Santa lives near the North pole, right? In fact he lives in Far North Finland. You can go and visit him there, if you are so inclined. Therefore I assume that the jolly fellow who has just delivered a fabulous anthology to my bookstore is not Jeff VanderMeer in a fake beard and a fur-lined red suit, but Santa himself. Who better to spread Finnish culture to the world?

Thus we have, It Came From The North: An Anthology of Finnish Speculative Fiction, edited by Desirina Boskovich. It is a reprint anthology, and some of the material may be familiar to you. Johanna Sinisalo has contributed an excerpt from her novel, Not Before Sundown (Troll); “Elegy for a Young Elk” by Hannu Rajaniemi was in Subterranean; and “Watcher” by Leena Likitalo was in Weird Tales. If you are a serious Finnophile you may even have books like The Dedalus Book of Finnish Fantasy and various English-language special editions of magazines put out by Finnish fandom. However, I’m prepared to bet that there will be material in this book that is new to you because there is material in it that is new to me.

It is excellent value, and will introduce you to a whole lot of fine writers that you have never been able to read before.