Firebirds

This is one of the better anthologies I've read. All anthologies are something of a mixed bag. The reader's taste very seldom meshes exactly with the editor's, or the editor has had to make some compromises along the way. Firebirds is substantially above average.The book is helped, of course, by having some very big names in SFF - [a:Lloyd Alexander 8924 Lloyd Alexander http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1200328980p2/8924.jpg], [a:Patricia A. McKillip 25 Patricia A. McKillip http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1220752490p2/25.jpg], [a:Garth Nix 8347 Garth Nix http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1207583754p2/8347.jpg], to name a few. Aside from her first couple of books, I've never read anything by McKillip that wasn't terrific, and that's true here. The value of anthologies is in introducing readers to new authors. Here, I read a story (“Beauty”) by [a:Sherwood Smith 12350 Sherwood Smith http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1339177179p2/12350.jpg], an author I'd never heard of. I was struck by how well developed the world was for a short story. It turns out that's because it is a well developed world. But I nonetheless immediately went out and bought the related novel, [b:Crown Duel 21060 Crown Duel (Crown & Court #1-2) Sherwood Smith http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1309213505s/21060.jpg 4398231]. I'll be looking up [a:Nancy Farmer 8360 Nancy Farmer http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1207168030p2/8360.jpg] as well. But this anthology also has some other surprises. “Max Mondrosch” was a startling departure from the Lloyd Alexander of the Chronicles of Prydain ([b:The Book of Three 24780 The Book of Three (The Chronicles of Prydain, #1) Lloyd Alexander http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1317791689s/24780.jpg 1149593]), but no less good because of it.The editor says she built the book around a graphic novel by [a:Emma Bull 22548 Emma Bull http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1220945364p2/22548.jpg] and [a:Charles Vess 10763 Charles Vess http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1273720560p2/10763.jpg], and I looked forward to it. I'm sorry to say that that story is by far the weakest in the book. Happily, almost all the other stories range from good to excellent. In short, well worth picking up.