SciFi/Fantasy Anthology Review: Lost Worlds & Mythological Kingdoms (ed. by John Joseph Adams), featuring stories by Kate Elliott, Darcie Little Badger, Dexter Palmer, Seanan McGuire, Becky Chambers and more
— Josh (garik16) (@garik16) March 1, 2022
Short Review: 8 out of 10
1/3
Short Review (cont): An anthology featuring 17 short stories dealing with discoveries of lost worlds, mythological worlds, past worlds, etc., sometimes dealing with colonization, sometimes imagination, sometimes horror, & more. A very solid if rarely exceptional collection.
— Josh (garik16) (@garik16) March 1, 2022
2/3
Full Disclosure: This book was read as an e-ARC (Advance Reader Copy) obtained from the publisher in advance of the book's release on March 8, 2022 in exchange for a potential review. I give my word that this did not affect my review in any way - if I felt conflicted in any way, I would simply have declined to review the book.
Lost Worlds & Mythological Kingdoms is the latest themed anthology edited by prominent anthologist, John Joseph Adams. As is typical for an Adams anthology, this collection is filled with stories from pretty well renowned members of the SciFi/Fantasy community, such as Becky Chambers, Kate Elliott, Darcie Little Badger, Seanan McGuire, and more.
These writers combine to write stories that all follow a single theme in a ton of different ways: each story deals in some way with discovery of a lost world, a mythological world, or some place or part connected to the distant past. It's a theme that in a different time would've resulted in a LOT of stories from the perspective of a colonizer and be problematic as a result. But this anthology's authors are aware of that, either taking the theme in an alternate direction altogether - portal fantasies, cute stories about exploration and imagination, horror stories - or take direct aim at those stories and provide and interrogate/critique them entirely.
The result is a whole bunch of very solid stories, although I don't think any wound up being an absolute standout that demands you read it right away. But still, if you pick this anthology up, you won't be disappointed.
This collection includes the following 17 stories:
The Light Long Lost at Sea by An Owomoyela
The Cleft of Bones by Kate Elliott
The Voyage of Brenla by Carrie Vaughn
Comfort Lodge, Enigma Valley by Charles Yu
The Expedition Stops for the Evening at the Foot of the Mountain Pass by Genevieve Valentine
Down in the Dim Kingdoms by Tobias S. Buckell
Those Who Have Gone by C.C. Finlay
An Account, by Dr. Inge Kühn, of the Summer Expedition and Its Discoveries by E. Lily Yu
Out of the Dark by James L. Cambias
Endosymbiosis by Darcie Little Badger
The Orpheus Gate by Jonathan Maberry
Hotel Motel Holiday Inn by Dexter Palmer
On the Cold Hill Side by Seanan McGuire
The Return of Grace Malfrey by Jeffrey Ford
An Account, by Dr. Inge Kühn, of the Summer Expedition and Its Discoveries by E. Lily Yu
Out of the Dark by James L. Cambias
Endosymbiosis by Darcie Little Badger
The Orpheus Gate by Jonathan Maberry
Hotel Motel Holiday Inn by Dexter Palmer
On the Cold Hill Side by Seanan McGuire
The Return of Grace Malfrey by Jeffrey Ford
The Tomb Ship by Becky Chambers
Pellargonia: A Letter to the Journal of Imaginary Anthropology by Theodora Goss
There, She Didn't Need Air to Fill Her Lungs by Cadwell Turnbull.
These stories are all solidly in the "short story" size - with some being just a few pages and some being a bit more significant...but even then, nothing here will take you more than a few minutes to read. Some of the stories feature multiple parts, others are told in non-traditional ways, but it's a very diverse collection - with some going for horror, some going for fantasy, some going for magical realism, and some even going for SciFi.
And as I mentioned above the jump, you have a bunch of stories that hit some similar themes, although in some very different ways. So for example, The Light Long Lost at Sea, The Cleft of Bones, and Down in the Dim Kingdoms, all deal with the impact of colonization destroying lost knowledge and older communities, in various ways - with Down in the Dim Kingdoms by Tobias S. Buckell being a particularly strong story for how it develops and shocks in its conclusion, with its very very selfish narrator.
You have two stories featuring hotels with strange magical connections - Comfort Lodge, Enigma Valley by Charles Yu is told as if it's a listing of Yelp reviews from guests to a hotel that's clearly being affected by a strange portal to another world warping geometry, experiences, and minds; Hotel Motel Holiday Inn by Dexter Palmer is instead told by a traveling salesman who explains all the magical attributes of smaller hotels around the world that others wouldn't know. Both stories are very fun and imaginative and different takes on similar ideas.
You have a number of horror stories, or stories where things go out of control, even a few from authors you might not expect - so while Seanan McGuire's story (On the Cold Hill Side) about investigators investigating urban legends for the government turning into horror is hardly surprising, Darcie Little Badger's Endosymbiosis story turning towards horror is far more surprising and all the more shockingly good as a result.
And well, I could go on and on, but you get the point - it's a really solid anthology of stories, even if it doesn't really have one or two highlights that are so good that I would demand you read them and nominate them for awards next year. Instead you get a pretty much entirely enjoyable collection from start to finish, with enough variety to keep you well entertained. Could do a lot worse than that.
Pellargonia: A Letter to the Journal of Imaginary Anthropology by Theodora Goss
There, She Didn't Need Air to Fill Her Lungs by Cadwell Turnbull.
These stories are all solidly in the "short story" size - with some being just a few pages and some being a bit more significant...but even then, nothing here will take you more than a few minutes to read. Some of the stories feature multiple parts, others are told in non-traditional ways, but it's a very diverse collection - with some going for horror, some going for fantasy, some going for magical realism, and some even going for SciFi.
And as I mentioned above the jump, you have a bunch of stories that hit some similar themes, although in some very different ways. So for example, The Light Long Lost at Sea, The Cleft of Bones, and Down in the Dim Kingdoms, all deal with the impact of colonization destroying lost knowledge and older communities, in various ways - with Down in the Dim Kingdoms by Tobias S. Buckell being a particularly strong story for how it develops and shocks in its conclusion, with its very very selfish narrator.
You have two stories featuring hotels with strange magical connections - Comfort Lodge, Enigma Valley by Charles Yu is told as if it's a listing of Yelp reviews from guests to a hotel that's clearly being affected by a strange portal to another world warping geometry, experiences, and minds; Hotel Motel Holiday Inn by Dexter Palmer is instead told by a traveling salesman who explains all the magical attributes of smaller hotels around the world that others wouldn't know. Both stories are very fun and imaginative and different takes on similar ideas.
You have a number of horror stories, or stories where things go out of control, even a few from authors you might not expect - so while Seanan McGuire's story (On the Cold Hill Side) about investigators investigating urban legends for the government turning into horror is hardly surprising, Darcie Little Badger's Endosymbiosis story turning towards horror is far more surprising and all the more shockingly good as a result.
And well, I could go on and on, but you get the point - it's a really solid anthology of stories, even if it doesn't really have one or two highlights that are so good that I would demand you read them and nominate them for awards next year. Instead you get a pretty much entirely enjoyable collection from start to finish, with enough variety to keep you well entertained. Could do a lot worse than that.
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