The Mammoth Book Of Seriously Comic Fantasy

A new collection of magic and mayhem from fantasy's funniest, wackiest writers, including Harlan Ellison, Esther Friesner, Neil Gailman, Craig Shaw Gardner, Harry Harrison, Tom Hold and Julia Mandala.

A new and truly awesome collection of comic fantasy masterpieces! It isn't often you find a posse of Greek goddesses putting down insurrection among unruly classical mortals, stranded aliens escaping earth in a church converted into a rocket, or a light-fingered time-traveller attempting to steal the universe - but here they all are, in another selection of bizarre comic fantasies.

This dazzling new collection of off-the-wall fantasies features stories from the minds of the funniest writers in the field, including Esther Friesner, Neil Gaiman, Tom Holt, Paul di Filippo, Adam Roberts and Molly Brown. Here are 35 stories guaranteed to reassure us that the next-door world will be just as mad as this one. It includes a mix of brand-new stories and rare finds or forgotten gems, with a wide range of tales to suit every taste in humour. From the missionary plunged into the bizarre initiation rituals of a lost tribe to the bloke who thought magic would help his love life, from a wizard allergic to magic who sneezes his way into chaos to a man who finds his shoes have taken over control of his life, The Mammoth Book of Comic Fantasy unfalteringly turns fantasy and horror fiction on its head and makes magic into mayhem. A welcome new shot of comic genius in the sphere of fantasy fiction.

Fantasy can be downright funny! To prove it, editor Mike Ashley has compiled 35 short stories for a second mammoth volume, featuring fantasy's funniest, wackiest writers.

In extreme fantasy anything can happen. In Mike Ashley's breathtaking new anthology the only rules are those the writer makes - these are stories to liberate both the writers' and readers' imagination. They will take you to hell and back (literally - two of the stories involve hell in ways never explored before). For too long fantasy fiction has become synonymous with vast heroic-fantasy adventures in imitation of The Lord of the Rings, but the genre has always been far greater than dwarves and elves. Today many writers are rediscovering the wider world of fantasy and creating bold new ideas or magically reworking older arts. Ashley selects 25 stories by the likes of Orson Scott Card, Paul Di Filippo, A. A. Attanasio, Michael Swanwick, Christopher Priest and Peter Crowther, arranged in ascending order of 'extremeness'. The anthology opens with a story that takes us beyond Middle Earth in 'Senator Bilbo' by Andy Duncan - showing what happens when a radical descendant of his famous namesake tries to introduce immigration control - and reaches the ultimate in 'The Dark One' by A. A. Attanasio, a rite of passage story where you, the reader, discover you are being tested to become the successor to Satan. Other stories include: A man with a terminal disease looks for a cure in a world where Edward Lear meets Lewis Carroll. A man decides to banish all language. A tour of Hell by the boatman himself. The great comic stars of Hollywood find themselves seeking their lost world. A magical experiment recreates the Crucifixion. Suddenly all colour drains out of the world. A magical recreation of Chinese fantasy cinema where a magician and his adepts fight the flying dead.

All-new edition of one of the bestselling Mammoths ever - from the funniest writers in the field, including Tom Holt and Esther Friesner. Some 35 off-the-wall comic fantasies feature in Mike Ashley's new collection, a mix of specially written stories and hard-to-find gems. A missionary plunged into the initiation rites of a lost tribe, a wizard allergic to magic and a man who finds his shoes have taken over control of his life - Ashley expertly turns fantasy and horror fiction on its head and magic into mayhem. Huge fun.

Mike Ashley is back with an all-new edition of one of the bestselling Mammoth Books ever, from the funniest writers in the field, including Neil Gaiman, Tom Holt, and Terry Jones. The thirty- five off-the-wall comic fantasies featured in Ashley's new collection are a mix of specially written stories and hard-to-find gems: a computer salesman in fairyland, a vampire football match, a psychotic Father Christmas, and a wizard allergic to magic. Ashley expertly turns fantasy and horror fiction on its head and magic into mayhem. This is huge fun for all comic fantasy fans.