Book Review: Phantasm Japan edited by Nick Mamatas and Masumi Washington
Occasionally, I read something and don’t particularly want to review it so much as say, just read this. Or produce a review consisting of nothing but quotations from the text: let the evidence speak. Phantasm Japan, a 2014 anthology edited by Nick Mamatas and Masumi Washington, is such a book. Pardon me while I spend the next several hundred words embarrassingly fangirl-gushing about it. There are a few different ways to measure an anthology’s success. The one that is used most often is determining how many of the stories the reader liked versus how many they didn’t. While there’s nothing wrong with this as a metric, it’s not the primary one I use. My favorite anthologies shift my perception in some fundamental way, whether by some of the stories taken individually or by the aggregate body. Phantasm Japan does both. Considerably. Of course, producing a collection that’s bold and smart is not without risk; two or three of the more cerebral stories in this anthology sailed right over my head. There were several more that blew my mind in the best possible way.
Episode 65 — An Interview with Nick Mamatas (a.k.a. Master Splinter)
http://media.blubrry.com/skiffyandfanty/dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/www.archive.org/download/TheSkiffyAndFantyShow5.1–AnInterviewWNickMamatasa.k.a.Master/Sandf–Episode5.2–InterviewWNickMamatas.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadSubscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Android | iHeartRadio | Podchaser | Podcast Index | Email | TuneIn | Deezer | RSSYou read that right. Nick Mamatas, author of the recently released Sensation and The Damned Highway (w/ Brian Keene) and editor for Haikasoru, joins us to discuss Japanese science fiction and fantasy fiction, parasitic organisms and our innate fears, and much more! Plus, there’s an amusing story involve green tea buried in there somewhere… Tune in and enjoy below! Note: If you have iTunes and like this show, please give us a review on our iTunes page, or feel free to email us with your thoughts about the show! Here’s the episode (show notes are below): Episode 65 — Download (MP3) Intro and Interview w/ Nick Mamatas (0:00 – 43:26) Nick’s Livejournal Nick’s Website Haikasoru (Japanese SF/F!) Don’t forget to check out Sensation and The Damned Highway (and all the awesome work Nick edits at Haikasoru). Our new intro music is “Time Flux” by Revolution Void (CC BY 3.0). That’s all, folks! Thanks for listening. See you next week.
