The New Voices of Fantasy spotlights nineteen breakout writers who are reinventing fantasy right now. Usman T. Malik, Sofia Samatar, Eugene Fischer, E. Lily Yu, Ben Loory, Maria Dahvana Headley, Ursula Vernon, Max Gladstone, and other emerging talents have been hand-picked by fantasy legend Peter S. Beagle (The Last Unicorn) and genre expert Jacob Weisman (Treasury of the Fantastic). International, cross-cultural, and fearless, many of these rising stars have just or are about to publish their first novels and collections. They bring you childhood stories gone wrong, magical creatures in heat, a building that’s alive and full of waiters, love, ducks, and a new take on a bloodsucking fiend. (via Goodreads)
"Hungry Daughters of Starving Mothers" needs a trigger warning for murder, anti-chinese slurs, and cannibalism. "Selkie Stories are for Losers" needs a TW for suicide mention, suicide attempt by nonMC

One of my favorites was A.C. Wise's The Practical Witch's Guide to Acquiring Real Estate. It was stunning and delightful.

The Haunting of Apollo A7LB was also really awesome. I loved the idea of the spacesuit, and what goes on.

Carmen Maria Machado's The Husband Stitch was familiar to me, as a fan of Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark - pulling from several familiar tales, but putting her own stunning twist into it, and making us care deeply for the girl with the ribbon, instead of having her be an oddity.

I really enjoyed this anthology and I look forward to what comes next from each of these authors!

An excellent collection of contemporary fantasy short stories. I'd already read 8 out of the 19 stories, but I enjoyed rereading them. I'd also already read 15 of the authors, so it's nice to know I'm keeping up with new fantasy authors!

If you're on the hunt for some new authors, this is a great collection to read. It's also interesting to note that of the 19 stories, only 2 were 2nd world fantasy. The other 17 stories were rooted in this world. But what all of these stories tend to do is use fantasy as a metahpor for something about living, and I love that. There are some really powerful stories in this collection.

“Hungry Daughters of Starving Mothers” by Alyssa Wong: A lot of Wong's short stories (if not all) deal with a monstrous feminine and relationships among women. This is no exception. I mistakenly thought I'd read this before, so I'm glad it was in this collection. 4/5

“Selkie Stories are for Losers” by Sofia Samatar: And the protagonist has good reason for thinking so (the title). I really enjoy this story. This is my third time reading it, I believe. 4.5/5

“Tornado’s Siren” by Brooke Bolander: So good! A tornado falls in love with a little girl, and follows her the rest of her life. Such a fantastic story. 5/5

“Left the Century to Sit Unmoved” by Sarah Pinsker: In a small town, a waterhole sometimes swallows people, and a folklore has developed around it. A teenage girl dares to jump regularly. I've read this before, but had forgotten I had because the title doesn't really hint at the story. I really don't like the title, but the story is great. 4.5/5

“A Kiss with Teeth” by Max Gladstone: A vampire tries to live a normal human life and do the right thing for his family. Fun story. 4/5

“Jackalope Wives” by Ursula Vernon: Animal transformation story set in the West. I love this story so much. Also a re-read for me, but it's just perfect. Moves me every time. 5/5

“The Cartographer Wasps and Anarchist Bees” by E. Lily Yu: A political allegory between bees and wasps. Cool concept. A reread that was better the 2nd time around. 4/5

“The Practical Witch’s Guide to Acquiring Real Estate” by A. C. Wise: A handbook about the ways witches can go about finding a house. I would choose 'Taming.' Another reread, but still cute. 4/5

“The Tallest Doll in New York City” by Maria Dahvana Headley: The Chrsyler Building takes a walk in the 1930s, and waltzes with the Empire State Building. A reread. 3/5

“The Haunting of Apollo A7LB” by Hannu Rajaniemi: A old spacesuit is haunted, and when a rich internet mogul smuggles it, it insists on visiting an old acquintance. First time reading this author. 3/5

“Here Be Dragons” by Chris Tarry: A retired fake dragon hunter returns home to be a stay-at-home dad. But can he settle down to this life? New author for me, and I really enjoyed it. 4/5

“The One They Took Before” by Kelly Sandoval: Oh, those faeries and their pet humans. This short story tells of woman after she returns home from a year in Faerie. How can she ever return to normal? 4/5

“Tiger Baby” by JY Yang: A woman feels she's more tiger than human. 3.5/5

“The Duck” by Ben Loory: A fable about a duck that falls in love with a rock. 3/5

“Wing” by Amal El-Mohtar: A woman wears a book necklace with a secret written inside. Lovely language, as always with Amal. 4.5/5

“The Philosophers” by Adam Ehrlich Sachs: A recursive story about sons translating a book as they slowly acquire a disability that leaves them unable to speak or move anything but a single body part. 2/5

“My Time Among the Bridge Blowers” by Eugene Fischer Original Story: A quasi-anthropologist travels to a remote village to learn the customs of its people, people his culture has attempted to colonize. Good story that felt like something larger. 4/5

“The Husband Stitch” by Carmen Maria Machado: A modern retelling of the folktale "The Girl with the Green Ribbon," one of my favorites growing up. This was my third time reading this short story, and the most effective. I kept thinking about the man who murdered his wife recently on a cruise ship, for laughing at him. 4.5/5

“The Pauper Prince and the Eucalyptus Jinn” by Usman T. Malik: A grandfather tells his grandson a story of a Princess and a jinn, and when the grandson grows into an adult and his grandfather dies, he discovers the story may be a lot more complicated and magical than his grandfather led him to believe. Another reread. 4/5

Thanks to Netgalley and Tachyon Press for providing me with a free copy in exchange for an honest review.

(Posted on Goodreads 07/31/2017]
(Posted on Book Riot 100 Must Read SFF Short Story Collections 07/25/2017)
(Posted on Book Riot Peak Over Our Shoulders 08/03/2017)
[posted on Amazon 08/09/2017]
[Posted on Personal Blog 08/09/2017]

This is not your typical fantasy read. There are definitely a couple of fantasy stories in this collection but I'd say most of them almost felt more like a horror/eerie/creepy type story. I can definitely see reading this more around Halloween time. I gave this a 3 out of 5 because while some of the stories were really good and I thoroughly enjoyed them, others I could not get into at all and found myself just wanting them to be over. When I think of fantasy I guess I usually imagine elves, dragons, fae, mermaids, etc. and this collection really doesn't have any of those. Would I have liked it better had I known the stories weren't my typical fantasy read? Probably not. I could tell from the very first story that these were different and I read the rest of the book with that in mind. I also felt like several of the endings were lacking. On several occasions I would be reading and all of a sudden it would end...with no explanations or sense of fulfillment.

This collection was... a bit of an experience. And not as fantastic as I would've liked it to be.

While I'll be mentioning thoughts on each story separately, I would like to say a few words about the collection as a whole. First of all, this is more speculative fiction than fantasy. Barely any of these take place in a different world, and barely any have standard plots. Instead, with a few exceptions, most are brief ruminations on a certain topic. I have to admit, I found that element fairly boring. Many of these started fantastically and ended just blah.

♔ Hungry Daughters of Starving Mothers by Alyssa Wong - ★★★★★
This one is basically terrifying. A girl uses Tinder to find dates and feed off their gross thoughts about her body. Yet on one date, she feasts off a murderer and becomes addicted. There's also a maybe-romance between her and her best friend. I adored this story, although I felt that the end fizzled a little. The writing and atmosphere is pitch-perfect, I adored the characters... just great. Probably my favorite of all the stories.
You can read this here.

♔ Selkie Stories are for Losers by Sofia Samatar - ★★★
This follows– um, I'm not quite sure, because this really didn't feel resolved or completed. I liked the writing and the atmosphere, but the execution of the storyline was mediocre. Also appreciate that both of the first two stories were both a little gay.

♔ Tornado’s Siren by Brooke Bolander - ★★★
This follows a girl in love with a tornado. It's... weird. I love the idea, but I didn't emotionally connect with anything here. The magical realism feel is nice, at least.

♔ Left the Century to Sit Unmoved by Sarah Pinsker - ★★★★
This is a slice-of-life about people living near a pond in their small town. I LOVED the beginning. Absolutely adored the writing, loved the themes, was so excited to see what the solution is. I thought this would blow my mind. It unfortunately didn't. These open endings have got to go.

♔ A Kiss with Teeth by Max Gladstone - ★★★
It's a coming of age story, but with a really old vampire instead of a teen. I was honestly kind of surprised I enjoyed this, after I found the beginning badly written and slightly stalker-ish. But this quickly turned into an interesting story about accepting faults in love. I especially loved reading about Vlad and Sarah's little family.

♔ Jackalope Wives by Ursula Vernon - ★★★★★
This is a story about wanting what you can't have and having what you can't want. It's... eerie. I feel like this will be polarizing, but I loved it. And yes, it is about jackalope wives. Go figure.

♔ The Cartographer Wasps and the Anarchist Bees by E. Lily Yu - ★★★
I don't think I understood this? The themes about human empowerment are clear, but there's no thesis to it, I guess. It is very well-written.

♔ The Practical Witch’s Guide to Acquiring Real Estate by A. C. Wise - ★★
Meh. I think I have to agree with Melanie when I say this was kind of pointless. It's a guide for witches building houses.

♔ The Tallest Doll in New York City by Maria Dahvana Headley - ★★★★
This was so weird but so creative and atmospheric. It follows a group of buildings that are dating. I said weird, don't blame me. I don't even know if I understood all of it; is it time neutral or something? Yet I ended the story with happiness rather than with a desire for more.

♔ The Haunting of Apollo A7LB by Hannu Rajaniemi - ★★★★
The first line of this story is freaking amazing; I actually planned to take a break from this collection until I saw the first line. And thankfully I really enjoyed this!! It's a story of lost love and dreams. Be warned it's far less creepy than its blurb.

♔ Here Be Dragons by Chris Tarry - ★★
This follows a man who is always leaving his parents to make money off townspeople via slaying fraudulent dragons. I thought this was going to be some story of redemption after being a terrible father, but it's so... ugh. There's this vibe of “women are the right parents for children and men pitching in is just a bonus” which... no. I kind of enjoyed the middle of this story, but the end ruined it for me by going back on all the potential for character development.

♔ The One They Took Before by Kelly Sandoval - ★★★
Maybe more of a 2.5, because I legitimately have no fucking clue what this is about. Nice writing though.

♔ Tiger Baby by JY Yang - ★★★★
This was so weird, and yet here I am with your latest four-star review. This follows a girl who believes she is truly a tiger. The ending is just as odd as the rest, but I really enjoyed something about it. I'd like to analyze this one - I feel as if it will be quite hit-or-miss, with some adoring this story and some hating it. And this will sound odd, but I appreciate the amount of stories in this collection with badass gay Asian girls as protagonists.

♔ The Duck by Ben Loory - ★★★
This follows a duck who falls in love with a rock. I know what you're thinking - he's weird. An odd duck, if you will. But truly, that's the point. This story is truly about accepting your friends for who they are. It's a sweet theme and a sweet story. Unfortunately, I found this a bit lacking. The themes lacked the depth of development I wanted, due to the ridiculously short length.

♔ Wing by Amal El-Mohtar - ★★★★
This is a story about how love should be accepting. Following a girl with a book around her neck, a girl with a secret, we see how love should come about. It's quite short, but I enjoyed this a lot. There are some fabulous and quotable lines in here.

♔ The Philosophers by Adam Ehrlich Sachs - ★★★
This is a series of vignettes about fathers and sons. And no, there aren't any girl characters. Go figure. The first story is about generations trying to communicate and bad translating methods. The second story is about recognizing parental faults and hats. The last story isn't about fathers at all, it's about creating paradoxes through assassinating your relatives. But it was probably my favorite of all these.

♔ My Time Among the Bridge Blowers by Eugene Fischer - ★★★★
This is a story about colonialism. Readers will be drawn to the themes and message of this, as well as the complex and intriguing worldbuilding. Why couldn't this be a full book?

♔ The Husband Stitch by Carmen Maria Machado - ★★★★★
I read this earlier due to Melanie's awesome recommendation. This is a story about being consumed by men and losing your own agency. It's a story about how much you can give before you break. And that's all I'm really going to say about it. This is one you really have to experience on your own. One thing is clear, though; it's worth the read. There were a few metaphors here I only understood on the second go due to me being exhausted when I first read it, which is really upsetting - I feel like this would be my fave rather than my second fave otherwise.

♔ The Pauper Prince and the Eucalyptus Jinn by Usman T. Malik - ★
I'm going to be totally honest here - I hated this. It's really well-written, and I'm sure many will appreciate it if they “get it”. But I could not get past the length. This takes up an entire 25% of the story collection. Twenty. Five. Percent. That's not short. That's a 75 page story. And it didn't need to be so long!! This easily could've been twenty pages and fantastic, if a little confusing. Confusing short stories are fun and make you think. Confusing long stories are annoying. This was the latter. It's an overwritten mess that keeps touching on cosmology but doesn't make any sense.

Wow. Hard times are good for great writing and serious reading. Here are serious practitioners of fantasy and lovers of language, tinged with truth and mudded with blood and myth. Many of the writers have won or been nominated for awards, and they know their stuff. Buy it, read it, and dream larger, possibly darker, definitely deeper dreams. Each story is a portal to a different world. Each is a literary gem, shining like a necklace of stars in the hands of a dragon. Even the ones that you may not like are beautiful. It was edited by Peter Beagle, after all. Delightful, but not light reading, highly recommended.

I really enjoyed this great mix of fantasy stories. I'm not a great lover of fantasy novels generally but this collection had me hooked! My favourite story was Jackalope Wives but the thing I enjoyed most about the collection as a whole is the range of cultural influences and backgrounds of the authors.

We've come to the realisation that short story collections just aren't for us because in order to review them properly, you must read every short story. Stop. And then review.

That just doesn't work for us and we can honestly tell you that we remember nothing that happened from what we've read.

A collection of fantasy stories from relatively new authors.
Review:

Most of the stories in this anthology are fairly strong, and none are terrible. There are several that could have used a stronger editorial hand, and some deal with very familiar themes without adding anything new to them. The strongest stories are:

notableJackalope Wives by Ursula Vernon – the dangers of desire. Strongly reminiscent of Ursula Le Guin, but very nicely written.
notableThe Cartographer Wasps and the Anarchist Bees by E. Lily Yu – the political systems of hymenopterae. I liked this less than when I first read it, but it’s still innovative, well written, and interesting.
Here be Dragons by Chris Tarry – the life of a fake dragon hunter. A familiar concept, but largely well executed.
Tiger Baby by JY Yang – a girl who dreams of her real self. A nice concept. As with several of the stories in this anthology, it weakens at the end, but it’s largely well done.
Wing by Amal El-Mohtar – a mysterious girl with a secret. Again, the ending could have been stronger, but a largely successful mood piece.

All in all, an interesting but not exceptional collection.

So many authors are the reason I picked this one up - it would probably be easier to list those I haven't yet come across yet. This is however a collection of people fairly new to the scene (last four or so years until now), and an excellent starting point for people who may not have come across them yet - get in on the ground floor, type of thing, so you can follow what are sure to be excellent bibliographies.

“Hungry Daughters of Starving Mothers” by Alyssa Wong

It would drive you crazy if you could see the thoughts of anyone you concentrated on - especially if you focused on their worst thoughts and memories. Imagine it's what you digest - what you feed on.

We see Jen on a tinder date who notes her date wants to split her open and glory at her insides. It's just as well for the rest of the women on tinder that Jen has the ability to suck out every thought in his mind and leave him a maybe-dead mess in an alleyway - something she's seemingly inherited from her mother who has a home filled with 'hissing (...) ugly, bottled remains of her paramours'. Who wouldn't want to read more? Jen's problem is she has a sweet friend, Aiko, who's becoming more and more alluring. Scared that she won't be able to resist hurting her, she pushes her away instead and retreats to her mothers home, and distracted, then gets herself into a whole lot of trouble.

This is sweet and perfectly delivered. Wong is certainly someone to keep an eye on - every piece she's had published so far it a wonder to read and sometimes a little hard hitting.

“Selkie Stories are for Losers” by Sofia Samatar

A girl loses her mother the usual selkie way - comes across a certain coat by accident, and never sees her mother again.

She looks after herself best she can. It's almost easier for her to look out for Mona, a girl she meets through work, who cries sometimes and worries her suicidal mother is going to drag her back to Egypt. They plan instead to go to Colorado together. They're together in their grief, both abandoned by their parents.

This is a beautiful piece of work - totally normal in its everyday life of going to work, avoiding creeps, driving out late at night and sneaking back home. You can't help but wish them both the best, and hope they make it to The Centennial State.

“Tornado’s Siren” by Brooke Bolander

Rhea can talk to tornados. The first time is when she's nine, alone at home through some sort of mixup with her family, but living in a wild weather area she knows what to do. She drags the cat and supplies into the bathtub and huddles down for the wait... and it's only when the roof is ripped free and she screams, that it goes away.

Tornadoes come and go on other significant moments of stress in her life, and as soon as she can he marries young and escapes to sunny California because it's not normal to be chased by lovelorn winds of terror, is it?

This is an awesome piece. As someone who lives in a place that was totally flattened by a cyclone a few years before I was born (so going to places like England where they actually have history in beautiful old buildings is like a drug to me), I can fully appreciate the power of the weather and how it can move you.

“Left the Century to Sit Unmoved” by Sarah Pinsker

A hungry and deep water pool will take you if you dive instead of jump, or tempt it by saying 'one more jump'. Always go with a buddy, and jump one at a time so if one is taken, the others can escape. Shay knows many who've been taken - Kendra, Grant... and her own brother, Nick.

Shay pieces together what Nick left behind, and what she knows from others. And like the story before this, it captures at what mercy we are at when it comes to nature, and ends on a punch that's both beautiful and eerie at the same time - as well as full of hope, if you look at it in a certain way. It's becoming increasingly harder to pick a favourite from this anthology.

“A Kiss with Teeth” by Max Gladstone

Vlad is a vampire. He's lived through much - countless lifetimes, and has experienced all there is to experience. Now, though, he lives in a concrete jungle with a wife and 7yo son, he works as an accountant, and plays catch in the evenings. His son is struggling with school, and so he meets with his teacher in order to discuss what can be done. And from here lies disaster.

This is a good, strong story - twisting certain tropes and giving depth and feeling to the usual vampire/midlife crisis story. It's elegant, and gives strength to the usual vampire myth, making it seem as though they really are ancient and powerful beings who can sit silently in the shadows and observe us.

“Jackalope Wives” by Ursula Vernon

'A little magic is worse than none,' is probably one of the best lines I've read in ages.

Jackalope wives. Long legged girls who dance in the moonlight, all curves and firelight, until they're spooked and they dart away into the nothing, never to be caught. Until one is, and like most fantasy, there's a tinge of horror in the good ones.

There's a human boy with a little magic in him. He's tall and dark and causes the girls to swoon - though he's not swoon worthy, and that's the difference. He does something that either proves he's too kind to a fault, or not kind enough... but definitely too cruel. His grandma will make everything alright again though.

And she does. This story is even more perfect than you think possible, as it defies what you hope will happen and manages to give you an ending even better than you were hoping for.

“The Cartographer Wasps and Anarchist Bees” by E. Lily Yu

This short story is too big to be summarised in a simple paragraph review and nothing I can write will do it justice. An envoy of wasps are moved on by heartless humans, and their new residence encroaches on an established bee hive, who will struggle to share the natural resources. The wasps have higher learning - their homes are beautiful maps that are true masterpieces, whilst the bees have never known of paper and ink until now.

The title reveals enough - there are anarchist bees, and slowly, generation by generation (as anarchy is hereditary you see) the wasps' undoing is beautifully orchestrated. This entire piece is beautiful, and a tale to be savoured slowly.

“The Practical Witch’s Guide to Acquiring Real Estate” by A. C. Wise

This one is a lot of fun, being exactly what it says in the title. Wise takes us through a practical guide for buying, squatting, or growing a house with hints and tips, do's and do not do's, and it's all a bit of fun.

There's not much to review - other than saying it's well written and enjoyable, and probably one of my favourite pieces in the book so far!

“The Tallest Doll in New York City” by Maria Dahvana Headley

Possibly the most unique story in this collection, which is saying something after reading The Cartographer Wasps and Anarchist Bees. Set in New York, as we can see from the title, the story is told by a waiter in one of the fanciest buildings there is. It's Valentine's Day, and in this the buildings have life. On this special day, they match up, and overall it's really quite magical - something you can only see happening in a magical city such as New York, or perhaps London.

I've been keeping an eye out for Headley's work ever since getting an ARC of Magonia and whoa - this is just as special. Surreal and beautiful, this sets out to achieve a lot, and absolutely manages it.

“The Haunting of Apollo A7LB” by Hannu Rajaniemi

Hazel is sitting in her house, in mourning, when her evening is interrupted with something literally from her past. She has a history with NASA, and uses the skills she learned there to get the facts out of this stranger that's turned up on her doorstep - it doesn't hurt that she was involved in making the spacesuit this guy is wearing, and that she probably understands more that's been happening in his life than he does.

There's a lot to this, and being Rajaniemi some of it is subtle, at least for the majority of the short piece. It's really quite wonderful, and it makes me want to re-watch Hidden Figures because it's just so good.

“Here Be Dragons” by Chris Tarry

Trigger warnings. Don't like how the subject was handled at all. Hard pass.

“The One They Took Before” by Kelly Sandoval

Kayla knows exactly what's going on when people start to disappear - she's experienced it before, and she's back now, but everything aches at her to return against all sense. Her cats help, but food barely sates her and she can't play her guitar, can't apply for jobs, can't do anything. To return would be losing, but what kind of living is she in now?

A beautiful take on those who step into the world of the fae and what it's like to return. Such a relief to be back here after the previous, and goes very nicely if you're also recently reading Seanan McGuire's Wayward Children series.

“Tiger Baby” by JY Yang

A woman is plagued by dreams of what she feels is her true self - a tiger - and it juxtaposes against her real life which isn't overly great. She yearns to be able to leave everything behind and be who she should be, as someone born in the year of the tiger and not compatible with this world. 

Somehow I felt this one fell a little flat, as while I can relate to the character from everything of not really fitting in and being born in the same year, I didn't really feel relief or happiness for the character for the ending. It seemed a little too easy, somehow. I am however really looking forward to her work from Tor that's coming out soon.

“The Duck” by Ben Loory

A duck somehow falls in love with a rock, and though the other ducks laugh at him (well, all but one), he has to ask himself what will happen, as his love is so great something has to, otherwise he feels he'll explode. One duck, the one who didn't laugh, tries to help. She agrees that something has to be done, and so she calls the rest of the ducks to hep (which they do, for all ducks are brothers - I loved that line), and together they try to carry it to a cliff. They'll throw it off, and something will - it just has to happen!

This is a lovely tale, and I really enjoyed it. It was a bit cute, a bit funny, and didn't take itself too seriously. Just made you smile throughout, which is sometimes uncommon with short stories. 

“Wing” by Amal El-Mohtar

A girl drinks her tea and reads a book in a cafe. 

A girl sits beneath a chestnut tree and reads, and shares bread and honey with another girl when approached. 

But to neither does she tell her secret. This she only shares with one, who does the same - the boy with a matching book on a cord, secured around his neck. 

Amal's words are always beautiful and this is some of her best. It's right up there with The Truth About Owls, and makes you just want to shove it at people saying 'if you only read one, please read this one!' The less said about it the better, as it's such a lovely tale you need to come to it yourself, and find the meaning you want in it. 

“The Philosophers” by Adam Ehrlich Sachs

The relationships of a boy and their father, presented in a triptych fashion. Good writing, but didn't really present anything 'wow' to me that I can review. All about expectations, choosing whether to try to live up to them or not, and whether you will be who you will be, or who someone else wants you to be, or shapes you that way.

“My Time Among the Bridge Blowers” by Eugene Fischer

A man travels, searching for the Bridge Blowers, and what we have are his travel notes as if we're watching a travel documentary by Palin or Lumley. For fans of Marie Brennan, this was quaint and peaceful and a bit of a character study, but not much else to say about it other than that.

“The Husband Stitch” by Carmen Maria Machado

I confess I'm a little confused at the ordering of the short stories in the collection, as putting this piece after two fairly simple stories that don't really have much you can say about them, after Amal's which is beautiful, and this one which, again, you need to come to it yourself to find whatever meaning you wish from it, but it is undoubtably powerful and feminist and deserves all the applause. I'd love an audio version of this, and to see/hear it performed at Worldcon. 

This piece is a little more horror-bent than the majority of the collection, which only works even more in its favour. I'm certainly going to be keeping an eye on whatever else Machado has out already, and what she comes out with next. 

“The Pauper Prince and the Eucalyptus Jinn” by Usman T. Malik

A boy grows up listening to a story his grandfather tells, of a pauper princess who had a tea store in the shade of a eucalyptus tree, in which a jinn resided. The tale tells of a place that seems a very long way from where they now reside in Florida, where even when they speak to each other in Urdu it's like they're in another world entirely.

Possibly the longest piece in this collection, but being Usman it manages to be worth it. As the grandfather's story dominates the boy's life, it overwhelmed the story too (in a good way) for the little it takes up, and pages and pages after are about the boy - now grown up - and his journey to find answers, meanings, an end to the story that sustained him as a kid. 

It's a grand ending to this anthology, and lovely throughout.

A strong collection of entries from various "new" authors in the realm of fantasy and science-fiction-writing,. Although I have read some passages and stories from this list in recent years, this compendium offers a nice crosshatch of speculative fiction that mostly stays away from high and epic fantasy tropes. Some of my favorite stories include those from Alyssa Wong, Peter Beagle, and Max Gladstone. I was surprised to discover how many stories relied on modern and future technologies.

I don't have many complaints about the authors and stories chosen, although there were a couple of passages that I felt were some half-formed ideas, or didn't interest me as much as the others. I did come away from this experience having a few new authors from whom I want to seek out further published work. Recommended!

As a huge fan of fantasy, I loved this collection of new authors. There were a lot of good gems in this anthology. If you're a fan of all kinds of fantasy (high, modern, etc), give this anthology a read.

A fine introduction for readers looking for a taste of fantasy writers who are just beginning to affect the movement of the genre. A few of these stories are award nominees, and a few of these writers have won awards for their ground breaking work. A nice addition to any fantasy collection

A collection to highlight upcoming voices in fantasy. I know a lot of these authors from being a fan of some of these authors. They all write in what could be considered a new era of fantasy, one that tries to push the boundaries of the already fantastical. A couple of these stories I'd read before and loved. I enjoyed quite a lot of them, although I am not sure a few are fantasy as much as about human nature, and some are on the border of speculative, scifi and fantasy, which I'm not too much of a stickler to care about. Overall, a great collection that encapsulates the breadth of what is being done with fantasy in today's publishing. My favorites were Hungry Daughters of Starving Mothers, Tornado's Siren, Left the Century to Sit Unmoved, A kiss with Teeth, Jackalope Wives, The Tallest Doll in New York City, The One they took before, The Pauper Prince and the Eucalyptus Jinn.

This is one of the best fantasy collections I’ve read in a long time. It is a lovely blend of fascinating and disturbing (mostly) urban fantasy stories pulling from and playing with folklore and mythology. Most are already award-winning stories. All are compelling and they are great examples of a diverse field of up and coming stars including Sofia Samatar, Max Gladstone, Ursula Vernon, E. Lily Yu, Maria Dahvana Headley, Hannu Rajaniemi, Amal El-Mohtar, Usman T. Malik just to name a few of the 19 authors.
My favorites included “Jackalope Wives” by Vernon which shows a wise grandmother having to clean up a mess made by her foolish grandson. I loved Headley’s “The Tallest Doll in New York City” in which the Chrysler Building is done waiting for the Empire State Building to make its move. “The Haunting of Apollo ACLB” by Rajaniemi is a funny and sad ghost story. And “The Practical Witch’s Guide to Acquiring Real Estate” by A. C. Wise is an informative and humorous brochure. Gladstone’s “A Kiss with Teeth” looks at the dangers of trying to fit in versus being your authentic self. Brooke Bolander’s love-struck tornado! Sarah Pinsker’s pond that may or may not disappear people. Kelly Sandoval’s story of a woman adjusting to life after being away a year and a day. Really, these stories were all so good!

Sadly uneven. While there were a few really beautiful stories, overall I found this anthology not as great as it could have been. Peter S. Beagle and Jacob Weismann collected short stories by authors they think will influence the future of fantasy. As such this is a very varied anthology with different outlooks on what constitutes "fantasy" as a genre. There were some really innovative story telling techniques employed and some stories I really adored - but some felt flat for me. I guess that is always going to be the case when it comes to anthologies this broad.

It took me a while to get into this collection as the first five stories did not particularly wow me. While I thought "Tornado's Siren" (about a tornado who is in love with a girl) had a really interesting premise, the execution, especially in regards to the characters, fell flat for me; whereas "A Kiss with Teeth" just bored me to death - a vampire as a urban dad with midlife crisis just is not something I am very interested in. This is exemplary of how much of the collection read for me: many stories were just boring or not as well rounded as I would have liked.

But still, there were some stories I really, absolutely, completely adored:

Jackalope Wives by Ursula Vernon: wimsy, sad, poignant, and reminiscent of classical fairy tales with a twist: very much my thing.

The Haunting of Apollo A7LB by Hannu Rajaniemi: funny, quiet, political, unexpected, and wonderfully hopeful.

The One They Took Before by Kelly Sandoval: mean, sad, wonderful, difficult to get into at first but very rewarding in the end (oh the ending was so beautiful and hopeful and sad).

The Husband Stitch by Carmen Maria Machado: stunning, weird, feminist, sad, dark, wonderful. My absolute favourite of the bunch. And I am glad because I have been wanting to read her forthcoming debut collection for a while and now I cannot wait. This is just my type of dark magical realism that I adore in short stories. If you only read one of those stories: read this one.

I think this collection is broad enough to offer something for everybody - while this is a strength it also is a weakness as I found the anthology too uneven for my taste.

A great collection of diverse voices. There is a lot to love here.

This review originally appeared on http://fictionistmag.com/.

★★★★★

They bring you childhood stories gone wrong, magical creatures in heat, a building that’s alive and full of waiters, love, ducks, and a new take on a bloodsucking fiend.

Nineteen emerging fantasy voices brought together by Peter S. Beagle shine in this new anthology. That sounded like a PR tagline, but I swear, this anthology is great.

It's honestly a breath of fresh air. I'm anti-spoiler in these reviews, and since these stories are so short, it's hard to talk about them at all without giving anything away.

Suffice it to say that these stories range from entertaining to creepy to thought-provoking, and the writing is top notch. These little stories stick in your mind like popcorn sticks in your gums. You'll try to shake one story off before you read the next one, but by page two of the next story, you're hooked on that one too.

The best part about a good anthology is that there's no 'book two.' You don't have to wait a year to know what happens -- in fact, you'll only have to wait 20 pages or so to find out what happens in these stories. Reading so many stories at once also made me feel pretty accomplished, especially after reading so many full-length novels week after week.

If you need a palate cleanser, or if you're craving some unique fantasy stories, or if you need some shorter reads -- no matter the reason, definitely pick up The New Voices of Fantasy.

Five stars from me. Perfect, bite-sized pieces of beautifully-crafted fantasy morsels.

What a great way to find new authors. This book of short stories has a wide array of characters and various genres. With 19 writers, many of whom I'm not familiar you find great diversity of style and length. Enjoy, Enjoy, Enjoy
Hungry Daughters of Starving Mothers” by Alyssa Wong
“Selkie Stories are for Losers” by Sofia Samatar
“Tornado’s Siren” by Brooke Bolander
“Left the Century to Sit Unmoved” by Sarah Pinsker
“A Kiss with Teeth” by Max Gladstone
“Jackalope Wives” by Ursula Vernon
“The Cartographer Wasps and Anarchist Bees” by E. Lily Yu
“The Practical Witch’s Guide to Acquiring Real Estate” by A. C. Wise
“The Tallest Doll in New York City” by Maria Dahvana Headley
“The Haunting of Apollo A7LB” by Hannu Rajaniemi
“Here Be Dragons” by Chris Tarry
“The One They Took Before” by Kelly Sandoval
“Tiger Baby” by JY Yang
“The Duck” by Ben Loory
“Wing” by Amal El-Mohtar
“The Philosophers” by Adam Ehrlich Sachs
“My Time Among the Bridge Blowers” by Eugene Fischer
“The Husband Stitch” by Carmen Maria Machado
“The Pauper Prince and the Eucalyptus Jinn” by Usman T. Malik

This was a good collection of short stories and a great way of finding new authors. With any short story collections, there are going to be some that you enjoy more than others and this was the case with this collection. Having said that they were all good in their own way. If you are a big fantasy reader then this is worth reading.