Twenty Epics

I just finished the book Twenty Epics, and I have to say that it was the most enjoyable reading experience that I've had in a long time. It was published by All-Star Stories, who also published the equally enjoyable All-Star Zeppelin Adventure Stories.

David Moles and Susan Marie Groppi, the editors, posed a challenge to the contributing authors: write a story that evokes everything that is best about multi-volume epic fantasy, but do so in less than 10,000 words. This could devolve into something well-nigh unreadable, but for the discretion the editors have used in selecting the stories to include. As with the previous book, the choices they make are intelligent, compelling, and wholly readable.

The authors themselves take various tacts in accomplishing this goal. Some provide an incident, which in itself is not particularly epic. But the reader is led to believe that this is like seeing a detail of a painting: there is a great deal of the picture you aren't allowed to see. Others simply tell short stories about epic themes or events. This is certainly true for one of my favorite stories in the book, Tim Pratt's "Cup and Table". This story synthesizes the structure of Arthurian literature with the lurid vivacity of comic books. It also includes one of my favorite characters in the book, a jet-black creature named Carlsbad, who is actually composed of all the evil that is in men's hearts. When the main character asks why Carlsbad isn't doing evil himself, the creature shrugs it off, pointing out that "There's more to both of us than our raw materials." And the final line of the story is one of the most perfect and poignant things I've read in recent memory. It has stuck with me.

Hell, there is even one story in the manner of the Choose Your Own Adventure books that were popular when I was but a wee lad!

The book includes stories by Christophers Rowe & Barzak, Alan Deniro (whose book of short stories, Skinny Dipping in the Lake of the Dead, I'm currently finishing up, and which I highly recommend as well), and Benjamin Rosenbaum. Well, it includes stories by 20 authors, but these are the one's I've encountered before (and the ones I have links to post to); nevertheless, almost all the stories are splendid. Even if a story isn't your cup of tea, you know that it's just a few more pages until you are deposited into an entirely different milieu. Apparently, two of the stories from the book (Mr. Pratt's and Mr. Rosenbaum's stories) have even been selected for inclusion in The Year’s Best Fantasy & Horror 2007: Twentieth Annual Collection by editors Gavin Grant and Kelly Link.

I always suck at reviews, because if I like it (and usually that is the only reason I would feel the need to post a review), I rarely have much explanation other than saying: "I like it." But I like this book, and if you are interested in well-written stories that fall into the general category of "weird fantasy", then you may like it too. 'Nuff said.