Adventures In Unhistory

* Where did Sinbad Sail? * Who Fired the Phoenix? * The Boy Who Cried Werewolf * The Great Rough Beast * Postscript on Prester John * The Secret of Hyperborea * What Gave All Those Mammoths Cold Feet? And many more--fictional? authoritative? fantastic? deadpan?--investigations into the real, the true...and the things that should be true PREFACE BY PETER S. BEAGLE ILLUSTRATED BY GEORGE BARR "Although the wombat is real and the dragon is not, nobody knows what a wombat looks like and everyone knows what a dragon looks like." Not a novel, not a book of short stories, Adventures in Unhistory is a book of the fantastic--a compendium of magisterial examinations of Mermaids, Mandrakes, and Mammoths; Dragons, Werewolves, and Unicorns; the Phoenix and the Roc; about places such as Sicily, Siberia, and the Moon; about heroic, sinister, and legendary persons such as Sindbad, and Aleister Crowley, and Prester John; and--revealed at last--the Secret of Hyperborea. The facts are here, the foundations behind rumors, legends, and the imaginations of generations of tale-spinners. But far from being dry recitals, these meditations, or lectures, or deadpan prose performances are as lively, as crazily inventive, as witty as the best fiction of the author, a writer praised by Gardner Dozois as "one of the great short story writers of our times." Who, on the subject of Dragons, could write coldly, dispassionately, guided only by logic? Certainly not Avram Davidson. Certain facts, these facts, deserve more than recitation; they deserve flourish, verve, gusto, style--the late, great Avram Davidson's unique voice. That prose which, in the words of Peter S. Beagle's Preface to this volume, "cries out to be read aloud."

Eighteen exotic tales of the seas most seductive mystery. _The Prevalence of MermaidsÓ by Avram Davidson _Nothing in the RulesÓ by L. Sprague de Camp _She Sells Sea ShellsÓ by Paul Darcy Boles _The Soul CagesÓ by Thomas Crofton Croker _Sweetly the Waves Call to MeÓ by Pat Murphy _DriftglassÓ by Samuel R. Delany _Mrs. Pigafetta Swims WellÓ by Reginald Bretnor _The Nebraskan and the NereidÓ by Gene Wolfe _The Lady and the MeremanÓ by Jane Yolen _The Fishermans WifeÓ by Jane Yolen _Till Human Voices Wake UsÓ by Lewis Shiner _A Touch of StrangeÓ by Randall Garrett and Avram Davidson _The Crest of Thirty-sixÓ by Davis Grubb _The Shannon MerrowÓ by Cooper McLauglin _Fish StoryÓ by Leslie Charteris _In the IslandsÓ by Pat Murphy At the publisher's request, this title is sold without DRM (Digital Rights Management).

This book highlights the multi-dimensionality of the work of British fantasy writer and Discworld creator Terry Pratchett. Taking into account content, political commentary, and literary technique, it explores the impact of Pratchett's work on fantasy writing and genre conventions.With chapters on gender, multiculturalism, secularism, education, and relativism, Section One focuses on different characters’ situatedness within Pratchett’s novels and what this may tell us about the direction of his social, religious and political criticism. Section Two discusses the aesthetic form that this criticism takes, and analyses the post- and meta-modern aspects of Pratchett’s writing, his use of humour, and genre adaptations and deconstructions. This is the ideal collection for any literary and cultural studies scholar, researcher or student interested in fantasy and popular culture in general, and in Terry Pratchett in particular.

The dozens of delightful stories in this anthology dazzle the mind with visions of tomorrow and yesterday, of here and now. On display is the work of many of today's greatest writers--and tomorrow's--including: Brian W. Aldiss, Stephen Baxter, Neal Barrett, Jr., Pat Cadigan, Jack Cady, Greg Egan, Joe Haldeman, David B. Kisor, Nancy Kress, Ian R. MacLeod, Maureen F. McHugh, G. David Nordley, Rebecca Ore, Robert Reed, Mike Resnick, Mark Rich, Charles Sheffield, Dan Simmons, William Browning Spencer, Bruce Sterling, Steven Utley, Don Webb, Walter Jon Williams, Connie Willis. A long list of Honorable Mentions and an insightful roundup of the year in science fiction make the book indispensable for every fan of fantastic fiction. "Intriguing characters, creative settings and a certain amount of consciousness-raising are evident in many selections...Readers have a useful jumping-off point should they wish to continue their explorations of an expanding literary universe."--Publishers Weekly

Sixteen magical tales about the most wondrous of all creatures. A collection of tales of fantasy featuring the legendary unicorn. "The Spoor of the Unicorn" by Avram Davidson "The Silken-Swift" by Theodore Sturgeon "Eudoric's Unicorn" by L. Sprague de Camp "The Flight of the Horse" by Larry Niven "On the Downhill Side" by Harlan Ellison "The Night of the Unicorn" by Thomas Burnett Swann "Mythological Beast" by Stephen R. Donaldson "The Final Quarry" by Eric Norden "Elfleda" by Vonda N. McIntyre "The White Donkey" by Ursula K. Le Guin "Unicorn Variation" by Roger Zelazny "The Sacrifice" by Gardner Dozois "The Unicorn" by Frank Owen "The Woman the Unicorn Loved" by Gene Wolfe "The Forsaken" by Beverly Evans "The Unicorn" by T. H. White At the publisher's request, this title is sold without DRM (Digital Rights Management).

In these playful, erudite, and idiosyncratically personal essays from the Washington Post Book World, Michael Dirda shares some of the pleasures of the reading life. His subjects range from classics in translation to fantasy and crime fiction; from children's books to American and European literature; from innovative writing to neglected novels; from the dark joys of collecting first editions to the untroubled pleasure of P. G. Wodehouse. Dirda is a writer's reader and a reader's writer. He is a sure guide to good reading from the casual to the scholarly, and his columns are always diverting and informative, always worth coming back to. Readings presents many of his most memorable essays, including "The Crime of His Life" (a youthful caper), "Bookman's Saturday" (the scheming of a book collector), an annotated list of 100 comic novels, "Heian Holiday" (on The Tale of Genji), reflections on sex in literature, "Mr. Wright" (an exemplary high school teacher), "Listening to My Father," "Turning Fifty," and "Millennial Readings." In all these, and in 40 other pieces, Michael Dirda shows us books as sources of aesthetic bliss, comfort, and not least, amusement.