Twenty Epics [Paperback]

Susan Groppi (Author), David Moles (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 25, 2006

Epics have lost their charm. There was a time when you finished an epic. When an epic left you feeling not discontent and exhausted, but joyous, melancholy, rejuvenated, satisfied -- left you feeling that you were a better person for the experience. TWENTY EPICS will bring that feeling back. In ten thousand words or less. All-new stories from Christopher Rowe, Tim Pratt, Alan DeNiro, Rachel McGonagill, K.D. Wentworth, Marcus Ewert, Christopher Barzak, Meghan McCarron, Stephen Eley, Jon Hansen, Paul Berger, David Schwartz, Sandra McDonald, Jack Mierzwa, Mary Robinette Kowal, Zoe Selengut, Ian McHugh, Yoon Ha Lee, Benjamin Rosenbaum, and Scott William Carter. Edited by David Moles and Susan Marie Groppi.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Twenty Epics saved me from going absolutely bugnut insane. -- John Scalzi, author of Old Man's War and The Ghost Brigades

From the Publisher

In the spring of 2004, the Minneapolis publishing cooperative known as the Ratbastards published a slim blue volume called Rabid Transit #3: Petting Zoo. In it, among other things, was a story, or an article, or a monograph, entitled "How to Write an Epic Fantasy," by a Canadian writer named David Lomax.

On the surface it was innocent enough, presenting itself as advice, particular advice, perhaps from one writer to another, on the crafting of a particular story. But when read by a sufficiently suggestible reader, it accomplished a curious trick. Through a kind of deja vu it managed to evoke, in only a handful of pages, the whole of the larger work, a work that had existed nowhere outside the imagination of Mr. Lomax... but that now existed also, albeit in a distinct and independent form, in the imagination of the reader. "How to Write an Epic Fantasy" was larger on the inside than on the outside.

This accomplishment posed an obvious question.

Because we used to like epics. We used to invest untold hours in those big fat fantasy series, those brick-thick novels full of unpronounceable naming schemes, gender-segregated magic systems, color-coded conceptions of absolute good and absolute evil. But somewhere along the way, they lost their charm. When it takes ten or twenty years for a writer to finish a series, writing the same book over and over again, dragging on and on, piling up the foreshadowing, wearing out characters' boots to no good purpose, writing stories that just don't end -- they rob the stories of any real passion or power or epic grandeur.

And that's what it's really about. It's not about the pewter tankards, the saucy wenches, the rough woolen cloaks; it's not about the vengeful gods, the cryptic wizards, the farm boys with inexplicably great destinies; it's not about the magic rings and rune-swords and jeweled coronets, the greaves and pauldrons and destriers. It's about grandeur.

There's a place in our hearts that used to be stirred by tales of heroism and discovery, creation and destruction, sin and redemption and catastrophe, love and high adventure. The question posed by "How to Write an Epic Fantasy" is: What does it take to reach that place?"

We've collected our authors' answers here.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 390 pages
• Publisher: Lulu.com (June 25, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1847280668
• ISBN-13: 978-1847280664
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,586,856 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Of TWENTY EPICS Edited By Moles And Groppi I Sing, November 12, 2006

By 

Kevin Killian (San Francisco, CA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Twenty Epics (Paperback)

I sailed through TWENTY EPICS like a voyager on warp speed, feeling the heat of the flames and the cold of far space burning my temples as I flew. Editor David Moles, this time assisted by the able and resourceful Susan Marie Groppi, has once again gathered a group of wise and clever storytellers who see through crystals into futures far beyond the ordinary vision. Not every story works, but most of them succeed on their own terms. As you have probably guessed, contributors were invited to work almost epigramatically, like haiku poets, polishing down the contents of an entire epic into the space of one short story. Not as easy as it sounds, but as the results prove, not so difficult either. I attended a group reading from this anthology at a specialist bookstore in the Mission District of San Francisco. Editor Groppi indicated that her "co-pilot" David Moles couldn't be present because he was in Switzerland. Reading between the lines, i took it that his decamping for Basel wasn't particularly helpful to completing their joint project, and that she was put to the task of doing all the dirty work. However enough of Moles' harmless, avuncular spirit hovered over the process so that he deserved editorial credit; besides which, it was partly his idea in the first place.

We heard the well known Tim Pratt read from "Cup and Blood," a story which combines elements of the Holy Grail (and the DA VINCI CODE as well) with the vampiric undertones that have always accompanied the Grail matter (with that "drink of my blood" refrain it's a natural). Pratt reads beautifully, so involved with his own voice that sweat pours off the top of his head as he introduces new complications to the world's oldest story. I wound up having a great deal of respect for this imaginative thrillmaker. Groppi read from Meghan McCarron's THE RIDER, in which the psychotic memories of a young American woman are revealed (in an ambiguous way, which left one unnervingly not sure what was "real," what "induced") to be actual experiences of her years in a hellbound death and sex camp in some other dimension, where, like on LOST with the Others, little children are especially prized. I can still hear Nell's cry, "No, No, I won't any more, No, Please no, No, Not the Rider!" It is strong meat, comparable to actress Meg Tilly's new novel GEMMA in which a young girl is kidnapped, molested and defiled by an older criminal man. I had the feeling also that Groppi, herself no writer, wanted perhaps to showcase at least one of the fine female writers whose work appears in TWENTY EPICS.

When Marcus Ewert read his piece, the atmosphere lightened considerably. Ewert, best known in the Bay Area for his ongoing memoirs of life as a "Beat Boy," the former boyfriend of Ginsberg and William Burroughs, is also a terrific fiction writer and his story "Choose Your Own Epic Adventure" manages to satirize the entire enterprise, and to be true to it at the same time, playing the reader like a guitar (or zither) by remaking those pop children's books of "Choose Your Own Adventure" to fit the sometimes grisly mold of the epic sword and sorcery fantasy. It's so clever I can't really describe it, but think of a combination of Julio Cortazar and Dr. Seuss and you will have arrived in the right neighborhood. His reading invited audience participation. "If you choose to have a flesh-and-blood child, go to Section 19. If you feel you're not up to the challenge, and would prefer a spell-bairn instead, go to Section 28." We all shouted out whatever was the most outlandish, and then Ewert "obeyed us," a gleeful grin on his freckled face.

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Story, January 9, 2008

By 

J. Garner (Lawrenceville, GA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Twenty Epics (Paperback)

I just read "Siege of Cranes". Wow! I was simply amazed. Truly it is an Epic in just over thirty pages. I haven't read the other stories in this collection, but I have to say that now, I plan to. Rosenbaum's "Siege of Cranes" alone is worth 1/2 the price of the book. I was able to download that one story and read it for free. I was so amazed and entertained that now I will need to read the rest of the book. Excellent!

5.0 out of 5 stars Twenty Epics Is Full of Treasures, December 29, 2007

By 

Kenneth R. Austin (Knoxville, TN) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Twenty Epics (Paperback)

It is no mistake this book was nominated for a World Fantasy Award. This is one of the most enjoyable and fresh story collections I've read over the years. And having read that year's winner immediately before picking up this volume, I'm not sure the judges got it right. These stories are honest, readable, accessible stories without the pretense, style, and worldview affectations the WFA winners and nominees often display. (Unlike another reviewer I found the story written like a book from the Bible, "The Book of Ant" by Jon Hanson, clever and engaging rather than distractingly experimental.)

It's difficult to pick favorites from this collection. However, "The Creation of Birds" by Christopher Barzak, is a powerful read. From the wonder that the opening paragraphs create to the awesome and touching conclusion, this story does not waste one single word. And Sandra McDonald's "Life Sentence" is the story that Richard Matheson might have written if he'd been writing for the love of writing, rather than writing for a living.

The production quality is excellent. The card stock cover is sufficiently heavy, the paper looks and feels great, and the text is crisp and reads easily.

Congratulations on the nomination!