Oceans of Magic

Here I'll consider the stories organized by author rather than order within the book.Edghill, Rosemary: At six, when Mykene first showed awareness of the dolphin songs in the water, the Pilot's Guild took her as an apprentice "Child of Ocean". The story's in braided format, the past-thread showing her selection and learning the significance of the pilot's voyage-token drawn secretly by lot, and the present when her "luck" has run out. [Good as far as it goes, but the ending isn't a complete resolution.]Grubb, James: "Catch of the Day" In a world - the future? - where some catastrophe drowned much of the world under perpetual cloud cover, humanity lives on scattered mountaintops, and ships sail the clouds. The scholar August Gold wishes to test ancient legends speaking of dragons, "fishing" for them by trailing a bait to tempt their territorial hearts.Huff, Tanya: "Oh, Glorious Sight" Zoane Cabatto - now John Cabot - is obsessed with leading an expedition to the New World. He's almost unaware of the wild-animal kid he casually rescued from a beating on an English dock, and gave a place on board. Everyone but he can see young Tam's devotion and hear his music, wasted on this man looking ever over the horizon and never at wonders nearer home.Kupfer, Allen C.: "The Sir Walter Raleigh Conspiracy" - from the diary of Robert Defoe, writing in fear for his life: an impoverished attorney ordered by James I to 'defend' Sir Walter in a secret trial in the Tower - giving a veneer of legality to the necessary death of one who chose to go native in Guiana rather than remain loyal to the established order. But everyone connected with Raleigh's imprisonment seems to be dying horribly, although he's in solitary confinement and appears insane.Kupperberg, Paul: Since Atlantis' founding, Thalis has been her highest-ranking mage-priest - and since her people have spurned their gods for science, seems doomed to be last as well as first. Thalis, however, ventures forth to "Walk Upon the Waters" one last time - 'I do not presume to speak for the gods. I must go and ask them.' Most of the remaining story is spent in memory. [An anti-science slant (particularly with *no* attempt at rationale) is guaranteed to irritate me, and Kupperberg's world-building is too thin for the short-story format.]Murray, Frieda A.: "The Winds They Did Blow High" Setting: an alternate early-19th-century England, where the narrator listens to Captain Northcott's tale of his magical confrontation with a French fleet. (Even without magic, the history's a little different, but magic has been mostly kept out of naval warfare up to the narrative present because it erodes discipline: superior officers and subordinates both mistrust wind-whistling and wave-singing, and tend to blame all problems on any nearby practitioner.)Odom, Mel: "The Colossus of Mahrass" occupies a full quarter of the book. As in 'Smoker' (_Vengeance Fantastic_), the protagonist - the privateer Captain Jaelik - opens the story wi

This book definitely makes my top ten list. Some of these stories really made me stop to think. Once I started "Oceans of Magic" I just couldn't put it down. To quote the critic of Stephen King, "This book will make you stay up past your bedtime". I hope that you all pick up this book and once you do I dare you to try and put it down. It will be a spellbinding experience, promise.