Realms 2 (The Second Year of Clarkesworld Magazine)

Selected from the Hugo award-nominated Clarkesworld Magazine, Realms collects the work of twenty-five visionary writers of short fiction, including such World Fantasy, Philip K. Dick, Tiptree, Hugo, and Campbell Award winners and finalists as Jeffrey Ford, Mary Robinette Kowal, Jay Lake, Cat Rambo, Tim Pratt, Robert Reed, Mike Resnick, and Catherynne M. Valente - and amazing stories from up-and-comers like Karen Heuler, Paul Jessup, Yoon Ha Lee, Margaret Ronald, and many morePublishers WeeklyClarkesworld editor Wallace and former editor Mamatas present 25 stories published in the Hugo-shortlisted magazine of the fantastic. Despite the editors' inexplicable decision to lead with Ken Scholes's saccharine “Summer in Paris, Light from the Sky,” a puerile tale about Hitler's implausible redemption in a shoddy alternate universe, most of the selections are noteworthy stories, such as Yoon Ha Lee's “Blue Ink,” a tale of alternate futures made personal, and Jeremiah Sturgill's “Flight,” wherein a quest for artificial beauty ventures into the grotesque. Stephen Graham Jones (“Captain's Lament”) and Samantha Henderson (“Curse”) skillfully reimagine well-known folklore and urban legends, and Stephen Dedman incorporates Edgar Allan Poe's work into the clever “Teeth.” Readers who get past the opener might even find themselves inclined to subscribe. (Nov.)