The Book Of Magic
A Collection of Stories
Hardcover | Kindle | Audiobook
Edited by Gardner Dozois
Publisher: Bantam Press
Release Date: October 16, 2018

I probably say this each and every time, but I really do love anthologies! Where else can you get a load of different authors in one place for one great price, you know? In The Book Of Magic, you get everything you expect and more! Assembling 17 great authors in one place is a difficult job but this book, with a lot of help from editor Gardner Dozois, does just that.

You’ll get well known writers that almost all of us have heard of and maybe even a few that you have yet to discover! I have sort of jumped around in the book and cherry-picked the stories, but I have not yet been disappointed. The range of topics is about as varied as you can get, from spirits coming back from the dead as wild forest creatures to witty stories about being in the wrong place at the wrong time. But a common thread seems to be that magic is not always the best way to solve something, and oftentimes can cause as much harm as good. For not all practitioners are quick to use it, regardless of the favors asked or difficult situation.

Just in time for Halloween, this collection truly puts you in the spirit of this sometimes scary, oftentimes fantastic, holiday. I have been reading a story every couple of days in between the other books that I am digging into this month. This compilation is a treat for any who love a good fantasy tale; I wholeheartedly recommend this for a fun bedtime read! It has over two weeks of stories to help tuck you in each night. Enjoy!

Sidenote: So far my favorite story is the one that involves the Devil’s son-in-law, it is hilarious and has quite the Southern spin to it!

Hot on the heels of Gardner Dozois’s acclaimed anthology The Book of Swords comes this companion volume devoted to magic. How could it be otherwise? For every Frodo, there is a Gandalf … and a Saruman. For every Dorothy, a Glinda . . . and a Wicked Witch of the West. What would Harry Potter be without Albus Dumbledore . . . and Severus Snape? Figures of wisdom and power, possessing arcane, often forbidden knowledge, wizards and sorcerers are shaped””or misshaped””by the potent magic they seek to wield. Yet though their abilities may be godlike, these men and women remain human””some might say all too human. Such is their curse. And their glory.

In these pages, seventeen of today’s top fantasy writers””including award-winners Elizabeth Bear, John Crowley, Kate Elliott, K. J. Parker, Tim Powers, and Liz Williams””cast wondrous spells that thrillingly evoke the mysterious, awesome, and at times downright terrifying worlds where magic reigns supreme: worlds as far away as forever, and as near as next door.

FEATURING SIXTEEN ALL-NEW STORIES:

“The Return of the Pig” by K. J. Parker
“Community Service” by Megan Lindholm
“Flint and Mirror” by John Crowley
“The Friends of Masquelayne the Incomparable” by Matthew Hughes
“The Biography of a Bouncing Boy Terror: Chapter Two: Jumping Jack in Love” by Ysabeau S. Wilce
“Song of Fire” by Rachel Pollack
“Loft the Sorcerer” by Eleanor Arnason
“The Governoer” by Tim Powers
“Sungrazer” by Liz Williams
“The Staff in the Stone” by Garth Nix
“No Work of Mine” by Elizabeth Bear
“Widow Maker” by Lavie Tidhar
“The Wolf and the Manticore” by Greg Van Eekhout
“The Devil’s Whatever” by Andy Duncan
“Bloom” by Kate Elliott
“The Fall and Rise of the House of the Wizard Malkuril” by Scott Lynch

Plus George R. R. Martin’s classic story “A Night at the Tarn House” and an introduction by Gardner Dozois