Wizards: Magical Tales from the Masters of Modern Fantasy
I’m sure we’ve been able to tell from past reviews that I love fantasy novels. Naturally, a book like Wizards: Magical Tales from the Masters of Modern Fantasy would catch my attention.1 This book is a collection of short stories featuring wizards by some of the most prominent modern fantasy authors. These authors include folks like Neil Gaiman, Garth Nix, and Eoin Colfer.
Unfortunately, this book started out with an expectation that was not at all fulfilled. The cover of this book bills these stories as “never before published” and the first short story is authored by Neil Gaiman. Alright. Good, so far. Unfortunately, this book came out before The Graveyard Book and Gaiman’s “short story” was the witch chapter from that book. I’ve read The Graveyard Book at least twice and have listened to Neil read it via YouTube videos more than I probably should. It was a little disappointing that it wasn’t something new for me.
Also unfortunately the only story that sticks out in my mind is the final story by Orson Scott Card called “Stonefather.” Now, I do not know whether this is because it is the last story of the book or because it is by Orson Scott Card, who just happens to be one of my favourite authors.
I’m not saying the stories were bad because they weren’t. Not at all. I read through some of them very quickly because I really enjoyed them at the time, but they didn’t stand out from the other stories. There were, of course, a few stories that progressed too slowly for my taste, but none of them were bad. Just not very memorable.
I’m not sure how to recommend this one. Certainly, if you really enjoy wizard stories, I would recommend picking this up and if you really enjoy fantasy stories, it is worth having a look. Perhaps you will like it better than I did.
1 It didn’t have to, though. It was a birthday present.
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