From Publishers Weekly
Those who know prolific novelist Williams from his epic series (
Shadowmarch, etc.) may be surprised by this collection of 15 short stories plus a smattering of nonfiction and television concepts. As with his longer work, nearly every story overlays several plot lines, providing an epic aura without the length. "Three Duets for Virgin and Nosehorn" weaves together the life, death and mythology of a fabulous single-horned beast; "Child of an Ancient City" (later expanded to novel length by Nina Kiriki Hoffman) details a fateful tale-telling contest; and "The Writer's Child" is the haunting story of a child telling a story about a child reading a story. The collection's second half falters: Michael Moorcock fan fiction pieces, "The Author at the End of Time" and "Go Ask Elric," and his Otherland series tie-in, "The Happiest Dead Boy in the World," are ponderous with backstory. The flatness of the essays and TV scripts disappoints after the lyrical fun of the fiction. Still, the stand-alone stories make this volume worthwhile.
(Dec.) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
From Booklist
Williams is primarily a novel writer. As he says in the introduction to this collection, most of his short fiction has been written for anthologies. The stories here are therefore rather varied: "The Author at the End of Time," a gift story for Michael Moorcock's sixtieth birthday; "Go Ask Elric," which comes from an anthology of stories by other writers featuring Moorcock's fantasy hero Elric; "Nonstop," which nervous fliers shouldn't read; Williams' take on the computer-who-would-be-God trope, "Not with a Whimper, Either"; the original version of "Child of an Ancient City," which Nina Kiriki Hoffman helped him expand into a novel; "A Tale from the Book of Regret," a story to go with the Shadowmarch novels; "The Happiest Dead Boy in the World," to go with the Otherland books; and eight more. Plus six nonfiction pieces and three TV scripts. Williams introduces each piece, which makes these even more of a treat for his fans.
Frieda MurrayCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
