A review by foomple
The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, September/October 2019 (F&SF, #745) by Mary Soon Lee, Michael Moorcock, Paul Di Filippo, Elizabeth Bear, Y. M. Pang, Michael Swanwick, Jerry Oltion, Amanda Hollander, Thomas Kaufsek, Jeff Crandall, Maureen McHugh, Charles de Lint, Robert Silverberg, Gardner Dozois, Kelly Link, Ken Liu, C.C. Finlay, Karin Lowachee, Esther M. Friesner, James Sallis, Paolo Bacigalupi, Nick Wolven
I plan to flesh out this review a little later, but for now let me say that I found Y.M. Pang's story, Little Inn On the Jianghu, charming and hilarious in the best way.
About the story, the author says "I've always felt sorry for innkeepers in wuxia stories. The heroes and villains constantly select inns as their battlegrounds, leaving smashed tables and cowering patrons in their wake. I wonder how half those inns manage to stay in business. So I decided to write an affectionate parody of wuxia from an innkeeper's point of view."
About the story, the author says "I've always felt sorry for innkeepers in wuxia stories. The heroes and villains constantly select inns as their battlegrounds, leaving smashed tables and cowering patrons in their wake. I wonder how half those inns manage to stay in business. So I decided to write an affectionate parody of wuxia from an innkeeper's point of view."