The Tritonian Ring by L. Sprague de Camp (1977, 212 pages) – Actually written in 1951, this sword and sorcery tale has one of my least favorite troupes: the gods using humans as pawns on a chessboard. Fortunately, the hero is so endearing and the gods are so absent, you forget that they are merely a plot device to get the young philosopher prince started on his quest. Prince Vakar, next in line to the throne in a large, inland kingdom, is not your usual […]

Immortal Unicorn edited by Peter S. Beagle and Janet Berliner (1988, 398 pages) – When I picked this up, I assumed it was a sequel to Peter S. Beagle’s famous Last Unicorn, but I was pleasantly surprised when I discovered it was a unicorn anthology. And not just any unicorn anthology, but a collection of the most unique, unusual unicorns you’ll find anywhere. For example, a unicorn of death, a unicorn of birth, a caribou unicorn, children trapped as unicorns, inner-city unicorns, how to hide […]

A Treasury of Modern Fantasy edited by Terry Carr and Martin Harry Greenberg (1981, 588 pages) – In the spirit of full disclosure, this volume is not what one usually thinks of with the terms like “modern” (stories written from the twenties and seventies) and “fantasy” (no wizards, dragons, or fairies).  This tome almost reads like a textbook of Who’s Who with some of the greatest short story writers of the century and some of the scariest stories of my childhood. Here are some of […]