Letters from an Imaginary Country

World Fantasy Award winner Goss (the Athena Club trilogy) delivers a wonderfully atmospheric collection of stories set in 16 distinct fantastical worlds. In “England Under the White Witch,” a permanent winter settles over Britain after the eponymous sorceress raises an army of women who find empowerment in her icy dominion. “Beautiful Boys” takes the form of a scientific treatise on an alien race whose sole purpose is reproduction. The pageantry and politics of “Child-Empress of Mars” makes it a standout, as an immortal child ruler engineers a grand heroic quest for a mysterious newcomer, unaware that her “chosen one” is actually a bewildered ranch hand from Earth. Across the collection, Goss blends fantastical premises with meditations on history, identity, and the art of storytelling, often drawing from her own Hungarian childhood. There is a distinctive undercurrent of wonder and menace to the tales, each one told with lush prose and sly wit. Readers willing to linger in Goss’s intricately wrought landscapes will find themselves amply rewarded. Agent: Seth Fishman, Gernert Co. (Nov.)