Although it was the genre that inspired me to write, the popular fantasy of most teenagers today is a tired ol' beast. That's what I think, at least, when I see the books my friends are reading. They're all tales of bravery and elves and dragons and impulsive teenagers who do stupid things without thinking of the consequences (and they're all thought of as Extremely Heroic and Noble, for some reason). I hate it! I'm sorry, I do. But I don't think this signals the end of the SF/F genres. To assume that would make me a pretty stupid person. There's plenty of beautiful, wonderful stories out there, and plenty of people reading those beautiful, wonderful stories. Just not the kids I know. It makes me sad.
Here's a hint, guys. Pick up this book. Maybe you'll realize how much you've been spoiling yourselves, and maybe I'll stop glaring at you whenever I see you with a copy of Eragon.
This edition of the Year's Best-- the twentieth-- is, like the others in the collection, pretty dang big. If you only glanced at it in a bookstore, you might mistake it for one of those bloated, overripe tomes I just ranted about, but what's inside is much better: "more than 250,000 words of the finest fantasy and horror," the front cover says, almost five hundred pages of poetry and short stories that glint like finely-cut jewels, by a wide range of authors.
I highly recommend this, along with all the other volumes.
Rating: 4Q, 3P
**NCPL does NOT currently own this edition, but has the 2000 (13th) edition**
No comments:
Post a Comment