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jrpoole's review against another edition
2.0
The most notable story here is the first one, which imagines Atlantis as an immense island in the middle of the Atlantic comprised of what is now much of the East coast of North America. John James Audubon visits Atlantis in search of species that are rapidly declining due to European and Terra Novan (what is now the U.S.) colonization. It's really a vehicle to document the destruction of isolated ecosystems when the scourge of humanity appears, bringing cats and rats and other invasive species with it. I'm a bit of a zoology geek, so that was pretty fascinating stuff. Otherwise I may not have made it through.
The ideas here are interesting, but the execution is lacking. The writing is plodding and rarely shines, but it's serviceable enough to keep some of the stories engaging, while others are nearly unreadable (or unlistenable, as it were, since I did this one on audiobook). Harry Turtledove is a widely-lauded writer of alternate history and speculative fiction, so I'll give him the benefit of the doubt; maybe the stories in this collection just aren't the best introduction to his work.
The ideas here are interesting, but the execution is lacking. The writing is plodding and rarely shines, but it's serviceable enough to keep some of the stories engaging, while others are nearly unreadable (or unlistenable, as it were, since I did this one on audiobook). Harry Turtledove is a widely-lauded writer of alternate history and speculative fiction, so I'll give him the benefit of the doubt; maybe the stories in this collection just aren't the best introduction to his work.
jjweisman's review
3.0
Occasionally does more than fan service. His treatment of centaurs is impressive.
leons1701's review
3.0
Just finished this, and I have to say, I really do like Turtledove's short fiction better than his novels most of the time. No repeated scenes to pad out the work and a lot fewer sex scenes (Harry can't write a good sex scene at all). Still, I felt most of these pieces from the last ten years were substandard work. Perhaps I'm just tired of seeing familiar events transposed into alternate settings, a common failing of Turtledove's work. So for example, I liked Uncle Alf a good deal more than Occupation Duty, though both works were quite disturbing in their way or at least tried to be. The Scarlet Band is probably the best or at least my favorite of the works in this volume.
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