Stoker-winner Sarrantonio (Redshift
) delivers another exciting all-original anthology, stocked with a host of high-profile authors who show that fantasy, at its best, can't be defined, only expressed through an ever-changing menu. Robert Silverberg's elegant prose sets the stage with "The Sorcerer's Apprentice," a rueful romance. The second tale, Kit Reed's surreal "Perpetua" (about a girl who's been miniaturized by an overprotective father and trapped inside an "alligator" in a nightmarish near future), likewise avoids familiar fantasy tropes, though enough elves, witches, dragons and magicians surface elsewhere in this hefty volume to soothe readers who have come to expect them. Among the finest selections are Elizabeth Hand's exquisite "Wonderwall," about a confused student haunted by Rimbaud; Charles de Lint's "Riding Shotgun," a ghost story about the consequences of trying to change the past; Thomas M. Disch's "The White Man," a vampiric delight regarding race relations; Patricia McKillip's "Out of the Woods," an enchanting meditation on lost love, replete with Pre-Raphaelite imagery; Harry Turtledove's poignant "Coming Across," about AIDS in faerie land; and Sarrantonio's own "Sleepover," an ode to unwanted children. Gene Wolfe's mysterious "Golden City Far," a multi-layered dream regarding "the magical power of death," closes a book as strong as any year's best-of anthology. Agent, Ralph Vicinanza. (June 1)
