Reviews

The 2023 Rhysling Anthology by Maxwell I. Gold

mary_soon_lee's review

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The annual Rhysling anthologies contain the finalists for that year's Rhysling Award for the best speculative poetry. The poems are divided into two categories: short (under 50 lines) and long (50+ lines). The anthologies provide excellent snapshots of speculative poetry.

As per usual, the 2022 anthology encompasses a wide variety in tone, form, and subject matter. There's science fiction, fantasy, horror, and some poems that border on mainstream.

I have just finished deliberating over which poems to pick for my Rhysling votes. 17 of the 50 short poems and 9 of the 25 long poems made my initial shortlist. After some hair-pulling, I narrowed that down to my three favorites for each length. As per my policy, I didn't vote for my own poems.

Recommended.

About my reviews: I try to review every book I read, including those that I don't end up enjoying. The reviews are not scholarly, but just indicate my reaction as a reader, reading being my addiction. In the case of poetry books, for various reasons, I often omit an overall star rating.

divadiane's review

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

5.0

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