The Mysteries of the Faceless King

Darrell Schweitzer's career stretches back to the early 1970s. He has written novels, most notably The Mask of the Sorcerer (1995), which was expanded from a World Fantasy Award finalist novella, but he has probably most distinguished himself for a steady stream of short fiction which caused anthologist Mike Ashley (in The Mammoth Book of Sorcerers' Tales) to call him today's supreme stylist in the fantasy field. His work has appeared in a great variety of publications ranging from Amazing Stories and Rod Serling's The Twilight Zone magazine to Interzone and numerous PS Publishing anthologies. The present volume is the first major retrospective of his work.Once upon a time . . .   None of the stories collected herein begin with those words, though some come close. But they might as well. For Darrell Schweitzer writes a very traditional sort of story. His fiction is almost always fantasy, which is a mode nested deep in the roots of Story, usually horror, a mode as old as nightmares, and very often weird fantasy, a much more recent mode but one that is dear to his heart. Most could have been written a hundred years ago—or, with equal ease, a hundred years in the future. This is not a criticism. Timelessness is precisely what he is after.—Michael Swanwick, from the IntroductionSchweitzer is a storyteller, by whose smoky fire one may sit spell-bound.—Tanith Lee