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ofearna's review
5.0
Mar 25 "The Compleat Werewolf"
Mar 25 "The Pink Caterpillar"
Mar 26 "Q.U.R."
Mar 26 "Robinc"
Mar 27 "Mr. Lupescu"
Mar 28 "Expedition"
Mar 29 "Snulbug"
Mar 29 "They Bite"
Mar 29 "We Print the Truth"
Mar 30 "The Ghost of Me"
all are included in [b:The Compleat Boucher|977254|The Compleat Boucher The Complete Short Science Fiction & Fantasy of Anthony Boucher|Anthony Boucher|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1391560904s/977254.jpg|962150]
Mar 25 "The Pink Caterpillar"
Mar 26 "Q.U.R."
Mar 26 "Robinc"
Mar 27 "Mr. Lupescu"
Mar 28 "Expedition"
Mar 29 "Snulbug"
Mar 29 "They Bite"
Mar 29 "We Print the Truth"
Mar 30 "The Ghost of Me"
all are included in [b:The Compleat Boucher|977254|The Compleat Boucher The Complete Short Science Fiction & Fantasy of Anthony Boucher|Anthony Boucher|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1391560904s/977254.jpg|962150]
morgandhu's review
4.0
I acquired Anthony Boucher’s collection, The Compleat Werewolf and Other Stories because I was reading novellas recommended by various folks about the Internet as possible nominations for the 1943 Retro Hugos, and The Compleat Werewolf was one of them. I don’t remember reading much of Boucher’s work back in my early years of sf reading, but I enjoyed The Compleat Werewolf enough to go on and read the other stories in the collection.
Boucher tends to write with a light, even comical touch, incorporating elements of the ridiculous into his fiction, but in such a way as to make them seem quite appropriate at the time. Not that all of his stories are comedies. Several of the ones in this collection deal with very serious matters, from German spy rings in WWII, to murder. But Boucher unfolds even these dark plots with wit and just the right amount of detachment.
In the title novella, The Compleat Werewolf, a man rejected by the woman he loves because he isn’t someone special like an actor or a G-man discovers he’s a werewolf. He gets a gig as a dog in a major motion picture, and is then hired by the FBI when he exposes a major spy ring. He also discovers that the girl of his dreams isn’t worth it. But he makes friends with a talking cat.
The Pink Caterpillar, Mr. Lupescu and They Bite are all about the lengths someone will go to, to get rid of someone in their way. And how their actions carry the seeds of their own destruction.
Boucher tried his hand at some stories about a company that made robots, much as Asimov did. Two of them, Q.U.R and Robinc, are included in the collection. I actually found them more interesting and funnier than Asimov’ early robot stories. And Dugg Quimby is much more intriguing a character than Susan Calvin.
The novelette We Print the Truth is a thoughtful modern-day variation on the fairy tale of the fateful wish - the wish granted by a magical being that ultimately dies far more harm than good - that examines issues of free will, consent, a d the value of something earned over something taken.
Many of the stories in this collection depend on the unexpected plot twist - The Ghost of Me being one if the clearest examples. A steady diet of Boucher might make this structural preference feel a bit overused, but it’s generally well handled.
One thing I quite enjoyed about these stories was the way that Boucher works philosophical considerations into so many of them. Fate, karma, the meaning of free will the theological problem of the existence of evil - there’s generally something to reflect on after reading.
Boucher also tends to toss in casual notes of social criticism. In one story, he has a character comment that once it would have been unthinkable for the head of the government to be a black person. In another, during a discussion of horror tales about ogres from around the world in reference to an abandoned pioneer home in the Arizona desert, a character mentions an Indian tribe that vanished after the pioneers arrived, and adds “That’s not so surprising. The white race is a sort of super-ogre, anyway.”
I’ve been doing a lot of reading of classic sf recently, and I must report that finding Boucher’s works has been an unexpected plus.
Boucher tends to write with a light, even comical touch, incorporating elements of the ridiculous into his fiction, but in such a way as to make them seem quite appropriate at the time. Not that all of his stories are comedies. Several of the ones in this collection deal with very serious matters, from German spy rings in WWII, to murder. But Boucher unfolds even these dark plots with wit and just the right amount of detachment.
In the title novella, The Compleat Werewolf, a man rejected by the woman he loves because he isn’t someone special like an actor or a G-man discovers he’s a werewolf. He gets a gig as a dog in a major motion picture, and is then hired by the FBI when he exposes a major spy ring. He also discovers that the girl of his dreams isn’t worth it. But he makes friends with a talking cat.
The Pink Caterpillar, Mr. Lupescu and They Bite are all about the lengths someone will go to, to get rid of someone in their way. And how their actions carry the seeds of their own destruction.
Boucher tried his hand at some stories about a company that made robots, much as Asimov did. Two of them, Q.U.R and Robinc, are included in the collection. I actually found them more interesting and funnier than Asimov’ early robot stories. And Dugg Quimby is much more intriguing a character than Susan Calvin.
The novelette We Print the Truth is a thoughtful modern-day variation on the fairy tale of the fateful wish - the wish granted by a magical being that ultimately dies far more harm than good - that examines issues of free will, consent, a d the value of something earned over something taken.
Many of the stories in this collection depend on the unexpected plot twist - The Ghost of Me being one if the clearest examples. A steady diet of Boucher might make this structural preference feel a bit overused, but it’s generally well handled.
One thing I quite enjoyed about these stories was the way that Boucher works philosophical considerations into so many of them. Fate, karma, the meaning of free will the theological problem of the existence of evil - there’s generally something to reflect on after reading.
Boucher also tends to toss in casual notes of social criticism. In one story, he has a character comment that once it would have been unthinkable for the head of the government to be a black person. In another, during a discussion of horror tales about ogres from around the world in reference to an abandoned pioneer home in the Arizona desert, a character mentions an Indian tribe that vanished after the pioneers arrived, and adds “That’s not so surprising. The white race is a sort of super-ogre, anyway.”
I’ve been doing a lot of reading of classic sf recently, and I must report that finding Boucher’s works has been an unexpected plus.
grimread's review
4.0
This was really so much fun to read. I don't usually read many short stories but Boucher had some really awesome ideas. But as I listened to an audio-book I just wish the narrator would put a little more care into dividing the stories.
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