Jabberwocky Audio Theater is joining other writers and artists for a Summer Sci-Fi/Fantasy Book Bundle Giveaway now through July 12th.

I’m also taking the opportunity to talk about science fiction and fantasy books that have influenced me through the years, including a few that aren’t in the bundle. Several of the ones I pitched are in… and several that I’d love to read myself are in. But there are a few that I’d say have been inspirations that I know don’t make sense for the bundle. One of those — or, really, several of those — would be all the science fiction and fantasy anthologies I read growing up.

I’m guessing when I throw up book covers like The Science Fiction Hall of Fame here, many of you will recognize it. I loved these and they seemed both inexhaustible and never enough. Kind of like speculative fiction tapas. True to the nature of small dishes, not every story turned out to be one I liked, but the variety was part of the fun.

I confess, one of my favorite collections is certainly uneven, the Mythical Beasties anthology from the ’80s. The stories run the gamut from traditional fairy tale (Hans Christian Andersen’s version of “The Little Mermaid”) to a mythical beast in a sci-fi setting (“The Triumph of Pegasus” by F. A. Javor). but there’s great stuff there… including this short story by a George R. R. Martin. I should see if he’s done anything else…

Anyway, the idea of anthologies in audio theater certainly isn’t new, as listeners of Dimension X and X Minus One are certainly aware… to say nothing of more reality-bound anthology series like Suspense and one of my personal favorites, Escape. This may explain why we’ll be launching two anthology series on Jabberwocky Audio Theater later this year, the fairy tale/folk tale based Through the Looking Glass and the spookier Through a Glass, Darkly.

In the meantime, there aren’t any anthologies per se in the book bundle, but considering it’s about 20 different books and graphic novels, it’s sort of a big anthology of speculative fiction goodness in an of itself, right? Remember, you have until Friday, July 12th to enter.

— Bjorn Munson, Jabberwocky Audio Theate