Mercenaries of Fantasy

Steam airships and hot air balloons! Dwarf towns under heavy cannon fire! Dangerous beauties in corsets! This year's issue is all about steampunk. Find out more about the genre in our informed analysis. About half of the stories stick to more classic fantasy - but there was also a zombie apocalypse! Find out where the latest trends in Czech fantasy are heading!

The short story Conquistador, which was smuggled into the anthology from the Mercenaries of Fantasy Award, is definitely not steampunk, which perhaps doesn't matter so much. Don Belmonte and his defence of a fortress against the Dutch in the fresh new age somewhere on Terra Firma was good enough to be included among the winners of the contest and to get a positive reaction from the readers. One reason for this may be the story's rather surprising ending.