Top New Fantasy Anthologies in 2020

Two fairy tales and a myth get contemporary retellings—Sara Marks’s “The Prince Without a Throne” reimagines “Beauty and the Beast” in a way that feels a bit less Stockholm-syndrome than that tale normally appears; “Rumpled” by Trevann Rogers introduces a gender-swapped Rumplestiltskin—a troll only barely surviving, lonely, in a modern world until, by chance, she encounters the daughter of a record company producer, and their bargain saves them both; and the unabashedly erotic “Kink Midas” from Barbra Campbell draws on the original King Midas legend as a thief breaks his curse. “Breadcrumbs” by M. Reed gives a naughty Hansel and Gretel their just desserts, and Kenley’s excellent “Seeing Red” shows Red Riding Hood as a capable young woman determined to catch a werewolf for her husband.

My favorite of the stories, however, draws on the legends of men stealing a selkie’s skin to win a wife; in Julie Behren’s “Sea and Hearth,” an otherwise gentle and kind, but lonely, widower happens upon bathing selkies and dares take a skin. Instead of a wife, however, he finds himself with a husband—one whose daughter had her skin stolen years before. Behren’s immersive world, where neighbors accept all sorts of eccentricities because that’s what happens when you live next to fairies, is a delight, and the story of two fathers finding happiness together, and the sacrifices they are willing to make for their children, is heart wrenching in all the right ways.

This anthology will particularly appeal to fantasy readers who also enjoy romance, and it’s fun that the traditional villains have their own chance to shine.

Cursed: An Anthology, edited by Marie O’Regan and Paul Kane

This collection of twenty folktales, retold (or invented) by contemporary fantasy pros, has more headliners on its author list than you can shake a spindle at. Led by Neil Gaiman, Jane Yolen, Charlie Jane Anders, and Margo Lanagan, the pieces in this anthology promise to twist the stories of curses from fairy tales you’ve known since childhood into something new and different—yet familiar all the same. This anthology came out just before the quarantine, and Den of Geek covered it here.

The Green Man: Tales from the Mythic Forest, edited by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling

As anthology editors go, Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling are stars. Datlow’s annual The Best Horror of the Year is an industry standard, and several of Windling’s anthologies have been nominated for or won World Fantasy Awards. One of those was the 2001 anthology The Green Man: Tales from the Mythic Forest, which was rereleased as an ebook from Open Road Media Sci-Fi & Fantasy in late March. The collection features well-known fantasy names including Delia Sherman, Gregory Maguire, Charles deLint, and Patricia A. McKillip. (Neil Gaiman and Jane Yolen appear in this one as well.) Given that bookstores are currently closed, picking up this classic as an ebook (especially through one of the ebook retailers that supports indie bookstores) is a sure hit.

Latinx Rising: An Anthology of Latinx Science Fiction and Fantasy, edited by Matthew David Goodwin

This anthology, coming out in June 2020, bills itself as the first science fiction and fantasy anthology written by Latinx people living in the United States. Readers expecting the magic realism made famous by Latin American writers will see how these modern authors, including Junot Díaz, Kathleen Alcalá, Carmen Maria Machado, Daniel José Older, and Ernest Hogan, push beyond that tradition and into something altogether new and exciting. The stories include ghosts and space aliens, grandmothers with magical cooking and robots. Older’s story is a tie-in to his popular “Bone Street Rumba” series, and is not to be missed for fans of those novels. All of them push the idea of what Latinx SFF can be.