The reader would be mostly familiar with “The Lord of the Rings”, “Chronicles of Narnia” and “Harry Potter”, adventure stories
set in make-believe worlds. But Fantasy, says the editor, is not only these stories of witches, wizards, dwarves and elves (though it is all of these). Fantasy as a genre of storytelling includes all those stories where something out of the ordinary occurs, events of an almost magical nature take place, and evrything is not what it seems to be on the surface. In other words, there is a hidden reality that is revealed behind the everyday world.
Science Fiction, on the other hand, typically deals with some aspect of science and technology, some vision of the future. But in real life, the distinctions are often blurred; especially as Science Fiction authors often write Fantasy, and vice verca.
Some of the authors included in this anthology are Ursula K LeGuin (The Earthsea Trilogy), Robert E Howard (remember Conan and the sword & sorcery craze that
followed), Jack Vance, Fritz Leiber, Michael Moorcock, Roger Zelazny, Harlan Ellison and Theodore Sturgeon. All these are well known names in the field, each with his or her own fan following.
It is interesting to note that many of these stories have “Heroes” as their central characters – an attribute they seem to share with ancient myths and legends. This contrasts with the approach followed in Science Fiction, which tends to put ordinary people in extraordinary situations. The theme of alternate worlds, however, is one that is common to both Fantasy and Science Fiction. And, of course, writers in both fields try to evoke the sense of wonder…
Some collections are only good (with the odd exception here and there), but this
collection is uniformly good, and a delight for the discerning reader. Ultimately, the common thread running throuh these diverse stories is the creativity of the authors and the originality of their stories. It is difficult to pick favourites from among these tales, but “Valley of the Worm”, “Paladin of the Lost Hour” and “Yesterday Was Monday” were outstanding. This collection is as good an introduction to the genre as any.