Robert Holdstock

Pen-names: Robert Faulcon ----------------------------- "The Bone Forest" (Mythago Wood series) © Interzone, Mar 1991 The Bone Forest, 1991 --fiction : 1992 Interzone Poll /6 (tie) --/ third place f novella --/ wonder award --/ style award --/ idea award "The Bone Forest" (coll) © 1991, Grafton Books --collection : 1992 World Fantasy --collection : 1992 Locus /9 --/ third place f collection --/ wonder award --/ style award "The Boy Who Jumped the Rapids" © Beyond Lands of Never, ed. M. Jakubowski, 1984 The Bone Forest, 1991 --/ cool f story ---------------------------------------------- "The Graveyard Cross" © Supernova # 1, 1976 In the Valley of the Statues and Others, 1982 --/ fourth place f story --/ wonder award --/ style award With the title like that you would expect a "straight horror" story. But with Holdstock, who is a master of "dripping dark forest fantasy", it becomes something different... a glorious fungus growth of a story. ("The roots go deep, my lord...") It rather works on a reader like a mass of branching threadlike mushroom roots (a mycelium), which propagates the plot, ideas, emotions... You might not remember the details later, but rest assured, it'll keep you enthralled and amazed. Writing reviews to Holdstock's stories is akin to figuring out branch patterns in a dense rainforest: there is no obvious sense, but it does not really matter in the overall humid and cool effect. review: 18-Jul-06 (read in 1991) ---------------------------------------------- "High Pressure" © Pulsar # 2, ed. G. Hay, 1979 --/ fourth place f story --/ wonder award --/ style award ---------------------------------------------- "Magic Man" © Frighteners # 2, 1976 The Bone Forest, 1991 --/ cool f story Pre-historic tale about a boy who secretly paints grotesque and gigantic beasts on a sacred wall. The beasts come alive on the plain, to the amazement and delight of his fellow hunters. review: 18-Jul-06 (read in 1991) ---------------------------------------------- "Scarrowfell" © Other Edens, ed. C. Evans, 1987 The Bone Forest, 1991 --/ fourth place f story --/ wonder award --/ style award "The Shapechanger" © GM Magazine, 1989 The Bone Forest, 1991 --/ fourth place f story --/ wonder award --/ style award ---------------------------------------------- "Thorn" © Birmingham SF Group, 1984 also in - F&SF, Oct 1986 The Bone Forest, 1991 --short story : 1987 Locus /8 --/ fourth place f story --/ wonder award --/ style award Holdstock's blend of a wondrous walk in the forest with the wild fantasy soars to a new high in this enchanting novelette. When you think he can not possibly be more visual and fantastically intense, he does it again. His stuff is highly recommended, but it's not for the faint of heart. If you are looking for the modern fantasy equivalent of Tolkien's Fangorn Forest, then you picked the right book. Just be aware that it is an upgraded monster edition, with much darker and more psychologically disturbing elements. review: 21-Oct-06 (read in 2003) ---------------------------------------------- "The Time Beyond Age" © Supernova # 1, 1976 The Bone Forest, 1991 --/ cool sf story "A chilling story of the dehumanising potential of science, and of the obsession of a scientist who has lost his way." This is science fiction, not fantasy, but with the same tangled (complex) and wet-haired (spontaneous) feel to it. review: 18-Jul-06 (read in 1991) ---------------------------------------------- "Time of the Tree" © Gaslight & Ghosts, ed. S. Jones, 1988 The Bone Forest, 1991 --/ fourth place f story --/ wonder award --/ style award ----------------------------------------------

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