Customer Reviews

Antiquities: Seven Stories

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Only 1,000 copies of this collection were printed in its trade edition, so it's hard to find. It contains the following stories: "The Green Child," a retelling of a medieval legend; "Missolonghi 1824," about Lord Byron; "Antiquities," an Edwardian traveller's tale; "The Reason for the Visit," about a visit from Virginia Woolf; "Her Bounty to the Dead," a ghost story; "Snow," an SF story; and "Exogamy," a modern fable.

I'm a confessed fan of John Crowley (1942). He is not a very prolific sci-fi and fantasy writer, only twelve novels between 1975 and 2007, but all his books have a very distinctive style. A very special and rich "taste" I risk to say. He surely more than compensates quantity by quality!


"Antiquities" is an almost unfindable short-story collection published in 1993 that bring together tales written between 1977 and 1993, allowing the reader to perceive and follow the author's evolution in that time period.

Each story may be tasted as a special dish cooked by the author to be served to literary gourmets.

"The Green Child" (1981) is a recreation of a medieval legend and shows a little image of those days daily life.

"Missolonghi 1824" (1990) let the readers perceive a semblance of Lord Byron controversial personality and at the same time reconstruct a mythological character. This multilayer characteristic of the tale is Crowley's trade mark.

"Antiquities" (1977) is a fascinating story about a mysterious "disease" that overcomes a small village in England. IMHO it is one of the best narrations of this book.

"The Reason for the Visit" (1980) depicts an interesting situation that may give way in the future to many similar encounters. Alas, as my knowledge of the main character is scarce, I wasn't able to fully appreciate this tale.

"Her Bounty to the Dead" (1978) is the most representative of the author's style, full of tenderness and nostalgia combined with a poignant conclusion.

"Snow" (1985) the most definite sci-fi narration of the collection and nevertheless a deep meditation about life, death and memory.

"Exogamy" (1993) IMHO is the weakest of the stories hear to be read describing a more oneiric backdrop but going nowhere.

I really love Crowley's writing style, showing a deep connection with existentialism, hippie movement and mysticism.

Enjoy this good collection!
Reviewed by Max Yofre.

I'm a confessed fan of John Crowley (1942). He is not a very prolific sci-fi and fantasy writer, only twelve novels between 1975 and 2007, but all his books have a very distinctive style. A very special and rich "taste" I risk to say. He surely more than compensates quantity by quality!

"Antiquities" is an almost unfindable short-story collection published in 1993 that bring together tales written between 1977 and 1993, allowing the reader to perceive and follow the author's evolution in that time period.

Each story may be tasted as a special dish cooked by the author to be served to literary gourmets.

"The Green Child" (1981) is a recreation of a medieval legend and shows a little image of those days daily life.

"Missolonghi 1824" (1990) let the readers perceive a semblance of Lord Byron controversial personality and at the same time reconstruct a mythological character. This multilayer characteristic of the tale is Crowley's trade mark.

"Antiquities" (1977) is a fascinating story about a mysterious "disease" that overcomes a small village in England. IMHO it is one of the best narrations of this book.

"The Reason for the Visit" (1980) depicts an interesting situation that may give way in the future to many similar encounters. Alas, as my knowledge of the main character is scarce, I wasn't able to fully appreciate this tale.

"Her Bounty to the Dead" (1978) is the most representative of the author's style, full of tenderness and nostalgia combined with a poignant conclusion.

"Snow" (1985) the most definite sci-fi narration of the collection and nevertheless a deep meditation about life, death and memory.

"Exogamy" (1993) IMHO is the weakest of the stories hear to be read describing a more oneiric backdrop but going nowhere.

I really love Crowley's writing style, showing a deep connection with existentialism, hippie movement and mysticism.

Enjoy this good collection!

Reviewed by Max Yofre.

A small press short story collection from Crowley that I had to request through Inter-Library Loan. Just seven stories, nothing longer than 6,000 words, but richer by far than the sparseness of the type on the pages. In "The Green Child," Crowley tells an anti- fairy tale, wherein the fairies visit our world and lose their ability rather than the other way around. "Missolonghi 1824" uses the style of the tall tale to explore a being from the past in a somewhat more recent past. The best story by far is the title story, a mystery about sex in a small town. "The Reason for the Visit" is somewhat pointless if you don't know anything about Virginia Woolf, like me. The fatalistic "Her Bounty to the Dead" is my next pick in this volume; the ending is as sudden as a car crash, and just as inevitable. I had read both "Snow" and "Exogamy" before in other pages (likely Datlow and Windling's Year's Best volumes). I liked "Snow" even more than I remembered. It's rare for Crowley to write such a straightforward science fiction tale, and this is one of the best. It even has a Neal Stephenson-like flavor. I hated "Exogamy," which is too much like the recent pointless drivel that Ellison has been producing. All in all, worth checking out from the library, but wait for a publisher to realize a sure thing and do a Complete Short Fiction of John Crowley before mortgaging the house to find this rare volume.