It’s crazy to me that we are now into the 3rd volume of collected stories celebrating the 40th anniversary of the original trilogy. “Return of the JedIt’s crazy to me that we are now into the 3rd volume of collected stories celebrating the 40th anniversary of the original trilogy. “Return of the Jedi” is my favorite of the original Star Wars films so you can understand my expectations were going to be pretty high for this one.
And, while the first 2 books weren’t amazing, they were at least decent and had a good amount of short stories. Well, RotJ:FACPoV isn’t nearly as good as the same ideas in the A New Hope or ESB collections. In fact it’s a lot worse.
It’s not that any stories in here are terrible (there’s only like one or two that flat out sucked), but overall, the vast majority of these are forgettable, boring, and repetitive.
Out of the 40 collected short stories, 10 are related to Jabba’s Palace. And I get it, Jabba’s Tatooine retreat is interesting and mysterious, as are his cadre of followers but did we really need 25% of the tales to be directly related to it? Do we need multiple retellings of the same characters saying the same things? One story in this section, “The Plan”, about the infamous crying Rancor keeper, was ok, however, like the majority of everything else in this collection, it is quickly forgettable. For example, there are 3 different stories about the Ewoks and all 3 are a lesson in monotony and boredom. I wanted to see the cuddly, yet vicious denizens of Endor in a new light but all I saw was one failed story after another.
However, speaking of Endor, “Gone to the Winner’s Circle”, a story of one of the speederbike imperials, was a blast and easily one of the best in this entire anthology. Other hits include “Twenty and Out”, about the gunners on DSII, “Impact” and “To the Last” (both about Admiral Piett and the A-Wing that slams into the Executor Star Destroyer), “The Emperor’s Red Guard” (who doesn’t love more stories about Palpaetine’s notorious maroon garbed protectors?) and “From a Certain Point of View” and “Brotherhood” which both let readers see the POV of the force ghosts of Obi Wan, and Anakin, respectively.
Obviously it’s incredibly hard to have an anthology with all straight bangers, so in a sense, I guess it’s to be expected this wouldn’t be a complete 5 star read, however I would have liked at least a bit more consistency throughout all the stories, especially when this film is my favorite of the batch. Then again, this is Disney Star Wars, so lack of consistency and typical woke pandering BS in some of the entires doesn’t really surprise me....more
It seems like every year for the past 3 years I somehow pick up some weird or twisted Christmas themed horror book. With Slaughter House Pres3.5 stars
It seems like every year for the past 3 years I somehow pick up some weird or twisted Christmas themed horror book. With Slaughter House Press’s anthology Yuletide Nightmares, 2023 is no exception.
Whether it’s killer Santas, wax museums, or creepy Christmas inventions, the 10 short stories within from some of the most popular and talented indie horror authors, definitely deliver on this anthology’s title.
I think what really surprised me is just how solid this entire collection was. Out of the 10 stories, 4 were awesome, 3 were great, 2 were ok, and only 1 failed to do anything for me.
Even though I’ve kind of phased out of the extreme gore and solatterpunk genres of horror, Tim Curran’s “Santa’s Bloody Terror” once again reminded me why he’s the absolute king of descriptive horror. Harrison Phillips’s “The Kringle Conduit” was easily the most original and creative of this batch. “Keepers of Christmas” by Kristopher Rufty felt like a perfect homage to bizarro master Carlton Mellick III and Judith Sonnet’s “Abominations in Wax” stole the show for reading like a perfect love child of Wdgar Alan Poe and Robert McCammon. Even Tim Meyer’s “Like Stars” was a fun one that I enjoyed from beginning to end.
This may only be Slaughter House Press’s second release but if Brian G. Berry keeps publishing great stuff like this, there is no reason why his publishing house can’t start competing with some of the big boys. Severed Press, you better pay attention! ...more
13 years of fandom and Tim Curran rarely lets me down. Alien Horrors is no exception.
Bundling together 12 alien themed horror stories from different i13 years of fandom and Tim Curran rarely lets me down. Alien Horrors is no exception.
Bundling together 12 alien themed horror stories from different influences like Alien, The Thing, Event Horizon and Sphere, Alien Horrors is proof that Curran is a true master of his craft and an extremely underrated one at that.
It’s hard to pick out any specific stories here that stick out (they’re all incredibly strong) but I’d be remiss in not recommending “Migration”, “Dead Planet”, “Ghost Ship” and “No Life on Mars”. ...more
Hard to believe it’s already been 3 years since the first From a Certain Point of View randomly showed up in the middle of Star Wars canon and showed Hard to believe it’s already been 3 years since the first From a Certain Point of View randomly showed up in the middle of Star Wars canon and showed that despite many of its failings, Disney (and Del Rey) could still produce decent stories in the franchise.
Now the Disney/Del Rey team strikes back (ha! Get it?) with yet another group of 40 short stories, all set in and around the same time and locations of The Empire Strikes Back and the question is, can lightning strike twice and can the Disney/Del Rey duo produce 2 solid Star Wars anthologies in a row?
Not quite. While From A Certain POV: ESB is still a good collection of stories, I have to admit that they just didn’t seem to hit as hard or be as memorable as the last batch.
In the first collection, I liked something like 30 or 35 of the 40 stories, which is pretty damn impressive for such a big anthology. I myself was surprised at the quantity of shorts I enjoyed.
This time around though, that number is something like 20. And of those 20, I can honestly only think of 5 that stand out as being really good. Just like in the last one, I’ll list them:
- “Against All Odds”- A great look at Dak “I feel like I can take on the empire myself” Ralter and his infamous run on the AT-ATs as the attacked Echo Base
-“Beyond Hope”- Yet another fun story about the Rebel Infantry that stood on the frontlines on Hoth
-“The Truest Duty”- Storywise, this one wasn’t insanely great, but Christie Golden’s knack for mixing in the films original dialogue with her own take on the scene was well done.
- “Amara Kel’s Rule for TIE Pilot Survival (Probably)”- One of the better stories here. Written from the POV of TIE pilot and explaining just how to survive being so dispensable and replaceable, but done in a modern, contemporary way. I think this particular short is easily amongst the best in the entire collection.
- “Fake It til You Make It”- Who would have guessed that seeing the return of perhaps Star Wars legends’ dumbest character of all time, Jaxon Thumperaki, would actually end up being quite enjoyable? I guess it shouldn’t be surprising since this was written by Cavan Scott, who’s proven himself to be as adept at Star Wars as he is with Judge Dredd.
I also have 2 honorable mentions this time around:
- “Due On Batuu” - Not because this story was especially unique, but, like the story “Bump” in the last anthology, it takes a very minor character and scene and expands on it in such a way as to please fans.
- “The Whills Strike Back”- I admit that I didn’t like the first iteration of this back in the first POV but this time, I definitely enjoyed it a second time around. Just as in “Batuu”, Angleberger references some things only die hard Star Wars fans would appreciate, and, as a closing number, it does its job well.
I also found 5 stories this time that I really didn’t like:
- “Hunger”- A POV tale from the infamous Wampa. This one was more silly than bad, but still, kinda pointless and dumb.
- “She Will Keep Them Warm”- This one suffers the same fate as “Hunger” as its now a Taun Taun’s POV story. Even worse, it’s written by Delilah S. Dawson who is way better of an author than this one will have you believe.
- “ A Good Kiss”- Just Disney being Disney by shoehorning a gay couple into Star Wars. Maybe if the story had been decent (like the TIE fighter one), I could have found some kind of positive things about it, but the motivations and eventual conclusion just didn’t do it for me
-“Kendall”- Meh. Did we really need a story about Admiral Ozzel? Maybe, but probably not done in this particular manner.
- “This is No Cave”- Annnnnd back to another animal POV tale. Like the Dionogah story from the first book, this one tries to give some kind of empathy or feeling for the giant space worm that gobbles up the Falcon. Also like the Dionogah story, it’s overwritten and uses way too much exposition to get the point across (and in the spirit of full disclosure, I couldn’t even finish this one).
I get that The Empire Strikes Back is widely regarded as the best of all Star Wars films, and, three years on the heals of a previous collection, Empire POV had a lot riding on its shoulders. While I think it’s mostly successful and carries out its purpose of telling the lives and goings on of characters that fell through the cracks of the main plot, I also think this one could have been better with slightly more memorable stories, or at least not like 7 all set on Cloud City.
Look, all in all, EmpirePOV is far from terrible, and like I just said, it does it’s job. It’s just that I don’t think it’s quite up to snuff when compared to the first kind. At this point I have zero doubt we will see a Return of the Jedi anthology like this in 2023...as it’s my personal favorite of the original trilogy, I hope Disney and Del Rey can get some slightly more memorable shorts in that one. ...more
As a collection of related Star Wars stories, Stories of Light and Dark is a decent read. While there is nothing inherently bad or terrible about it, As a collection of related Star Wars stories, Stories of Light and Dark is a decent read. While there is nothing inherently bad or terrible about it, there is also nothing exceptional or anything that makes it standout amongst its peers.
I will give credit in that it’s probably one of the better canon related anthologies to be released in the last couple of year. While these anthologies and short story collections have been fairly rare since the Disney buyout, what few that have been produced haven’t been very good. Both of George Mann’s collections are proof that sometimes a concept isn’t always great once it’s executed.
Stories of Light and Dark does excel in telling decent (though I’d argue unnecessary) tales of the Clone Wars, even if many of these were already told in the animated series by the same name. For me, however, this wasn’t a terrible idea as I still have yet to get thought the first season of the show. That being said, the standouts (for me at least) in this collection are “Shadow of Umbara”, “Bane’s Story”, and “Kenobi’s Shadow”. Not that there was anything bad about the other ones (they are at the very least, consistent), it’s just that these 3 easily told the best stories and kept me the most entertained.
It’s kind of weird now, towards the late mid-stages of 2020, that there are still such issues and still such huge inconsistencies in the world of Disney owned Star Wars books. It’s been 7 or 8 years since the buyout and just as long since the introduction of the new canon, and fans are still left with a franchise that has yet to get its shit together. And we still keep buying in and getting teased by such varying levels of novels, comics, and movies. I am marginally pleased that Stories of Light and Dark had at least come measure of regularity throughout its pages, and actually kind of broke the anthology curse of such a wildly varying level of talent and storytelling between them, however, I’m still not convinced that this is a portent of things to come with LucasFilm/LucasArts/LucasBooks, whatever. Also, as previously stated, these aren’t even 100% new or originally stories. Take that with a grain of salt when going in to this collection....more
Didn’t love Tales from Jabba’s Palace, not did I hate it. I found myself enjoying some of the stories and absolutely despising some of the others. ThiDidn’t love Tales from Jabba’s Palace, not did I hate it. I found myself enjoying some of the stories and absolutely despising some of the others. This is definitely better than Tales from the Empire as its far more complete, consistent, and has a theme interwoven between all of the stories, yet I still think the disparity between some stories leads to me taking a couple of stars off its final rating.
First, the good.
- Kevin J Anderson’s “A Boy and His Monster” was a great story both to start out the collection and a great story in general. In a weird way, Anderson makes you feel kinda sorry for the rancor that Luke kills in Return of the Jedi and also sorry for the poor guy who’s balling his eyes out when he sees what Skywalker did to his pet.
- “A Time to Mourn, a Time to Dance” by Kathy Tyers is another story that gives background to a bit player from the films. We all know the poor Twiilek girl who gets fed to the rancor, but know, thanks to Tyers, we get to know her a bit and understand her motivations.
-“A Bad Feeling” which gives personality and a backstory to that droid that tortures other droids. Didn’t know it was worth telling, but I guess I was wrong.
- “And the Band Played On” by John Gregory Betancourt was easily the best story in the entire collection and hands down my favorite. Probably one of the best Star Wars short stories I’ve ever read. Though it’s been kind of retconned now by both being moved to the EU and with Lucas’s peddling and changing of the original cut of Return of the Jedi, it’s still a really well written and conceived tale of Max Rebo and the rest of his band.
- “Skin Deep” is the longest story in this entire collection but it bookends Tales From Jabba’s Palace perfectly. Crispin would go on to write the classic Han Solo Trilogy (for better or worse, depending on your belief system), so it’s no wonder this novella length story came out so well.
The bad
- “And Then There Were Some” night now be the worst in this anthology but it’s definitely top (or would that be bottom?) three. Gamorean guards are supposed to be big, dumb, and stupid. Why William F. Wu decided to give them personality and backstory, I’ll never know.
-“The Great God Quay” by George Alec Effinger is also one of the collected stories that ranks somewhere near the bottom for me. I don’t need a story about Weequays worshiping a magic 8 ball and furthermore, the attempts at humor fall flat, quickly.
- Probably the worst Tale’s From Jabba’s Palace, “Out of the Closet” is the one story that easily lead me to drop the rating for the entire book. Roberson tries to write a Star Wars story in some bizarre lit fiction style and it fails horribly. Rather than tell a good tale about Jabb’a pet vampire, it comes across as pretentious, hard to read, and just plain weird.
And there you have it: my two cents on this Star Wars anthology. Obviously there are a lot more shorts in here that I failed to mention, so you’ll have to pick up Tales From Jabba’s Palace to read them all and see for yourself....more
For some Tales From the Empire is quintessential Star Wars far, using short stories to fill in all the gaps that the films never did.
For others (like For some Tales From the Empire is quintessential Star Wars far, using short stories to fill in all the gaps that the films never did.
For others (like myself), Tales From the Empire is a slow trek through some pretty mediocre tales and leaves the reader bored and/or disappointed.
Not all of this anthology is bad. Stackpoles’s “Missed Chance”, Charlene Newcomb’s “A Certain Point of View”, “Blaze of Glory” by Tony Russo, and, the best story in the whole collection, “Do No Harm” by Erin Endom, are highlights and proof that you don’t need a full length novel to tell an enjoyable Star Wars story.
And then there’s good old Timothy Zahn, coming along to make Star Wars an absolute chore to get through. I know the guy revitalized this franchise with his Heir to the Empire trilogy, and I know both Scoundrels and Outbound Flight were mostly fun novels, but good God, Zahn tends to be far more boring than anything else, and that’s especially true in both of his stories on this collection. Neither “First Contact” or his 4 part serial short story with Stackpole were the least bit entertaining. Just as he does in his novels (especially the god awful Thrawn trilogy of 2017-2019), Zahn overwrites and makes stories that should be fun and exciting into long winded dialogues and pointless exposition. I got so bored with his 2 stories that I lost interest, finding myself reading but not comprehending or even realizing I was reading a Star Wars story. Add in the fact that Tales From the Empire was bookended by Zahn’s work, and it makes for a collection that’s incredibly hard to get into and even harder to finish, despite a strong middle section.
Also, am I the only one getting increasingly more and more annoyed with Thrawn?...more
It's been a long time since I read an anthology and even longer since I've read one that contained such an large amount of well-written, cohesive, oriIt's been a long time since I read an anthology and even longer since I've read one that contained such an large amount of well-written, cohesive, original collected stories.
Written to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the first Star Wars film and to celebrate the enduring legacy that George Lucas created way back in 1977, From a Certain Point of View somehow manages to collect 40 varying short stories revolving around the universe of A New Hope. That's an achievement in and of itself, but add in the consistently enjoyable and strong stories presented in this anthology and the book is a definite win in my book.
Of the 40 stories printed inside Point of View and outstanding 36 of them kept me relatively hooked and engaged. Of those, there were 6 that excelled at telling an amazing story and brining depth and a connection with some of the Star Wars galaxies lesser known characters and plots. I've decided to list those here because they really were that great.
-"The Red One" told the story of R5-D4 unit that exploded in front of Luke and Uncle Owen, leading to R2-D2's aquisition. I don't know how she did it but Rae Carson actually made me feel sorry for a droid, while at the same time proud of his actions. Emotions! For a droid.
-"The Luckless Rodian" by Renee Ahdieah was the first of 4 or 5 stories that involved the infamous Greedo, but it was by far the best and most conducive to giving him a believable backstory. Plus, it answers that age old question of who shot first: Han or Greedo?
-"Not for Nothing" attempts to explain the Mos Eisley cantina band in a psuedo-memoir format and even as a fictional auto-biographical text, I couldn't help but feel like I was learning about those pale pink, butt head shaped dudes rocking out that famous song.
-"Added Muscle" gave insight into he ever popular, yet woefully underused bounty hunter Boba Fett. Paul Dinni's sarcastistic prose was a perfect fit for this first person narrative.
- It shouldn't come as any surprise that Delilah S. Dawson's story, "The Secrets of Long Snoot" was a huge hit for me. After all, she wrote the surprisingly great Phasma earlier this year and has, at least in my opinion, cemented herself as one of the best new Star Wars -"Bump" while unnecessary in the grand scheme of the Star Wars plot line, still deserves a mention here because though it wasn't an espeically strong story, credit is due to Ben Acker and Ben Blacker for giving a story to the Stormtrooper who "bumps" (get it?) his head on the door. Easily the most talked about, paused and rewound blooper in the entireStar Wars franchise.
This leaves 4 stories that I found lacking, boring, or just not fitting with the general flow of the anthology.
-"Beru Whitesun Lars" wasn't a horribly written story, and of the 4, it was probably the best but even with it's short length, it just didn't really seem to fit within the framework of everything else. Telling a story from a dead character's POV just didn't do it for me and the repeated use of the phrase "blue milk cheese" quickly grew annoying.
-"The Kloo Horn Cantina Caper" was unfortunatly the longest story in this entire collection which, because it was so boring and so weirdly written, made it one of my least favorites.
-"The Baptist" by Nnedi Okorafor tried to give sentience and a backstory to the Diagona, or, better known as the "trash compactor monster". I give Okorafor credit for attempting to write an original story about the thing but was it really all that necessary? Do we readers really have to care about a monster?
-"Whills" wasn't essentially a bad read, but, like "Beru", its style, substance, and strange way of telling the making of the "opening crawl" didn't fit and made for a weird and jarring transition away from the more popular styles before it. Good thing it was the last one in the entire collection.
I thought about giving Point of View a 5 star rating (since, honestly, this is probably the best anthology I've read...and I'm not just saying that cuz I'm a reenergized Star Wars fan, but as it continued on, reaching the climax of the Battle of Yavin and eventual destruction of the Death Star, the stories began to grow repetitive and slow. They weren't bad by any means, but after 6 stories in a row about the rebels and the various attack groups, it just started to feel a wee bit monotonous. I mean, how many times can you tell the same story through different POVs?
Overall though, I was incredibly happy with the finished product that is From a Certain Point of View. I always have a justified fear (seriously, go back and read some of my reviews on other anthologies) that books like these will end up being a lesson in repetitiveness or an editor's failed attempt to bring "different" stories into the mix. Thankfully, this particular anthology is not that. It's not exactly perfect, but it was damn close. I'll go ahead and give a big thumbs-up to Del Rey and everyone at Star Wars for making the choice to publish this. It seems that Disney has finally gotten their act together with producing canon that is both fun, original, and gives credit to the Star Wars name. If From a Certain Point of View is any indication, it appears all the parties involved in creating new literary Star Wars content have found a formula that works....more
The dates that show when I read this are misleading. It actually took me months to finish this anthology. As it seems to be with the last few books I'The dates that show when I read this are misleading. It actually took me months to finish this anthology. As it seems to be with the last few books I've read, this one sat around on my shelf for a long time while I went on to read bigger and better novels and collections.
Yes, this Lovecraft inspired anthology is perhaps one of (if not THE) weakest ones I've had the misfortune of having to read. S.T. Joshi is like the John Joseph Adams of Cthulhu collections; he values style over substance and lets his supposed "expert" status cloud his judgement when selecting short stories. There's 21 short stories here and one would think that that would leave a lot of options for great reading and new takes on the cosmic horror that is Cthulhu, Unfortunately, the anthology's title is one of the most misleading in recent times as most of the tales in Black Wings border on either the ridiculously obscure of Lovecraft's work, or (and more often) plod along at a snails pace, never presenting anything exciting. Very few even remotely mention Cthulhu or any of the other Elder Gods.
That wouldn't necessarily be an issue if the stories that Joshi collected here were good. It's true there were about half a dozen or so that I liked (my favorites being "Lesser Demons" by Norman Partridge and "The Dome" by Mollie Burleson), yet everything else managed to either put me to sleep or piss me off. I was bored to tears through most of these, finding nothing redeeming or worth remembering. "Tempting Providence" was an exercise in impatience while "Engravings" was one in anger. I couldn't even get through 3 pages of "Violence, Child of Trust" and, because I can't stand his slow and clunky writing, completely skipped Ramsey Campbell's "Correspondence". And of course, what anthology wouldn't be complete and almost ruined without a crappy story from Pugmire?
Simply put, there are so many better anthologies in this genre. Both Lockhart's Book of Cthulhu, and World War Cthulhu are much better examples of how authors have kept the Cthulhu mythos alive. Black Wings of Cthulhu, on the other hand, makes the whole Lovecraft inspired sub-genre, seem boring by comparison. Do yourself a favor and skip this 500 page bore. You'll feel better about it later. ...more
Let's just say I'm glad I have kindle unlimited because had I spent any real money on this, I would've been severely disappointed.
Of the 3 in this antLet's just say I'm glad I have kindle unlimited because had I spent any real money on this, I would've been severely disappointed.
Of the 3 in this anthology series, DB3 is by far the weakest. None of the stories really stand out or offer anything new. Although none of them are horrible bad, most of these seem almost comical by comparison to the first 2. I mean, just look at the one story here about a talking fish. It's just stupid, compounded even more so when you realize it's almost a direct rip-off of "The Monkey's Paw". Even Curran's short was somewhat on the weak side, which is weird saying when almost everything he's written has been fairly good and entertaining...but then again, it is a rehash of Hemingway's "The Old Man and the Sea" so maybe it was intentional?
Basically, this one was disappointing. Sure, there weren't any horribly "bad" stories in this collection, but they were almost all boring. I think this is a perfect example of Severed Press not knowing when to call it quits, or at least not being patient enough to wait and collect a better batch of shorts. I also think they lost faith in their own creation as this was definitely the poorest quality of the bunch (even if it was straight to ebook) as the typeface was never consistent and typos abounded. It appears as if they did learn their lesson though: this was published back in 2012 and there hasn't been a new one since...
2 stars means this was just "ok", and for the most part, that is exactly what this anthology was...just ok.
There's nothing new or incredibly exciting 2 stars means this was just "ok", and for the most part, that is exactly what this anthology was...just ok.
There's nothing new or incredibly exciting offered in DB2. It's the same old kind of stories that were in the first collection. Unfortunately, I read that one so long ago (and my copy is packed away in storage somewhere), that I can't honestly remember how good it was.
What I can say, however, is that DB2 isn't all that great. Yes, it has some relatively decent stories like Curran's "Lonely After Dark" and the one by Steve Alten, but that's to be expected since both of those guys are established (at least in Alten's case) authors who've already penned pretty good stuff beforehand.
I always read anthologies as a way to find possible new authors to read. Sometimes it happens and sometimes it doesn't. This time it happened to be the latter. If anything, this made me hate some authors even more. Having already read the more famous works of Cody Goodfellow and Ramsey Campbell, I wasn't expecting much from either. I got worse. Both of their stories are among the 2 weakest offerings here and I found myself slogging my way through, just to get to the next short. And of course they were back-to-back which made for a ridiculously long 40 minutes or so.
Most of the stories here are just ho-hum. They aren't especially "bad" (well, except for the 2 I just mentioned). They just failed to grab me or excite me in any way. I guess if you don't go in expecting much, you'll be ok, but don't get your hopes up, because you'll be disappointed. ...more
This anthology is ok. It's better than some and worse than others. When it comes to the whole Lovecraft thing, it holds up on its own, but not very taThis anthology is ok. It's better than some and worse than others. When it comes to the whole Lovecraft thing, it holds up on its own, but not very tall when compared to better collections like "World War Cthulhu" or "The Book of Cthulhu".
I don't know how many stories there were here, but most of them were just so-so. Never really bad, but never really all that good. At best they were standard but forgettable. Although, thankfully, none ever took very long to read.
"When Death Wore Greasepaint", "Afraid of Dobermans" and "My Friend Fishfinger" (along with 3 or 4 others) were the real standouts of this collection, while "Chasing Sunset", "Hideous Interview", "My Stalk", and "Waiting" were total bores and a waste of time.
Overall, this anthology was decent, but brought little to the table. ...more
I like post-apocalyptic fiction stories. I have no issues, whatsoever, in admitting that I take a guilty, perThis is really more of a 2.5 star rating.
I like post-apocalyptic fiction stories. I have no issues, whatsoever, in admitting that I take a guilty, perverse pleasure in reading them. There's something about the destruction, desolation, desperation, depression, whatever, that makes them such compelling reads. Think about it. Living in a world that is no longer full of the cushy amenities we take for granted. Having to eke out a meager living by scrounging around in abandoned buildings for tins of food the previous looters might have missed. Watching helplessly as catastrophe unfolds and you have no possible way to control it.
Can you imagine all that? Good. Now try to remember what things would really be like while you try to slog your way through this anthology.
Somehow, Adams manages once again, to take a pretty compelling subject (and on that is immensely popular, I might add) and make it seem boring. It shouldn't be much of a surprise. The last PA anthology he edited (The Wastelands) was quite possibly one of the worst anthologies I had the mispleaure to read...in any genre. Ok, so this second installment is marginally better, as it has a few more so-so stories, but really, the whole thing was a huge disappointment.
Let's start with the story selection. There's something like 30 shorts here. 30! That's a pretty hefty group, right? So you'd think there would be a good number of entertaining, enthralling, stories, right? Well, sadly, you'd be wrong. Of all the stories Adams somehow pulled together, only 8 were worth remembering. And of those 8, only 2 ("Final Exam" by Megan Arkenberg and "Biographical Fragments of the Life of Julian Prince" by Jake Kerr) stood out as wholly original and fun. And the funny thing about both of those are they aren't even proper prose form. "Final Exam" is structured like a multiple choice test while "Julian" is a fictional wikipedia page. And here I am actually liking those 2 pieces more than any other and I'm a guy who wants traditional things!
Obviously I enjoyed those 2 standout tales more than anything else because all the rest was either disappointing or downright crappy. I would have expected a lot more from Jack McDevitt and George R.R. Martin. I would have wanted to get a lot more substance from 70 pages than I did with David Brin's "The Postman". While "Patient Zero" was an easy, better read, than half of the stuff here, it was still unoriginal and brought nothing new to the post-apocalyptic table.
Of course, I could have gotten through a boring anthology and still found it ok. I mean, boring is better than "bad" isn't it? But I will not sit idly by while the bad ones try and slink their way into this collection.
I counted 6 stories that were, in my opinion, an absolute pain to read. Some started out ok ("The Elephants of Poznan", "Colliding Branes") but ended up being so stupid in the conclusion that I wanted my 10-15 minutes back. Some went nowhere ("Wondrous Days" and "Dreams in Dust") and didn't even further the overall theme of the anthology. However, it was the 2 horrible and just annoyingly dumb stories of "The Traditional" and "How the World Became Quiet" that ruined a lot of the somewhat possitive feelings I had for this book. I even had to skip "...Quiet" it was so bad and I very rarely ever skip anything. Then again, there was only so much cockroach men and butterfly men and tree warfare that a man can take. C'mon! I want to hear stories of nuclear wastelands and ravished people fleeing from raiders who want to rape and kill them. I don't want to waste my brain cells on trying to suspend my disbelief on cricket men and dung beetle men who try to save the world.
I should have seen this coming in. John Joseph Adams has never been one to really wow me with his anthologies. Rather than pick good, straightforward short stories, he always goes off on random tangents and almost purposely choses the most confusing and "original" (notice the quotation marks there?) stuff to put in. And that's really aggravating when there's a ton of good stuff out there, and a good number of better produced, better edited anthologies. Let's just say this will probably be the last of any of Adam's anthologies I purchase. I've been let down too many times. I'm just not into that happening again. ...more
I'm sure compiling an anthology is hard work. I mean, how do you go about choosing which stories to include in your theme out of potentially thousandsI'm sure compiling an anthology is hard work. I mean, how do you go about choosing which stories to include in your theme out of potentially thousands? And how do you chose ones that are gonna appeal to everyone, not just yourself? Even more importantly, how does one try and keep Cthulhu exciting and new after the huge upswing in popularity in recent years? Well, if this is any indication, Sammons and Barass have figured on the perfect formula.
I know I'm a wee bit late to the Cthulhu party. It's only been about a year or so since I really got into the mythos and started reading everything I could get my hands on, but of the various anthologies I've read over this time "World War Cthulhu" seems to be the best. There's something like 22 shorts here and most of them (18 or 19) are actually pretty good. They fit in with the whole "Cthulhu vs. the World" theme and are (for the most part) really well written. They range from medium to long length, and that's a good thing as often times the stories in other anthologies tend to be far too short to gain any kind of attachment or interest. Some would complain it makes for a lengthy read, and while that is true at times (especially for some of the more crappy stories), I actually enjoyed the longer pieces. You have "The Bullet and The Flesh", "The Boonieman" "Long Island Weird", and "The Procyon Project", just to name a few. And there's "Loyalty" which, although not as long as it's brethren, is one of the best opening stories in any anthology.
A few so-so stories aside, this could have been a 5 star review had it not been for 2 stories that were just flat out awful. "The Ithiliad" and "Magna Mater" were horribly boring, if not confusing. I don't usually skip short stories, but these 2, I just couldn't get through. I suppose they MIGHT have picked up if I would have stuck it out, but really, who wants to do that, when there are much better offerings later on? Plus, there was already a short story about Helen and Achilles and Troy ("Sea Nymph's Son") so why would I want to rehash that again. (I think the editors should have left that one out altogether, if you want my humble opinion...)
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