Silver Gryphon » (1ST)

What makes a story engaging and entertaining? Is it one in which the author has portrayed a vibrant and living storyline, one that the reader can visualize and experience? Or perhaps the delight that arises from the work of a clever wordsmith, who dazzles and bemuses with his style? Or cutting humor, where sacred perceptions are torn asunder and revealed to be mere fluff? Or fabulous fantasy or hard science fiction or mystery or horror... Humor and pathos, optimism and despair, light and dark. This anthology, unlike most, does not have a common theme or particular focus -- rather, in celebration of Golden Gryphon Press's twenty-fifth book, we asked those who contributed to the first twenty-four to write a story that best defines them as a writer. Given such a criterion, it hardly surprises that the stories are varied. All original stories (in order of appearance) by James Patrick Kelly, Jeffrey Ford, Michael Bishop, Kage Baker, Richard A. Lupoff, Kevin J. Anderson, Howard Waldrop, Paul Di Filippo, Geoffrey A. Landis, George Zebrowski, Ian Watson, Lucius Shepard, Warren Rochelle, Kristine Kathryn Rusch, Richard Paul Russo, Robert Reed, Andy Duncan, R. Garcia y Robertson, Neal Barrett, Jr., and Joe R. Lansdale.

For those of you familiar with some of these writers' other works, we hope that reading their stories in this anthology will be like reacquainting yourself with some old friends -- sitting and chatting for a spell on the porch on a nice spring afternoon, or in the drawing room as you serve herbal tea, or merlot, or even break out a few cold ones. For others we hope these stories engender new friendships and acquaintances -- writers you'll want to remain in touch with, to look up again and again. Whether by old friends or new friends, these tales provide readers with a smorgasbord of writing styles, tone, and content -- a diverse spectrum of short fiction from some of today's best writers. Read their stories, and hear their voices.

Publishers Weekly

In this celebratory anthology, the 25th Golden Gryphon book from editors Turner and Halpern, the 20 talented contributors tend to avoid the conventions of genre SF and emphasize heroism, win or loss. Some authors bring back favorite settings and characters, like Kage Baker in his tale of scavenging Company time-travelers, "A Night on the Barbary Coast." Others tell new tales in familiar voices, such as Andy Duncan's folkloric fantasy, "The Haw River Trolley," or George Zebrowski's character study of a time exile, "Takes You Back." Michael Bishop pays homage to Lucius Shepard in "The Door Gunner," a story of na ve Americans in Vietnam finding how little they know about death and life. In "After Ildiko," Shepard himself focuses on not-so-innocent Americans bringing their own darkness abroad on a barge trip into the Guatemalan jungle. Making prejudice against "faeries" literal, Warren Rochelle's plea for understanding alternate life forms, "The Golden Boy," shows that fantasy can also comment powerfully on reality. Even when rooted in the routine tragedies of daily life (death of a parent, senility, midlife crisis), these stories clearly view the common through eyes trained to see the fantastic. (May) Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.