Brit Mandelo for TOR.COM praises Peter S. Beagle and Jacob Weisman’s THE NEW VOICES OF FANTASY.

The editors have done a solid job of collecting a range of a specific type of fantastic story that has grown popular in recent years. Though each of these pieces differs, sometimes significantly, from the others, the collection as a whole is remarkably cohesive in terms of affect and intention. I’d recommend it for anyone who has an appreciation for the literary fantastic or stories about families, and especially both.

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

At FINDING WONDERLAND, Tanita S. Davis and Sarah Stevenson, in tandem, enjoy the anthology.

tanita: Oh, yes! My main interest in choosing this anthology is that it is aimed at “new voices;” the overarching meaning, in this particular, is not solely stories I haven’t yet read from “new” to the field authors, but additionally, nonwhite voices in fantasy, which brings that new vibe to the entire genre. Usman T. Malik allowed us to glimpse both old Lahore, new, busy Lahore, and the mental and physical and spiritual space in between, bridged by the character’s life in the West. It was enchanting, in part because the story was about family stories, and how they stretch the truth and what we understand of truth through time. Wouldn’t it be lovely, if an aging relative could remember themselves in another time, in their dementia – and it would all be real? That… in a way would redeem old age and remakes it into something beautiful.

And, in a way, that’s what the whole anthology does. Familiar bits of ephemera from our imaginations, from our urban myths and legends, from our cultures and our worlds have been transmuted into something both less familiar and more knowable, both more off-puttingly gross and horrible (and there are some prime bits of horror in this collection – eek), and more charmingly disturbing. This collection runs a good gamut. It’s meaty stuff, and could easily be taken along to ease the pain of airports and train rides. It’s absorbing and invites the reader to a feast of a thousand different senses. It’s not our usual fare here at the Treehouse, but I’m glad we read it.

sarah: Me, too! It definitely fulfills our goal to read widely and diversely, something that we both try to do as much as possible–just not usually at the same time…  In this case, though, a tandem review seemed like a good way to survey the gamut of stories in the anthology–we each responded to different ones, and as a result, hopefully, we were able to do it justice as a collection…and tempt you into picking it up, perhaps.

Elizabeth Lefebvre at STRANGE AND RANDOM HAPPENSTANCE is looking forward to the book.

Just everything about this screams yes to me. Also come on, a supernatural portal on Craigslist? How much does that sound like an episode of Angel?  Just everything about this screams yes to me. Also come on, a supernatural portal on Craigslist? How much does that sound like an episode of Angel?  

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

Cover art by Camille André

Cover design by Elizabeth Story