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kleonard's review
3.0
A mixed bag of short pieces, drawn from the archives of the podcast Escape Pod. Some of these were familiar--they've been widely reprinted--and others were new. I enjoyed the stories by Cato, which was quite clever, Kowal, Kingfisher, and Jemisin, but a good many of the others were just meh.
broose23's review
4.0
This was such a fun set of stories! It satisfied my craving for sci-fi, and now I want more!
eastofthesunwestofthemoon's review
4.0
4 stars. This was quite a good story collection; every story was worth reading.
prettiestwhistles's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.75
Like any anthology, the collection was sometimes uneven, but the stories I connected with outnumbered those I didn't.
veevaa's review
adventurous
lighthearted
relaxing
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
4.5
The cover was interesting, and it's was a compilation of shorts stories..so I decided to pick it up thinking at least I'll get 1 or 2 amusing stories out of it and I can always quit without feeling bad about it if it doesn't turn out well. But boy was this and excellent compilation. First story itself knocked me back, I haven't read a sci-fi like that before!!!. And surprisingly I loved almost all the stories. They were unique ill give , but only about 2 were not really my cup of tea. All the writers wrote brilliantly, not a dull book at all.
houdini117's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
lighthearted
reflective
fast-paced
5.0
liisp_cvr2cvr's review
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.
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
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