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mitchosaur's review against another edition
1.0
The first couple stories in this anthology were pretty good, but around the fourth story I started losing interesting. I tried skipping around to the other stories, but couldn’t get into any of them. I ended up just skimming them to get an idea of what they were about. I was really disappointed cuz I was really looking forward to reading this book. Time to find a different book to satisfy my sci-fi craving.
roseannmvp's review against another edition
5.0
This is one amazing compilation of stories.
I especially loved 'AssHat Magic Spider" by Scott Westerfeld, which is "a homage" to a certain "Charlotte" and I won't spoil it for those of you planning to read it...
I also liked Neil Gaiman's Orange for its "Outer-worldly" excellence. I am looking forward to more compilations of this kind which give uis snippets of shorts from people who usually write longer pieces. The cover art alone pulled me in.
Overall, Bravo!
I especially loved 'AssHat Magic Spider" by Scott Westerfeld, which is "a homage" to a certain "Charlotte" and I won't spoil it for those of you planning to read it...
I also liked Neil Gaiman's Orange for its "Outer-worldly" excellence. I am looking forward to more compilations of this kind which give uis snippets of shorts from people who usually write longer pieces. The cover art alone pulled me in.
Overall, Bravo!
asimilarkite's review against another edition
4.0
I am not a short story person, in general -- although if I am going to read a short story I prefer it be of the science fiction variety. This is a remarkably high quality compilation -- it probably helps that much of it is written by magnificent YA authors. Lots of interesting ideas are explored, the writing quality is stellar, and there weren't ANY stories that I just wanted to skip 'cause I was bored or un-interested. Well done, Jonathan Strahan.
wunder's review
5.0
Johnathon Strahan invited people to write short stories "with the same kind of thrill" as those written in the 1950's and 1960's. But because SF is always about today, the starting point for those rocket ships moved fifty or so years.
This could have been a train wreck, but he chose very good writers. So it is fun reading a Garth Nix story about nanobot vampires instead of his YA fantasy. And Scott Westerfeld with a "boarding the colony ship" story that would have been at home in Galaxy.
A few people can't quite get with the program. Cory Doctorow writes more Cory Doctorow stuff. Ian McDonald delivers another wonderful magical-SF piece in his India.
Neil Gaiman's "Orange" is a twisted record, only the answers a girl gives to an investigation of her older sister's transformation, with paragraphs like, "33. The next morning, all of us." The author's note doesn't mention Paula Zoline, but it reminds me of her 1967 story "The Heat Death of the Universe". Intentional or not, it captures the experimental wing of SF in those decades.
I often read anthologies to discover new writers. That doesn't quite work here, because most are writing out of their home territory. There are a couple of stories I like, though I have not liked those authors' novels. I might give Paul McAuley another try with one of his Quiet War books.
This could have been a train wreck, but he chose very good writers. So it is fun reading a Garth Nix story about nanobot vampires instead of his YA fantasy. And Scott Westerfeld with a "boarding the colony ship" story that would have been at home in Galaxy.
A few people can't quite get with the program. Cory Doctorow writes more Cory Doctorow stuff. Ian McDonald delivers another wonderful magical-SF piece in his India.
Neil Gaiman's "Orange" is a twisted record, only the answers a girl gives to an investigation of her older sister's transformation, with paragraphs like, "33. The next morning, all of us." The author's note doesn't mention Paula Zoline, but it reminds me of her 1967 story "The Heat Death of the Universe". Intentional or not, it captures the experimental wing of SF in those decades.
I often read anthologies to discover new writers. That doesn't quite work here, because most are writing out of their home territory. There are a couple of stories I like, though I have not liked those authors' novels. I might give Paul McAuley another try with one of his Quiet War books.
librariann's review
3.0
Confession: I did not read every story in this book. Like any collection, the stories in this vary in quality. Thumbs up to Gaiman's "Orange" and "The Star Surgeon's Apprentice" (which stuck in my head long after reading.) Meh to Cory Doctorow - even though I liked your novel, I couldn't get into the agenda of Anda's Game. Only for the science fiction fan.
astrangerhere's review
3.0
Five stars for the first half, but only 2 for the back half. The story quality really dropped about midway through.
elinix's review
4.0
Ett sci-fi-uppvaknande. Jag minns till denna dag the Magic Spider och den om killen med de sociala medierna i den odödliga världen.
djwudi's review
4.0
Most of the sci-fi collections I've been reading lately have been fairly old -- usually published somewhere between the 60s and the 80s -- so it was a lot of fun to pick up something more recent. Quite a few good stories in here. Amusingly, and probably quite related to the amount of older works I've been reading, the story that stood out to me the most was Stephen Baxters…which was written as an homage to Golden Age sci-fi. Fun stuff.
sonshinelibrarian's review
3.0
I don't read a lot of sci-fi, though I watch a lot of it. This was a pretty good collection, because it had a wide variety of styles. As with any short story collection, it had highs and lows for me. Really enjoyed a couple, wasn't a fan of a couple, and the rest sort of fell middling.