I am particularly fond of short stories, but (with the exception of gaming fiction), this is not often something you see in fantasy.
Am I wrong? Can anyone recommend a good set of short stories by fantasy authors?
During the pulp era, short stories were the norm. Robert Howard, Clark Ashton Smith, and the like have most of their works as short stories.
Now days, not so much. Compared to 70 years ago, there is a much bigger paperback market and a much diminished magazine market.
Gene Wolfe writes a lot of good short fiction. Some of it is more SF, some more fantasy.
Also there's a yearly "Year's Best Fantasy and Horror" which doesn't help you if you don't like horror.
Harlan Ellison writes a lot of good short fiction, too, but it tends more towards the SF/speculative side, although some of it is really fantasy.
There is (or used to be) a yearly collection of short stories called "Sword and Sorceress" that was edited by Marion Zimmer Bradley until her death. All of the protagonists were women, and the quality of the stories varied enormously but I remember some gems in there.
Hm, I gave an anthology of short stories to Mad Hatter when I moved back to Sweden, but I can't remember what it was called... It had a pretty good short story by George Martin called The Hedge Knight, among others.
*googling*
It might have been from a series of books called "Legends", with short stories by authors like Terry Pratchett; Tad Williams; Ursula K. Le Guin; Robert Jordan; Stephen King; Orson Scott Card; Raymond E. Feist; Terry Goodkind; George R. R. Martin and Anne McCaffrey. Yes, I copied and pasted the names, from here (http://www.biblio.com/details.php?dcx=9879919&src=frg). :p
Thanks for all the suggestions folks. Please keep them coming!
You looking for shorts from big-name authors? Or just fantasy short stories? There are many good free e-zines out there, but it's not top quality stuff. Still plenty of good stories out there, though.
the Hedge Knight by George R. R. Martin is pretty grand:)