Just Read: The Dog Said Bow-Wow by Michael Swanwick

Swanwick is one of our great short-story writers, and I've been annoyed that I've fallen so far behind on reading his short works. (I've got two or three of his other collections sitting somewhere, waiting to be read.) So, when this came in from Tachyon Publications -- they'll be publishing it as a sleek and cost-effective trade paperback in September -- I knew I had to get to it quickly, so I didn't fall any further behind.

The Dog Said Bow-Wow collects sixteen recent Swanwick stories (the oldest is from 2001), including excellent examples of both science fiction ("Tim Marsh") and fantasy ("The Bordello in Faerie"). It also has three fine "Darger & Surplus" stories, about a pair of rogues in the post-Utopian future. It has one new novelette -- "The Skysailor's Tale," just as good as everything else here -- and one story, "Urdumheim," which will be published in F&SF at about the same time this book is available.

On top of all that, it has a cover with a dog on it, and one of my most trusted colleagues swears that books are always more successful when they have dogs on the cover. (The best thing is when the author's photo includes a dog, but the front cover is good as well.)

I was very happy to get this book and thoroughly entertained while I was reading it. Swanwick is one of our finest writers -- and now all I have to do is wrangle a copy of his upcoming novel The Dragons of Babel (which grew out of a story from an original anthology from my ever-nameless former employer).