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A review by hakimbriki
The Complete Cosmicomics by Italo Calvino
4.0
3.5
There were some highs but a lot of lows in this collection. Calvino’s stylistic exercise gets tiresome after a while, as stories can be repetitive and very pointless at times. The good ones (Games Without End, How Much Shall We Bet?, Solar Storm, The Chase, Daughters of the Moon, and World Memory) are absolutely stellar examples of original and unique magic realism and science fiction done with just enough whimsy, eyebrow-raising scientific elements and speculations, and open-endedness to stimulate the heck out of my brain. The stories seldom have any plot, but that’s okay. Their goal is to make you think, and reassess your place in the universe. The bad stories (basically the ones I didn’t mention above) are often the very manifestation of tedium. Others are pretentious, ineffectual, and dare I say, too scientifically convoluted. That being said, the good stories are worth the frustrations.
There were some highs but a lot of lows in this collection. Calvino’s stylistic exercise gets tiresome after a while, as stories can be repetitive and very pointless at times. The good ones (Games Without End, How Much Shall We Bet?, Solar Storm, The Chase, Daughters of the Moon, and World Memory) are absolutely stellar examples of original and unique magic realism and science fiction done with just enough whimsy, eyebrow-raising scientific elements and speculations, and open-endedness to stimulate the heck out of my brain. The stories seldom have any plot, but that’s okay. Their goal is to make you think, and reassess your place in the universe. The bad stories (basically the ones I didn’t mention above) are often the very manifestation of tedium. Others are pretentious, ineffectual, and dare I say, too scientifically convoluted. That being said, the good stories are worth the frustrations.