I like Christopher Stasheff's Coronach of the Bell, found Mickey Zucker Reichert's Nightfall's Promise gripping, thought that Tanya Huff's We Two May Meet was both funny and thought provoking, liked Larry Dixon's A Perfect Day in Valdemar, and absolutely loved Michelle West's The Memory of Stone. OK, there were a couple that I found too confusing to be entertaining, but overall, I do think that this is a very good anthology, and I do not hesitate to recommend it to you!
In terms of sophistication, this anthology was a disappointment to me. I can, however, see that it might appeal to those who do prefer Young Adult fantasy. But there?s another problem. Most of the authors have apparently been writing about the same ?worlds? for years. Most of stories are set in the authors? worlds. Many stories purport to fill readers in on some unexplained aspect of some other novel, or are jokes about characters obviously well known to fans.
In other words, many of the stories are not only written for fans of these authors, but do not stand well on their own. As a non-fan, I was usually rather bored, somewhat mystified?and not intrigued enough to hunt up any of the authors? other publications.
