The World Fantasy Award–winning collection from the architect of the Well-Built City Trilogy
No matter how far into the realms of space and fantasy Jeffrey Ford’s stories may venture, they have one trait in common: They’re grounded in the universal. The Fantasy Writer’s Assistant, Ford’s debut collection, is no exception. “Creation,†which received the World Fantasy Award for Best Short Story and a nomination for a Nebula Award, relates a boy’s attempts to animate a man made of sticks and pebbles. Even as the creature’s life fades along with the summer, its loneliness and yearning for contact are palpable.
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Other blends of the worldly and otherworldly are evident in “Bright Morning,†in which a man searches far and wide for a cursed Kafka book, and “At Reparata,†when the grief of a king over the death of his queen takes the form of a destructive moth that could overtake the entire kingdom. The Fantasy Writer’s Assistant, its titular story another Nebula Award finalist, reveals Jeffrey Ford at his creative best.
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No matter how far into the realms of space and fantasy Jeffrey Ford’s stories may venture, they have one trait in common: They’re grounded in the universal. The Fantasy Writer’s Assistant, Ford’s debut collection, is no exception. “Creation,†which received the World Fantasy Award for Best Short Story and a nomination for a Nebula Award, relates a boy’s attempts to animate a man made of sticks and pebbles. Even as the creature’s life fades along with the summer, its loneliness and yearning for contact are palpable.
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Other blends of the worldly and otherworldly are evident in “Bright Morning,†in which a man searches far and wide for a cursed Kafka book, and “At Reparata,†when the grief of a king over the death of his queen takes the form of a destructive moth that could overtake the entire kingdom. The Fantasy Writer’s Assistant, its titular story another Nebula Award finalist, reveals Jeffrey Ford at his creative best.
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