Apparently there is a literary genre that eluded me so far, or perhaps it is actually two of them combined: Fantasy and Science Fiction. With everything I had read in my life, it seems that I ignored these two, for no other reasons but ignorance how to approach them. You see, both of them have a passionate cult followers who know where to start and how many volumes these usually long novels have. If you look at the titles, its frightening and intimidating to face serials and sagas: few months ago, while I visited my favorite bookshop in Amsterdam and finally got a courage to roam trough these shelves, it was truly intimidating just to look at those titles (swords of this and wizards of that in 17 volumes) and to be honest, trilogy is as far as I would dare to go anyway, so I decided to check Internet recommendations first + as a kind of introduction I got myself this collection of stories by most prominent writers in the genre. With exception of Stephen King I was not familiar with these people previously (except by their names) so I said to myself lets check them out and if its not for me, well, at least I tried.
It turned out, Fantasy and SF are relatively easily divided and recognized: Fantasy literature deals with wizards, dragons, witches and magic (completely fictional and mythological) while SF umbrella covers space ships, aliens and time travels (therefore something that might eventually be possible). I must admit that I always thought Fantasy was for children and SF for geeks who are into space ships. With exception of "Harry Potter" and Frank Herbert's brilliant "Dune" I had never experienced neither of these genres previously - at least not consciously, though "fantasy" basically lies at the bottom of all literature anyway - so now I decided to have a peek.
To my biggest surprise, I found that I enjoy it very much. Instantly. And who knows it is because of the quality writers represented here (they all came up with new stories specially for this collection) or for pure delight of exploring different path from what I usually read, I simply could not put it down. So far I am roughly halfway trough and it gives me a great pleasure to dive completely lost into magic world. At first I thought that Stephen King by far overshadows and eclipses anybody around, because he is really such a strong talent that his style cuts the widest mark but slowly I realized that everybody represented here has their own voice and different style. For example, this was my very first meeting with Terry Goodkind who turned out to be quite gripping author, same for Ursula K. Le Guin, both of them definitely on my to-read list. So far I am absolutely thrilled with this collection (it was very good decision and excellent introduction) and still have second part to go trough, however must admit that most memorable - and most unusual - is the humorous story by Orson Scott Card. This guy has completely different style than other authors represented here and where everybody else leans towards fantasy as in wizards, magic and dragons, he tip toes through almost folksy tale with a quirky charms. At first I though he was being silly (specially when compared with genuinely creepy Stephen King) but his funny little story is the one I still remember now.
Update:
"The Hedge Knight" by George R.R.Martin was wonderful - I actually enjoyed most of this collection very much (except for Terry Pratchett) but when I came to George R.R.Martin that was love at first sight, immediately. I just love the way he writes and the whole realistic atmosphere of his unreal, fantastic and medieval world + how recognizably he kills of the most unexpected characters. Obviously it is time to face the "Game of Thrones" novels.
There were quite a few authors I enjoyed and noted down, right now I am at the very end preparing myself to dive into universe of Robert Jordan.
Update II :
I expected much more from Robert Jordan who apparently wrote the whole saga. This one, called "New Spring" was not bad but follows Frank Herbert's Bene Gesserit idea, which excellent as it is, is someone's else ida anyway.
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