(Roc/400 pages/$15.95, trade paper)

Reviewed by Dorman T. Shindler

The annual Nebula Awards Showcase anthologies always have something interesting to offer up, and the 2007 edition of this stalwart sports some stories most likely familiar to avid genre readers—especially those by Kelly Link, “The Faery Handbag” and “Magic for Beginners,” winners for novelette and novella, respectively.

It’s no accident that Link won a double-shot of recognition for her writing last year. Her fiction is that good. What’s more, Link is representative of a new school of writer, one that brings the sensibilities of both genre and mainstream fiction to stories. For lack of a better description, Kelly Link’s fiction often comes off like a cross between Ray Bradbury, Raymond Carver and Gabriel Garcia Marquez. “Magic For Beginners” is a bemused, slightly distant narrative (in an I got a great buzz from that beer/joint or whatever way) that follows the lives of Jeremy Mars (the son of a shop-lifting, semi-successful horror writer) and his teenage friends—Elizabeth, Talis and Karl—as well as a cult fantasy television show called “The Library” (which is reminiscent of “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” “Twin Peaks” and half a dozen other strange but wonderful shows). Link intersperses the narrative of the show with the narrative of the teenage friends, so that reality and fantasy overlap (within her own fantasy tale, of course). The kids all lead fractured lives (dysfunctional parents, etc.) and eventually begin to feel as if they are, themselves, starring in a television show. The way Link blurs the line between fantasy and reality is indicative of anyone’s adolescent years—and not a few adult years as well—making a powerful statement about the nature of reality and fantasy, and the role entertainment plays in our everyday life.

Although her name may not yet be as well known as Link’s, and although her story didn’t win an award in the last Nebula round, Anne Harris has a distinctive voice and sensibility that—with persistence—could win her a strong following and mantle-full of shiny plaques and statues as well. “Still Life With Boobs” is one of the most outrageous, insightful and original works of fantasy to come down the pike in some time. The premise is simple, as is the narrative: a young woman given to seeking out her share of good times and pleasure awakens one morning to the realization that her boobs, George and Gracie (which her boyfriend, in a moment of whimsy, nicknamed), have been stepping out on their own. The visible scratches and “smears” of “less identifiable substances” is a dead giveaway to the betrayal by her breasts. And if her suspicions aren’t evidence enough, she awakens one night after dozing in front of the TV to find her mammary glands are gone—and tracks them down to a club where they are cavorting with all manner of “detached body parts.” Pretty soon, the errant boobs are even taking off in the middle of the daytime during dinner!

A startling well-balanced mix of erotica, slap-stick comedy and clever insightfulness on the American mindset toward sex—either puritanical or self-indulgent—“Still Life With Boobs” is a hilarious and moving little fable reminiscent of the best writing of stalwarts like Connie Willis.

There are plenty of other solid, entertaining pieces in this anthology, including stories by James Patrick Kelly (“Men Are Trouble”) and Carol Emshwiller (“I Live With You”), nonfiction pieces on the state of the genre, and even an excerpt from the Nebula Award-winning novel of 2006, Joe Haldeman’s Camouflage.

Since Harlan Ellison was just added onto the distinguished list of Grand Masters that the Nebula Committee honors, author Barry N. Malzberg lobbied the editors of this edition to include an old, but still powerful, mainstream story—“The Resurgence of Miss Ankle-Strap Wedgie”—about an actress named Valerie Lone (based, it’s been said, on Veronica Lake), who’s Hollywood boat has long sailed, and the attempts by a couple of opportunists to make use of her in their film—on the premise that their efforts will rekindle her already dead career. The story’s structure gives it that much more oomph, and the tale of obsession and greed and self-serving is told in a noirish narrative well-suited to the story. It’s powerful stuff, and not a word of it is science fiction…or fantasy. But it’s also a fine reminder that the best writers in the field of SF& fantasy don’t pay attention boundaries, borders, streams or pigeonholes, preferring to blaze their own trails and look back in wonder when all is said and done.