China Books

I'm an artist with a particular interest in the decorative arts - and, while I can't say much about the text (I haven't read much of it), the artwork shown in this book is exquisite. I purchased this book for the eye candy - and there's quite a bit here to be had.

The book focuses on hand-painted Tibetan furniture, and it's the highly stylized, decorative, and "folky" painting which I find so appealing in the work presented. The book is richly illustrated with many examples, the examples are well photographed, and the printing is high-quality.

If you're an artist, it's a great reference book - there are many decorative motifs and design ideas from which you can "steal", "borrow", "adapt", or otherwise use as inspiration in your own work.

This beautiful book offers much more than a generous selection of wonderful photographs! It is historically informative and well organized so that it is easy to read for both the professional and collector. If you are interested in Tibetan antique furniture-this is the publication for you!

This is an early book--one of only two at the present time--focusing on Tibetan furniture from the perspective of the antiques field. Tibetan furniture is an area that will surely find a wider, recognized place given the growing role of some Asian countries, especially China and India, in global political and economic affairs. Already one sees a growing interest in Chinese antiquities and art. As Buckley notes, the time when a survey of ancient and older Tibetan furniture including many photographs such as found in this book is possible is likely passing because many of the finer pieces of Tibetan furniture are already scattered in private homes and museums throughout the world and there is already considerable interest in this field among Hong Kong and other regional dealers. Although the author admits he is "biased toward chests," these serve sufficiently for instruction and examples on the construction, materials, dates, and carvings, illustrations, and other decorative and symbolic features of all Tibetan furniture. "The echoes of contacts with peoples all over Asia can be traced in the designs found on Tibetan furniture." Yet the furniture and its designs are not a simple imitation or composite of forms, designs, etc., of other cultures, but shown the stamp of the "unique identity" of the Tibetan people and culture so that Tibetan furniture is unmistakable. The illustrations and symbols of Tibetan furniture are usually related to the Tantric Buddhism of Tibet. Buckley's book is not only a guide to identification of the desirable antique Tibetan furniture, but it also relates the historical and cultural context of the furniture. The author is a recognized expert on antiques and collecting currently living in Beijing.

Sometimes the details that matter aren't captured on videotape and broadcast around the world, like more recent events in the year 2001. What history doesn't have to show what was going on is a picture of how things were set up for this book. "Around noon on August 2, at the White House, President Johnson discussed the American response to the August 2 incident with Secretary Rusk, George Ball, Cyrus Vance, and Tom Hughes of the State Department; General Wheeler; Colonel Ralph Steakley of the Joint Staff; and Winston Cornelius of the CIA. At this meeting the president not only confirmed the decision that sent the Maddox back into the Gulf of Tonkin along with the Turner Joy, he authorized the continuation of OPLAN 34A raids (definitely the one scheduled for the night of August 3-4, and perhaps also those for the night of August 4-5; the procedure of waiting for the results of each raid to be evaluated, before approval of the next was initiated . . . would not have been practiced when there were to be raids on consecutive nights)." (pp. 103-4).

The amount of detail in this book could support a view that secret operations are those things which are not revealed in order to create the greatest spin in the direction of the psychological warfare advantage desired by whoever is keeping the secrets. To get a full appreciation of the kind of restraint which the American government displayed in this incident, the whole picture should be compared to how well the participants in World War II responded to the order given by the president in August, 1945 (a mere 19 years before the Tonkin incident) not to drop any more atomic bombs on people whose government exhibited any hostility toward military activities directed by the United States of America. President Truman's order was followed by massive conventional bombing, much as the history of American bombing in Vietnam shows how long a superpower can maintain a campaign of destruction against anyone who knows the truth about something which is supposed to be secret. This book shows great deference to the feelings of the anonymous secret operations experts who would never say anything that wasn't in the best interests of the powers that be. "Escalation" is an understatement for the overt actions taken against North Vietnam in August, 1964. Adopting a bombing routine as a conditioned response to false accusations in anticipation of making the bombing a regular routine, in the absence of any debate on why things happened as they did, was the real policy. Even now, most people who ought to know better are pretending that a lot of things revealed in this book are still secret. What people don't believe now is the preamble to the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, which stated that the United States was going to be maintaining peace there, where it had no territoreal, military, or political ambitions. My ambition was to get the Combat Infantryman's Badge without getting killed, so I could be the CIB who failed to agree with whoever thought this ought to be. Check the facts in this book for a truly tortured bit of not being able to see a forest because the treehouse doesn't have any windows, and the trap door in the floor is closed.

This is an excellent book and anyone with an interest in the Viet Nam War should read it. The events of July and August 1964 are thoroughly examined and analyzed step by step. There are interviews with many of the people who were involved in the incident on both sides. It has a good technical discussion of the military equipment(ships and radar/sonar systems) that greatly contributes to an understanding of what happened on those "dark and stormy nights". This is definitely the best book about the Tonkin Gulf incident. The author is a History Professor at Clemson University and I had the priviledge of taking his Vietnam War and Modern Military History courses back in 1993. He told our class that he was writing a book about the Tonkin Gulf incident so it was great to finally read it after all these years.

This excellent book demonstrates that the Gulf of Tonkin "incident" was not really an incident at all. It explains in detail the events that lead up to the Gulf of Tonkin resolution and the escaltion of the war that followed. My only complaint is that the author says that the Gulf of Tonkin incident was based on a "misunderstanding" and not "knowingly faked." Even if that is true, the fact remains that it was used as a convenient excuse to escelate war. In addition, the fact that there was no effort on the part of the government to determine the facts behind the Tonkin incident demonstrates that the government wanted war, and were just looking for the right excuse.

Pour l'Occident, la Chine qui a constitué depuis plusieurs siècles à la fois un spectacle et un spectre. Alors que pour la Chine, c'est l'Occident qui l'a menacée, envahie, et contrainte à changer ses modes de vie. Pendant plus d'un siècle la société et la culture chinoises ont dû faire face aux pratiques et aux mentalités de la modernité occidentale et le métissage socioculturel y a été imposé par le colonialisme. En Occident, en choisissant d'oublier cette histoire, on exige aussi que la Chine reste « authentique » et « exotique », source de philosophies apaisantes et passives pour assouvir nos âmes troublées.

Que cet ouvrage cible les pratiques lyriques n'est pas un choix aléatoire, car si c'est le roman qui a narré et négocié notre modernité, c'est bien la poésie, quand ses pratiquants ne se sont pas laissés séduire par les politiciens, qui l'a contesté.

Dans ce livre, des contestataires lyriques célèbres, tels que Benjamin Péret côtoient des poètes chinois « dissidents » tels que Duoduo et Bei Dao, et des penseurs d'avant-garde tels Guy Debord et Raoul Vaneigem, sont associes à des chanteurs d'Occitanie, à des troubadours des Chinatowns, ou encore aux pionniers du rock et roll pékinois. La mobilisation de ces diverses formes de pensée exprime toute la puissance que représente l'arme de la critique intellectuelle et poétique.

Dans les combats de civilisation qui se jouent aujourd'hui autours des formes de la mondialisation n'oublions pas le monde rêvé par les penseurs poétiques qui en imaginent aussi l'avenir.
PS Ce livre est disponible en français : La Chine et le spectre de l'Occident : Contestation poétique, modernité et métissage.
Editions Syllepse, Paris, 2002

This book attempts to promote a non-authentic, non ethnocentric, and more complex perspective on certain aspects of Chinese poetic and political culture. Its concerns, as the title suggests, are not just with the culture of making and consuming lyrics, poems and songs, but also with questions to which such practices give rise. As the sub-title ( Lyricism, Nationalism and Hybridity in China and Its Others) suggests the interest is also in `inauthentic' hybrid practices and communities - the book talks not just about mainland China, but about peripheral communities like Chinatowns and Hong Kong. Since this is a comprative work it looks at other non-national communities and cultures like that of southern France, or Occitania. Nor is the book an orthodox British or Western sinological statement on modern Chinese culture. Rather it attempts to shed light on those lyrical works that are either marginalized and occulted, or considered by conventional scholars to be literally beneath consideration. The chapters on contemporary poetry and the chapter on Chinese popular music, are attempts to do just that. Similarly the chapter on the representation of the Chinese American and the descendants of Chinese immigrants to Britain is there to tell a story of Chinese people who in a sense are no longer Chinese, and yet will always be seen and represented as such, and so at a certain level will always remain so.

Louise Edwards writing in The China Journal (July 1999) says: "This innovative volume furthers a dialogue between China studies and postcolonial and cultural studies. Using literary debate as its primary focus (popular music is also discussed in Chapter 6), the book raises questions for all disciplines of China studies, Gregory Lee also makes a timely contribution to the field of postcolonial studies...Troubadours, Trumpeters, Troubled Makers makes a valuable contribution in resisting the "mixophobia" that is so prevalent in academic scholarship."

The author did a magnificent job of telling the story of a bunch of kids who were handed a tough job and went about getting that job done, even at the ultimate cost...the book will always occupy a place of honor on my bookshelf.

Jim Vesely presents an interesting treatment of the life of American aircrews and support personnel by combining operational reports, veteran naratives and some letters from his uncle Sgt Adolph 'Otsie' Malovich, who was killed-in-action while serving his country, his family and his comrades. Mr. Vesely shares his heart with the reader, explaining his search to know more about the uncle he barely knew, and what Otsie's time might have been like while he was part of the 'Burma Bridge Busters', 490th Bomb Squadron. The author beautifully highlights how this group of men, serving in one of the remotest actions of the war, performed with gallantry, dignity and dedication. A must read for anyone interested in American participation in the China-Burma-India theater!

Well written, educational, well-researched, and intensely interesting. I learned more about the war in and around India, Burma, and China from this book than from my experience in the two plus years I was in the squadron. I really appreciate that aspect. The author must have spent untold hours researching the facts and then did a splendid job of putting it all together in an interesting way. The book helps a lot in putting a time frame on some of my memories. Thanks again.

Fascinating book of adventure & discovery. For the reader the fact that the photographs, taken in the 1920s are gorgeous and outstanding, is a revelation for us. Also a very interesting human interest story is revealed.
I thouroughly enjoyed it and encourage others to take this journey to a world no longer available to us.

80 years after, we know a voyage thru the Tibet, Chine and Mongolia for the eyes and the pen of a young lady. A different land and people, a great aventure, great images, someones hand-coloured.

In the early 1920s, explorer Janet Wulsin and her husband Frederick journeyed the far reaches of China and Tibet to study the people and the lands of these remote regions - the photos from their expedition come to life in this collection, along with several dozen hand-painted lantern slides that appear in color. Vanished Kingdomsis a rich archive of treasures which charts the findings and peoples of a bygone world. Any serious collection of Asian treasures - both art and cultural - will find Vanished Kingdoms an essential addition, unparalleled in scope and coverage.

As a history major we read this book, or an excerpt of it, in a class on Vietnam. Two years later I sit down and read it again, and the ties to the political dissidence, confusion and conflict today in Iraq are all too clear. While the contributors at the time were concerned with a conflict in Nicaragua, we are now drawn east. As the United States continues to either openly or covertly work towards the overthrow of governments that do not support it, peace is becoming harder to find. Just as the American public did not agree thirty years ago to its tax dollars being used to fight a war that we cannot win, once again the people of the US are speaking out against a war that cannot be won. This is an amazing book, and a great read. An interesting quote comes from former president George Bush as he says that, "We must ensure that any major foreign policy commitment has the full support and understanding of the American people..." How quickly we forget.

I was a student at Pryor Junior High School when Bill McCloud decided to publish this masterful piece of work. I did not sit in his classroom, I had the other 8th grade history teacher (Mr. D), but I still learned a great deal from Bill McCloud and this book. In fact, I purchased the first copy of this book off the press and the author signed it as such.

Since then I have purchased several copies and gave them to friends who have become history teachers. However, the book helped me to understand not only Vietnam, but war in general. My father and several uncles served in nam, and I hardly knew a thing about the 'conflict' or what they went through until I read this wonderful book. I gained a new respect for my father and all those who served. When my father finally asked me about it (my interest in the book) it opened the discussion between he and I about his time spent in the war and the effects it had. Those conversations were some of the best times I was able to spend with my father.

Thank you, Mr. McCloud once again for your effort and I hope more people will be encouraged to read the responses to this question from some of Americas greatest leaders, and heroes. I rate it a strong buy. If you don't have it in your collection, then your collection isn't complete.

I first came across this book when preparing for a Veteran's Day presentation. As a Vietnam Veteran it was difficult for me to sum up my feelings about that time (my time) in history. I really struggled with what to tell Jr High kids about my experience and war in general. Bill McCloud's efforts to collect and record thoughts from some of the major and minor players of those difficult days in American history was invaluable to me. In my view the book captures the essence of the mood and thoughts regarding the "Vietnam experience."

Where is Tibet? is the book of my dreams. As a multi-cultural family (I am American and my husband is Tibetan) we cherish reading this with our [...]. (It helps me practice my Tibetan, too, with its clear phonetic translations) I first found this book in Nepal when I was teaching English to Tibetan nuns, and several of the older nuns and I were crying by the end of it, the book is so touching, but in a simple, accessible way.

I have learnt Tibetan for about two months in India, I found this book extremely helpful for Tibetan students too. The text, though simple, are written with Tibetan script, transiliteration and English translation, the story is good too. I found it quite touching that finally His Holiness (in the comics) said, "Tibet is in your heart".

Yes, Tibet is in my heart, I'm going back there one day.

where is tibet is a book that displays tibetan buddhist philosophy in a clear and beautiful way. it is an inspiration to read and motivates the reader to want to work to save tibet, and to treasure what tibet means in their own heart, to live a life of compassion. it is about two tibetan children living in exile in india and is an excellent introduction to the plight of the tibetan people as well as testimony to their spiritual strengths and hopes. i find the book to be inspiring and motivating to readers of all ages interested in buddhist philosophhy or the plight of the tibetan people. the illustrations are beautiful and intricate, adding texture to the written word as they display another facet of tibetan culture. this story seems to penetrate the heart of tibetan buddhism. i recommend that anyone interested in their own personal spiritual journey read this little book of wisdom and hope for the words apply to all struggles, not only the tibetan exiles, and the philosophy is buddhism in simple terms.

I read this book on my way to Shanghai on business, and it was a fascinating book. It's written by a retired naval officer, and it is a first hand narrative about what went on in China along the Yangtze River in the early part of teh Chinese century from a US Naval Officer's point of view. He talks about the river boats that carried trade up and down to the coast, the naval ships of different countries that provided security along the river, and the historical events that overtook the country between WWI and WWII.

During this period the Manchu dynasty was overthrown, various warlords rose up in the power vacuum, and ultimately a civil war developed between the Kuomintang (Nationalists) and the Communists. Adding to the mix was the outbreak of WWII, and the Japanese occupation. The book takes us up to Pearl Harbor, and carries its narrative well through many different events that were going on at the same time without confusing you (a difficult task given the complexity of the times).

The author covers the political and historical events well, and also covers such day to day things, such as how the river boats navigated the rapids with the help of the coolie labor pulling them upstream by ropes. He goes into Chinese culture, relationships between Europeans, Americans, Japanese, and Chinese people. He also explains the trading concessions, and even goes over the layout of Shanghai. An amazing amount of subject matter that was somehow put down in a way I could follow it all. If you are going to do business in China, this is a good book for background on how the country was first opening up to the West. You can see the problems they had, and it helps give you a perspective on how they look at the West today.

I found the book interesting in two areas - as a business man doing work in China, I enjoyed the easy to read historical account, and the first hand narrative of Shanghai (I made it a point to visit the places he talked about). Also, as a retired military officer, I found his discussion of military affairs in an environment we called "Military Operations Other Than War (MOOTW)" fascinating. That, and his account of life as a naval officer, and how the military personnel in China lived on a day to day basis.

Like any good book, it is excellent in many ways, and I can't recommend it enough.

This book, by the late Rear Admiral Kemp Tolley, is a very interesting and at times humorous account of the life of U.S. Navy gunboat sailors on China's Yangtze River from the time of the American Civil War through the mid-20th Century. During that period, China went through a tremendous amount of upheaval that included revolution, civil wars, major wars with Japan, and smaller wars with western countries. In the midst of China's upheaval, small American gunboats and those of other foreign nations tried to protect the lives and commercial interests of their citizens living in China.

Kemp Tolley, who passed away in 2000 at age 92, was himself a young Naval Officer in the 1930s when he was assigned to the Yangtze River Patrol. From that vantage point his tales of U.S. Navy life on the Yangtze--both on duty and off duty--in the 1930s make for some interesting anecdotes, whether they deal with U.S. sailors battling the river and Chinese bandits, romancing White Russian and Chinese women, or brawling with British and Italian gunboat crews in the bars of Yangtze River towns.

"Yangtze Patrol" is a great true adventure story and captures some of the same spirit as the novel, "The Sand Pebbles," which dealt with one U.S. gunboat crew during the Chinese Nationalist Revolution in the mid-1920s. However, any American reader of "Yangtze Patrol" needs to keep in mind how most Chinese viewed the Patrol. That view is well summed up in "The Sand Pebbles" where an American missionary asks Jake Holman, a gunboat sailor, how he'd feel if, instead of American gunboats on the Yangtze, there were Chinese gunboats sailing up and down the Mississippi River.

A fogotten chapter of Naval history is brought to life in this fabulous volume. Kemp Tolley, once a sailor in the Yangtze river patrol, outlines the Navy's service in China from its humblest beginnings prior to the cival war through the loss of the last gunboat in 1941. For those of us interested in Navy history, This book brings a lively and action packed legacy from our "China Sailors"

Subtle, beautiful, honest glimpse of the most massive public energy project ever undertaken. Linda Butler captures the life and death of the people, commnunities, and cities that were sacrificed for this energy project.

If America is "addicted to oil" then China is addicted to electricity. In the past 3 years China has approved and is building more new coal fired power plants than the entire United States fleet. You would think that this massive hydroelectric project at Three Gorges Dam would appease China's hunger for new energy, but the reality is it's just a drop in the bucket.

This book does a wonderful job reflecting on what we loose when society progresses.

As a person with a long-standing involvement in both photography and the professional evaluation of major energy projects in many countries (including hydro) I really appreciated the true value of this wonderful book.

To begin with, many not involved in this kind of work may not appreciate how politically sensitive it is. It took a great deal of courage and savvy for Ms. Butler to create the relationships and the entrees needed to make and exit the country with all those wonderful photographs and interview materials. This is no small feat in its own right. It speaks highly of her and also says alot about the growing openness of China.

Turning to the content, the quality of the photographs - in purely photographic terms - is superb. Lest we forget the power of black and white and the time-tested virtues of powerful composition, lighting and choice of subject matter, this is the place to recall them. Most of these pictures are not merely records - they are good photographs.

The captions and the text are very well done. This book is not a one-sided tirade against dam development. Rather, it is a sensitive, obviously well-informed and balanced perspective on the costs and benefits of these undertakings - both at an individual and more aggregate societal level. It is very clear from this book that there are winners and losers, progress and losses, and the actual long-term net result remains to play-out. This is reality.

There are important lessons of experience to be learned from this text. Let us not forget the scale of this enterprise. China committed something like six billions dollars to resettlement alone for over one million affected people. That a certain percentage of this money got misdirected through corruption and poor implementation is not surprising, and to the Chinese themselves - not acceptable - people are going to jail for their misdeeds. Ms. Butler faces these issues head-on and in a balanced manner. It becomes clear from reading this text that no matter how well-designed a project may be, the quality of the implementation arrangements and the structures in place for assuring their proper functioning are truly critical.

Finally, returning to the book as a production in its own right, the quality of the layout and printing are superb. Very highly recommended.

This amazing book by Linda Butler is a beautiful and heartbreaking look at the Three Gorges Dam project in China and the changing landscape because of it. The images are incredible and the text is haunting. The photographs are wonderfully reproduced and she has a great eye for capturing the subtle silence and the small nuances of the people and the landscape. Her vivid images document a changing China in a very intimate way. This text is a true photographic and historical treat!

Usually I buy an anthology just for one or two stories by my favourite authors. I picked this one up for the Nalo Hopkinson story, 'Shift,' which turned out to be about Ariel & Caliban from The Tempest, but I was pleasantly surprised to find several other stories I liked. Neil Gaiman's story is good, of course, and is a tribute to Ray Bradbury, about a gathering of the seasons. Michael Swanwick has two stories in this Year's Best, and both turn out to be really short; 'Five British Dinosaurs' and 'Cecil Rhodes in Hell' are both funny, but in different ways. 'The Pagodas of Ciboure' I had read in some other anthology a long time ago, and liked. What city dweller knew slugs could be so fearsome? I was a little disappointed in the Ellen Klages story, since I was hoping for a lot from it, but Naomi Kritzer's 'Comrade Grandmother' made up for it. It's a terrific story about Baba Yaga's participation in World War II. And of course there's an Ursula K Le Guin story too. All in all, a great anthology.

Once again, it's time for the annual Year's Best Fantasy volume, edited by David G. Hartwell. This year's version, volume 3, has even more goodness than last year's version did. Twenty-nine stories in all, ranging from short 3-page stories to 40 page ones, by some of the biggest names in the field. This is the perfect sampler to see what's going on in the Fantasy world, to see who the up-and-comers are, and get a taste of what they're offering. On the strength of some of the stories in this volume, I'm definitely going to check out a couple that I've never tried before.

I'd say that this volume is better than last year's edition, just because there weren't any stories that I didn't like. There were some that were weaker than others, of course, but no real clunkers in the bunch. It has fantasy for every taste, from urban fantasy to other worlds, if you've got a taste for the stuff, this book will satiate it. I will, of course, include a list of the stories at the end of the review so you can check them out and see if there are any authors that you particularly like.

I love the short fiction format, especially when it's done well. There are some standout entries in this year's edition, capped off with a short little piece by Michael Swanwick called "Five British Dinosaurs." This one is extremely short, but a lot is carried in a small package. It's about the discovery of dinosaur bones in Great Britain in the 19th century, along with the discovery that there are some living specimens hanging around in the British aristocracy. This story is hilarious and I found myself laughing throughout it's brief span. The thought of a walking dinosaur speaking in proper British English, disputing the reconstruction of the bones of his ancestors, is priceless. Swanwick gives the dinosaurs a lot of personality, along with a lot of arrogance. "Things were definitely better run in the Mesozoic?But mammals knew their place then." Swanwick has the honour of being the only person with two stories included, but they are both very short and so I figure Hartwell decided that he could afford the space.

Another standout is Steve Popkes and his story, " A Fable of Saviour & Reptile." This is a re-telling of the Jesus story, from the point of view of a talking turtle that befriends Jesus when he's young. The turtle is suitably haughty, given his long life span and his infinite patience (given the fact that it takes him a long time to get anywhere). It's an interesting take on the whole Messiah story, but if you can get past the irreligious tone of the story, it is very heartwarming. Hartwell warns in his prologue to it "Do note the word 'fable' in the title." While it gives an alternate view of Jesus and his life (including filling in the missing thirty or so years that the Bible doesn't include), it is very respectful the idea behind the story. The turtle is characterized wonderfully, and Jesus is too if you can get past the fact that he does drink when he's younger (getting a little drunk with the turtle) and he has a wife and son. It's a story about the power of myth and how humans can attach meaning to anything if it will help them get through life and possibly throw off the yoke of oppression. There are some very touching moments and conversations between the two of them, especially when the turtle comforts Jesus in his cell right before he's crucified. This is probably the best story in the book, and I am definitely going to track down some more by this guy.

Other particularly good stories are Kage Baker's "Her Father's Eyes" (a tale of a young girl and the boy she meets and befriends on a plane), Neil Gaiman's "October in the Chair" (a typical Gaiman tale about stories and the people who tell them, this time a group of god-like beings), and "A Prayer for Captain LaHire" by Patrice E. Sarath (a story of three knights who followed Joan of Arc until she burned, and the horror that they discover a fourth disciple has unleashed). Finally, there is P.D. Cacek's "A Book, by its Cover." This is a wonderful little tale about a Jewish boy in the aftermath of Kristallnacht in Berlin, and the bookshop owner who he believes is doing evil things afterward. It's has a wonderful message about books and the effects that they can have on a person.

If there are any weaknesses in the book, they are purely my personal feeling. I'm not a big fan of Tanith Lee, though I know that she is very popular. Thus, her story "Persian Eyes" didn't do a whole lot for me. In it, a Roman noble family is destroyed by the work of a slave girl and her magic eyes. It was more interesting to me than her entry in last year's book, but not by much. Also, "The Pagodas of Ciboure" just dragged on a little too long for my tastes. In it, a sick boy is healed by some French fairy creatures called "pagodas," though he has to save them from an onslaught of slugs first. It's cute, and it's well-told, but it's just too long.

That being said, I did enjoy even those stories. This is just a top-notch collection of short fantasy. Hartwell has done it again, pulling together a varied group of stories that can't help but satisfy. If you're a fantasy fan and like the short fiction genre, this is definitely the book for you. Hartwell has another winner, and I can't wait for next year's edition.

David Roy

Most of the anthologies I've read in the genre of Fantasy/Scifi and horror are mixed bags of personal likes and dislikes of the editors...some of which are a bit too gory, too 'realistic' or just have what I'd like to call 'fantasy around the edges'. This series is really 'the best'...not the usual commercially bland mixes (see, Bob Silverberg's Legends), but a good mix of quirky, new authors as well as some well known names (Gene Wolfe, Tanith Lee) with a nice blend of both light hearted and serious fantastic tales. Standouts would be: Gene Wolfe's From the Cradle, Naomi Kritzer's Comrade Grandmother, and Michael Swanwick's Five British Dinosaurs.