A review by josephvanburen
The 2020 Rhysling Anthology by David C. Kopaska-Merkel

4.0

This is an awesome collection of speculative poetry: verse short and long in the realms of science fiction, fantasy, and horror. As with any anthology this large, there was a wide range of styles and themes as well as some poems that didn't quite do it for me. But the vast majority are at least well-written, and there are some amazing pieces in here that made me stop and think about a specific aspect of the human condition. That is the power of speculative poetry-using fantastic imagery from other worlds to comment on our own-and many of the poets featured here do it well. Maybe one year I'll read the Rhysling Anthology in time to vote, but I am always happy to read work from some poets I already enjoy and discover some wonderful talent new to me, which this collection (at 200+ pages and 95 poets!) was great for :)