Reviews for Peter S. Beagle and Jacob Weisman’s new anthology, THE NEW VOICES OF FANTASY, have started appearing.

Peter S. Beagle (photo: Rina Weisman) and Jacob Weisman

INFINITE TEXT praises the anthology.

What Beagle does with this anthology is an elegant passing of the writing pen to a younger generation of fantasy writers, and he presents them to us, the readers, without rigidity as his teachers before him have. He accepts them as they are and is in awe of their risk-taking, creativity, and courage. I cannot imagine how many works Beagle must have read through to select these top 19 stories, but I had a hard time selecting my favourites, as each one of them brings something completely unique to the Fantasy cornucopia. His selection includes a great balance of men and women writers, as well as various backgrounds.

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I recommend this anthology to anyone who loves fantasy and wants to try some of the new emerging voices. I have no doubt that each one of these writers will continue to write and publish larger works in the future, and this anthology is a great introduction to them. I would especially recommend this to readers who are new to fantasy and want to sample shorter works without committing to an entire series and/or trilogy.

Brad K. Horner on his eponymous site enjoys the book.

I really liked, sometimes loved the stories in this volume. A lot of them are reprints, if not all, and I remember a number of them quite fondly from previous reads, such as, and especially, Alyssa Wong and Brooke Bolander.

However, there were a number of newcomers (the definition is flexible) that I really enjoyed or I’ve already had the pleasure of reading some of their actual novels, such as stories from Hannu Rajaniemi, Sofia Samatar, and Max Gladstone. Hannu is a personal favorite author of mine, and Max is rapidly getting there, too, for me.

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All in all, though, I am very impressed and pleased by this collection and if its primary intention is to say, “Hey, look at these authors and revel in their glory!”, then I think it did a wonderful job. Most of them have quite a few awards under their wings, too.

I totally recommend this for all modern fantasy lovers. (And btw, there’s a TON of great OLD fantasy retellings, usually quite unique and unusual tales in their own right. If you love hard to find legends retold for modern sensibilities wrapped and layered in fantastic characters, this is ALSO your book.)

THE READING LIFE really likes the book’s lead story “Hungry Daughters of Starving Mothers” by Alyssa Wong.

A few days ago I as kindly given a review copy of a forthcoming soon anthology, THE NEW VOICES OF FANTASY, edited by Peter S. Beagle and Jacob Weisman.  I was completely shocked by how much I liked the beautiful lead story, “Hungry Daughters of Starving Mothers” by Alyssa Wong.  Last month I first read the surrealistic short fiction of Leonora Carrington.  If April 2017 was for me the month I "discovered” Leonora Carrington, then quite possibly May will be observed as the month I first read Alyssa Wong.  I know this sounds hyperbolic but I can for sure visualize Leonora being stunned by “Hungry Daughters of Starving Mothers,” i certainly was.  I was on first reading mesmerized by the sheer elegance of Wong’s prose combined with the very ugly and evil story she tells. 

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If just a few of the stories in THE NEW VOICES OF FANTASY are close to this good, it is well worth acquiring.

For more info about THE NEW VOICES OF FANTASY, visit the Tachyon page.

Cover art by Camilla André

Cover design by Elizabeth Story