Eclipse 1

Starred review from October 1, 2007
Each of the 16 selections in Strahan's superb anthology (the launch of an annual series) does a disturbing take on a premise that genre fans may find familiar from more mundane examples of science fiction, fantasy or horror. Paul Brandon and Jack Dann's “The Transformation of Targ” and Ysabeau S. Wilce's “Quartermaster Returns,” both horror stories, simultaneously unsettle and amuse. Jeffrey Ford's metaphorical “The Drowned Life” explores a debtor's despair. Peter S. Beagle's “The Last and Only or, Mr. Moscowitz Becomes French” veers all too close to contemporary reality, while Terry Dowling's “Toother” is as much about the grim realities of the Napoleonic and American Civil Wars as it is about the horror of serial killers. Ellen Klages's “Mrs. Zeno's Paradox” plays a delightful twist on the classical thought experiment. Gwyneth Jones's “In the Forest of the Queen” is at once hauntingly ethereal and an arresting reinterpretation of humans wandering into faerie. Every selection both defines and challenges our genre expectations.

November 15, 2007
From Andy Duncan's opening tale of a parish priest's encounter with a precocious little girl and her pet chicken, Jesus Christ ("Unique Chicken Goes in Reverse"), to the final story, by Lucius Shepard, of an unforgettable relationship with a Russian woman as enigmatic as the country of her birth ("Larissa Miusov"), the 15 original stories gathered here defy easy categorization as either sf or fantasy but push the borders of both genres to surprising extremes. Contributions by a variety of veteran and new writers including Peter S. Beagle, Kathleen Ann Goonan, Bruce Sterling, and Gwyneth Jones round out an unusual collection of speculative fiction that belongs in libraries where short stories are popular.

Copyright 2007 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

November 1, 2007
Strahans goal of re-creating the golden age of the anthology with a set of tales not unified by a common theme is well achieved by this book. Beginning with Andy Duncans hilarious, perceptive piece about a priest called to deal with a young girl who has named a frizzled chicken Jesus Christ, and ending with Lucius Shepards haunting tale of a woman who escapes her life with a trick learned from a nomadic shaman, Eclipse is a wide-ranging, thematically diverse, high-quality collection. Contributing veterans include Peter S. Beagle with The Last and Only; or, Mr. Moscowitz Becomes French and Terry Dowling with the most nightmarish entry, Toother. Ellen Klages, whose Mrs. Zenos Paradox is an absolutely fantastic distaff take on a fabled ancient conundrum, represents a middle generation; and with Quartermaster Returns, Ysabeau S. Wilce is a smashing newcomer. Not everyone will love every piece in the book, but every one is high-quality writing, and together they offer enough variety to ensure that virtually any reader will find a favorite among them.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2007, American Library Association.)