Read: August 2020The overall rating is for the following stories:Mythic FictionIntroduction: a personal journey into mythic fiction - Charles de Lint - 2/5 starsThe Goldfish Pool and other stories - Neil Gaiman - 4/5 starsUrban FantasyIntroduction: A funny thing happened on the way to urban fantasy - Paula Guran - 3/5 starsCompanions to the Moon - Charles de Lint (re-read: first read as a stand-alone in 2013) - 3.5/5 starsA Haunted House of Her Own - Kelley Armstrong (re-read: first read in 'Dea...

This is an uneven anthology, with five really good stories, two or three that are just ok, and a bunch of disappointing ones that failed to resonate with me at all. My favorites were "The Goldfish Pool and Other Stories", "Boobs", "Gestella", "The Coldest Girl in Coldtown", and "On the Far Side of Cadillac Desert with Dead Folk".Here are my individual story reviews: "Introduction" by Peter S. BeaglePeter S. Beagle defines urban fantasy as inclusive of three related but distinct types of fiction-...

A wide range of very good, thought provoking short stories and a couple of absolutely atrocious ones. The average quality of writing was well above the usual for short stories in this genre. The only thing that surprised me was how far from urban fantasy many of the stories are - I would have put some as straight horror, others as sci-fi, and a few have no actual speculative or supernatural content at all apart from the delusions of mentally ill characters. I’m not sure that urban fantasy, with

A fantastic anthology! There were only two or three stories I didn't like; everything else I enjoyed ENORMOUSLY. There's a huge variety of styles and subject matter, but the writing leans toward clarity and plottiness. Highly recommended!

[Review from Library Journal, September 1, 2011]With this impressive collection, Beagle, best known for The Last Unicorn, and Lansdale, author of the cult classic novella Bubba Ho-Tep, demonstrate their knowledge of the urban fantasy genre. Included here are pieces from well-known contributors in three categories: mythic fiction, paranormal romance, and noir fiction. The authors run the gamut from YA magical realist Francesca Lia Block (Weetzie Bat) to Charles de Lint, the creator of the expansi...

This was a fail. The Romance section had no romance, the Noir offered only the blackest depression, and while the Mythological stories fit the genre they were unmemorable. I have never been so disappointed in an anthology.

Started strong, for me, with a lot of downhill once we left the first section. Full review to come (unless I forget).

This is my first experience with this type of broad, category driven anthology, and I find myself as enamored with the physical organization of the book as I was with it’s contents. Opening with Charles de Lint’s exploration of Urban Fantasy and it’s more precise sub-categories, the book itself is divided into “Mythic Fiction”, “Paranormal Romance”, and “Noir Fantasy”. Each section begins with an essay that explores the origins and characterizations of this genre so much of us enjoy, and while t...

A Bird the Whistles - It did a good job creating the setting, but its just an overall storyline that is so. overdone. What a Joyful Noise. A mess. Got as far as the third page and just gave up. Its a short story. If you can't catch me early, then why would I waste my time? The Goldfish Pool and Other Stories - Excellent. Then again, it's you know, Gaimen, who could probably jot something on a cocktail napkin and have it come out amazing and win an award. The Road to New Egypt - Wonderful black h...

An interesting collection of short fiction. For those who think that urban fantasy consists only of paranormal romance, this volume will surprise you. The Mythic fiction and Noir Fantasy sections may be just what you’ve been wanting. At least one of the stories reminded me strongly in atmosphere of Stephen King’s novel The Stand.I was particularly enamoured of the Patricia Briggs story, Seeing Eye, which fills in some backstory in the Alpha & Omega series, namely the story of the blind witch Moi...

A solid anthology. Not all the stories were previously unpublished. The introductions to the urban fantasy and paranormal romance sections were interesting. (I'm not as much of a horror fan, but Susan Palwick's short story "Gestella" was about as chilling as gender-based horror can be without involving rape. Still possibly triggering for people who have been emotionally abused, though.)For War for the Oaks fans, the Emma Bull story features Willy Silver. I also particularly enjoyed the short sto...

This clunker in the Introduction has me wondering about this anthology, in the section about 'paranormal romance': "Around the time you have cheerful werewolf heroines running radio call-in shows - as in Laurel K. Hamilton's Anita Blake series - something has definitely changed." I rather thought that role was held by Kitty Norville, in the series from Carrie Vaughn.4/1/17 - couldn't get into any story. Abandoned. The Patricia Briggs story was one I'd read before.

A rather interesting anthology exploring the evolving and growing sub-genre of “urban fantasy,” this collection of short stories demonstrates the diverse, nearly undefinable points where the fantasy, horror, romance, and even mystery genres overlap and boil into one another. The stories included in “The Urban Fantasy Anthology” contain flavors of all of these segments of genre fiction and more, making for a very unique blend of elements, which are themselves organized into three broad topics; th...

This collection of short stories is broken into three sub-genres of urban fantasy: mythic fiction, paranormal romance, and noir fantasy. Before each of these sections is an essay detailing why short stories and novels would be broken into these categories and which authors contributed to the forming of the sub-genre. These essays are not very exciting (I would have left them out of the book in favor of a more succinct description of the stories that would follow) and all that I took away from th...

Eh. I found the story selection for this anthology to be puzzling and frustrating. When I see Urban Fantasy on the cover, that is what I expect to read on the pages. I liked the breakdown of Urban Fantasy types: Mythic Fiction (Charles de Lint style stories); Paranormal Romance; and Noir. Made sense to me. And then I read the stories...the editors, who must have come up with their categories of UF, didn't follow through. I don't expect to read literary horror in either Paranormal Romance or Noir...

I'd give this mixed bag of short stories a rating of 3.5 stars, but I don't know how to do that on the Goodreads site so I settled for 3 stars. There are a few great stories here, and several above average tales. However, the rest didn't move me so much although they each represented a different aspect of urban fantasy. In fact, I think that's what the editors were going for here. Rather than collect the absolute best stories in this genre, this particular anthology does a fine job of highlighti...

Love the editors, plus shorts and articles by de Lint, Bull, Gaiman, Carrie Vaughn, Patricia Briggs, Kelley Armstrong... how can this book go wrong?A Personal Journey into Mythic Fiction • essay by Charles de LintA Bird That Whistles by Emma BullMake a Joyful Noise by Charles de LintThe Goldfish Pool and Other Stories by Neil GaimanOn the Road to New Egypt by Jeffrey FordJulie's Unicorn by Peter S. BeagleA Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Urban Fantasy • essay by Paula GuranCompanions to the M...

This is one of those books that is easy to revisit. The best part of this anthology is the introduction that appears at the beginning of each section and fully explains the sub genre in the Urban Fantasy area. This anthology fully covers the most popular authors of the day. I made notes next to my favorite stories.Mythic FictionIntroduction: "A Personal Journey into Mythic Fiction" by Charles de LintEmma Bull, "A Bird That Whistles" Creepy, very creepy but told with love!Charles de Lint, "Make a...

Ok lets make something clear upfront I am a fan of sub-genre, and as a concept I am fine with the idea of urban fantasy. One of my favorite reads last year was King Maker by Maurice Broadus which was basically gangland version of King Arthur’s court set in modern Indianapolis. That is urban fantasy, and The Crow is another fine example. Alot of my favorite stories in this collection are ones that just seemed like horror, but I am biased I suppose since horror is one of my favorite genres.This b

I didn't realize until I read this anthology how many kinda of stories fall under the umbrella of urban fantasy, and I really enjoyed the essays at the beginning of each section which introduced the 3 broad categories. A note to the reader, some of these stories are disturbing and not just in a violent way. There were definitely stories I really liked (The Goldfish Pool and Other Stories, Julie's Unicorn, Hit, and A Haunted House of Her Own). They hit (no pun intended) just the right notes of fa...