Robots vs Fairies

[psocoptera]

Robots vs Fairies, 2018 anthology edited by Dominik Parisien and Navah Wolfe, the same team who did the Starlit Wood fairy tale anthology in 2016. (But not related to the Zombies vs Unicorns anthology from 2010.) I didn't think this was quite as outstanding as Starlit Wood, possibly because the theme wasn't quite as much a personal favorite, but it was a good anthology with some good stuff. Some standouts: Alyssa Wong's "All the Time We've Left To Spend", about pop idols and versions of yourself and change vs stasis, my favorite story in the anthology. Madeline Ashby's "Work Shadow/Shadow Work", about aging and belief. Mary Robinette Kowal's "Sound and Fury" has some fun giant robot action. Maria Dahvana Headley's "Adriftica" features an aging dude rock journalist rhapsodizing about the power of rock and I won't lie, I was rolling my eyes pretty hard, but Headley actually pulled it off and I found it surprisingly moving. And Tim Pratt's "Murmured Under The Moon" features a human librarian working for a fairy library and dating one of the books, which is a pretty great concept. The authors got to pick whether they were on "Team Robot" or "Team Fairy"; Wong and Ashby and Kowal all chose Robot, Headley and Pratt chose Fairy, so I guess I'm Team Robot.