A Lovely Collection of Slightly-Vintage Fantasy Stories
We bought this anthology at full price for our permanent collection. If nothing else, Scott Lynch is a genius, and his “A Year and a Day in Old Theradane” was worth the price of admission all by itself.
This just isn’t the first time the story was printed.
Neither was it the first printing for Jim Butcher’s “Last Call,” another great tale that fans of Harry Dresden will love… and probably also loved when it was published in 2009 and then again in 2010.
In fact, when we got to the end and read the acknowledgments, we discovered that none of the stories in this anthology are new. Not one. We were on the fence between four stars and five for the collection as a whole, and that almost bumped it down to three. Almost.
But then we thought about the writers. As fans of the Deadpool movie might remember, the writers are the true heroes of every story. (Watch the intro. You’ll see.) And not one of these writers should lose a star just because their stories aren’t brand new off the lot anymore. They might have lost their new-story smell, but they still have their charm–and the collection as a whole is a wonderfully eclectic (and diverse!) sampling of some of the greatest names in fantasy.
THE BOTTOM LINE: An excellent collection for any aficionado of fantasy, but if you’re interested in the anthology for just one author, make sure you aren’t buying the whole book for a story you already own.
