Review: 'Songs of Love & Death'

SONGS OF LOVE & DEATH
Edited by George R.R. Martin and Gardner Dozois
Themed anthology
November 2010
Gallery Books
ISBN: 978-1-4391-5014-6

This new cross-genre anthology purports to be an "all original" collection of tales of star-crossed lovers written by fantasy, romance, horror and crime authors. The all-original tag doesn't hold up with the first story, Jim Butcher's "Love Hurts", in which Dresden and a friend fall victim to a spell. It's the same setup seen in hundreds of TV shows in which characters flirt with, or are tricked into thinking, they are in love and go back to their old ways by story's end.

The introduction is odd as well. It's a lifeless, Wikipedia-type essay on what star-crossed means. With no signature, one can only hope it is the work of a publishing company intern and was not created by either Martin or Dozois. If it was Martin's contribution, it's the only thing he wrote for the anthology. But then things get better, even if the actual definition of "star-crossed" doesn't always apply to the stories.