GRAILS

Companion to, and continuation of, the first and fairly mediocre Grails (p. 102). Again, the inapposite subtitle may be disregarded. The 29 stories featured here concern grails as both objects and metaphors whose themes and ideas run from traditional Arthurian scenarios through alternate worlds to contemporary global settings—and don't forget the traditional sprinkling of famous names. Plot devices include ironic reversals (Tanith Lee), a dragon's hoard, dogs, werewolves and the Franco-Prussian War (Karl Edward Wagner), Florida, the Ottoman Empire, the Wild West, Nazis, Southeast Asia (S.P. Somtow), England, inheritances, the Amazon, Canada, detectives and horrors in Holland (Jack C. Haldeman II), dime stores, evil grails, death row, the Wandering Jew, female knights (George Alec Effinger), blood and miracles (Pat Cadigan), New Age detectives, Merlin, Elvis in heaven, and migrant farmworkers. One Grails is plenty, two is an overdose.