RAY BRADBURY • ROBERT SHECKLEY • GORDON DICKSON • CHARLOTTE ARMSTRONG • MARVIN KAYE • ZENNA HENDERSON • FREDERICK BROWN • JACK FINNEY • ISAAC ASIMOV • EDWARD P. HUGHES • ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON • PETER PHILLIPS • EDWARD D. HOCH • W.W. JACOBS • BILL PRONZINI

From a gruesome ancient talisman that brings a glimpse of evil to a remote cottage to a child’s imaginary toy that reveals a magical dimension to an ordinary school teacher, from a bottle that is home to a devilish imp to a lamp that holds the king of the djinns: here are tales of wishes that can come true. If you want to meet visitors from a distant civilization who offer the future to a small town pharmacist, or a stranger on a train with a mirror to what might have been, or if you’ve ever just thought about opening that mysterious bottle on the beach, get ready to enter—

ISAAC

ASIMOV’S

MAGICAL WORLDS OF FANTASY

Magical Wishes

This is a rather lackluster collection. It begins and ends with two deservedly famous stories—“The Monkey’s Paw,” by W. W. Jacobs, and Robert Louis Stevenson’s “The Bottle Imp.” The remainder of the book is dominated by two very long, rather muddled, and only slightly funny stories, “The Flight of the Umbrella” and “Three Day Magic” by one Marvin Kaye and another Charlotte Armstrong, respectively.

There are a couple of other gems in here, but they tend to be very, very short. And there is a story by the Good Doctor—the relatively but not bad ”What If—?,” which I would personally prefer to read in more distinguished surroundings.

Contents

“What If—?”