This collection brings together a wide variety of Duncan’s short fiction from a 20-plus-year career. Stories include evocations of folklore such as Big Rock Candy Mountain in which a rail-riding hobo and a determined young woman journey out from the fabled paradise. Other stories revisit classic works of literature ... Highly recommended for fans of Kelly Link or other slipstream writers, and for any reader looking to lose themselves in an engaging and fun reading experience.
The leading current heir to [the American fantastic writing] tradition may be Andy Duncan, whose Southern background informs his stories as much as his current career as a science-fiction teacher and scholar ... Reading Duncan can feel like being taken on a tour of your own dusty attic and being shown treasures you didn’t know you had.
Like [Howard] Waldrop, Duncan recognizes the beauty of vernacular speech; like Waldrop, his writing calls mind the best porch-front jawing and tale-telling you’ve ever heard ... And [Duncan's] wryly funny ... An Agent of Utopia must rank as one of this year’s best collections. It’s on bookstore shelves now and deserves to be on your shelves soon. As for me, I’m off to hunt for Andy Duncan’s previous collections.
