Reviews

Escape Pod: The Science Fiction Anthology by Cory Doctorow, S.B. Divya, N.K. Jemisin, Mur Lafferty, Ken Liu

houdini117's review

adventurous funny lighthearted reflective fast-paced

5.0

liisp_cvr2cvr's review against another edition

4.0

A great anthology of 15 stories, of which, I have to say, I didn’t fully enjoy about 2. So, that’s a win. There was 1 that was a complete masterpiece when it came to pure art in wordery. 1 that was just utterly cute. 1 that was hilarious (it includes a pregnant goat in space) and a whole dozen or so that highlight everything that is wrong in our society.

You say sci-fi, I say: space, aliens/beings, weird and advanced gadgets and weapons, time travel, wormholes, great danger to the Universe, slime, no gravity, no oxygen, stars, advanced civilizations, AI.

Escape Pod delivers it all. If I had to pick one story from the anthology to tell you more about, then it has to be An Advanced Reader’s Picture Book of Comparative Cognition by Ken Liu. Just, holy sheeet what masterful wordery, story and moral. It was truly challenging for me to read, which made it all the more intriguing, but I couldn’t even comprehend how someone could build sentences much like Liu does. He deserves every award going out there.

My darling, my child, my connoisseur of sesquipedalian words and convoluted ideas and meandering sentences and baroque images, while the sun is asleep and the moon somnambulant, while the stars bathe us in their glow from eons ago and light-years away, while you are comfortably nestled in your blankets and I am hunched over my chair by your bed, while we are warm and safe and still for the moment in this bubble of incandescent light cast by the pearl held up by the mermaid lamp, you and I, on this planet spinning and hurtling through the frigid darkness of space at dozens of miles per second, let’s read.

Yeah? See what I mean? *starry eyed*

Some of my short, crude commentary as I read the stories:

“Wow!”

“So good! Funny! Want to explore author’s work more!” (T.Kingfisher is the author by the way)

“Very inventive!” / “Wow! just wow!” / “Bonkers! Fun!” / “Hmm. Not funny or even remotely amusing.” / “Oof! What an ending! Bravo!” / “Amazing story – so much heart!” / “Interesting, well-balanced, point made, brilliant.” / “Wholesome! Marvellous!”

Contributors:

Kameron Hurley, T. Kingfisher, Tim Pratt, Ken Liu,Sarah Gailey, Mur Lafferty, John Scalzi, Beth Cato, Maurice Broaddus, Mary Robinette Kowal, Tobias Buckell, Cory Doctorow, Greg Van Eekhout, Tina Connolly, N. K. Jemisin

gildius's review against another edition

adventurous challenging hopeful inspiring fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

chfugal's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny hopeful medium-paced

4.75

Library ebook
Sci-fi short story collection

hazelsf's review against another edition

3.0

rating based on average, I liked several stories in the collection and some I DNF-ed. (Maybe I should rate short story collections based on how much I enjoyed my favourite story. Hmm.)

5* - The Machine That Would Rewild Humanity, by Tobias Buckell - a satisfying, self-contained, short story about the nature of humanity and our relationship with artificial intelligence.

Spoiler

I enjoyed that the robot slowly realised how difficult it would be to contain a small section of humanity, and that to do it properly they would become the very things that humans were afraid of. The humans in the zoo were a nice touch. I like that the machines used to be gardeners and have a certain naivety.

Alien Animal Encounters, by John Scalzi - the humorous animal stories were fun! I wonder if his other scifi has much humour?

plaguedoc's review against another edition

2.0

First two stories and the one about the teddy bear spider slapped but the rest were so bad dear lord

starbuck2233's review against another edition

adventurous emotional reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

2.75

kristie_deaver's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny reflective sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? N/A
• Strong character development? N/A
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

4.0

A collection of short stories, most of which were excellent. 

jersy's review against another edition

3.0

I think this is decent collection to start with SF short stories, since you get a good overview of some big name authors and their styles. I don't think this is their best work, but it's a good representation of modern shorter works in the genre. There is enough of a variety in themes and tone as well. 
This collection was good but none of the stories really blew me away, unfortunately. Plus, a lot of them had a more contemporary feel to them, which just isn't my preference.

stianstandnesgronlund's review against another edition

adventurous fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.75

Good genre fic for the most part. Some of the stories genuinely heartwarming some I skipped.