Isaac Asimov’s Wonderful World of Science Fiction – Intergalactic Empires, Edited by Isaac Asimov, Martin H. Greenburg, and Charles G. Waugh (1983) “We have nine stories by nine authors illustrating nine different versions of Galactic Imperial history…” Isaac Asimov Although this anthology was published in the eighties, it contains stories from the science fiction masters of the fifties. Some of them are dated, but most of them are simply well-written, exciting tales of man against the universe. Chalice of Death by Robert Silverberg – Earth […]
Frogs, Ducks, Turtles, Rabbits, and How Things Got the Way They Are
Spark – A Creative Anthology, Edited by Brian Lewis (2015) – I usually make it a rule not to critique an anthology that contains a story I’ve written, but this collection of short stories is so good, I couldn’t resist. I won’t mention the story I wrote (except perhaps to say how much I appreciate being included with these tales) or the poetry (which is a foreign language to me). I will, however, list the stories and tell you a little about them. The Frog […]
All the Yes: The Worst Years of Your Life.
The back of this book tells you this collection of short stories is “delightful and terrifying” which immediately drew me in, because I can’t think of two better words that together, conjure up adolescence. In his introduction, the editor Poirier states the stories stem “from nostalgia for the intense and sometimes confusing emotions that we all experienced at this time in our lives.” The cover of the book has a drawing of a frog, belly side up, ready for dissection. This gave me an overwhelming […]
The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
The Berkley Showcase – New Writings in Science Fiction and Fantasy (1980) – What do you do with an anthology where you liked some of the stories and didn’t care for the others? I guess I’ll just go down the table of contents and give you my opinion of each one. This anthology had no specific theme and contains both fantasy and science fiction stories. Soldier of an Empire Unacquainted with Defeat by Glen Cook – This may be the entire key to the unevenness of […]
“Finding Fantasy, Again”
Short story is not my normal genre. But I’m trying to expand my readership, and I like fantasy, so I took the plunge and bought “Neverland’s Library.” The compilation was a neat idea, where 21 different fantasy authors were asked to write a short story that captured the pure fantasy that we know and experience as children. Ultimately, it does its job. It was good; and I feel bad saying that because there were 4 stories in the collection that totally blew my socks off […]
Even Her Bicycle Was Evil
The Mammoth Book of Sorcerer’s Tales edited by Mike Ashley (2004) – I read this anthology immediately after I read Isaac Asimov’s Wizards compiled in 1983, so I thought there would be more differences as times have changed. There were some new ideas and new technology; however, not much had changed. I was surprised to see how few women writers were included after twenty years. The percentage in 1983 – 14%. 2004? 15%. As Geena Davis says about women in films, at this rate women […]