scottishben's review against another edition
3.0
This book contains a broad mix of entertaining stories and if none of them linger in the mind too long after reading them, none of them were anything other than a pleasant,easy and satisfying reading experience.
The Rusch was a clear favorite for me but then I am a fan of her short fiction so that was expected. The volume has two longish stories (probably novelete length) and the rest are all quite short. Unfortunately for me the two longer stories were not really for me - one was a very disposable Dan Shambles story by Anderson and the other was Dean's Poker Boy story which I just didnt find myself caring about. Other people may like these much more though.
The Rusch was a clear favorite for me but then I am a fan of her short fiction so that was expected. The volume has two longish stories (probably novelete length) and the rest are all quite short. Unfortunately for me the two longer stories were not really for me - one was a very disposable Dan Shambles story by Anderson and the other was Dean's Poker Boy story which I just didnt find myself caring about. Other people may like these much more though.
crowyhead's review against another edition
2.0
I really wish I'd liked this better than I did, but it turns out that this collection just did not hit the right buttons for me. When I found out the theme of this issue was "how to save the world," I was pretty excited, imagining the world defended from a plethora of threats, both outside and in. In turns out, however, that the editor placed pretty huge strictures on what could and couldn't be written about, and the end result is that almost all the stories deal with humans trying to save the earth from ourselves. And as a result of this, the stories struck me repeatedly as over-earnest and much too same-y. And the stories I did really like, like "Heaven Backwards," actually pretty much violated the editorial strictures.
So, I don't know. I'm still really happy I subscribed to this series, and I don't expect all the volumes to be to my taste, but I hope that I like the next one a little better.
So, I don't know. I'm still really happy I subscribed to this series, and I don't expect all the volumes to be to my taste, but I hope that I like the next one a little better.
crowyhead's review against another edition
4.0
This is a superb collection of excellent short stories. It's such a pleasure to read new short spec fic.
crowyhead's review against another edition
4.0
I was not exactly approaching a whole collection of time travel stories with relish; time travel as a trope is very hit-or-miss for me, and stories of that nature often get obsessed with being puzzles instead of stories, as such. Thus, I was pleasantly surprised when almost every story in this collection was a winner! Good stuff.
barefootsong's review against another edition
3.0
An anthology of Christmas ghost stories (after the Victorian tradition). I liked two of the stories, but the rest were kind of meh. But then anthologies are always hit or miss.
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