Here, today, we spotlight a different kind of short story collection: an anthology, where each story is written by a different person. The main theme of this anthology seems merely to be fantasy stories. Each story is original to this volume, which was originally published in 1993; there are thirteen of them. Michael Stearns is a native of San Diego, a graduate of the University of Southern California, and the recipient of the James Purdy Award for Fiction. He appears to have been the Children’s Editorial Director for HarperCollins; I think he’s recently taken a change of employment and become an agent.

The thirteen stories in this volume include authors familiar to most readers, such as Patricia C. Wrede, Charles de Lint, Will Shetterly, Bruce Coville, Jane Yolen, and Sherwood Smith. (Well, the last is certainly familiar to readers of Someone’s Read it Already.) There are also authors I didn’t know, such as Alan P. Smale, Dan Bennett, and Tappan King. The subjects include dragons, wizards, elves, fairies, Snow White, and the Princess Who Kicked Butt. All are bound by a thread of the fantastic; some are set today, some are set in high fantasy worlds. Some are serious, and some are humorous.

The introduction makes the usual sell for speculative fiction: rather than it being unrelated to current events and times, it’s actually in so many ways a distillation of our current events and times. It teaches tolerance and acceptance, and should not be banned for having things like wizards, witches, and unconventional religions. Of course, that was 1993, when children’s fantasy was a bit hard to find; these days, it’s all over the place. So while the introduction feels a tad dated to me, I should point out that the stories generally don’t. All of them (but one) feel as fresh as if the volume had been published today. (Although if it had been published today, it would be more than twice as long and called Firebirds Ahem. See Thursday’s upcoming review.)

The one story that is a smidge dated is a story involving computers. Now, I happen to remember what computers and the Internet were like in 1993, and the text-based RPG that the character played was very current. The problem is of course how technology moves. I read the story with a certain amount of nostalgia (there was a very interesting text-based MUD or MOO or something based on Anne McCaffrey’s Pern that I played a lot one summer), but I don’t really think that younger readers are going to comprehend the story entirely. Older readers (to whom I would still recommend this collection) might enjoy the story for similar reasons to mine.

My favorite stories, ignoring the ones I’d read already (the Sherwood Smith story, the Charles de Lint story, and the Patricia C. Wrede story have all since been reprinted in other places), were “The Princess Who Kicked Butt,” by Will Shetterly, for obvious reasons (well, it seems obvious to me that it’s a humorous story with an awesome title) and “The Breath of Princes,” by Alan Smale, for one very obvious reason (the main character is named Stephanie) and a few less obvious reasons. The story, which has a sort of cross between Sheherazade and Dealing with Dragons (Patricia C. Wrede) feel, has a surprising amount of subtlety in both plot and characterization. I liked it quite a bit, especially considering that I’d never heard of the author before. In any case, anthologies are great places to discover new authors, as I’m sure most people know by now, and this collection (which is probably long out of print) is still highly recommended. 4.5/5 stars.