Rich Horton says some nice things about my work in the context of his year-end review of Realms of Fantasy. He mentions "Romanticore" in passing -- I hope he covers it in a bit more depth in a review at some point. Rich is one of my favorite short fiction reviewers. He's insightful, articulate, and enthusiastic -- and most importantly, his taste is similar to my own!

Here's the relevant bit, if you don't want to follow the link:

Of the new novelettes, I was particularly taken with Tim Pratt's "Fable from a Cage" (February), a nasty story about a thief captured by a witch who needs him to help her steal something of great value to her. Pratt twistily and cynically shows serial betrayals. Pratt had a great year at RoF, with two more strong novelettes, "Romanticore" (December) and "Captain Fantasy and the Secret Masters" (April), as well as a good short story, "Down With the Lizards and the Bees" (August). Pratt also deserves praise, in my skewed view, for apparently pushing the magazine to publish longer stories: last year's "The Witch's Bicycle" was at that time the longest RoF story I'd ever seen, and he had three stories in the 10,000 word range this year.

Our own David Moles has a story, The Memory of Water, at Strange Horizons. I read it mere moments after midnight on Sunday night/Monday morning, and it was a good way to start the week, a story full of crackpot Nazi pseudo-science and haunting desert-scapes. It reminded me in part of Tim Powers's marvelous Declare, and in part of Charles Stross's A Colder War (though they're both Cold War stories, not WWII stories). The story shares with those works a skillful blending of the military/historical and the supernatural, something I admire, but suspect I would have trouble pulling off in my own fiction. David is one of the smartest people I know, and it shows in his fiction. Plus, he's going to edit an anthology of zeppelin-related pulp fiction!

Now if only he'd send me something for Flytrap...