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3.88 AVERAGE
3.88 AVERAGE
I know I've read this one, but it may have been over ten years ago. In other words: the best kind of delight, as I remembered nothing but rejoiced in everything. Also, it's something of a relief to note that Jones returns the same motifs again and again (such as: cats), and yet I'm still interested every time.
Not enough stories were entertaining enough for me to enjoy the book overall, though a few were good. Took a bit out of me to actually read through some of these, I don't know if it's because of the Briticisms or pacing but when the fantasy bits were good, they were really good.
A lovely collection of fifteen stories and one novella, mostly fantasy with a little sci-fi and horror in the mix, and one autobiographical sketch. Like almost all short story collections, some of these were home runs for me and others were rather pedestrian. The novella that closes out the collection (more of a short book than a novella at 230 pages), "Everard's Ride", was wonderful - a fantasy world intruding on the real world of Victorian England and sweeping up two children in its plots and dramas. There were two stories narrated by cats, both delightful, and a gem of a sci-fi story about a robot called "No One".
adventurous
Not every story in here is fantastic, but they all have their charms and delights. And I really adored the novella that makes up the last third or so of the collection.
some of these were just Too Much (bad)
She really liked cats, didn't she?
I'm not good at reading short stories, even worse at reading collections of short stories so it took me way too long to finish this book. Most of the stories were good, few of them excellent. The cat stories were my favorite.
I'm not good at reading short stories, even worse at reading collections of short stories so it took me way too long to finish this book. Most of the stories were good, few of them excellent. The cat stories were my favorite.
I think that I am not a big fan of short stories. They were cute but I prefer my trilogies or series. I just finish a story wanting to know more about the characters. It was very frustrating for me.
If you don't want to read this entire book, start at the end with "Everard's Ride" and then work your way backwards through the stories. When you get to stories you don't like, stop, because they only diminish in quality the closer you get to the beginning of the book. I think some of the stories - even ones I didn't really like - could be worked into pretty good full-lenth novels. But here in their short story form, they just don't do much for me. Besides the novella "Everard's Ride," which I really liked, my favorite short stories were "Dragon Reserve, Home Eight," "Little Dot," and maybe as a distant third, "What the Cat Told Me." Based just on the short stories, I would give this a solid two stars, but "Everard's Ride" brings it up to three stars for me.