A Treasury of Modern Fantasy [Paperback]

Terry Carr and Martin Harry Greenberg (editors) (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: 1981

Anthology by various authors featuring Fantasy

Product Details

• Paperback: 588 pages
• Publisher: Avon; First Avon Printing edition (1981)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0380771152
• ISBN-13: 978-0380771158
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,994,029 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Valuable introduction to American magazine fantasy in the 20th century, September 6, 2009

By 

Muzzlehatch (the walls of Gormenghast) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: A Treasury of Modern Fantasy (Paperback)

All in all this is an excellent introduction to (mostly) American magazine science fiction from the beginnings of 'Weird Tales' and it's stars HP Lovecraft and Clark Ashton Smith in the 20s up through the 1970s and the continuing dominance of 'The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction' in the field. The selection is excellent overall, there are few if any duds here, but I do have a couple of caveats, namely that the book might have done better to have chosen some longer stories in the case of certain writers (Lovecraft and Sturgeon are not at their best here IMO with their quite short contributions), and the selections on the whole are just a might too familiar. Do HPL, Ray Bradbury and Shirley Jackson really need to be here at all? Given the stated restriction to magazine fantasy, perhaps a selection of lesser-known, even forgotten names might have been of more use.

But that's the POV of someone who is fairly cognizant of the history of the field; were I a little less knowledgeable, this would probably deserve a 5th star, and if you gentle reader are looking for a real introduction you probably can't do much better in a single-volume edition. Many of the stories are unquestionably classics -- my own faveorites are probably "Piper at the Gates of Dawn" by Richard Cowper and Harlan Ellison's masterpiece "Jeffty is Five." Out of print now (2009) but well worth hunting down and probably not hard to find for a low price.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Must-Have Anthology, March 4, 2010

By 

Philip Dinanzio (Yonkers, NY USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: A Treasury of Modern Fantasy (Paperback)

This volume is one of the best available. Nothing can compare to Bradbury's "Black Ferris" or "The Rag Thing". Of interest to collectors is the rarely seen version of James Blish's "There Shall be no Darkness". Unlike the more widely seen version, this version takes place in America, not Scotland. In this version, Doris is not a witch, but it is still the best science fiction version of a werewolf tale ever written. The other tales are equally satisfying. You won't be disappointed with this book.