One of the joys of this recent anthology is the opportunity it affords to compare the plain, laconic style of Andrew Hurley’s new translation with the perhaps more florid style of prior English translations. I don’t find that I consistently prefer one set of translations to another; rather, I find that each translation highlights different aspects of each story, deepening my appreciation for Borges’ prose while making my ignorance of Spanish all the more upsetting.

A favorite since high school.

Featuring the unforgettable and inimitable Githyanki and Githzerei! Runners-up: Sons of Kyuss, Bunyips, Slaads, Penaggalan, Death Knights, Bullywugs, Demodands.

The first Hellboy anthology. Mignola’s art is sublime.

This will be very rewarding for any who wish to indulge a prepubescent penchant for silly wordplay, hyperbolic violence, or impolite bodily functions and effluvia. The book (which actually brings together five separate novels) is 600-something pages long, so the occasional fart joke stands out as a clever approach to maintaining the reader’s interest. Not that that was necessarily the intent. I’m only beginning the second book just now, but at this point, I can’t recommend it enough.

And if you ever had to read Beowulf in high school, then you’re probably familiar already with the brilliant work of translator Burton Raffel.

A solid blending of noir and superhero genres, ‘Powers’ follows the investigations of a police homicide unit that specializes in cases involving ‘powers’—that is, superheroes and supervillains. The art is solid, if not to my taste, and the dialogue is mostly snappy; the author displays a good feel for the cadences of everyday speech, though he has an unfortunate tendency to slip in cheap jokes that fall flat during the more tense scenes. Still, this is a remarkable and original book, and well worth reading.

I only wish this had been longer! Perfectly realized, both visually and narratively; James Sturm has a keen feeling for space and silence. The third (and final?) book of Sturm’s America series.

“Unstable Molecules” reimagines the Fantastic Four as real-life Americans who formed the basis for the famous comic book, purporting to tell their ‘true’ stories. James Sturm uses this conceit to give us a panoramic soap opera of 1950s America, winding together diverse themes as the space race, the Beat generation, pre-Friedan women’s issues, and - of course - comic books. Sturm’s hitherto understated talents of character development are brought to the fore here, where they truly shine. A thoughtful and poignant work.

I miss the crimson/maroon cover with gold type!

The title story is genuinely moving.