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You Probably Haven’t Heard of These Two Remarkable Fantasy Writers

We’ve all seen those headlines — you know the kind — that run something like, “The best American fantasy writer you’ve never heard of.” Who could that be, we wonder? Well, two possible answers to that particular question are Manly Wade Wellman (1903-1986) and Avram Davidson (1923-1993). It’s a safe bet you haven’t heard of either of them. Read more

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‘The Privilege of the Happy Ending’ by Kij Johnson

Johnson plumbs great depths in her third short story collection, full of bittersweet tales of the fantastic. This pleasingly varied anthology of fantasy and homage collects 14 works, many of which were previously published elsewhere, including the Nebula and Hugo Award finalist and World Fantasy Award–winning “The Dream-Quest of Vellitt Boe.” … While the entries are uniformly excellent in pacing and prose, the standouts may be the collection’s opener and closer. “Tool-Using Mimics” spins out a half-dozen explanations for a vintage photo of a young girl with tentacles that lead to piercing questions about how much we can know about the past, other species, and each other. The titular novella, which also won a World Fantasy Award, is a compelling fairy tale about a little orphan girl and her talking hen that poignantly interrogates the ways we determine which stories take center stage. Read more

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‘White Cat, Black Dog’ by Kelly Link

Link has a boundless imagination and a sharp sense of humor, but even in tales filled with vampires, monsters, and a menagerie of talking animals, she never forgets the humanity of her characters, even when she puts them through their paces. She’s no sentimentalist, to be sure, but she writes with a seemingly limitless compassion, which anchors the stories in something enduring, something more real than real. Read more

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Ode to Samuel Delany

The Ballad of Beta-2 is a mysterious tale about generational starships taken over by superstition, paranoia, and misinformation, eventually descending into horrific acts of genocide. It also contains elements of the supernatural, or perhaps the alien, in the form of the Destroyer, an entity responsible for catastrophe aboard the ships, whose actions are misattributed to the marginalized population derisively known as the “One-Eyes.” Read more

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2022 World Fantasy Award Winners

The World Fantasy Award winners for works published in 2021 have been announced during the 2022 World Fantasy Convention, held November 3-6, 2022 at the Hyatt Regency New Orleans. The Life Achievement Awards, presented annually to individuals who have demonstrated outstanding service to the fantasy field, went to Samuel R. Delany and Terri Windling. Read more

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‘The Riftwar Cycle’: TV Series Adaptation of Fantasy Books In Works

The Riftwar Saga series, considered one of the best known pieces of fantasy IP not yet adapted for the screen, started with the 1982 publication of Feist’s Magician, the first of what now spans more than 30 books and short stories. They have sold more than 20 million copies worldwide and have been translated into more than 20 languages. Read more

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