Reviews

UnCommon Minds: A Collection of AIs, Dreamwalkers, and other Psychic Mysteries, by Michael Fountain, Holly Heisey, J.D. Astra, P.K. Tyler, Patrick Baker, Sara Thompson, Erica Ruhe, Jessica West, Joshua Ingle, Zen DiPietro, J.D. Harpley, Ashleigh Gauch, Harlow C. Fallon, Shebat Legion, Tonya Liburd, Daniel Arthur Smith, Tausha Johnson, Christopher Godsoe, Jonathan Shipley, Elizabeth S. Wolf, Philip Harris, C.B. Droege, Joriah Wood

bookwormbunny's review against another edition

5.0

Uncommon Minds is an anthology of short stories by a series of authors who introduce us to a variety of characters. Each story is as unique and different as the authors themselves. In one story we get introduced to a digital lover who ends up infected with malware when she agrees to do a favor for a friend of hers. But what she now has to decide is whether to show loyalty to this friend or to trust the malware that is now running rampant in her system telling her not to trust him. Then we are thrown into a military situation of where they have been captured but one of the group has a special skill that has stayed under the radar with the others but now will be exposed but the “helpful locals” will be well worth it if they get out alive. Next is a little girl how is different from the rest. She’s allowed to be bullied by a little boy in her group, the Protectors and Watchers see but they do nothing but tell her she must not ever be angry. She hears the whispering call of Mother but she’s not allowed to touch until one day she decides to take matters into her own hands so that Mother will no longer lonely and sad.
These are just a few of the stories that will engage you in this Science Fiction anthology mixed with some mystery and a variety of other things. The uniqueness of each of these authors comes together to make this anthology truly engaging and interesting. Some will leave you wanting more while others will come to a nice and neat closure. If you’re looking for a good read then this is a series that I definitely recommend you take the time to pick up and read. 5 out of 5 stars.

laffingkat's review

3.0

Anthologies can be hard to rate, because often a reader will really enjoy some of the stories and not care for others. I enjoyed some of these stories, but I felt like too many of the stories were either horror (which I'm not fond of) or just a bit too sad or dark for my taste. That said, it's a fairly diverse and interesting collection of short speculative fiction, and not entirely doom and gloom.

I have to give a shout out to "Trouble Signs," which was really funny. I wish more humorous stories were being published in speculative fiction anthologies! I also really enjoyed "In Loving Memory," a gentle, optimistic story of an AI learning about human emotions.

Most of the stories are relatively well written, although I found a couple a bit difficult to follow. Others I found frustrating because, despite a promising start, I was disappointed with the ending (possibly just a matter of personal preference). The proofreaders missed a few typos and wrong words, but the editing and formatting seemed ok otherwise.

I volunteered to review an advanced reader copy of this book. It's worth checking out if you generally like short scifi, fantasy, and horror. Note that there is some sex and violence.