This anthology of fantasy stories was published in 1967, the first of what would become a three part series of collections. It included stories from 1961 to 1967, all but one previously published in a variety of venues such as The Saturday Evening Post, Playboy, The Atlantic Monthly and also horror, science fiction and fantasy magazines as well as story collections by their authors. Almost all the authors in here are well known, such as Jorge Luis Borges, Roger Zelazny, J.G. Ballard and Peter Beagle to name a few.

Some anthologies put me off from the start, but this was not one of those. The first story "Divine Madness" by Roger Zelazny really pulled me into this - it is the story of a man who increasingly has epilepctic seizures of some sort that cause him to believe time is running backwards. He flashes in and out of this state until he discovers that his latest one is not stopping, and he both fears and hopes it will take him back to a place where he can live forward and do things differently. Is this all in his mind?

The second story, a long one, slowed my enthusiasm as it seemed John Brunner was almost doing a pastiche of Jack Vance, and the story felt very much like a small piece of a much bigger story. I discovered afterwards that this was one of several loosely linked stories about the traveler in black. I found it somewhat tedious but I can see other readers might enjoy it.

I enjoyed stories like this much more when I was perhaps 20 years of age. Now, much older, these sorts of stories seem quite dated and of another time. I did also like Peter Beagle's period piece set in London, "Come Lady Death" which made up for some of the weaker stories.

I liked Donald Westlake's irreverant tale "Nackles" from the first sentence. Apparently more people than I liked it too - who would guess a 53 year old short story would have its own website - more than one in fact! Here's one: http://www.donaldwestlake.com/nackles/

Other stories in the collection varied quite a bit in how much I enjoyed them. I did like Ballard's "The Lost Leonardo" quite a bit, a mystery fantasy story about the theft of a da Vinci painting from the Louvre, and then a discovery that something very odd has been going on for quite a while it seems.

The cover art and sketches that preface each story in the anthology are by Kelly Freas. Overall this is a better than expected collection of tales which are as follows:

Divine Madness • (1966) • shortstory by Roger Zelazny
Break the Door of Hell • Traveler in Black • (1966) • novelette by John Brunner
The Immortal • (1966) • shortstory by Jorge Luís Borges
Narrow Valley • (1966) • shortstory by R. A. Lafferty
Comet Wine • (1967) • novelette by Ray Russell
The Other • (1966) • shortstory by Katherine MacLean
A Red Heart and Blue Roses • (1961) • shortstory by Mildred Clingerman
Stanley Toothbrush • (1962) • shortstory by Terry Carr (as by Carl Brandon)
The Squirrel Cage • (1966) • shortstory by Thomas M. Disch
Come Lady Death • (1963) • shortstory by Peter S. Beagle
Nackles • (1964) • shortstory by Donald E. Westlake (as by Curt Clark)
The Lost Leonardo • (1964) • shortstory by J. G. Ballard
Timothy • (1966) • shortstory by Keith Roberts
Basilisk • shortstory by Avram Davidson
The Evil Eye • (1966) • novelette by Alfred Gillespie ( )