Search Results for: edited

Recognizing Genius: Dawnward Spire, Lonely Hill: The Letters of H.P. Lovecraft and Clark Ashton Smith, edited by David E Schultz and S.T. Joshi

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Dawnward Spire, Lonely Hill: The Letters of H.P. Lovecraft and and Clark Ashton Smith, 1922-1931, Volumes 1 and 2 (Hippocampus Press, July 14, 2020). Cover art by David C. Verba I’ve been reading Dawnward Spire, Lonely Hill: The Letters of H.P. Lovecraft and Clark Ashton Smith, a two-volume set edited by David E. Schultz and S.T. Joshi. I talked about this in my company newsletter sent out a short while ago, and I’ll repeat it here for the interested. Lovecraft…

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Ladies Are Dangerous: Dastardly Damsels, edited by Suzie Lockhart

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Dastardly Damsels (Crystal Lake Publishing, October 11, 2024) Dark fiction anthologies are currently very popular and, with a few exceptions, tend to be a medley of horror, fantasy, mild SF or something in between. I don’t like the expression “speculative fiction” but maybe this is an acceptable label. Some are published exclusively in digital format, which explains why the number of stories included is getting increasingly higher. The present anthology, for instance, features thirty-two contributions (including a couple of short…

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A Red Desert World, Full of Mystery: Old Mars, edited by George R.R. Martin & Gardner Dozois

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Old Mars (Bantam Books, October 8, 2013). Cover by Stephen Youll This isn’t a Sword & Planet collection per se but is likely to prove interesting to readers of S&P. It’s a big book, 548 pages of reading in 15 longish stories and an introduction by Martin. All the tales evoke the kind of Mars that readers of Burroughs, Bradbury, and Brackett will recognize — a red desert world full of mystery.

Quatro-Decadal Review: Weird Tales, November 1989, edited by John Betancourt, George H. Scithers, and Darrell Schweitzer

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Weird Tales, Fall 1989 (Terminus Publishing). Cover by J.K. Potter There has been quite the gap in my reviews. I’ve been high-centered on Weird Tales. Many factors played a role in this — mostly that it is not a small magazine by any stretch. Then there is the fact that I read it in early 2023, got distracted by other things, and had to re-read it to write about it. As readers of these reviews know, I don’t hold back…

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Besties: The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy edited by R.F. Kuang

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The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2023 (Mariner Books, October 17, 2023) Perhaps the most overused title for short story anthologies beings with “Best of.” In genre fiction, the heavyweight (in terms of both size and breadth of coverage) was the Gardner Dozois-edited The Year’s Best Science Fiction Stories that ran for 35 years until his death in 2018. And there are a whole slew of similar “Best of’s” for horror, dark fantasy, speculative fiction, you name a subgenre…

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A Paean to the Outsider: A Review of Neither Beg Nor Yield, edited by Jason M. Waltz

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Neither Beg Nor Yield (Rogue Blades Entertainment, April 2024) I can’t say if Jason M. Waltz and his Rogue Blades Entertainment’s swansong is the largest collection of Sword & Sorcery ever published, but it’s damn close. It’s also the most metal. From this over-the-top, blood-splash cover featuring an axe headed toward the reader’s face to the powerful black & white line art that runs throughout. there’s a Savage Sword of Conan-meets-Heavy Metal vibe to the layout that tells you exactly…

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Datlow’s Latest Treat: The Best Horror of the Year, Volume Fifteen, edited by Ellen Datlow

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The Best Horror of the Year, Volume Fifteen (Night Shade, January 16, 2024) Once again legendary editor Ellen Datlow has released her annual anthology featuring the Best horror stories that appeared in print the previous year. And once again the volume includes, in the front, a detailed, invaluable overview of the year in horror (this time 2022). Being a short story lover I am particularly interested in anthologies and collections and, as it happens, once again I discovered how many interesting…

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Vintage Treasures: World’s Best Science Fiction First Series edited by Donald A. Wollheim and Terry Carr

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World’s Best Science Fiction First Series (Ace Books, 1970). Cover by Jack Gaughan If you want to understand science fiction, it’s not a bad idea to start by reading Year’s Best volumes. And if you’re going to do that, it’s not a bad idea to start with the World’s Best Science Fiction, edited by Donald A. Wollheim and Terry Carr, an annual series that began in 1965 and lasted for an amazing 26 volumes. The last of which, The 1990…

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Future Treasures: Collecting Myself: The Uncollected Stories of Barry N. Malzberg, edited by Robert Friedman and Gregory Shepard

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Collecting Myself: The Uncollected Stories of Barry N. Malzberg (Stark House, March 8, 2024). Cover by Jeff Jordan Barry N. Malzberg has had an enormously prolific career. He published his first science fiction story the August 1967 issue of Galaxy magazine, and over the next six decades has produced an astounding 500+ short stories, dozens of novels, eleven anthologies, and nearly two dozen collections. These days he’s well known as a genre historian and critic. That’s him on the back…

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Vintage Treasures: The Last Man on Earth edited by Isaac Asimov, Martin Harry Greenberg, and Charles G. Waugh

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The Last Man on Earth (Fawcett Crest / Ballantine, August 1982). Cover by Wayne Barlowe I continue to dip into the (seemingly endless) supply of anthologies from the three amigos of science fiction, Isaac Asimov, Martin Harry Greenberg, and Charles G. Waugh. I’m not sure how many they actually produced together, but I’ve managed to track down around 80. They began collaborating in the 80s, and averaged over half a dozen books a year, until Asimov’s death in 1992. This time…

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