The Flying Sorcerers: More Comic Tales of Fantasy

Fantasy fiction has a long and honourable history of parodying its own traditions and, in The Flying Sorcerers, Peter Haining has collected a wide range of comic fiction from the genres of fantasy, horror, and sf. The 24 stories span the century, from P.G. Wodehouse's hilarious "A Slice of Life", about the inventor Wilfred Mulliner and the dastardly baronet Sir Jasper ffinch-ffarrowmere, through the likes of C S Lewis, Kurt Vonnegut Jr and Mervyn Peake to stories by more recent favourites such as Roald Dahl and, of course, Terry Pratchett, whose story "Turntables of the Night", featuring DEATH, opens the collection. The stories range from Michael Moorcock's hilarious spoof of heroic fantasy, "The Stone Thing", to more considered twists on conventional themes, as in Angela Carter's story of a reluctant vampire, "The Lady of the House of Love". Arthur C. Clarke even manages to find humour in the end of the world, with the closing "No Morning After". Haining introduces each story with a brief but informative biography of its writer so, if you like the stories here, you will be able to find more by the same authors. This makes the collection an excellent introduction to the wide range of comic fantasy and sf writing produced this century. -- Elizabeth SourbutTurntables of the Night by Terry Pratchett, A Slice of Life by P.G. Wodehouse Better Mousetrap by L. Sprague de Camp & Fletcher PrattSam Small's Better Half by Eric KnightDanse Macabre by Mervyn PeakeThe Shoddy Lands by C.S. LewisHarrison Bergeron by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.Possible to Rue by Piers AnthonyThe Right Side by John CollierNasty by Fredric BrownThe Gripes of Wraith by Nelson BondThe Roaches by Thomas M. DischThe Lady of the House of Love by Angela CarterThe Stone Thing by Michael MoorcockThe Shrink and the Mink by Robert BlochAh Sweet Mystery of Life by Roald DahlThe Man in Asbestos by Stephen LeacockFemale of the Species by John WyndhamA Good Shellacking by Stanislaw LemFrom 'Gustible's Planet' by Cordwainer SmithSpecialist by Robert sheckleyThe Adventures of the Martian Moons by William F. NolanThe Golden Years of the Stainless Steel Rat by Harry Harrison, No Morning After by Arthur C. Clarke