorcock’s 80-plus novels are unashamedly pulp. But he wins his place for a series of genre-crossing novels linked by a taste for metafictional devices — he often appears in them himself and characters occur and recur in 'historical' and 'fantasy' guises." They discuss his major works and his influences on such notables as William Gibson, Neil Gaiman, Iain Sinclair and Peter Ackroyd.

Meanwhile, Andrew McKie reviews The Metatemporal Detectivefor the Telegraph, in a piece called "Michael Moorcock: His Own Private Multiverse." McKie opens by crediting Moorcock with bringing the term Multiverse to quantum physicists and philosophers, then describes his latest as, "tremendous fun for fans of Sherlock Holmes, or perhaps Sexton Blake, so long as they are prepared for occasional forays into the milieu of Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett, as well as Robert E Howard, creator of Conan the Barbarian... This is all pastiche, and Moorcock's fans will not be surprised to find that it is astoundingly sure-footed....I think it, on the whole, terrific. "

Edelman on Edelman

This is hysterical for a shameless plug.

Plenty of Ideas For the Taking

So first Mark Harris writes "Is Sci-Fi Out of Ideas?" on EW.com, using the occasion of I Am Legend and its proposed sequel to lambest Hollywood for all the remakes. He writes, "It's one thing to revere and refresh a genre's history; it's another to live obsessively in the past, especially if science fiction's whole purpose is to extrapolate elements from today's world to create a future we've never imagined. When it comes to spaceships, giant monsters from afar, cloning, and robots, we've now been there, done that, remade it, added new CGI, seen the director's cut, played the videogame, read the fan fiction, and bought the collectibles. Where do we go from here? The answer always seems to be that we jump backwards, into the same old Cold War/Apollo-mission-era tropes."

I agree whole-heartedly with his diagnosis of the problem. I'm not 100% in agreement with his solution: "Perhaps science fiction needs to be saved from the very people who love it the most. Nostalgia for a form can be annihilating to creativity, so while its devotees are swamped in their own canon, trying to mine now-sacred texts for any new material, I wish a great writer or director with no particular affection for the genre would let his imagination loose and see what it yields...Ideally, sci-fi's next rescuer should be someone whose ideas about the future derive from somewhere — anywhere — other than old sci-fi. ... Sci-fi desperately needs filmmakers who are interested in bending the form toward their own passions and obsessions as artists. 2001 has come and gone, and right now the future looks too much like something we've already seen."

It's not that I disagree with this. It's that I think there's another part of the solution. Fortunately, Marc Bernardin pops up on EW's Popwatch Blog with "An Open Letter to the Sci-Fi Channel," in which he charges, "Why aren't you engaging today's premiere purveyors of genre material and giving them ten episodes to do whatever the hell they want? I'd watch contained, BBC-style series from folks like Neil Gaiman, William Gibson, John Scalzi, Cory Doctorow, Warren Ellis, Charlie Huston, Neal Stephenson, or China Mieville. The names alone would attract viewers by the truckload. And even if what they produced were failures, they'd be interesting failures—marked by reaching too far, instead of not far enough."

I hope someone is listening. Since this is on EW, I think there is a good chance someone is.

For Your Consideration: Pyr Books I Edited in 2007

Since everybody's doing it, here's my 2007 output. Or rather, here are the 17 books that Pyr released in 2007, on which I served as editor, in order of appearance.

The Man Who Melted, Jack Dann (reprint)
Fast Forward 1, Edited by Lou Anders (anthology)
Gradisil, Adam Roberts
Keeping It Real, Justina Robson
Breakaway, Joel Shepherd
Bright of the Sky, Kay Kenyon
Context, John Meaney (paperback after hardcover)
Brasyl, Ian McDonald
The Hanging Mountains, Sean Williams
Hurricane Moon, Alexis Glynn Latner
Ivory: A Legend of Past and Future, Mike Resnick (reprint)
The Blade Itself, Joe Abercrombie
River of Gods, Ian McDonald (paperback after hardcover)
The Metatemporal Detective, Micheal Moorcock
Selling Out, Justina Robson
Killswitch, Joel Shepherd
Starship: Mercenary, Mike Resnick

More on these titles on the catalog page of the Pyr website, including substantial excerpts for many of them.

Recommended: The Solaris Book of New Fantasy

I just this minute finished reading The Solaris Book of New Fantasy,edited by George Mann, and I have to say that I am very impressed. I liked 13 out of 16 stories - which is as good a number as I ever get from an anthology. What's more - I understood and applauded the reason for the inclusion of the three I wasn't wowed by. What George has done, and what makes this anthology so useful to me personally, is to take a very comprehensive, catholic view of the fantasy field. Rather than produce a book entirely composed of traditional fantasy or entirely composed of literary/slipstream fantasy, he's put out an anthology showcasing a broad range of fantasy offerings. As such, this makes the anthology a wonderful overview of the current state of the field (perhaps even a more accurate one than a Year's Best collection might present, with its understandable slant towards literary works) - and a whole lot easier for this busy editor to read than trying to sample a score of tome-sized fantasy novels would be. Looking at the TOC, I really liked 11 of the stories quite a lot, enjoyed 2 more, and, as I said, appreciated the inclusion of the three I didn't like for the education in what's out there they've afforded me. Stand out stories in my opinion are: Mark Chadbourn's "Who Slays the Gyant, Wounds the Beast," Jeff Vandermeer's "King Tales," Christopher Barzak's "In Between Dreams," Mike Resnick's "Shell Game," Jay Lake's, "A Man Falls," Scott Thomas' "Lt. Privet's Love Song," and Lucius Shepherd's "Chinandega." Yes, that's a lot of stand out stories. And the others are close behind. I liked the book that much. And I'm very glad to see it doing well, as it's made my yearly required reading list.