Thirteen Phantasms
Published by Ace, 2003 (PB)
ISBN 0441010148
Published by Edgewood Press, 2000 (HC)
ISBN 0-9701306-0-0
Published by Subterranean Press (December 2005)
Paperback: 28 pages (title story - not the collection)
ISBN: 159606045X
Short stories mostly have an
ephemeral publishing life, showing up briefly in magazines, chapbooks,
or online, and then disappearing forever. It's often an unexpected pleasure,
therefore, to find a collection of short stories by a favourite author,
and that is certainly the case with Thirteen Phantasms from Edgewood
Press. Gathered in this volume are:
- Thirteen Phantasms
- Red Planet
- The Ape-Box Affair*
- Bugs
- Nets of Silver and Gold
- The Better Boy*
- The Pink of Fading Neon
- The Old Curiosity Shop
- Doughnuts
- Two Views of a Cave Painting
- The Idol's Eye
- Paper Dragons
- We Traverse Afar
- The Shadow on the Doorstep
- Myron Chester and the Toads
- Unidentified Objects
* Readers of a scientific turn of mind may be flabbergasted by some scenes in these stories (I'm thinking particularly of the the ape's helium respirator in "The Ape Box Affair" and Bernard Wilkins' ether bunnies in "The Better Boy"), but don't let that stop you reading them anyway.
Unless you're a fanatical Blaylock collector, it's unlikely you've read all or even many of these stories. Some, such as "Red Planet" and "The Pink of Fading Neon" seem to simply be dipping into a world of lunacy without being terribly engaging, while another old story of the same era, The "Ape-Box Affair", relates an hilarious misadventure of Langdon St. Ives, who would reappear later in "Two Views of a Cave Painting", "The Idol's Eye" and the novels Lord Kelvin's Machine and Homunculus. Throughout the collection we meet characters who pull away, intentionally or not, the curtain of the everyday world, revealing the leering, capering dwarf in a funny hat just outside the window who cocks a snook and scuttles off. As with most of Blaylock's stories, this collection is full of strange powers; obsessions, magical objects, and characters whose quirky perspectives sometimes plunge them into chaos or set them on the road to adventure.
Don't miss this chance to get a sampling of 20 years of Blaylock's stories. Available in a high quality clothbound format, Thirteen Phantasms sells for US$25 and can be ordered from:
Steve Pasechnick
Edgewood Press
P. O. Box 380264
Cambridge, MA
02238 USA
E-mail: spasechnick@harvard.com
or you can buy the paperback from Amazon
Books USA
or from Amazon
Canada
or from Amazon
UK
Also available from Clarkesworld
Books
You might find second-hand copies at
The chapbook containing just the story Thirteen Phantasms can be purchased from
or you can buy the paperback from Amazon Books USA
or from Amazon Canada
or from Amazon UK
Click
here to read a review of Thirteen Phantasms on another site.
