Summary: Baen anthologies, 2009
Summary: Baen anthologies, 2009
This is going to be a sketchy summary, largely because I found the stories herein mostly unmemorable, if on the whole pleasant and enjoyable. Baen published two original anthologies in 2009, both edited by Esther Friesner, both fairly explicitly "Suburban Fantasy". The first, Witch Way to the Mall, dealt with witches in suburbia, the second, Strip Mauled, with werevolves in Suburbia.
The two books included 41 stories, all short stories, about 208,000 words total. (Thus almost exactly and average of 5000 words per story, and indeed there was fairly little variation in length, which I think wears on a reader over time.) All the stories were Fantasy, of course, and they were split exactly half and half between men and women writers. (Jan and S. M. Stirling collaborated on one.)
The stories I liked best in the two books were related pieces by David Levine, "Midnight at the Center Court" and "Overnight Moon", about some high school kids coming to terms with their witchy abilities. One should also mention Jim C. Hines's absolutely wicked demolition of some popular children's programming, "The Creature in Your Neighborhood". I also liked stories by Selina Rosen, Daniel M. Hoyt, K. D. Wentworth, Brenda Clough, and Dave Freer.
This is going to be a sketchy summary, largely because I found the stories herein mostly unmemorable, if on the whole pleasant and enjoyable. Baen published two original anthologies in 2009, both edited by Esther Friesner, both fairly explicitly "Suburban Fantasy". The first, Witch Way to the Mall, dealt with witches in suburbia, the second, Strip Mauled, with werevolves in Suburbia.
The two books included 41 stories, all short stories, about 208,000 words total. (Thus almost exactly and average of 5000 words per story, and indeed there was fairly little variation in length, which I think wears on a reader over time.) All the stories were Fantasy, of course, and they were split exactly half and half between men and women writers. (Jan and S. M. Stirling collaborated on one.)
The stories I liked best in the two books were related pieces by David Levine, "Midnight at the Center Court" and "Overnight Moon", about some high school kids coming to terms with their witchy abilities. One should also mention Jim C. Hines's absolutely wicked demolition of some popular children's programming, "The Creature in Your Neighborhood". I also liked stories by Selina Rosen, Daniel M. Hoyt, K. D. Wentworth, Brenda Clough, and Dave Freer.