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A review by jessrock
The Way of the Wizard by John Joseph Adams
3.0
I read this short-story collection because of the astonishingly high number of good writers in it, though it turns out most of the stories are reprints - I was disappointed to find that the [a:Susanna Clarke|8842|Susanna Clarke|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1207159127p2/8842.jpg] story was one I'd already read in [b:The Ladies of Grace Adieu|15161|The Ladies of Grace Adieu and Other Stories|Susanna Clarke|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1166671092s/15161.jpg|3088909], though at least the others were all new to me.
There weren't any bad stories in the collection, though most were pretty forgettable, and the editing in the book is atrocious (words are frequently mistyped as other words in a way that suggests the stories were scanned in and OCRed poorly, like be/he). The [a:Orson Scott Card|589|Orson Scott Card|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1294099952p2/589.jpg] story, "Jamaica," was the only one that truly kept me riveted, though its ending was disappointing. I enjoyed that the [a:Lev Grossman|142270|Lev Grossman|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1235241496p2/142270.jpg] story was connected to his novel [b:The Magicians|6101718|The Magicians|Lev Grossman|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1275764604s/6101718.jpg|6278977], and apparently several of the other stories are also set in worlds their authors have written novels about. However, nothing I read was enough to get me excited about reading more from any of those authors, and I think my biggest disappointment with this book was that it didn't turn me on to any new writers.
This is an engaging enough book if it falls into your hands, but probably isn't worth seeking out unless there's a particular story in it that you want to read.
There weren't any bad stories in the collection, though most were pretty forgettable, and the editing in the book is atrocious (words are frequently mistyped as other words in a way that suggests the stories were scanned in and OCRed poorly, like be/he). The [a:Orson Scott Card|589|Orson Scott Card|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1294099952p2/589.jpg] story, "Jamaica," was the only one that truly kept me riveted, though its ending was disappointing. I enjoyed that the [a:Lev Grossman|142270|Lev Grossman|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1235241496p2/142270.jpg] story was connected to his novel [b:The Magicians|6101718|The Magicians|Lev Grossman|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1275764604s/6101718.jpg|6278977], and apparently several of the other stories are also set in worlds their authors have written novels about. However, nothing I read was enough to get me excited about reading more from any of those authors, and I think my biggest disappointment with this book was that it didn't turn me on to any new writers.
This is an engaging enough book if it falls into your hands, but probably isn't worth seeking out unless there's a particular story in it that you want to read.