Fate Fantastic [Mass Market Paperback]

Let me begin by defending my title. I own almost every Daw Anthology and I have reviewed many of them here on Amazon. Like any other ongoing series, some installments are better than other. Unfortunately, this book has its binding planted firmly in middle ground: it is neither the best or the worst Daw has produced. Of course, like any anthology some of the stories are better than others. "Camelot's Greatest Hits" by Laura Resnick was brilliant and "My Girlfriend Fate" by Darwin A Garrison was smart and witty. Both of those stories I recommend and enjoyed immensely. "The Bones of Mammoth Malone" by Esther M Friesner is one of the best and most brilliant stories I have ever read and it is well worth the money you will spend on this novel just to read this story (but don't read it anywhere you have to be quiet because you WILL laugh out loud. But many of the other stories left me flat. A complete list of the stories is:

**Ascent by Julie E. Czerneda **Approaching Sixty by Mike Resnick and Barry N Malzberg **But World Enough by Sarah A Hoyt **Consigned by Alan Dean Foster **My Girlfriend Fate by Darwin A. Garrison **A Rat's Tale by Barbara Nickless ** The Bones of Mammoth Malone by Esther M Friesner **Death and Taxes by Kristine Kathryn Rusch **Fate Dogs by Rober A Hoyt **The Man With One Bright Eye by Jay Lake **A Tapestry of Souls by Paul Crilley **The Final Choice by Irene Radford **The Prophecy of Symon the Inept by Rebecca Lickiss **Choice of the Oracles by Kate Paulk **Camelot's Greatest Hits by Laura Resnick & **Jack by Dave Freer

Any Daw Anthology is better than lots of other books on the market and this is no exception. It definitely has enough excellent and decent stories to keep you turning pages. However, this particular collection had about a half dozen stories that had me checking the index to see how many pages I had to finish reading.

I would recommend this to any short story fan, however, because every fantasy/sci-fi/horror short story fan has different taste and my indifference might be your brilliance. Just be warned.

The premise of this collection is the role of fate as a hero and or villain is destined to fulfill an ancient prophecy whether they want to or not. Whereas some individuals embrace their destiny as being on an absolute level with "Death and Taxes" (by Kristine Kathryn Rusch), others follow Jonah trying to flee even "The Final Choice" (by Irene Radford) of Death under the premise of free will. The sixteen entries that make up FATE FANTASY are all quite good with a few being excellent. The best short tale perhaps of the year is the Kabala gambling edge of "Approaching Sixty" by Mike Resnick and Barry Malzberg. With a fantasist who's who, fans are fated to read this excellent anthology; as read in their bones as the prime "Choice of the Oracles" (by Kate Paulk) or was that the "Prophecy of Symon the Inept" (by Rebecca Lickiss).

Harriet Klausner

I'm a big fan of these anthologies and have many of the "Fantastic" series, so was looking forward to adding this one to the collection. Unfortunately it mostly disappointed.

There are 16 stories in all which range from (mostly) okay to a couple of truly excellent ones (the one with the "fate hotdogs" was very well done). For the most part though I found myself skipping more of them than I "normally" would and that was a disappointment. I don't typically expect every story in a collection like this to be something I'll like, which is part of the strength of each book--there are a lot of stories, so if you don't like one it's easy to move on to the next one. Unfortunately I found myself doing that more than not with this collection.

An okay collection, more for the completist than anybody else.