- Paperback: 256 pages
- Publisher: Tachyon Publications; 1 edition (Sep 1 2007)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 189239152X
- ISBN-13: 978-1892391520
- Product Dimensions: 21.6 x 15.4 x 2.1 cm
- Shipping Weight: 318 g
- Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #330,737 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. In addition to their individual quality, the 16 stories in this rollicking collection amply demonstrate Hugo-winner Swanwick's impressive versatility. Characters vary from feuding prospectors on a heat-scoured Venus in Tin Marsh to clients of The Bordello in Faerie. On one end of the mood spectrum are the three elegantly wry adventures of Darger and Surplus, roguish postapocalypse con artists; on the other is the gentle Triceratops Summer, told in a matter-of-fact, laconic style that at first seems to show wonderful things becoming commonplace and then reveals that the familiar can still be wonderful. Swanwick (The Iron Dragon's Daughter) pulls apart overused situations to see what makes them tick and then constructs fresh, surprising plots from the pieces. The locked-room mystery may seem hopelessly stale, but not when it's A Small Room in Koboldtown, where voodoo beings and sleazy politics abound. Readers tired of conventional fantasy and SF will find this collection of intriguing characters and lovingly told stories deeply refreshing. (Sept.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
From Booklist
Rounding up all Swanwick's stories to date about unusually nondescript human Darger and genetically modified dog Surplus, a previously unpublished novella, and three Hugo-winning pieces, this generous volume opens with "Hello, Said the Stick," in which a soldier en route to battle picks up a talking stick that turns out to be unwontedly dangerous. The new publication, "The Skysailor's Tale," is an adventure on board a British airship claiming new lands for Queen Titania that is framed as a father telling his son about some of his strange doings when a lad. The Darger and Surplus capers, occuring after the age of computers in a suspiciously nineteenth-century-ish though far-future Europe, are satisfying tales of plotting and heists involving a great team, indeed. The closer, "Urdumheim," is the brilliantly imagined story of King Nimrod and the time when the world was new, people didn't die, and there was only one language. Swanwick's stories are possessed of sufficient depth and generic variety to satisfy quite a range of genre tastes. Schroeder, Regina
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Customer Reviews
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Most helpful customer reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Yet Another Great Collection of Short Stories from Michael Swanwick,
By
This review is from: The Dog Said Bow-Wow (Paperback)
One of our great masters of short fiction in any genre, Michael Swanwick demonstrates the artistic depth and range of his talent in his latest short story collection "The Dog Said Bow-Wow". Included are three Hugo-Award winning stories, amidst a compelling collection of riveting tales about dinosaurs in Vermont ("Triceratops Summer"), a deadly game of hide and seek on inhospitable Venus ("Tin Marsh"), an ogre murdered in the magical realm of Faerie ("A Small Room in Koboldtown") and a young man's unusual sexual encounters in Faerie ("The Bordello in Faerie"). Among the most memorable tales are the three chronicling the "post-Utopian" adventures and misdeeds of confidence men Darger and Surplus in London ("The Dog Said Bow-Wow"), Paris ("The Little Cat Laughed to See Such Sport") and Arcadia ("Girls and Boys, Come Out to Play"). And then there is a most masterful work of steampunk fiction, "The Skysailor's Tale", which makes its debut in this very collection.Those doubting that Swanwick is one of the greatest living American writers of fiction should regard this collection as required essential reading, since it reaffirms his status as among the finest prose stylists of science fiction and fantasy. A writer of lesser talent could not pull off Swanwick's poignantly sweet tale about a herd of Triceratops visiting a Vermont town ("Triceratops Summer") or have it end like this: "So there we stood in the late summer of our lives. Out of nowhere, we'd been given a vacation from our ordinary lives, and now it was almost over. A pessimist would have said that we were just waiting for oblivion. But Delia and I didn't see it that way. Life is strange. Sometimes it's hard, and other times it's painful enough to break your heart. But sometimes it's grotesque and beautiful. Sometimes it fills you with wonder, like a Triceratops sleeping in the moonlight."
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta) Amazon.com:
4.5 out of 5 stars (8 customer reviews) 15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
My introduction to Michael Swanwick,
By Kenneth R. Austin - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: The Dog Said Bow-Wow (Paperback)
I stumbled upon this anthology after scanning a list of past Hugo winners, looking for some authors with whom I was not yet acquainted. I wish I had discovered Michael Swanwick years ago. I couldn't put this book down. My wife got sick of me saying, "You know, this guy is really good." All of the stories were engaging, but I particularly enjoyed "Slow Life." It had a satisfying interplay of ideas that I won't spoil for you. And if you're a fan of Fahfrd and the Grey Mouser, you'll certainly enjoy the three Darger and Surplus stories. Don't let the simplicity of the title put you off; these are complex and well crafted stories woven by a master. I'm definitely going to add more Swanwick to my collection.
11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
What a pleasure,
By Ian Kaplan - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: The Dog Said Bow-Wow (Paperback)
This book is simply a pleasure to read. I have recently read books of short stories by Gene Wolfe and Larry Niven and (surprisingly in Wolfe's case) the collections were not very good. Bow-Wow as the opposite. While some stories are stronger than others, I enjoyed them all.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Short Story Goodness,
By E. McDonald - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: The Dog Said Bow-Wow (Paperback)
Michael Swanwick, along with Connie Willis and Kelly Link, is one of the best science fiction short story writers out there. His re-imagining of fable and fantasy and setting it in a modern society where fairies and elves talk like your neighbor next door while wielding magic that lives in a our faintest memories is sometimes so good it can change how you look at the world we currently live in. Maybe there is still some magic out there.
Anyone that appreciates serious and challenging science fiction and fantasy short stories should gift themselves with this collection. |
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