Paper Cities

Earlier this year, I pre-ordered a copy of Paper Cities: An Anthology of Urban Fantasy — I eagerly ripped open the package when it arrived at my doorstep… I read Cat Spark’s ‘Sammarynda Deep’ (which has one of the best opening lines for a short story) and then I placed it on my desk, and promised myself that I’d read more once I’d gotten some work done on my thesis… or maybe once I’d finished the several stories I was working on… or definitely when I returned from overseas…

So here it is, about four months on, and I have finally revisited Paper Cities.

And now I’m cursing myself for leaving it on the desk for so long! In short, it is stunning. What a collection. Go out and buy it. Whether you like short stories or not, you should buy this collection. It will convert you to short stories, like nothing else will.

My favourites (at the moment; I still have a few works left to read): Jay Lake’s breathtaking piece; Kaaron Warren’s gorgeous chiller; Cat Spark’s exotic tale; Catherynne M. Valente’s baroque wonder. Honourable mention to Greg van Eekhout; in fact, scratch that. Put him on the list, too. His sparse prose is so evocative and steeped in emotion, that I’d be silly to overlook it in my list of faves.