jonmhansen's review against another edition
4.0
A good collection. I especially enjoyed “Pride and Prometheus,” as a longtime Jane Austen fan.
donfoolery's review against another edition
4.0
"Genre-blending," to me, usually means"genre+literary" (whatever "literary" means). But a lot of the blending in this collection is "genre + genre," as in the historical-crime/fantasy story "Every Angel is Terrifying," or the future-crime/sci-fi first movement of the Lunar Quartet, "The Juniper Tree."
Kessel's historical/literary mash-ups were brilliant, too: Orson Welles in a sci-fi story ("It's All True")--who'd have thought? The name and spirit of Tyler Durden carrying on in a lunar colony in the second movement of the Lunar Quartet, "Stories for Men." "Pride and Prometheus" is a Nebula award winner for good reason!
My favorite thing, from a technical standpoint, is the near-flawless worldbuilding in each story, done such that the story's obvious themes are never heavy-handed or preachy.
What made it one star short of five was the third movement of The Lunar Cycle. The cycle is comprised of 4 stories, one of them almost 80 pages long--and we all know how I feel about stories that go on longer than the average story by [a:Etgar Keret|34065|Etgar Keret|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1240866550p2/34065.jpg] or [a:Lydia Davis|27427|Lydia Davis|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1229012413p2/27427.jpg]. Oddly enough, I loved the longest story ("Stories for Men"). It was the significantly shorter story immediately after it, "Under the Lunchbox Tree." It's obviously supposed to be more low-key, but it still seems anticlimactic.
You can download the collection for free, from Small Beer Press, in multiple formats. I did, and I immediately knew I had to have the TPB.
Kessel's historical/literary mash-ups were brilliant, too: Orson Welles in a sci-fi story ("It's All True")--who'd have thought? The name and spirit of Tyler Durden carrying on in a lunar colony in the second movement of the Lunar Quartet, "Stories for Men." "Pride and Prometheus" is a Nebula award winner for good reason!
My favorite thing, from a technical standpoint, is the near-flawless worldbuilding in each story, done such that the story's obvious themes are never heavy-handed or preachy.
What made it one star short of five was the third movement of The Lunar Cycle. The cycle is comprised of 4 stories, one of them almost 80 pages long--and we all know how I feel about stories that go on longer than the average story by [a:Etgar Keret|34065|Etgar Keret|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1240866550p2/34065.jpg] or [a:Lydia Davis|27427|Lydia Davis|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1229012413p2/27427.jpg]. Oddly enough, I loved the longest story ("Stories for Men"). It was the significantly shorter story immediately after it, "Under the Lunchbox Tree." It's obviously supposed to be more low-key, but it still seems anticlimactic.
You can download the collection for free, from Small Beer Press, in multiple formats. I did, and I immediately knew I had to have the TPB.
drtlovesbooks's review against another edition
3.0
What it's about: This short story collection spans a wide range of times and places, reaching back into the past and pushing forward into the future. The stories examine some common ground, but go off in some unexpected directions. Two different thefts go wrong in very different ways. A series of stories connects the past to the future where women rule a moon colony. And the fictional worlds of Jane Austen and Mary Shelley have a crossover.
What I thought: There were some neat ideas. I particularly liked the stories that tied together in a grander narrative; in fact, I found myself skipping back and forth to see if the connections being made were direct, glancing, or just the coincidence of inspiration. Kessel seems adept at writing characters of either gender, and in working with different time frames - overall, I think this is a good study in the fact that people are people, no matter where or when they are.
Why I rated it like I did: The moon saga went on a bit too long, and with not enough resolution, for my taste. Also, I was reading an e-book edition, and the formatting was problematic, as it was uniformly incorrect throughout - all the same font, with double spacing between the paragraphs, and sometimes italics that didn't always carry through all of the passage they were supposed to. There were places were special formatting was clearly suggested, but not applied; and other places where I had to re-read passages to try to work out whether there was something I was missing due to the formatting.
What I thought: There were some neat ideas. I particularly liked the stories that tied together in a grander narrative; in fact, I found myself skipping back and forth to see if the connections being made were direct, glancing, or just the coincidence of inspiration. Kessel seems adept at writing characters of either gender, and in working with different time frames - overall, I think this is a good study in the fact that people are people, no matter where or when they are.
Why I rated it like I did: The moon saga went on a bit too long, and with not enough resolution, for my taste. Also, I was reading an e-book edition, and the formatting was problematic, as it was uniformly incorrect throughout - all the same font, with double spacing between the paragraphs, and sometimes italics that didn't always carry through all of the passage they were supposed to. There were places were special formatting was clearly suggested, but not applied; and other places where I had to re-read passages to try to work out whether there was something I was missing due to the formatting.
meeners's review
4.0
pride and prejudice meets frankenstein. orson welles meets time travel. the wizard of oz meets . . . ??? what might have come across as hokey in another writer felt genuinely speculative, in its best sense, here. the mixing of styles is less deftly done, but i did like the cleanness and assured precision of kessel's prose when left to its own devices. particularly as it's used so often to pin down characters who are more aimless than not, or who find themselves cut adrift despite themselves (or cut adrift from themselves).
i admit that "stories for men" triggered one of the oddest reading experiences i've had in a while. i reacted violently against almost every plot turn, i hated almost every character, i argued back against almost every word....and i still don't know how i feel about the story, days after reading it. i suspect that might have been the point, at least in part. and for that alone i'm giving this 4 stars.
i admit that "stories for men" triggered one of the oddest reading experiences i've had in a while. i reacted violently against almost every plot turn, i hated almost every character, i argued back against almost every word....and i still don't know how i feel about the story, days after reading it. i suspect that might have been the point, at least in part. and for that alone i'm giving this 4 stars.
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