The Flying Sorcerers

The stories range from Michael Moorcock's hilarious spoof of heroic fantasy, "The Stone Thing", to more considered twists on conventional themes, as in Angela Carter's story of a reluctant vampire, "The Lady of the House of Love". Arthur C. Clarke even manages to find humour in the end of the world, with the closing story: "No Morning After".

Haining introduces each story with a brief but informative biography of its writer so, if you like the stories here, you will be able to find more by the same authors. This makes the collection an excellent introduction to the wide range of comic fantasy and sf writing produced this century. -- Elizabeth Sourbut

I am stunned by the apparently oblique nature of this books title and cover, I managed to read all the information presented there without creating any erroneous opinions in my head, nor did I fail to realise this was not a discworld book due to the cunning use of words and phrases such as `collection of stories` and `different authors` on the jacket. As far as the book is concerned it is a good example of how careful selection from good sources can result in a good anthology. As far as some other readers are concerned, I would suggest either installing small speakers into all books from now on so vital messages not detectable by average eyesight can be guaranteed to reach potential buyers, or denying certain people the privilege of reading books and supplying them instead with adequate eyewear.


Disappointed   November 29, 2004
10 out of 18 found this review helpful

Saw Terry Prachett's name, thought brilliant a new book to read, wrong! Have ploughed through this book of so called 'comic fantasty' and found very little to make me smile apart from the intended eye catching author and Roald Dahl. Feel somewhat cheated and let down, title and book cover led me to make an impulse buy without taking a closer look at my purchase. Live and learn!


A great variety of humour.   February 28, 2001
frowningboy@hotmail.com (Rougham, England)
9 out of 21 found this review helpful

First of all, this book is very hard to mistake for a Terry Pratchett book, as the cover kind of gives things away... and if you do buy this book, then you will be greatly entertained. Some of the stories (and only some) are not actually funny, but the rest are, and often very clever, especially "Specialist", one of the sci-fi stories...


This book is not as it is portrayed to be   December 11, 1999
chris-phillips@lineone.net (Leicester)
35 out of 54 found this review helpful

Firstly a warning to all Terry Pratchett fans. Unless you are so deciated to having everything written by Pratchett do not buy this book. The cover and author tilte would lead you to believe thath this is of the Discworld series. Be warned it is not. The compilation of short humourous short stories leaves a lot to be desired. Fantasy there certainly is but humour is in short supply. In fairness I am not sure if this is because most of the selcted authors are American or have been based there for too many years. It could also be that the selected story tellers have written these stories in the first half of the 20th century when humour was vastly different from today. It is my opinion it is a combination of both. I only got a handful of chuckles out of this book but some of the stories were worth reading even without the humour. Ultimately my advice would be to give this a miss.