Salon Fantastique: Thirty Original Tales of Fantasy

Salon Fantastique is a collection of fifteen original fantasy stories written by some of the greats in today's fantasy field and edited by esteemed editors Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling. It has an eclectic mix of stories, though most of them take place on our own planet, rather than some other fantasy setting. The styles are varied and the authors have written some very good stuff. The stories seem to fit the title of the anthology (which is always a good thing), as all of them seem a bit more sophisticated than your average fantasy story. I could almost picture these stories being passed among patrons of literary salons everywhere. On the other hand, the sophistication is a strike against some of the stories, as I couldn't make much sense of them. That may be a personal failing, but it did affect my enjoyment of the book. The best stories in the book come from some of the more familiar names (at least to me), with "Femaville," by Paul Di Filippo being my favorite. In this story, a tsunami hits the east coast of the United States (it's not detailed where exactly), and the survivors are herded into camps until they either voluntarily re-settle or the government forces them out. Parrish Hedges is a cop with a problem; during the disaster, he tried to stop the looting, but the stress of this put him on edge. He was so tense that he ended up accidentally shooting a twelve-year-old boy with a water pistol. Now, he's one of the refugees. He meets up with a young woman and her daughter, and becomes the woman's lover. The daughter, along with most of the other kids in the camp, is creating a city out of mud, dirt, and whatever else they can put together. While the adults look upon this as children at play, being resilient through the worst tragedies, there may be something more to all of this. Will Parrish be able to put his past behind him to take the opportunity presented to him by this girl? This is an excellent story with a wonderful relationship between Parrish and the young girl. He's not of much use right now, so he becomes the guardian of the children as they work diligently, and he begins to believe that there may be something to what they're doing. None of the characterization is that deep (except for Parrish's, of course), but we get enough that none of the events in the story feel forced. The ending is actually a little unpredictable, and not the happiest, which is nice to see. The rest of the stories are fairly good, though again some of them I had trouble getting through. I hesitate to name them when it could very well be just my thought processes not connecting with what the author is saying. Suffice to say that there's enough variety in here to satisfy almost anyone. Overall, Salon Fantastique is a quality collection of fantasy stories. Most of them have at least some redeeming characteristics, and there is definitely some strong stuff in there. I listed my favourite story, but you also can't go wrong with stories by Delia Sherman

What a great collection! The opening story, "La Fée Verte" by Delia Sherman, is worth the price of the book alone. I started reading it in a restaurant and was glued to the booth until I finished it. I enthusiastically recommend "To Measure The Earth" by Jedidiah Berry, "The Guardian of the Egg" by Christopher Barzac, and "The Night Whiskey" by Jeffery Ford. Fans of Algernon Blackwood, Charles de Lint, and Stephen King will find those tales to their liking, I believe. And I appreciated the wink to Lovecraft fans in "The Mask of '67" by David Prill. I don't know why they chose to include the stories "My Travels With Al-Qaeda" by Lavie Tidhar and "Nottamun Town" by Gregory MacGuire in the collection. In my layman's opinion, they lacked any fantasy elements (and they were bleak, to boot). I have a great respect for the work of Datlow and Windling; I know their concept of fantasy is more fully formed and sophisticated than mine, so I'm sure I missed something in those stories that their experienced eyes found. However, I didn't enjoy either one, and they seemed out of place. Oh, and "Down The Hall" by Greer Gilman was a delightful challenge to read. It was almost like trying to read Clockwork Orange without the glossary in the back. Make sure you're in a quiet environment when you work through that story. You have to take your time on that one, but it's worth it. Congratulations on the award!

A must-read. Loved every single story. That's all I can say :)

Salon Fantastique won the World Fantasy Award for Best Anthology of 2006, given out November 4, 2007 at the World Fantasy Convention in Saratoga Springs, NY.