ladyofways's review
4.0
A great anthology overall, with lots of gems and an impressive cast of authors.
milos_dumbraci's review
2.0
2,5 but closer to 2 (a 6-6.5/10). Almost all the stories are good(ish), but none memorable enough to remember 3 days later.
Plenty of great names on the cover, no great story inside - not even King's or Martin's; it is obvious the editor chose the names with selling power, not the texts, so we get a very forgettable collection.
Also, the anthology is too big for its own good - about 30 stories on just 2 subjects (parallel worlds, portals), so it gets rather boring to read after half.
Not really a waste of time, but not a book to recommend, either.
Plenty of great names on the cover, no great story inside - not even King's or Martin's; it is obvious the editor chose the names with selling power, not the texts, so we get a very forgettable collection.
Also, the anthology is too big for its own good - about 30 stories on just 2 subjects (parallel worlds, portals), so it gets rather boring to read after half.
Not really a waste of time, but not a book to recommend, either.
saltandcedar's review
4.0
Continuing on with the trend from last year of just sort of letting books find me, I trawled through my boyfriend's ebook collection for things to put on the kindle. We don't read very similar things, but I still loaded quite a few on, hoping to get an experience by reading things outside of the genre I normally would.
For starters, I don't usually read anthologies.
I found this one to be very good. I'd say some of the stories were only three star stories, but some of them I absolutely loved. I think what I liked most was how the same concept was executed so completely differently by all of the authors. I'd recommend this one, for sure.
For starters, I don't usually read anthologies.
I found this one to be very good. I'd say some of the stories were only three star stories, but some of them I absolutely loved. I think what I liked most was how the same concept was executed so completely differently by all of the authors. I'd recommend this one, for sure.
jen1110's review
3.0
As usual, the stories were hit or miss with me. Near the end, I was tired of the trope and just wanted to be done with it so I could move on to something different.
asweetdevouring's review
4.0
• Foreword — Lev Grossman 5 […] reality is not where it's at, my friend, so get out by any point of egress you can find and get into somewhere better.
• Introduction — John Joseph Adams 5 very helpful. It probably would have impacted my enjoyment of the book as a whole having not had the information here in advance
• Moon Six — Stephen Baxter 3 interesting, but dry
• A Brief Guide to Other Histories — Paul McAuley 4 interesting and enjoyable. It was a cool idea that pulled me right in.
• Crystal Halloway and the Forgotten Passage — Seanan McGuire 3 I liked the idea and the message really resonates with me, but something about it irritated me. I don't think I could have read Crystal in a novel-length story. She felt very Mary-sue-ish
• An Empty House With Many Doors — Michael Swanwick 4 short and sweet
• Twenty-Two Centimeters — Gregory Benford 0 I think perhaps they didn't want her commentary on the mission because it sounds like one rushed, long run-on sentence. The descriptions in this story and weird and confusing. "It's internal rocket engine fired a bright orange plume against the sky's blackness. […] the living cylinder lay there, half in, half out, as if exhausted." Are you describing an animal or a piece of machinery? I honestly couldn't tell if there were actual animals or weird A.I. on the planet. Not helped by the fact that she is directly communicating with it via mores code. Then in her description of the planet she says that she can see dawn coming up as quickly as a "fast moving car." She says that she can literally see pure night and pure day at the same time because the sun is moving so fast. But then also says that it's been 22 hours since dawn. That is not possible. This was all in the first 6 pages - I DNF the last 9. Did it get better? Extremely doubtful.
• Ana’s Tag — William Alexander 5 Super enjoyable. Using graffiti tags to move between worlds has to be my favorite method in the whole anthology.
• Nothing Personal — Pat Cadigan 1 The actual story was mildly interesting, but nothing new. It would have been a 3 had the MC not been so unbearable. Honestly, she was a first class asshole. Who was also not very bright. She had an overly difficult time with the basic concept of identity theft, but then accepts and understands parallel dimensions with no questions? Those reactions need to be reversed.
• The Rose Wall — Joyce Carol Oates 3 Too short. It was a cool idea that felt half-finished.
• The Thirteen Texts of Arthyria — John R. Fultz 5 Cool concept with expert world building. I could easily have read a full-length version of this story.
• Ruminations in an Alien Tongue — Vandana Singh 5 This was beautifully written and I loved it. She writes in the same tone/style as Le Guin - and just as well. I immediately went looking for novels by Singh after finishing the story.
• Ten Sigmas — Paul Melko 5 Super cool idea. It's a concept that could have been really easy to over-complicated, but Melko's writing was clear, engaging, and enjoyable.
• Magic for Beginners — Kelly Link 5 completely excellent. I need The Library to be a real show, right now. I never wanted this story to end - but when it did it was perfectly done. I could gush about this story for a while - and bonus! Link mentioned Diana Wynne Jones in the story ♥
• [A Ghost Samba] — Ian McDonald 4 I really enjoyed this one, but the slew of undefined Brazilian/elitist musician slang kept me from 100% enjoying it. That being said, it was still an excellent story. The core concept was interesting and well executed.
• The Cristobal Effect — Simon McCaffery 2 meh. Too tech heavy with only a smattering of good explanations. Left me, unintentionally, with questions about how exactly it all worked. Also, the way the MC was obsessed with James Dean was just kind of creepy. And also not well explained.
• Beyond Porch and Portal — E. Catherine Tobler 4 I really enjoyed this one. The tone and descriptions pulled me right in and were perfect for a western-style story. It was very easy to imagine this world. The only reason I didn't give it a 5 was because the ending was a tad rushed.
• Signal to Noise — Alastair Reynolds 3 Interesting travel concept and story idea that was brought down by incredibly flat characters. I never felt invested in the MC and therefore had nothing but mild interest in what happened to him. Also I was confused as to why people could travel by nerve link, but not by planes anymore. I hated the alluding to some previous world changing event that was never actually explained. It would have been better to just leave it out altogether.
• Porridge on Islac — Ursula K. Le Guin 4 Written in Le Guin's characteristic easy-to-read style, I really enjoyed. I felt it could have been a touch longer though.
• Mrs. Todd’s Shortcut — Stephen King 4 A cool concept that could have benefited from some editing. I felt overwhelmed in descriptions sometimes.
• The Ontological Factor — David Barr Kirtley 3 Fun, but exceedingly average. Nothing to write home about.
• Dear Annabehls — Mercurio D. Rivera 5 This one was surreal and bizarre and I loved it. Definitely a stand out of the collection. I love the idea of using Dear Abby letters to satirize how ridiculous it would be to have multiple versions of ourselves running around.
• The Goat Variations — Jeff VanderMeer 3 interesting concept, but nothing that made it really stand out
• The Lonely Songs of Laren Door — George R. R. Martin 5 beautifully written - very easy to visualize.
• Of Swords and Horses — Carrie Vaughn 4 I was a little concerned because I really disliked the first Vaughn story I read in the Rogues anthology, but I ended up quite liking this one. I liked reading the story from the POV of the person who is left behind when our usual MC gets spirited away to a magical world. That is something we so rarely get to see and I think Vaughn did a good job of making you really feel a parent's anguish at it happening
• Impossible Dreams — Tim Pratt 5 I love movies as much as I love books so I get a real kick out of this one
• Like Minds — Robert Reed 4 an interesting concept that was well done, but I wasn't hot on the ending.
• The City of Blind Delight — Catherynne M. Valente 2 I normally a huge Valente fan, but felt totally phoned in. It`s like the empty outline of a story. I`m hard-pressed to remember what even happened, despite this being more of the stories I read most recently.
• Flower, Mercy, Needle, Chain — Yoon Ha Lee 4 I loved this one, but it was probably a mistake to put it directly after Valente`s. These two write in an extremely similar style, which I assume is why Adams put the two right next to each other. However, this only ended up accentuating how weak Valente`s story was. Lee`s story pulled you right in and I was sorry to see it end.
• Angles — Orson Scott Card 2 This one started out good with a super interesting premise. Unfortunately it then got bogged down in this never ending “science” lecture, and then wrapped up really fast. If was as if after writing the “science” part Card was like “oh is that the time? Uh, convenient bad guy confession, the end.”
• The Magician and the Maid and Other Stories — Christie Yant 3 Interesting idea with a so-so execution. I thought it was good when I finished, but when I actually thought about what happened I realized the story was full of holes
• Trips — Robert Silverberg 3.5 This one was well written with really well done world building. However, the MC felt empty and flat.
• Introduction — John Joseph Adams 5 very helpful. It probably would have impacted my enjoyment of the book as a whole having not had the information here in advance
• Moon Six — Stephen Baxter 3 interesting, but dry
• A Brief Guide to Other Histories — Paul McAuley 4 interesting and enjoyable. It was a cool idea that pulled me right in.
• Crystal Halloway and the Forgotten Passage — Seanan McGuire 3 I liked the idea and the message really resonates with me, but something about it irritated me. I don't think I could have read Crystal in a novel-length story. She felt very Mary-sue-ish
• An Empty House With Many Doors — Michael Swanwick 4 short and sweet
• Twenty-Two Centimeters — Gregory Benford 0 I think perhaps they didn't want her commentary on the mission because it sounds like one rushed, long run-on sentence. The descriptions in this story and weird and confusing. "It's internal rocket engine fired a bright orange plume against the sky's blackness. […] the living cylinder lay there, half in, half out, as if exhausted." Are you describing an animal or a piece of machinery? I honestly couldn't tell if there were actual animals or weird A.I. on the planet. Not helped by the fact that she is directly communicating with it via mores code. Then in her description of the planet she says that she can see dawn coming up as quickly as a "fast moving car." She says that she can literally see pure night and pure day at the same time because the sun is moving so fast. But then also says that it's been 22 hours since dawn. That is not possible. This was all in the first 6 pages - I DNF the last 9. Did it get better? Extremely doubtful.
• Ana’s Tag — William Alexander 5 Super enjoyable. Using graffiti tags to move between worlds has to be my favorite method in the whole anthology.
• Nothing Personal — Pat Cadigan 1 The actual story was mildly interesting, but nothing new. It would have been a 3 had the MC not been so unbearable. Honestly, she was a first class asshole. Who was also not very bright. She had an overly difficult time with the basic concept of identity theft, but then accepts and understands parallel dimensions with no questions? Those reactions need to be reversed.
• The Rose Wall — Joyce Carol Oates 3 Too short. It was a cool idea that felt half-finished.
• The Thirteen Texts of Arthyria — John R. Fultz 5 Cool concept with expert world building. I could easily have read a full-length version of this story.
• Ruminations in an Alien Tongue — Vandana Singh 5 This was beautifully written and I loved it. She writes in the same tone/style as Le Guin - and just as well. I immediately went looking for novels by Singh after finishing the story.
• Ten Sigmas — Paul Melko 5 Super cool idea. It's a concept that could have been really easy to over-complicated, but Melko's writing was clear, engaging, and enjoyable.
• Magic for Beginners — Kelly Link 5 completely excellent. I need The Library to be a real show, right now. I never wanted this story to end - but when it did it was perfectly done. I could gush about this story for a while - and bonus! Link mentioned Diana Wynne Jones in the story ♥
• [A Ghost Samba] — Ian McDonald 4 I really enjoyed this one, but the slew of undefined Brazilian/elitist musician slang kept me from 100% enjoying it. That being said, it was still an excellent story. The core concept was interesting and well executed.
• The Cristobal Effect — Simon McCaffery 2 meh. Too tech heavy with only a smattering of good explanations. Left me, unintentionally, with questions about how exactly it all worked. Also, the way the MC was obsessed with James Dean was just kind of creepy. And also not well explained.
• Beyond Porch and Portal — E. Catherine Tobler 4 I really enjoyed this one. The tone and descriptions pulled me right in and were perfect for a western-style story. It was very easy to imagine this world. The only reason I didn't give it a 5 was because the ending was a tad rushed.
• Signal to Noise — Alastair Reynolds 3 Interesting travel concept and story idea that was brought down by incredibly flat characters. I never felt invested in the MC and therefore had nothing but mild interest in what happened to him. Also I was confused as to why people could travel by nerve link, but not by planes anymore. I hated the alluding to some previous world changing event that was never actually explained. It would have been better to just leave it out altogether.
• Porridge on Islac — Ursula K. Le Guin 4 Written in Le Guin's characteristic easy-to-read style, I really enjoyed. I felt it could have been a touch longer though.
• Mrs. Todd’s Shortcut — Stephen King 4 A cool concept that could have benefited from some editing. I felt overwhelmed in descriptions sometimes.
• The Ontological Factor — David Barr Kirtley 3 Fun, but exceedingly average. Nothing to write home about.
• Dear Annabehls — Mercurio D. Rivera 5 This one was surreal and bizarre and I loved it. Definitely a stand out of the collection. I love the idea of using Dear Abby letters to satirize how ridiculous it would be to have multiple versions of ourselves running around.
• The Goat Variations — Jeff VanderMeer 3 interesting concept, but nothing that made it really stand out
• The Lonely Songs of Laren Door — George R. R. Martin 5 beautifully written - very easy to visualize.
• Of Swords and Horses — Carrie Vaughn 4 I was a little concerned because I really disliked the first Vaughn story I read in the Rogues anthology, but I ended up quite liking this one. I liked reading the story from the POV of the person who is left behind when our usual MC gets spirited away to a magical world. That is something we so rarely get to see and I think Vaughn did a good job of making you really feel a parent's anguish at it happening
• Impossible Dreams — Tim Pratt 5 I love movies as much as I love books so I get a real kick out of this one
• Like Minds — Robert Reed 4 an interesting concept that was well done, but I wasn't hot on the ending.
• The City of Blind Delight — Catherynne M. Valente 2 I normally a huge Valente fan, but felt totally phoned in. It`s like the empty outline of a story. I`m hard-pressed to remember what even happened, despite this being more of the stories I read most recently.
• Flower, Mercy, Needle, Chain — Yoon Ha Lee 4 I loved this one, but it was probably a mistake to put it directly after Valente`s. These two write in an extremely similar style, which I assume is why Adams put the two right next to each other. However, this only ended up accentuating how weak Valente`s story was. Lee`s story pulled you right in and I was sorry to see it end.
• Angles — Orson Scott Card 2 This one started out good with a super interesting premise. Unfortunately it then got bogged down in this never ending “science” lecture, and then wrapped up really fast. If was as if after writing the “science” part Card was like “oh is that the time? Uh, convenient bad guy confession, the end.”
• The Magician and the Maid and Other Stories — Christie Yant 3 Interesting idea with a so-so execution. I thought it was good when I finished, but when I actually thought about what happened I realized the story was full of holes
• Trips — Robert Silverberg 3.5 This one was well written with really well done world building. However, the MC felt empty and flat.
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