A Shadow All of Light reminds me of Fritz Leiber’s Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser stories. These new tales are narrated by Falco, an ambitious young man who becomes an apprentice to master shadow thief Maestro Astolfo. Fred Chappell creates a world where shadows take on a life of their own. All the stories in this collection possess cunning and mystery. Just when you think you know what’s going on, Chappell will trick you with a clever plot twist. If you’re looking for marvelous stories full of wonder and wit, A Shadow All of Light will delight you. GRADE: A
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
“Thief of Shadows”
“The Diamond Shadow”
“Shadow of the Valley”
“Maze of Shadows”
“The Creeper Shadows”
There are form shifters and then there are genre shifters. You can manage to accommodate almost any genre in your reading rubric. How amazing.
Patti, thanks for the kind words. I just like a lot of variety in the books I read. Of course, I can binge on an author (or a genre) from time to time, too.
And perhaps spare a thought for Fred Chappell himself, one of those who dips into horror and fantasy and makes no bones about doing so, while continuing to work in other fields…hugely respected, influential, but not rich (I’m guessing…certainly no breakout bestsellers nor major films//tv/cults).
Just continuing good work. After doing his tributes to Lovecraft, a tribute to Leiber only seems natural. Thanks for pointing this out…it had gotten past me.
Don’t know this one but it sounds interesting. I’m backed up with short stories and library books as usual.
May was my best month for stories this year, with 80 read and 7 collections finished.
Jeff, I’m switching from short story collections and anthologies to Big Fat Books now that I’m on vacation. I want to thank you for inspiring me to read a short story a day. I’ve been doing that for a couple of decades now.
Sounds interesting, too bad abut the lousy cover. Publisher’s art departments must pay $2/hr. and hire teenagers. I sure did try to read a short story a day, but can never seem to keep it up.
Rick, you’re right. A SHADOW ALL OF LIGHT has a pretty generic cover. Remember the days of EMSH, Kelly Freas, and Jack Gaughan?
Do I ever, and the current fine artists employed by some publishers, such as John Harris.
By the way, finally, the information is self-populating the fields below the comment box. Yay!
Rick, I just bought two books just for the John Harris covers! Glad the information problem seems to be solved!
Oh yes, those artists’ covers were fabulous!
Did I tell you already thatI ‘m the proud owner of almost two thousand SF magazines – ranging from Amazing, Authentic (edited in Britain by E C Tubb amongst others), F&SF, Galaxy, IF etc to Worlds of Tomorrow ed by F Pohl?
Sometimes I just like to take one of the older issues into my hand and browse through it …
Sorry for boasting!
Wolf, you should be proud of your digest collection! I had a complete set of GALAXY which I donated to the State University of New York at Buffalo. It’s in their Special Collections library.
George – I will have to check this out. Sounds like my type of fun!
Scott, you would really enjoy A SHADOW ALL OF LIGHT. I’m a big fan of Fred Chappell’s work.