Aldiss, Gene Wolfe, James Tiptree, Jr., Ursula K. It includes 26 stories published between 19, by Theodore Sturgeon, Richard McKenna, Jack Vance, Edgar Pangborn, Roger Zelazny, R.
Like the books that followed, it’s an eclectic and personal volume, filled not with the most famous and acclaimed short science fiction, but instead Gardner’s highly personal selection of some of the best SF of the 20th Century. Modern Classics of Science Fiction is a fabulous collection. Martin’s that also included Modern Classics of Fantasy (1997), which I called “a book that makes you yearn to be stranded on a desert island.” But I’ve never discussed its sister volume, and first in the sequence, Modern Classics of Science Fiction (1992), and so today I thought I’d correct that egregious oversight. I noted at the time that it was part of a trilogy of books Gardner did for St. Jacket illustration courtesy of NASAīack in October I wrote about Gardner Dozois’ 1994 anthology Modern Classic Short Novels of Science Fiction, saying it was one of my favorite fall reads.
until the moment it isn’t.Modern Classics of Science Fiction (St. They trap the magician inside a snow globe. With a little extra help from a vulture goddess, the foursome uses an unexpected and potentially life-threatening combination of Greek and Egyptian magic to defeat Setne. Luckily, they show up in time to join forces with the demigods. The fire-breathing snakes flying around him are a dead giveaway too.Įgyptian magic is more Carter and Sadie’s thing. The evil Egyptian magician named Setne is there, too, reading aloud from the Book of Thoth. A freak hurricane sends the mortals hurrying for the mainland, leaving Percy and Annabeth alone on the island.Įxcept they aren’t alone. He’s up to something.įollowing a tip from Athena, demigods Percy and Annabeth travel to Governors Island in New York Harbor.
She warns Annabeth that they have to watch out for him. Annabeth and Sadie fight fire with fire, using a combination of their magical specialties to keep monster and wannabe god apart.Īfterward, Sadie reveals that Setne, an evil magician who’s come back from the dead, awakened Serapis. To be fully reborn, he needs to get hold of the monster. Inside, they find Serapis, a once powerful god who drew his might from both Egyptian and Greek magic. The girls follow the strange monster to an abandoned building. A dog head wants to join up, but a young blond girl with a white wooden staff blocks its path.Īnnabeth, meet Sadie Kane, Egyptian magician and one-time host of the goddess Isis. and something tells Carter that it won’t be the last time the two will need to help each other out.ĭemigod Annabeth Chase has seen some weird things on the New York subway before, but the bizarre two-headed monster-one head wolf, the other lion, both stuffed into a long spiral seashell-beats them all. Also unexpected? The teenage boy with sea-green eyes and an orange camp T-shirt wielding a glowing sword.Ĭarter Kane, meet Percy Jackson, Greek demigod and son of Poseidon.Īfter an initial scuffle involving the Fist of Horus and a tidal wave of swamp water, Carter and Percy combine their powers, remove the magical gold necklace around the monster’s neck, and shrink the beast back to size.
But he’s barely had time to draw his khopesh when the croc swallows him whole–then suddenly and unexpectedly disgorges him. When a gigantic crocodile menaces Long Island, Egyptian magician Carter Kane is on the scene. Three exciting short stories featuring Percy Jackson, Annabeth Chase, and Carter and Sadie Kane!