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elizafiedler's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
lighthearted
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
mikimeiko's review against another edition
3.0
When I first realized that this short stories collection was gonna have just one Pern story, I was baffled; when I found out that that particular story could be found in Renegades of Pern (which I have), I was pretty angry at myself for not reading better the wikipedia page (which is really clear, in retrospect); but while some of the short stories confirmed my idea that Anne McCaffrey should just write Pern, and leave everything else alone, a couple of them were beautiful enough to make me like the book.
balletbookworm's review against another edition
4.0
Very diverse collection of short stories.
I've only read a few McCaffrey Pern novels so I'm only familiar with her high fantasy style. I did have to read the title story twice, the second time allowed me to fit the characters back into what bits I remembered of Pern.
After that I experienced a bit of stylistic whiplash - high fantasy, SF horror, absurdist humor, space opera, sociopathic time-travel, magical realism (yeah, yeah), fairy tales - that made it hard for me to "settle" into the book. The most settled I felt was stories 4-6, all set during an intergalactic war between the Alliance and the Khalians (think WING COMMANDER or any of the major Star Trek storylines, ie, Federation vs Borg/Dominion/Klingon/Romulan empires) but with different characters and situations. All the stories are very well-crafted and worth reading (with the possible exception of "The Greatest Love" - written in 1956, the subject of surrogacy and in vitro fertilization is quite dated by 2012 (the world's first test tube baby is my age) and the story serves as an example of why scientific ignorance serves no one).
The introduction "So You're Anne McCaffrey" is priceless.
I've only read a few McCaffrey Pern novels so I'm only familiar with her high fantasy style. I did have to read the title story twice, the second time allowed me to fit the characters back into what bits I remembered of Pern.
After that I experienced a bit of stylistic whiplash - high fantasy, SF horror, absurdist humor, space opera, sociopathic time-travel, magical realism (yeah, yeah), fairy tales - that made it hard for me to "settle" into the book. The most settled I felt was stories 4-6, all set during an intergalactic war between the Alliance and the Khalians (think WING COMMANDER or any of the major Star Trek storylines, ie, Federation vs Borg/Dominion/Klingon/Romulan empires) but with different characters and situations. All the stories are very well-crafted and worth reading (with the possible exception of "The Greatest Love" - written in 1956, the subject of surrogacy and in vitro fertilization is quite dated by 2012 (the world's first test tube baby is my age) and the story serves as an example of why scientific ignorance serves no one).
The introduction "So You're Anne McCaffrey" is priceless.
nymeria123's review against another edition
2.0
I had mixed feelings about this book. I wasn't expecting it to be a collection of shorter stories, a fault on my part, but I was disappointed when the first story was cut short. In general I found some of the stories to be excellent and some I could hardly get through. It is a good book if you're looking for a mixture of everything since it ranges from dragons to space travel to time travel to normal life on Earth, but I didn't find it to be that fantastic.
zoes_human's review against another edition
2.0
The collection displays McCaffrey's range and reach; however, she does not excel at this form. The ideas are clever and fun as ever, but the prose and style lack the conciseness and precision that is an absolute must in short fiction. Nevertheless, it is enjoyable and the concepts alone make it worth reading.
una_10bananas's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
hopeful
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
tsbowman1124's review against another edition
adventurous
medium-paced
3.0
Didn't rate the plot or characters because this was a book of short stories. As usual there were good ones, mediocre ones and meh ones.
sbone's review against another edition
3.0
I picked this book up based on the title. The first story, which is in line with the title of the book, was interesting and a little confusing (I didn’t know it’s part of a larger series). I wanted more. When I kept reading and noticed it’s a collection of her short stories, I was disappointed. This book should’ve been titled something different. And her introduction to how people don’t recognize who she is and how she’s so famous seems redundant, I don’t know who this author is and it turned me off.
amyiw's review against another edition
3.0
reread in the summer of 2021 but is hard to mark as it is part of multiple compilations, it should be read with "The Smallest Dragon Boy" before it as the character there plays a part in this one.
vaderbird's review against another edition
2.0
5 star - Perfect
4 star - i would recommend
3 star - good
2 star - struggled to complete
1 star - could not finish
4 star - i would recommend
3 star - good
2 star - struggled to complete
1 star - could not finish