Reviews

Howard Who? by Howard Waldrop

archergal's review

4.0

It's really hard to classify these stories. The most famous one (The Ugly Chickens) is about dodos. There's a bit of alternate history (Ike & Patton as jazz musicians); there's straight up fantasy, where a sort of deity, in the guise of Rufus T. Quackenbush, sends unlikely heroes to try to save the day. Sumo wrestlers push with their minds. Mad scientists do mad scientist things. Izaak Walton fishes in the Slough of Despond. Et cetera.

They're not really anything like traditional fantasy stories, but they're fun. It's interesting to try to figure out where he's going with a particular story, kind of in the way the roman a clef novels are fun.

You gotta like quirky to really appreciate these. That works for me.

jinxy's review

3.0

A varied mix of short stories. I really enjoyed a few, loved another (Ike at the Mike), was mostly confused by several, and was horrified by one.

athenalindia's review

3.0

I find writing reviews for books of short stories really hard. I read quickly, so I tend to burn through a story before it's had time to seep into my long-term memory. This means that I'm not doing the kind of memory reinforcement that happens when I read a novel over several days - each new day helps consolidate things about a book in my head. With short stories, that second crack at it never comes, and I'm not really interested in reading each story twice just to combat this.

Note: The rest of this review has been withheld due to the changes in Goodreads policy and enforcement. You can read why I came to this decision here.

In the meantime, you can read the entire review at Smorgasbook