Book Review

I just finished reading Masterpieces of Fantasy and Wonder compiled by David G. Hartwell. It is interesting to think about a “compiler” as opposed to an “editor”; an editor helps stories to be the best they can be, a complier chooses the best stories to be included in an anthology.

But the two are also similar. While there are hard and fast rules concerning the English language, individual editors have their own opinions about how prose should look. So too do compliers; one person’s “best of’ may not be someone else’s.

And so I think it is important to understand what criteria the compiler used to make his or her decisions on inclusion. Mr. Hartwell uses the term “fantasy” broadly, in that the person writing the story may not have called it that. Since some of these tales were written before the fantasy descriptor existed, that seems fair. Mr. Hartwell also promises to “surprise and delight”, and that he does.

This volume contains many famous authors familiar to fantasy readers such as Beagle, Le Guin, and Vance. I’d read many of those stories before, but I enjoyed discovering old friends. For example, one of my favorite fantasy stories of all time, Narrow Valley, by R.A. Lafferty was chosen. I laughed reading it just like I had the first time. It was nice to see it again. Others I’d never read before, such as The Harrowing of the Dragon of Hoarsbreath by Patricia NcKillip, proved delightful.

Mr. Hartwell also presents a number of historical stories. Some of them are really thick to read; old language and dense prose, but most times the effort is worth it. My favorite in this category is a set of Peter Pan stories by J.M Barrie. These shorts were the basis of his book by the same name. They were old fashioned, but absolutely wonderful. I’d never really understood the terrible choice Peter had to make until I read these.

This is a great collection; bite sized pieces of literature that you don’t have to dig up yourself, which is the genius of the complier when done right, and this volume is.