Wizards: Magical Tales From the Masters of Modern Fantasy

Neil Gaiman's "The Witch's Headstone" is a weird little tale of a boy living in a graveyard, surrounded by ghosts--they are also his teachers and only friends. Garth Nix's "Holly and Iron" is a novel take on the Norman conquest and the Robin Hood legend. "The Ruby Incomparable" is another wonderful tale by Kage Baker, and shares many characters with The Anvil of the World. Jane Yolen's "slipping Sideways Through Eternity" actually plagirizes *herself*, which takes doing (it's a terrible, pat, short-story version of The Devil's Arithmatic). Terry Dowling's "The Magikkers" tells the story of a school for magic--but unlike other magic schools, each student can only perform one piece of true magic. Will they keep it for themselves? Or show more "share" it with the headmaster? Creepily enough, the latter choice is the one the author favors. Orson Scott Card's "Stonefather" might have been a good story (I liked the world building) except that once again, it's the tale of a young, righteous man who upholds truth, justice and his own personal religion against the thoughtless cruelties of his fellows. In the end, of course the mocking, high-spirited girl says "I'm only a weak-skinned girl" before aquiesscing to be his nurturing mother/wife figure. Yay! show less

The stories comport well with the title. They are about magic, and although there is some conflict, these are not sword-and-sorcery tales. Some are quite imaginative, some are not, and there are 1 or 3 pieces of the sort that fall within the category of "short story" while not actually being stories but exercises in literary pretension. Fortunately they are all adjacent so once you get through them it's clear sailing. On the whole, this is a better anthology than I am used to seeing, with respect to individual stories and to the collection. And Orson Scott Card writes so engagingly; why must he be such a hateful human being?

Reviewed by Carrie Spellman for TeensReadToo.com

You may think you know wizards. You may think you know magic. But the wizards in these stories just might have a few surprising tricks up their sleeves.

"The Witch's Headstone" contains a dead sorceress who's more kind than creepy, despite the warnings to the contrary. "Holly and Iron" centers around an ancient magical battle where one unprepared woman could unite or destroy two races. In "The Ruby Incomparable" the only daughter of Good and Evil has mastered most of the secrets of the universe, but she can't understand her own mother. In "Winter's Wife" money is no match for the power of magic. The list goes on, and each story will make you rethink what you thought you knew. Or maybe show more confirm it.

Some of the authors you'll recognize. Some may be completely new. All of them have found a fan in me.

I'll be the first to admit I usually dislike collections of short stories. I feel like I'm being cheated if they're good, and fooled if they're not. Another thing I had to rethink after reading this book. I fell back in love with the authors that I knew, learned more about ones that I'd only heard of, and discovered brand new obsessions. This is a must for fantasy fans, and a great introduction for newcomers. show less

A collection of short stories looking at the darker aspect of magic which I thought would really appeal to me. Especially when you look at the list of contributors: Neil Gaiman, Tad Williams, Tanith Lee, Gene Wolfe et al. Unfortunately the contents didn't live up to the promise, at least for me anyway. Only a couple of tales really held much interest for me and one of those I'd already read (Gaiman's entry being an excerpt from The Graveyard Book). The other standout story was from Elizabeth Hand which tells of a woodsman coming home to small town Main from Iceland with a new wife in tow. She might be a little more than a regular mail-order bride as local landowner and big businessman finds out when his plans upset the natural order. I show more will add a caveat to my disinterest/dislike of the other stories in that they mostly appear aimed at a younger market. show less

Like any anthology, the stories vary in quality, but I found none of them terrible and the whole an enjoyable read. "Holly and Iron" by Garth Nix is particularly brilliant and highly recommended, even if you read nothing else here (though I don't know why you'd do that.)

And I'll never forget that I was reading "The Ruby Incomparable" by Kage Baker when I heard about her death. Just a coincidence, of course, but it made the story rather poignant.

Several very good pieces centering on various kinds of wizards, I picked this up for the Gaiman contribution only to discover it was merely a chapter from The Graveyard Book (bummer!). However, the rest of the tales are worthy of reading, and I especially enjoyed the appearance of the Winchester Mystery House, in SJ CA! The only distraction, IMHO, was the blurbs about the authors - it could have been condensed at the front or back. Suitable for young adult readers and on up!

A particularly well crafted collection of magical tales, from classic to urban fantasy, some steampunk-ish SF/fantasy blend, some particularly well done reimaginings of Arthur lengends and children's tales (Alice in Wonderland), this collection has it all.
Unusually, i do not feel the need to remind folks that not all tales in any given anthology will appeal to all readers, as this is one i read everything in it.