- Paperback: 336 pages
- Publisher: Small Beer Press (Aug 1 2003)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 1931520046
- ISBN-13: 978-1931520041
- Product Dimensions: 22.8 x 16.2 x 2.1 cm
- Shipping Weight: 481 g
- Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #1,226,980 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||
Product Details |
Product Description
Product Description
“Fabulous tales.”— The Washington Post
“No unblinkered, gloveless reader can resist the stream of associations unleashed by Ford’s story and the rest of Trampoline : influences as disparate as science fiction, magic realism, pulp, and Twilight Zone morality plays.”— The Village Voice
Twenty astounding stories by Karen Joy Fowler, Glen Hirshberg, Samantha Hunt, Shelley Jackson, Rosalind Palermo Stevenson, Greer Gilman, and more.
About the Author
Kelly Link is the author of two collections, Magic for Beginners (chosen as a 2005 Best Book by Time Magazine, Salon.com, and Book Sense) and Stranger Things Happen. She is the editor of the anthology Trampoline. She and her husband Gavin J. Grant started Small Beer Press in 2000.
Tag this product(What's this?)Think of a tag as a keyword or label you consider is strongly related to this product.
Tags will help all customers organize and find favorite items. |
Customer Reviews
|
Share your thoughts with other customers:
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Most helpful customer reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Boing! Boing!,
By
This review is from: Trampoline: An Anthology (Paperback)
Trampoline mixes a group of writers from the literary edge of genre (Irvine, Hirshberg, Ford) with another group of fugitives from the mainstream (Park, Hunt, Jackson), proving that some of the most interesing fiction being written right now is sprouting in the cracks between the two. ItŐs remarkable what a coherent collection this is, given that the only thing that really binds these stories together is a uniformly high quality of writing and a willingness to doggedly pursue an individual vision. What really distinguishes these stories is a sense of possibility and adventure; Trampoline is fiction as a form of play and risk-taking rolled into one. The stories here proceed as if the constraints of genre simply donŐt exist and move from there in some pretty strange but wonderful directions. There are a handful of stories that don't quite work, but even those are worth your time. An extremely strong collection.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
SLIPSTREAM AT ITS MOST COMPELLING,
By
This review is from: Trampoline: An Anthology (Paperback)
Trampoline is a fascinating and rewarding book. Among the twenty stories are a dozen that I found to be first rate. Another reader might disagree on the ranking of individual stories but not, I think, on the remarkable overall quality.A nice mixture of fine work by veterans (Carol Emshwiller, Jeffrey Ford, Karen Joy Fowler, Maureen McHugh) and newcomers (Christopher Rowe, Shelley Jackson, Alex Irvine, Vandana Singh, John Gonzalez, Christopher Barzak). All, it seems, are original to his collection except for the extraordinary KING OF SPAIN by Dave Shaw. The collection shows the strong presence of editor Kelly Link. Common themes crop up: Barzak and Jackson find interesting things to do with dead boys, McHugh and Fowler deal with lost children. This gives Trampoline a cohesion akin to that of a single author collection. Anthologies of original stories have long been a place where Speculative Fiction redefined itself (i.e. Ellison's Dangerous Visions and Moorcock's New Directions ushering in the tumult of the 1960's New Wave). The last couple of years have seen a number of important titles: Conjunctions 39: The New Fabulists, (ed. Peter Straub),McSweeney's Mammoth Treasury of Thrilling Tales (ed. Michael Chabon), Album Zutique (ed. Jeff Vandermeer). A common trend in these books and others I haven't mentioned, maybe the one that will prove definitive, is a tendency toward 'Slipstream', the melding of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror with mainstream fiction. This is a basic aspect of Trampoline. Even stories that utilize genre tropes: IMPALA's Virtual Reality or DEAD BOY FOUND's necrophilia, use them to explore emotional abuse or the death of the spirit. The wonders glimpsed by the fabulous slackers in GUS DREAMS OF BITING THE MAILMAN or almost caught in the waters of Hawaii in SHIPWRECK BEACH are filtered through much too much beer and cannabis or mad-making psychological damage. Three strong pieces: KING RAT, EIGHT-LEGGED STORY and KING OF SPAIN provide all the illumination and wonder and fear we look for in SF and Fantasy and Horror with little more of the uncanny and inexplicable than most of us find in our daily lives.
Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta) Amazon.com:
3.7 out of 5 stars (3 customer reviews) 18 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
SLIPSTREAM AT ITS MOST COMPELLING,
By Richard Bowes - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Trampoline: An Anthology (Paperback)
Trampoline is a fascinating and rewarding book. Among the twenty stories are a dozen that I found to be first rate. Another reader might disagree on the ranking of individual stories but not, I think, on the remarkable overall quality.A nice mixture of fine work by veterans (Carol Emshwiller, Jeffrey Ford, Karen Joy Fowler, Maureen McHugh) and newcomers (Christopher Rowe, Shelley Jackson, Alex Irvine, Vandana Singh, John Gonzalez, Christopher Barzak). All, it seems, are original to his collection except for the extraordinary KING OF SPAIN by Dave Shaw. The collection shows the strong presence of editor Kelly Link. Common themes crop up: Barzak and Jackson find interesting things to do with dead boys, McHugh and Fowler deal with lost children. This gives Trampoline a cohesion akin to that of a single author collection. Anthologies of original stories have long been a place where Speculative Fiction redefined itself (i.e. Ellison's Dangerous Visions and Moorcock's New Directions ushering in the tumult of the 1960's New Wave). The last couple of years have seen a number of important titles: Conjunctions 39: The New Fabulists, (ed. Peter Straub),McSweeney's Mammoth Treasury of Thrilling Tales (ed. Michael Chabon), Album Zutique (ed. Jeff Vandermeer). A common trend in these books and others I haven't mentioned, maybe the one that will prove definitive, is a tendency toward 'Slipstream', the melding of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror with mainstream fiction. This is a basic aspect of Trampoline. Even stories that utilize genre tropes: IMPALA's Virtual Reality or DEAD BOY FOUND's necrophilia, use them to explore emotional abuse or the death of the spirit. The wonders glimpsed by the fabulous slackers in GUS DREAMS OF BITING THE MAILMAN or almost caught in the waters of Hawaii in SHIPWRECK BEACH are filtered through much too much beer and cannabis or mad-making psychological damage. Three strong pieces: KING RAT, EIGHT-LEGGED STORY and KING OF SPAIN provide all the illumination and wonder and fear we look for in SF and Fantasy and Horror with little more of the uncanny and inexplicable than most of us find in our daily lives. 6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Boing! Boing!,
By Jeff Topham "jtopham" - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Trampoline: An Anthology (Paperback)
Trampoline mixes a group of writers from the literary edge of genre (Irvine, Hirshberg, Ford) with another group of fugitives from the mainstream (Park, Hunt, Jackson), proving that some of the most interesing fiction being written right now is sprouting in the cracks between the two. ItŐs remarkable what a coherent collection this is, given that the only thing that really binds these stories together is a uniformly high quality of writing and a willingness to doggedly pursue an individual vision. What really distinguishes these stories is a sense of possibility and adventure; Trampoline is fiction as a form of play and risk-taking rolled into one. The stories here proceed as if the constraints of genre simply donŐt exist and move from there in some pretty strange but wonderful directions. There are a handful of stories that don't quite work, but even those are worth your time. An extremely strong collection.
7 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Underwhelmed, disappointed,
By Jay D. Swartzfeger "Lord of the Evil Monkeys" - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Trampoline: An Anthology (Paperback)
I ordered this Anthology on the strength of Editor Kelly Link's reputation and fiction. I first read Ms. Link's work in Conjunctions 39 and was blown away (Lull, IIRC). With Authors like Jeffrey Ford, Alex Irvine, etc and Kelly Link at the helm, this had to be a must have anthology.
Trampoline couldn't have disappointed me more. Many stories have barely any speculative elements whatsoever. There's also a disturbing case of 'literaryitis' to quite a few of the stories here -- I guess I have a low threshold for affected stories heavy on character and zippo in the plot department. Maybe I'm just an old fashioned curmudgeon expecting things that keep those pages turnin' -- you know, quaint things that literary writers seem to have a pathological aversion to, like plot, tension, conflict and resolution. I guess that's what ultimately killed this anthology for me. Most of the stories simply didn't engage me, and within a few pages I was already flipping ahead to see how many more pages I had to endure. There were very few bright spots. Shelly Jackson's "Angel" floored me, and is the only story in the collection I consider a must read. While there are a few other enjoyable stories, overall the navel gazing pomposity overshadows the few gems in Trampoline. If you're looking for quality slipstream/magic realism/weird/outre short story collections, I can't recommend highly enough 'Conjunctions 39', Jonathan Carroll's 'The Panic Hand', James Morrow's 'Bible Stories for Adults', Jeffrey Ford's 'The Fantasy Writer's Assistant', Jeff Vandermeer's 'City of Saints and Madmen' and Borges' 'Labyrinth'. Although I've only read the first few stories, Leviathan III (edited by Jeff Vandemeer) is also shaping up nicely (keeping my fingers crossed). |
|
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
