A Fantastic Holiday Season

Book 1

By: Kevin J. Anderson - editor

Narrated by: Bridger Conklin

Grandma gives a sweater she knitted. Dad receives a necktie he doesn’t really like. The kids get toys that make a variety of noises, most of them loud, all of them annoying.

What do writers give for the holiday season? They give the gift of stories that take the reader away to fantastical times or places, tales that can be bloodcurdling or heartwarming, and adventures that capture the heart of the season.

Fantastic Holiday Stories is edited by Kevin J. Anderson. It contains stories by Kristine Kathryn Rusch, Rebecca Moesta, David Farland, Larry Correia, Nina Kiriki Hoffman, Dean Wesley Smith, Debra Gray De Noux, O’Neil De Noux, Jerry Oltion, Kathy Oltion, Kent Patterson, Ray Vukcevich, Kim Antieau.

©2013 WordFire Press LLC (P)2018 WordFire Press LLC

A must-read if you're in the mood for seasonal SF.

I joined Audible recently to check out narrators for potential audiobook projects, which is how I landed on this slightly-out-of-season read. It’s an anthology of what happens when you get a bunch of sci-fi/fantasy writers together in one house and start a tradition of sharing holiday ghost (or otherwise weird) stories. Stories run the gamut from hilariously dark to absurd to wildly imaginative to mildly disturbing, but all are a welcome breath of weirdness to a seasonal genre that is usually characterized by too-saccharine sweetness. (In fact, Larry Correia’s “The Christmas Noun” is an especially hilarious sendup of that trope, and I’m rather disappointed that it was merely a satirical excerpt of a nonexistent novel, ‘cause I’d READ THE HECK out of a finished version. ) It’s a must-read if you’re in the mood for seasonal sci-fi, and Bridger Conklin’s warm-but-ironic narration is perfect for the subject.