Dark Alchemy

There was a review by Lisa Tuttle of a new children's fantasy anthology called "Dark Alchemy" in the Summer Books section of Saturday's Times (The Times, 30 June 2007, Books, p9). The book is edited by Jack Dann and Gardner Dozois and includes a new story by Gene Wolfe. Does anyone know any further details about the Wolfe story or the anthology in general? There's an Amazon UK page about "Dark Alchemy" here http://www.amazon.co.uk/Dark-Alchemy-Magical-Masters-Fantasy/dp/0747589550/r ef=sr_1_1/202-0018527-4487019?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1183546692&sr=8-1 but it doesn't give many specific details about the contents. Nigel

(Apologies if this ends up appearing twice. The list was offline the first time I tried to send it.) There was a review by Lisa Tuttle of a new children's fantasy anthology called "Dark Alchemy" in the Summer Books section of Saturday's Times (The Times, 30 June 2007, Books, p9). The book is edited by Jack Dann and Gardner Dozois and includes a new story by Gene Wolfe. Does anyone know any further details about the Wolfe story or the anthology in general? There's an Amazon UK page about "Dark Alchemy" here http://www.amazon.co.uk/Dark-Alchemy-Magical-Masters-Fantasy/dp/0747589550/r ef=sr_1_1/202-0018527-4487019?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1183546692&sr=8-1 but it doesn't give many specific details about the contents. Nigel

This seems to be the British edition of a book called "Wizards" in the US. The Wolfe story is another take on the Arthurian legends, focusing on Merlin this time. The book seems to be aimed at the "young adult" market. It contains a lot of "mother was right after all" and "so then I became the king" stories. Fernando

"Dark Alchemy" is the retitled UK version of the US published "Wizards." The Wolfe story, if memory serves, is "Magical Animals" and is about a young boy who may be Merlin and his relationship throughout time with Viviane. (The book has gone back to the library, so I can't look it up.) There are reviews in the March (Gevers) and May (Horton) issues of Locus, but only the former mentions the Wolfe story. (He liked it.) Don't know why the antho was retitled for sale in the UK -- one would think Pottermaniacs would be more inclined to pick up a volume labeled "Wizards" than "Dark Alchemy." On Wed, 4 Jul 2007 12:25:06 +0100, "Nigel Price" <nigelprice at onetel.net> said: