2011 Book 43: Naked City
Book 43: Naked City edited by Ellen Datlow, isbn 9780312385248, 539 pages, St. Martin's Griffin, $15.99
The Premise: (from the back cover) "In this thrilling collection of original stories, some of today's hottest paranormal authors delight, thrill and captivate readers with otherwordly tales of magic and mischief." There are as many definitions of the term "urban fantasy" as there are readers of the genre, and editor Ellen Datlow's latest collection spans most, if not all of them, from noirish detective stories set in very real modern cities like Chicago and Las Vegas, through high fantasy tales set in fictional cities, to light-hearted comedy with a supernatural bent.
My Rating: 4 stars
My Thoughts: I think the day I'm disappointed with an Ellen Datlow anthology will be the day I give up on short stories altogether. Once again, for me there are more hits than misses in this book. The collection starts and ends strong, beginning with a Jim Butcher tale of Harry Dresden's early days and a famous sports franchise curse and ending with a ghostly tale by Elizabeth Bear of Las Vegas featuring One-Eyed Jack and the Suicide King. In between, there are stories of ghosts, vampires, spiders (yes, spiders), faeries, and more. I've posted a story-by-story analysis in the 365shortstories community, but for me the highlights of the book, in addition to the Butcher and Bear stories, were Ellen Kushner's "Duke of Riverside," Naomi Novik's "Priced To Sell," Lavie Tidhar's "The Projected Girl," Matthew Kressel's "The Bricks of Gelecek" and Delia Sherman's "How The Pooka Came to New York City." Stories by Kit Reed, Jeffrey Ford, Nathan Ballingrud and Christopher Fowler didn't grab me quite as much, but as I always say: your reaction may vary.
The Premise: (from the back cover) "In this thrilling collection of original stories, some of today's hottest paranormal authors delight, thrill and captivate readers with otherwordly tales of magic and mischief." There are as many definitions of the term "urban fantasy" as there are readers of the genre, and editor Ellen Datlow's latest collection spans most, if not all of them, from noirish detective stories set in very real modern cities like Chicago and Las Vegas, through high fantasy tales set in fictional cities, to light-hearted comedy with a supernatural bent.
My Rating: 4 stars
My Thoughts: I think the day I'm disappointed with an Ellen Datlow anthology will be the day I give up on short stories altogether. Once again, for me there are more hits than misses in this book. The collection starts and ends strong, beginning with a Jim Butcher tale of Harry Dresden's early days and a famous sports franchise curse and ending with a ghostly tale by Elizabeth Bear of Las Vegas featuring One-Eyed Jack and the Suicide King. In between, there are stories of ghosts, vampires, spiders (yes, spiders), faeries, and more. I've posted a story-by-story analysis in the 365shortstories community, but for me the highlights of the book, in addition to the Butcher and Bear stories, were Ellen Kushner's "Duke of Riverside," Naomi Novik's "Priced To Sell," Lavie Tidhar's "The Projected Girl," Matthew Kressel's "The Bricks of Gelecek" and Delia Sherman's "How The Pooka Came to New York City." Stories by Kit Reed, Jeffrey Ford, Nathan Ballingrud and Christopher Fowler didn't grab me quite as much, but as I always say: your reaction may vary.