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A review by thiefofcamorr
Magic City: Recent Spells by Holly Black, Patricia Briggs, Jim Butcher
4.0
An anthology of reprints, this anthology shows how magic really sparkles when grounded in reality – without the natural, how can there be no supernatural to juxtapose? A novel needs to have its own reality (limitations, and such) even when different from our own reality, to show the magic, however common it may be in the fantasy world, in order for to be both believable and engaging. In this anthology we see a range of urban fantasy set in Chicago, New York, London… but also in the ancient city of Babylon, and in fantasy worlds, or near-future cities. We meet wizards, faeries, shape-shifters and more. With many well known names, and those not so well known, this anthology will certainly had me heading straight to Goodreads to see what else the not-so-well-known-names had written. Anthologies are always such a curse for the wallet! They’re the best way to try and test authors, to see if you’d love to read more of their work.
“Street Wizard” © 2010 Simon R. Green.
A good opener to the anthology, we meet a street wizard of London, known only as Charlie boy. He wakes at 9pm to patrol his little spot in Soho to perform little spells to keep the unwitting safe from what really lurks in London’s back-alleys and shadows. It has a nice balance of ‘not much happening’ while so much really is – a general night as a street wizard means feral pixies, a golem, and vermin who look like homeless people living in boxes, prostitutes or otherwise – the trick is in being able to tell the actual from the demon. All in a nights work for Charlie boy. First publication: The Way of the Wizard, ed. John Joseph Adams (Prime Books).
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“Street Wizard” © 2010 Simon R. Green.
A good opener to the anthology, we meet a street wizard of London, known only as Charlie boy. He wakes at 9pm to patrol his little spot in Soho to perform little spells to keep the unwitting safe from what really lurks in London’s back-alleys and shadows. It has a nice balance of ‘not much happening’ while so much really is – a general night as a street wizard means feral pixies, a golem, and vermin who look like homeless people living in boxes, prostitutes or otherwise – the trick is in being able to tell the actual from the demon. All in a nights work for Charlie boy. First publication: The Way of the Wizard, ed. John Joseph Adams (Prime Books).
To continue reading this review, please click here.