Tails of Wonder and Imagination

by Ellen Datlow (Editor)

Overview

What is it about the cat that captivates the creative imagination?

No other creature has inspired so many authors to take pen to page.

From legendary editor Ellen Datlow comes Tails of Wonder and Imagination, showcasing tales of science fiction, fantasy, mystery, and horror by some of today's most popular authors. With stories by Stephen King, Carol Emshwiller, Tanith Lee, Peter S. Beagle, Elizabeth Hand, Dennis Danvers, Theodora Goss, Susanna Clarke, Neil Gaiman, Kelly Link, George R. R. Martin, Lucius Shepard, Joyce Carol Oates, Graham Joyce, Catherynne M. Valente, Michael Marshall Smith, and many others.

Tails of Wonder and Imagination features more than forty stories in which cats are heroes and stories in which they’re villains; tales of domestic cats, tigers, lions, mythical part-cat beings, people transformed into cats, cats transformed into people. And yes, even a few cute cats.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781949102611
Publisher:	Night Shade
Publication date:	06/07/2022
Pages:	480
Sales rank:	1,013,756
Product dimensions:	5.80(w) x 8.50(h) x 1.40(d)

About the Author

Ellen Datlow has been editing science fiction, fantasy, and horror short fiction for more than thirty years. She was the fiction editor of Omni magazine and Sci Fiction and has edited more than fifty anthologies. Datlow has also won lifetime achievement awards from three prominent genre organizations, and currently acquires short fiction for Tor.com.

Editorial Reviews

Few things alarm the experienced reader more than the prospect of a science fiction, fantasy, or mystery book that involves—or worse, fetishizes—cats. This reprint anthology is the exception, an assortment of 40 stories by authors who are for the most part willing to take cats on their own ground. Datlow avoids the trap of a too-narrow premise: though there appears to be a slight bias toward horror, the stories are various within that field, from Jack Ketchum's ghost story “Returns” to Michaela Roessner's highly scientific “Mieze Corrects an Incomplete Representation of Reality” and Edward Bryant's brilliantly repellent “Bean Bag Cat.” Other tales are amusing, like Lawrence Block's “The Burglar Takes a Cat,” or gently sentimental, like Dennis Danvers's “Healing Benjamin.” This is that rarity of rarities: an anthology of cat stories worth reading. (Feb.)

Publishers Weekly

From an excerpt about Dinah and her kittens from Lewis Carroll's Through the Looking Glass to Theodora Goss's "sequel" to H.G. Wells's The Island of Dr. Moreau ("The Puma"), the 40 stories in this collection focus on cats of all sizes and temperaments and their interactions with humans. Though some tales are not for the squeamish and not all have happy endings, others shine with brilliant wit or poignant melancholy. VERDICT This broad sampling of cat tales from authors including Tanith Lee, Joyce Carol Oates, Stephen King, and Michael Bishop is a good overall anthology that should appeal to short story fans and cat lovers.

Library Journal