The Fantasy Writer's Assistant
And Other Stories
-
- $9.99
-
- $9.99
Publisher Description
The World Fantasy Award–winning collection from the architect of the Well-Built City Trilogy
No matter how far into the realms of space and fantasy Jeffrey Ford's stories may venture, they have one trait in common: They're grounded in the universal. The Fantasy Writer's Assistant, Ford's debut collection, is no exception. "Creation," which received the World Fantasy Award for Best Short Story and a nomination for a Nebula Award, relates a boy's attempts to animate a man made of sticks and pebbles. Even as the creature's life fades along with the summer, its loneliness and yearning for contact are palpable.
Other blends of the worldly and otherworldly are evident in "Bright Morning," in which a man searches far and wide for a cursed Kafka book, and "At Reparata," when the grief of a king over the death of his queen takes the form of a destructive moth that could overtake the entire kingdom. The Fantasy Writer's Assistant, its titular story another Nebula Award finalist, reveals Jeffrey Ford at his creative best.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In World Fantasy Award winner Ford's enchanting first story collection, proof abounds that a fresh perspective or inventive approach can give the most familiar themes fresh life and startling clarity. "Exo-Skeleton Town," set on a planet where human beings dress like classic movie stars to trade old films for the aphrodisiacal excrement of the planet's cinephile beetle population, is a surprisingly poignant tale of lonely dreamers isolated by their inescapable illusions. In "At Reparata," a king's melancholy over the death of his queen achieves independent life in the form of a ravenous moth that threatens to consume the entire kingdom. Ford (The Physiognomy) laces the 16 selections with subtle allusions to Poe, Verne and other literary forebears that give the deceptively simple plots resonance and depth. His most effective tool, however, is gentle humor that softens the philosophical edges and magically transforms the zombie operatives, organic computer salesmen and extraterrestrial colonists into sympathetic characters with recognizable sensitivities and longings. A lion's share of the stories explore the theme of artistic creation from invigoratingly original angles. "Creation" reconfigures aspects of biblical Genesis and the legend of Frankenstein into a moving tale of love between a father and son. "Bright Morning" is a masterful sleight-of-hand in which the author's autobiographical reminiscence of his fascination with Kafka plunges him into a private Kafkaesque fiction. Sure to be one of the keynote collections of the year, this book will be welcomed by fans of literate, witty modern fantasy. FYI:The title story was nominated for a Nebula Award.
