WEDNESDAY’S SHORT STORIES #87: IN LANDS THAT NEVER WERE Edited by Gordon Van Gelder

The subtitle of Gordon Van Gelder’s In Lands That Never Were is Tales of Swords and Sorcery From the Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. Van Gelder provides a mix of stories from the Very Famous, like Fritz Leiber’s iconic “Ill Met in Lankhmar” and Robert E. Howard and L. Sprague de Camp’s Conan tale, “The Hall of the Dead,” to more obscure stories like Yoon Ha Lee’s “Counting the Shapes.”

I enjoyed the Alaric story, “The Island in the Lake” by Phyllis Eisenstein, as the minstrel with the power to teleport becomes entangled in a Royal plot. Also fun is Jeffrey Ford’s “The Fantasy Writer’s Assistant” where a prolific Fantasy writer needs the help of his young assistant to regain touch with his invented World and its in habitants.

If you’re in the mood for some well-written fantasy stories full of adventure and thrills, give In the Lands That Never Were a try. GRADE: B+

Table of Contents:

Introduction — ix

The hall of the dead / Robert E. Howard and L. Sprague de Camp — 1
A hedge against alchemy / John Morressy — 27
Ill met in Lankhmar / Fritz Leiber — 45
Counting the shapes / Yoon Ha Lee — 101
Firebird / R. Garcia y Robertson — 127
Dragon’s gate / Pat Murphy — 169
After the Gaud Chrysalis / Charles Coleman Finlay — 201
The swordsman whose name was not death / Ellen Kushner — 247
The island in the lake / Phyllis Eisenstein — 265
Darkrose and diamond / Ursula K. Le Guin — 311
King Rainjoy’s tears / Chris Willrich — 345
The fantasy writer’s assistant / Jeffrey Ford — 375

16 thoughts on “WEDNESDAY’S SHORT STORIES #87: IN LANDS THAT NEVER WERE Edited by Gordon Van Gelder

  1. Todd Mason

    One story Gordon might’ve overlooked that I suggest he shouldn’t have is Glen Cook’s “The Seventh Fool” (March 1978), which is expert Jack Vance pastiche, and I remember it rather more fondly than the often interesting Dread Empire stories Cook published with F&SF in later issues.

    Having mostly left the Conan attempts by de Camp and company (happily) to FANTASTIC and (back when) FANTASTIC UNIVERSE, F&SF has published some impressive S&S over the years…and the lack of any Vance Cugel stories, at least, is also puzzling.

    Reply
    1. george Post author

      Jeff, while some of the stories, like Leiber’s and Howard/de Camp, are true “Sword and Sorcery,” Le Guin and Ford’s stories deal more in magic and humor.

      Reply
      1. george Post author

        Todd, but Robert E. Howard developed the template for Sword and Sorcery that led other writers to sell millions of copies of books in that genre.

      2. Todd Mason

        Yes, but he didn’t quite invent it, and other writers such as C. L. Moore were his direct contemporaries. He influenced the likes of Leiber, but Leiber immediately improved on Howard’s model.

      3. george Post author

        Todd, Leiber and Moore exceeded Howard’s model considerably. The next Big Move was Moorcock upending the genre.

    1. george Post author

      Tracy, I can recommend all of the anthologies that collect stories from THE MAGAZINE OF FANTASY AND SCIENCE FICTION. The quality of the stories holds up over the years!

      Reply

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