Reception
Parke Godwin called the book "one of the best SF/fantasy collections I've read in years" and wrote of Parks that "[l]ike any fine writer [he] doesn't label easily, which makes him hell for lazy-minded pigeonholers, but his themes are consistent and clear. He uses fantasy to underscore reality: the nature of our humanity and the inescapability of what we are, the choices we make and the price we pay for each, right or wrong. ... [H]e can step imperceptibly from deadpan funny to deeply affecting truth with an utterly transparent style that has the reader racing down the page [and] has the rare ability to say profound things simply." [4]
Charles de Lint in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction wrote "Like the best storytellers, [Parks] goes where the tale takes him, and then proceeds to write that story as truthfully as possible." [5]
Terry McGarry in the webzine Strange Horizons noted that "[d]iscovering Richard Parks's fiction is like discovering a wise Zen master pumping gas at a service station or a weathered swami slinging burgers at your favorite corner diner: transcendence in the midst of the ordinary, right where it ought to be." [6]
Don D'Ammassa writes "[u]ntil I read this collection, I hadn't realized how many stories I had already read by Richard Parks, most of which I quite thoroughly enjoyed." He feels "[y]ou won't be wasting your time" on the book; "Parks' take on fantasy is sufficiently different to be worth noting." He describes the settings as "varied, including traditional fantasy worlds and contemporary locations," and the stories as "predominantly serious but often [with] humorous undertones. 'The God of Children' and 'A Place to Begin' were my two personal favorites." [7]
In his Locus review, Nick Gevers praised the author as "a quiet, unpretentious storyteller whose work shrewdly inverts expectations, delivers wittily unpredictable homilies, and extracts with painful accuracy the dark experience and twisted emotion covertly underlying familiar, seemingly pellucid, folktale surfaces." [8]
Paul Di Filippo in Asimov's Science Fiction wrote "[d]eceptively simple, earnest, and tragicomic, Parks's tales convey deep truths beneath narratives that tumble along like limpid streams. Whether exploring Oriental mythologies, or creating Dunsanyian wonderlands, Parks delivers stories that are rooted very tangibly in specific times and places, yet which are underpinned by eternal issues." [9]
Paul Witcover in Realms of Fantasy noted that "Parks's characters may win their heart's desire, but their happiness is shaded by the mature wisdom that comes with sacrifice and loss." [10]
John Milo "Mike" Ford was an American science fiction and fantasy writer, game designer, and poet.
Charles de Lint is a Canadian writer of Dutch, Spanish, and Japanese ancestry. He is married to, and plays music with, MaryAnn Harris.
Parke Godwin was an American writer. He won the World Fantasy Award for Best Novella in 1982 for his story "The Fire When It Comes". He was a native of New York City, where he was born in 1929. He was the grandson of Harry Post Godwin.
Terri Windling is an American editor, artist, essayist, and the author of books for both children and adults. She has won nine World Fantasy Awards, the Mythopoeic Fantasy Award, and the Bram Stoker Award, and her collection The Armless Maiden appeared on the short-list for the James Tiptree, Jr. Award.
3000 Years of Fantasy and Science Fiction is an anthology of fantasy and science fiction short stories, edited by American writers L. Sprague de Camp and Catherine Crook de Camp. It was first published in both hardcover and paperback by Lothrop Lee & Shepard in 1972. It was the first such anthology assembled by the de Camps, preceding their later Tales Beyond Time (1973).
Theodora Goss is a Hungarian-American fiction writer and poet. Her writing has been nominated for major awards, including the Nebula, Locus, Mythopoeic, World Fantasy, and Seiun Awards. Her short fiction and poetry have appeared in numerous magazines and anthologies, including Year's Best volumes.
Carrie Vaughn is an American writer, the author of the urban fantasy Kitty Norville series. She has published more than 60 short stories in science fiction and fantasy magazines as well as short story anthologies and internet magazines. She is one of the authors for the "Wild Cards" books. Vaughn won the 2018 Philip K. Dick Award for Bannerless, and has been nominated for the Hugo Awards.
Marvin Nathan Kaye was an American mystery, fantasy, science fiction, and horror author, anthologist, and editor. He was also a noted magician and actor. Kaye was a World Fantasy Award winner and served as co-publisher and editor of Weird Tales Magazine.
Gregory Frost is an American author of science fiction and fantasy, and directs a fiction writing workshop at Swarthmore College in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania. He received his Bachelor's degree from the University of Iowa. A graduate of the Clarion Workshop, he has been invited back as instructor several times, including the first session following its move to the University of California at San Diego in 2007. He is also active in the Interstitial Arts Foundation.
Fictional accounts based on the events surrounding Harold Godwinson's brief reign as king of England have been published.
Ghosts is an anthology of themed fantasy and science fiction short stories on the subject of ghosts edited by Isaac Asimov, Martin H. Greenberg and Charles G. Waugh as the tenth volume in their Isaac Asimov's Magical Worlds of Fantasy series. It was first published in paperback by Signet/New American Library in December 1988. The first British edition was issued in trade paperback by Robinson in October 1989.
Billy Richard Parks is an American fantasy, science fiction and horror writer. He writes under the names Richard Parks and W. J. Everett, aside from a few early works written as by B. Richard Parks and Rick Parks.
Worshipping Small Gods is a collection of fantasy short stories by American writer Richard Parks. It was first published in trade paperback by Prime Books in January 2007, with a hardcover edition following from the same publisher in May of the same year.
Yamada Monogatari: Demon Hunter is a collection of historical mystery fantasy short stories by Richard Parks, the first volume in a series featuring his sword and sorcery character Yamada no Goji. It was first published in simultaneous trade paperback and ebook form by Prime Books in January 2013.
Bibliography of fantasy writer Richard Parks:
Ghost Trouble: The Casefiles of Eli Mothersbaugh is a collection of mystery fantasy short stories by American writer Richard Parks, gathering together the stories featuring his ghost hunter character Eli Mothersbaugh. It was first published as an ebook on Kindle in October 2011; a trade paperback edition was issued by Canemill Publishing in January 2013.
"The Fire When It Comes" is a fantasy short story by American writer Parke Godwin. It was first published in the January 1981 issue of The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction.
Wonders of the Invisible World is a collection of fantasy short stories by Patricia A. McKillip. It was first published in trade paperback and ebook by Tachyon Publications in October 2012. The title of both the collection and the first story in it derive from the 1693 book of the same title by Cotton Mather.
The Earth is Flat: Tales from the Flat Earth and Elsewhere is a collection of fantasy short stories by British author Tanith Lee. It was first published in trade paperback and ebook by DMR Books in March 2023.
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