Publisher Description
From sorcerous bridges that link worlds to the simple traditions of country folk; from the mysterious natures of twins to the dangerous powers of obligation and contract. Laden with perils for both the adventurous and the unsuspecting, magic is ultimately a contradiction: endlessly powerful but never without consequence, and rigidly defined by rules of its own making. Award-winning Jonathan Strahan brings together some of the most exciting and popular writers working in fantasy today to dig into that contradiction, and present you with the strange, the daunting, the mathematical, the unpredictable, the deceptive and above all the fearsome world of magic. Includes stories by Garth Nix, K J Parker, Tony Ballantyne, James Bradley, Isobelle Carmody, Frances Hardinge, Nina Kiriki Hoffman, Ellen Klages, Justina Robson, Christopher Rowe, Robert Shearman, Karin Tidbeck, Genevieve Valentine and Kaaron Warren.
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About the Authors
Jonathan Strahan is
the editor of more than forty books, including the Locus and Aurealis award–winning
anthologies The Starry Rift,
Life on Mars, The New Space Opera (Vols. 1 & 2),
the bestselling The Locus Awards (with Charles N. Brown), and
the Eclipse and the Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year anthology
series. He won the World Fantasy Award for his editing in 2010 and has been
nominated four times for the Hugo Award for editing. He has also won the
Aurealis Award three times, the Ditmar Award five times, and is a recipient of
the William Atheling Award for his criticism and review. He has been the reviews
editor for Locus: The Magazine of the Science Fiction and Fantasy
Field since 2002.
Hans Christian Andersen (1805–1875) was born in Odense, Denmark, the son of a poor shoemaker and a washerwoman. As a young teenager, he became quite well known in Odense as a reciter of drama and as a singer. When he was fourteen, he set off for the capital, Copenhagen, determined to become a national success on the stage. He failed miserably, but made some influential friends in the capital who got him into school to remedy his lack of proper education. In 1829 his first book was published. After that, books came out at regular intervals. His stories began to be translated into English as early as 1846. Since then, numerous editions, and more recently Hollywood songs and Disney cartoons, have helped to ensure the continuing popularity of the stories in the English-speaking world.
About the Narrators
Lauren Irwin is an English musician, actor, and winner of an AudioFile Earphones Award. She began her career performing in West End productions of Annie, and Oliver, before releasing several singles in her teens, and going on to work in film and television in her adult years.
Chris MacDonnell is an Earphones Award–winning narrator and a classically trained actor and voice artist whose theater credits include London’s West End and the Royal National Theatre, British TV shows, BBC Radio drama, commercials, and films. He is also a published poet and has written comedy and drama for television shows.
Ann M. Richardson is an Earphones Award–winning narrator. She studied broadcast journalism and Spanish at the University of Nebraska at Lincoln. Years later, the desire to take up a creative yet productive career lead her to investigate voice-over and ultimately audiobook narration and production.