curiously unfocused collection of new and previously published work, ranging from classic to mediocre worth. and not a single basilisk. really nice illustrations by Terri Windling, though. ( )

[2010-01-22] Intended to do a full review, but still too sore from the fall. Here's what I'd already written. Note -- contents include Alan Garner's short "Feel Free", which covers some of the same themes as "Red Shift", and the Earthsea short "The Word of Unbinding"

Anthology of fantasy short stories, first published in 1980. Going by the copyright page, this is a mix of reprints and new stories, originally published from 1956 to 1980. There's a good mix of styles here. A couple of the pieces didn't work for me, but this anthology had a very high hit rate for me.

http://julesjones.livejournal.com/362085.html ( )

Now these stories of mythical creatures are good but the illustrations are excellent and well worth the price of entry. Then again Terry Windling is an amazing artist.

There is an overriding sense of menace in a lot of these stories, these are not stories of safe monsters, these are creatures of other. Some of the stories are just not to my taste and a while later none really stand out exceptionally in my mind. They were a fairly quick read and nothing stands out as being truly bad either. There's a variety of SF and Fantasy stories here. ( )