Isaac Asimov's Magical Worlds of Fantasy, Volume 6: Mythical Beasties
by Isaac Asimov (Editor), Martin H. Greenberg (Editor), Charles G. Waugh (Editor)
Isaac Asimov's Magical Worlds of Fantasy (6)
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A series of short stories about mythic beasts. Not bad stories but nothing spectacular, most of the stories have also appeared elsewhere. It's also more of a SF slant on fantasy than true fantasy. Each story has an introduction talking about the mythical creature featured and how that is different from the story presented.
The first is a Centaur story, "Centaur Fielder for the Yankees" by Edward D Hoch. Centaur plays baseball, yup, that's about it.
Second, Dragon, is George R R Martin's "Ice Dragon", which I've read recently. Quite a sweet story about Adara who never feels the cold who is the only one who can ride the Ice Dragon, a coming of age story.
Next up are Firedrakes represented by Andrew Lang's "Prince Prigio", the most show more fairytaleish of the stories but it tries a bit too hard.
Next up is the Gorgon; Tanith Lee's "The Gorgon": modern story about a mysterious woman on a greek island. No-one will bring the narrator there so he swims himself.
Next - Griffin; Frank R Stockton's "The Griffin and the Minor Canon" - one of my favourite stories and a better fairy tale type. A Griffin hears of a sculpture of himself and goes to find out.
"The Kragen" comes next, a story by Jack Vance, pretty much SF and had me glazing over occasionally, my least favourite of the bunch.
When you talk Mermaids the story has to be Hans Christian Anderson's "The Little Mermaid".
Mildred Clingerman represents Minotaur with "Letter from Laura", a time-travel humourous story with a visit to a Minotaur.
F A Javor has "The Triumph of Pegasus", a genetic Engineering story with a woman asking for a flying horse and getting what she wants, but be careful what you wish for.
Thomas N Scortia has a Phoenix in "Caution! Inflammable!" A phoenix lands and starts building it's nest and a reporter is sent to investigate, I did like the twist in the tale.
at this stage I was beginning to be a bit disappointed at the ratio of SF to Fantasy and Robert F Young's Sphinx story "The Pyramid Project" added to the SF collumn with a story that could have helped inspire Stargate (it was written in 1961) where the Sphinxes kidnap two men from opposing armies and try to enforce peace. Their pyramids back on earth have a purpose.
Theodore Sturgeon puts a tick into the Fantasy side with his Unicorn story "The Silken Swift", sweet and interesting looks at innocence and virginity as only Sturgeon could.
Last was Thomas A Easton's Mood Wendigo. My absolutely least favourite story and falls into the SF category. Not my cup of tea at all. show less
The first is a Centaur story, "Centaur Fielder for the Yankees" by Edward D Hoch. Centaur plays baseball, yup, that's about it.
Second, Dragon, is George R R Martin's "Ice Dragon", which I've read recently. Quite a sweet story about Adara who never feels the cold who is the only one who can ride the Ice Dragon, a coming of age story.
Next up are Firedrakes represented by Andrew Lang's "Prince Prigio", the most show more fairytaleish of the stories but it tries a bit too hard.
Next up is the Gorgon; Tanith Lee's "The Gorgon": modern story about a mysterious woman on a greek island. No-one will bring the narrator there so he swims himself.
Next - Griffin; Frank R Stockton's "The Griffin and the Minor Canon" - one of my favourite stories and a better fairy tale type. A Griffin hears of a sculpture of himself and goes to find out.
"The Kragen" comes next, a story by Jack Vance, pretty much SF and had me glazing over occasionally, my least favourite of the bunch.
When you talk Mermaids the story has to be Hans Christian Anderson's "The Little Mermaid".
Mildred Clingerman represents Minotaur with "Letter from Laura", a time-travel humourous story with a visit to a Minotaur.
F A Javor has "The Triumph of Pegasus", a genetic Engineering story with a woman asking for a flying horse and getting what she wants, but be careful what you wish for.
Thomas N Scortia has a Phoenix in "Caution! Inflammable!" A phoenix lands and starts building it's nest and a reporter is sent to investigate, I did like the twist in the tale.
at this stage I was beginning to be a bit disappointed at the ratio of SF to Fantasy and Robert F Young's Sphinx story "The Pyramid Project" added to the SF collumn with a story that could have helped inspire Stargate (it was written in 1961) where the Sphinxes kidnap two men from opposing armies and try to enforce peace. Their pyramids back on earth have a purpose.
Theodore Sturgeon puts a tick into the Fantasy side with his Unicorn story "The Silken Swift", sweet and interesting looks at innocence and virginity as only Sturgeon could.
Last was Thomas A Easton's Mood Wendigo. My absolutely least favourite story and falls into the SF category. Not my cup of tea at all. show less
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Isaac Asimov was born in Petrovichi, Russia, on January 2, 1920. His family emigrated to the United States in 1923 and settled in Brooklyn, New York, where they owned and operated a candy store. Asimov became a naturalized U.S. citizen at the age of eight. As a youngster he discovered his talent for writing, producing his first original fiction at show more the age of eleven. He went on to become one of the world's most prolific writers, publishing nearly 500 books in his lifetime. Asimov was not only a writer; he also was a biochemist and an educator. He studied chemistry at Columbia University, earning a B.S., M.A. and Ph.D. In 1951, Asimov accepted a position as an instructor of biochemistry at Boston University's School of Medicine even though he had no practical experience in the field. His exceptional intelligence enabled him to master new systems rapidly, and he soon became a successful and distinguished professor at Columbia and even co-authored a biochemistry textbook within a few years. Asimov won numerous awards and honors for his books and stories, and he is considered to be a leading writer of the Golden Age of science fiction. While he did not invent science fiction, he helped to legitimize it by adding the narrative structure that had been missing from the traditional science fiction books of the period. He also introduced several innovative concepts, including the thematic concern for technological progress and its impact on humanity. Asimov is probably best known for his Foundation series, which includes Foundation, Foundation and Empire, and Second Foundation. In 1966, this trilogy won the Hugo award for best all-time science fiction series. In 1983, Asimov wrote an additional Foundation novel, Foundation's Edge, which won the Hugo for best novel of that year. Asimov also wrote a series of robot books that included I, Robot, and eventually he tied the two series together. He won three additional Hugos, including one awarded posthumously for the best non-fiction book of 1995, I. Asimov. "Nightfall" was chosen the best science fiction story of all time by the Science Fiction Writers of America. In 1979, Asimov wrote his autobiography, In Memory Yet Green. He continued writing until just a few years before his death from heart and kidney failure on April 6, 1992. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Martin Harry Greenberg (March 1, 1941 - June 25, 2011) was an American academic and speculative fiction anthologist. In all, he compiled 1,298 anthologies. He founded Tekno Books, a packager of more than 2000 published books; he was also a co-founder of the Sci-Fi Channel. Some of his anthologies included: Past Imperfect (2001), Once Upon a Galaxy show more (2002) and Sirius: The Dog Star (2004). (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Charles Waugh is an associate professor of English at Utah State University and the editor and translator (with Nguyn Lien) of Family of Fallen Leaves: Stories of Agent Orange by Vietnamese Writers. Nguyn Lien was a writer, scholar, and teacher who translated many international works of literature into Vietnamese. Van Gi is the dean of the Faculty show more of Creative Writing at the University of Culture in Hanoi. show less
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- Canonical title
- Isaac Asimov's Magical Worlds of Fantasy, Volume 6: Mythical Beasties
- Original title
- Mythical Beasties
- Alternate titles
- Mythical Beasts
- Original publication date
- 1837 - 1986 (original stories) (original stories); 1986
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- Fiction and Literature, Fantasy
- DDC/MDS
- 813.087608 — Literature & rhetoric American literature in English American fiction in English By type Genre fiction Adventure fiction Speculative fiction Collections
- LCC
- PZ3 .A8316 — Language and Literature Fiction and juvenile belles lettres Fiction and juvenile belles lettres Fiction in English
- BISAC
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