Queen Victoria's Book of Spells

Starred review from January 21, 2013
Datlow and Windling (After) collect 18 stories of elegant beauty and gothic murk in this anthology of “gaslamp fantasy,” an umbrella term for speculative works set in or inspired by the Victorian era. In the title story by Delia Sherman, a young researcher uncovers a shocking secret hidden in the diary entries of Queen Victoria’s spell book. A vindictive governess manipulates those around her with a magical scrapbook in Maureen McHugh’s “The Memory Book.” Gregory Maguire suggests that Scrooge bestowed magical gifts upon Tiny Tim in “A Few Twigs He Left Behind.” Veronica Schanoes’s “Phosphorus” relates the grim conditions that drove Victorian factory workers to strike, and the grim witchcraft that one worker, dying of phosphorus poisoning, uses to extend her life so she can see the strike to its end. Fans of steampunk and Austen-inspired fantasies of manners will be completely enraptured by these stories, which show us how Victorians saw themselves and offer an assortment of ways for modern readers to consider the bright lights and gloomy shadows of the past.

October 15, 2012

Gaslamp fantasy: there's a term I haven't heard. Represented by books ranging from Neil Gaiman's Stardust to Susanna Clarke's Jonathan Strange and Mrs. Morrell, it's a genre set in a magical version of the 19th century and embracing everything from steampunk to the Austen-inspired fantasy of manners. Datlow, a powerhouse sf/fantasy anthologist, has joined forces with folklore-imbued writer/artist Windling to create this anthology of gaslamp bests by authors ranging from Tanith Lee to Gregory Maguire.

Copyright 2012 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

February 15, 2013
Billed as an anthology of Gaslamp Fantasy, this collection features 18 stories, all of which are set in a magical version of the nineteenth century. Popularized by authors such as Neil Gaiman and Susanna Clarke, gaslamp fantasy has recently been picking up steam, propelled by a current generation of writers who have added a new dimension to some classic settings and sensibilities. Fantasy fans and historical-fiction aficionados will find much to admire and devour in these genre-bending tales featuring an engaging combination of the old and the new. Fantasy, magic, and fairylands were popular in the increasingly industrialized nineteenth century, and, as the editors theorize in the introduction to this innovative collection, as our own technological revolution causes sweeping societal changes and upheaval, many of us turn to fantasy for the same reasons: to escape the modern world. (Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2013, American Library Association.)