by Michael Swanwick
I must first off state that I am generally not an avid lover of the short story. There are a few writers that I think really excel in the genre and whose stuff I will read without hesitation (Poe, Ashton Smith, Howard, Doyle, Leiber), but in general I am often underwhelmed by the format. Keep that i...
Absolutely fantastic short stories. Swanwick writes with a verve and imagination I have rarely seen in sf, and his fantasy is always fresh and fiesty. The only story I didn't love was "The Skysailor's Tale," which meandered.
Swanwick's one of the best science fiction writers around, and perhaps unequalled in the short story there. He is both a blast to read and a genre bomb-thrower, writing stories (like this collections "Legions in Time") which pointedly recreate some generic styles and conventions yet fully inhabit t...