The 2011 Locus Award Finalists have been announced and it's with great pleasure that I discovered that Ian McDonald's The Dervish House
(which I edited for Pyr) is up in the category of Best Novel as well as Swords & Dark Magic
, (which I co-edited with Jonathan Strahan for Eos) in the category of Best Anthology. And from that anthology, Joe Abercrombie's "The Fool Jobs" is in the category of Best Novelette.
The 2010 Shirley Jackson Awards Nominees have been announced, and I am delighted to report that the sword & sorcery anthology that I co-edited with Jonathan Strahan, Swords & Dark Magic, has been nominated in the category "Edited Anthology." Congratulations to all the nominees, and to all the contributors of Swords & Dark Magic.
Larry Nolen has posted his list of the Best Heroic Fantasy of 2010, a list of seven novels and two anthologies. I'm very proud to see Swords & Dark Magic
, which I co-edited with Jonathan Strahan for Eos books, place at #7, while Pyr author Adrian Tchaikovsky's Salute the Dark came in at #8.Caitlín R. Kiernan’s “The Sea-Troll’s Daughter” brilliantly subverts the ugly/evil, handsome/good stereotypes embedded in so many tales, as the hero becomes more the villain and the presumed villain takes on heroic qualities that are the inverse of those presented in more traditional tales. Gene Wolfe’s “Bloodsport” is perhaps one of his better short fictions in recent years, as he still manages to confound and entrap the reader with the metaphysical qualities of the first-person narrator and his possible unreliability. These two stories alone, combined with several solid if not spectacular contributions from the likes of Steven Erikson and Michael Moorcock, help make Swords & Dark Magic a recommended anthology of heroic fantasy.
Of Salute the Dark 
he says:The narrative arc that concludes in the fourth volume, Salute the Dark, is sharp, with little sense of extraneous detail thrown in to create a false sense of ponderousness. Tchaikovsky also weaves in elements from other subgenres such as steampunk to create a setting that feels different from traditional heroic fantasies. Combined with his quasi-magical totemic use of insects (beetles, wasps, bees, spiders, moths, mantis, ants, etc.), the atmosphere feels fresh. Tchaikovsky’s characters are complex and yet direct, which allows the author to develop and transform their personalities and actions as necessary. By the time the introductory plot arc concludes with Salute the Dark, the reader will have found herself wondering just where from here Tchaikovsky is heading with his overall series, considering how well he concludes several character and subplot arcs.
Locus magazine has posted their 2010 Recommended Reading list, and I'm proud to say that works I edited are all over it. Ian McDonald's The Dervish House is in the Novels-Science Fiction category, James Enge's The Wolf Age
is in the Novels-Fantasy, and Swords & Dark Magic (co-edited with Jonathan Strahan) is in the Anthologies-Original category. From Swords & Dark Magic, Joe Abercrombie's "The Fool Jobs" is in the Novelettes category, as is Steven Erikson's "Goats of Glory" and Scott Lynch's "In the Stacks" and K.J. Parker's "A Rich Full Week." In the Short Story category, Ian McDonald's "Tonight We Fly," from my anthology Masked
, joins another contribution from Swords & Dark Magic, Garth Nix's "A Suitable Present for a Sorcerous Puppet." Congratulations to all the authors for their tremendous work, and to everyone on the list.
Elitist Book Reviews have just published their Best of 2010 list, and I'm thrilled that Swords & Dark Magic, the sword & sorcery anthology I edited along with Jonathan Strahan for Eos books, is on the their list. Also included are no less than ten books by Pyr authors (which I naturally also edited), making the total of Lou-related works in the list eleven out of seventeen books! I'm 65% of their year! 
by David Louis Edelman
and SHADOWHEART
edited by Jonathan Strahan and Lou Anders
by Tom Lloyd
, DRAGONFLY FALLING
, BLOOD OF THE MANTIS
and SALUTE THE DARK
by Sam Sykes
by Jasper Kent
Over on Tor.com, John Klima opines that "2010 for Me Was Full of Swords and Sorcery." He goes through some of the players in the S&S field, and then says, "But for me, the most important sword-and-sorcery event from this year was Lou Anders and Jonahtan Strahan’s anthology Swords & Dark Magic. This anthology collected a phenomenal list of authors: Joe Abercrombie, C. J. Cherryh, Glen Cook, James Enge, Steven Erikson, Greg Keyes, Caitlin R Kiernan, Tim Lebbon, Tanith Lee, Scott Lynch, Michael Moorcock, Garth Nix, K. J. Parker, Michael Shea, Robert Silverberg, Bill Willingham, and Gene Wolfe....Honestly, there isn’t a bad story in this book. If you’re a fan of fantasy, you’ve probably already heard of it, but if not, you’ll be very happy to pick up a copy."
Literary Musings on my anthology, Swords & Dark Magic, co-edited with Jonathan Strahan:
Steve at Elitist Book Reviews has just posted a review of my Eos anthology, Swords & Dark Magic
(co-edited with Jonathan Strahan). The Pyr editor in me is particularly pleased with his assessment of James Enge's "The Singing Spear":One of the best stories in the collection. Enge is so absurdly underrated. His character Morlock Ambrosius is a man of legend. A sorcerer of unparalleled power. And, uh, a complete drunk. "The Singing Spear" is a tale about what Morlock does when his bartender is killed. Enge is freaking terrific. This story will make you want to read more of his stuff. We suggest starting with BLOOD OF AMBROSE.
A second review for Swords & Dark Magic has popped up in Locus magazine (July 2010 issue), this one by Rich Horton. He calls the book, "a collection devoted to the 'New Swords and Sorcery,' which is to say, more or less, the old Swords and Sorcery with extra cynicism. Granting of course that cynicism was hardly absent from Sword and Sorcery, this book does seem more of our time. And it’s solid from beginning to end." Getting particular attention is Gene Wolfe's "Bloodsport," which Horton calls "quite powerful."
out in a post on the "coolest new books of July." They say, "The conventions of the golden age are really the focus here, but that's not to say the contributions are flat or old-fashioned. Stephen Baxter approaches the genre with hard science, while Marjorie M. Liu plays with cliche to entertaining effect. Come prepared for self-awareness and metafictional flourishes."
Lev Grossman, TIME columnist and The Magicians
author, has chosen Swords & Dark Magic, along with Neil Gaiman and Al Sarrantonio's Stories: All-New Tales
, as his two picks in TIME magazine's feature on summer books! 
