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El Camino De La Magia (2010)

by John Joseph Adams(Favorite Author)

3.81 of 5 Votes: 4

languge

English

genre

Horror

publisher

Minotauro

review 1: This anthology was really a 2.5 at best, but I was feeling generous, certainly the amount of time between when I read the book and when I reviewed it was a factor in this generosity. First of all, I did not get this book because I have a great interest in fantasy writing or wizards in general. The reason behind the request I put in to my local library, was for one story alone, The Ereshkigal Working, a Johannes Cabal story by Jonathan Howard. That story, at least, did not disappoint. The other 32 or so sadly did not all satisfy. I will note that there are some real gems here, Susanna Clarke and Neil Gaiman both have wonderful stories in this collection, however, I'd already read them in more satisfying anthologies and would suggest that others might do the same rather... more than work through all the unremarkable stories in this collection just for three or four good tales.Well, there were more than four, but still, 32 stories is a lot to read when less than a dozen are really worth the time. Then there is the sexism. I shouldn't have been surprised (and really wasn't) that a collection called "the way of the wizard" would have a ton of stories where women were damsels in distress, ridiculous sex-goddesses and all strangely red-headed. What is it with geeks and red hair? There was a lot of needless sex, women's natural frailty was often conveyed, and of course men often had to go and save them. One story went so far as to have a woman with a silver band around her neck as a mark of her enslavement, she was basically wearing a dog collar. It was hard for me as a woman to read these stories without wanting to rip out the pages and turn on the next man I saw with some angry rant about how male and female otters are equally good swimmers.I would for the most part say that the stories are not misogynistic on purpose, or overtly, but still pretty chauvinistic and rather frustrating for women, and people who prefer stories not to rely quite so heavily on stereotypes/archetypes.I wouldn't recommend this book, there are better fantasy anthologies and all the really good stories are in other collections, except The Ereshkigal Working. So if you want to read that particular story, I would request this book, but skip all the other gibberish!
review 2: Aunque muchas de las historias ya las había leído (las de Kelly Link, Rober Silverberg, Peter S. Beagle, Neil Gaiman, Lev Grossman y Ursula K. Leguin), dentro de este contexto es una buena selección. Como es habitual en las antologías, tiene sus eslabones débiles.Lo que mas me gustó es como en pocas historias se puede dar un recorrido entre los diferentes tipos de magos, hechiceros y brujos, todos teniendo varios elementos en común pero siendo tan diferentes como sus autores lo son. También me agradó la introducción, donde se menciona el papel que tienen este tipo de personajes y su magia en un mundo donde la tecnología parece magia suficiente. less

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