Product Description

The world of speculative fiction is expansive; it covers more than one country, one continent, one culture. Collected here are sixteen stories penned by authors from Thailand, the Philippines, China, Israel, Pakistan, Serbia, Croatia, Malaysia, and other countries across the globe. Each one tells a tale breathtakingly vast and varied, whether caught in the ghosts of the past or entangled in a postmodern age. Among the spirits, technology, and deep recesses of the human mind, stories abound. Kites sail to the stars, technology transcends physics, and wheels cry out in the night. Memories come and go like fading echoes and a train carries its passengers through more than simple space and time. Dark and bright, beautiful and haunting, the stories herein represent speculative fiction from a sampling of the finest authors from around the world.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #158949 in Books
• Published on: 2009-11-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 302 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Globe-trekking Israeli editor Tidhar (HebrewPunk) compiles an inconsistent medley of horror-tinged fantasy tales, which may confuse readers drawn in by a title and cover that suggest science fiction. Several stories seem included for their culturally and geographically diverse authors more than their narrative merit, such as Nir Yaniv's plodding Cinderers, narrated by a pyromaniac with multiple personalities, and Yang Ping's Wizard World, an uninspired take on life inside an online role-playing game. More focused and interesting are Dean Francis Alfar's whimsical The Kite of Stars, which describes a journey across fantastical landscapes, and Tunku Halim's Biggest Baddest Bomoh, where an office drone consults a deadly shaman for help with his love life. Even the better stories fail to find a fresh take on genre mainstays like ghosts, portals and cannibals. (Sept.)
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Review
From S.P. Somtow's World Fantasy Award-winning "The Bird Catcher," a restrained horror tale of a young boy's friendship with Thailand's most infamous human "monster," to "Wizard World," Galaxy Award winner Yang Ping's story of high-tech gamers, this extraordinary anthology of 16 tales introduces English-speaking readers to some of the world's best writers of sf, horror, fantasy, and metafiction. Contributors include Jamil Nasir (Palestine), Aleksandar Ziljak (Croatia), Guy Hasson (Israel), Kaaron Warren (Australia/Fiji), and Jetse de Vries (Netherlands). VERDICT This literary window into the international world of imaginative fiction, the first in a new series, is sure to appeal to adventurous sf fans and readers of fiction in translation. --Library Journal, August, 2009

The great thing about Tidhar's collection is that it is full of such masterpieces. You do have to get used to having your mind warped as if by some powerful psychedelic. You'll definitely feel that way after Zoran Zivkovic and his Godot-like explorations. Or after Guy Hassan's thought experiment about the nature of mind and thought. But once you get used to the idea, you can settle in and enjoy the ride. --42SciFi-Fantasy.com, Randy Lazarus