The Best of Michael Swanwick, Volume Two contains more than three dozen stories ranging from hard science fiction to extreme fantasy. They include “The Scarecrow’s Boy” and “Huginn and Muninn and What Came Next.” The adventures of Postutopian con artists Darger and Surplus continue in “There was an Old Woman…” and those of Kapitänleutnant Franz-Karl Ritter begin in “The Mongolian Wizard.” An adolescent girl follows her father to Hell in “Of Finest Scarlet Was Her Gown.” New York City is revealed to be built upon mist and illusion in “Cloud.” And Trickster steals everything there is in “Universe Box.” Stories range from the surface of Venus in “Tin Marsh” to the shifting lands of Chaos in “The Last Days of Old Night.”