Customer Reviews

The Mammoth Book of Comic Fantasy

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Upon seeing this in a bookstore my reaction was "hmm... this looks pretty damn good", and upon seeing it contained a Pratchett short (one I already have admitedly) I thought 'hmm... couldn't be too bad' and purchased it. I had pretty high expectations and to be honest it didn't meet them- but I did still like the collection. I wouldn't really describe this personally as a humourous collection- there were *very* few 'laugh out loud' moments. I would however describe it as a comical collection. Depending on your tastes you might enjoy it better than I- but personally I think as a humourous collection it fails, but just as an interesting anthology with a sense of the comical it was a decent read- there were very few stories that were actually outstanding, but even less that were below par- it just kind of skims along.

I love Fantasy. I love Comedy. I saw this and thought "This is the book for me!"

No.

A couple of bright spots (Neil Gaiman's and Terry Pratchett's stories, both of which I believe are available elsewhere) aren't quite enough to save this wheezing collection. Many of the stories aren't particularly funny at all, they just aren't serious High Fantasy. Others are just groaningly bad. Reading the first story, "Peregrine: Alflandia" by Avram Davidson, made me feel like I was trapped next to a particularly stupid and obnoxious person on a plane. Maybe that was the "funny" part, but if so that's the kind of comedy I can live without. Most of the rest of the stories were better, but too many are better by too little.

Maybe the editor's sense of humor is just much different from mine, but something tells me that that is probably not so. I'll say it just in case I've missed something that's readily apparent to everyone but me, though. I personally would stay away from this one.

This is one of the many, many volumes in Carroll & Graf's "Mammoth" series of short fiction compendiums. (Other volumes have held mysteries, vampire stories, Sherlock Holmes stories and many, many other subjects.) Basically, it's 500 pages of comedic fantasy, sci-fi and horror tales, and as you would have to expect with a book of this sort, the quality varies wildly. Some -- such as Tom Holt's "Pizza To Go," Neil Gaiman's "Shoggoth's Old Peculiar" and R.A. Lafferty's "Been a Long, Long Time" are fantastic reads. Others are almost painful in their lack of humor. Most fall somewhere in that gray area in-between. As someone who likes reading anthologies in the hopes of finding new authors, it was worth a read for me, and I've already read one of the three sequels (The Mammoth Book of Comic Fantasy II). I intend to pick up the other two (The Mammoth Book of Awesome Comic Fantasy and The Mammoth Book of New Comic Fantasy) as well -- I expect those, like the other two, will vary in quality, but to me it's worth slagging through some of the boring stories to find the gems.

MISSED!!! One good story...the last one. Isn't that typical? The stories don't hold you and the yawns will paralyze your jaw. WORK YER NECK MUSCLES 'CUZ YOU'LL BE A-SHAKIN' YOUR SKULL "WHY GOD WHY" IF YA READ THIS BOOK!!! Ashley, you schmuck.