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A review by theinkwyrm
Aliens: Recent Encounters by Alex Dally MacFarlane
Did not finish book.
DNFd @ 26%
I normally wouldn’t leave a review for something I’ve read so little of since I wouldn’t feel like I’ve got an adequate taste of what it’s like, but I am this time because it taught me something about my reading preferences that I didn’t know before: that if I’m going to read sci-fi with aliens in it, I want it to be at least novella length to allow for adequate world building and civilization development. There’s nothing wrong with the short stories in this collection (and in fact I even enjoyed a few of them from what I’ve read), but the format limits world building to where I just couldn’t get invested in any of the stories adequately enough to want to continue reading. I was going to try to push on to at least 50% but I found myself actively avoiding picking this up and picking up other books instead, which I think is a pretty decent sign that it’s time to move on.
I normally wouldn’t leave a review for something I’ve read so little of since I wouldn’t feel like I’ve got an adequate taste of what it’s like, but I am this time because it taught me something about my reading preferences that I didn’t know before: that if I’m going to read sci-fi with aliens in it, I want it to be at least novella length to allow for adequate world building and civilization development. There’s nothing wrong with the short stories in this collection (and in fact I even enjoyed a few of them from what I’ve read), but the format limits world building to where I just couldn’t get invested in any of the stories adequately enough to want to continue reading. I was going to try to push on to at least 50% but I found myself actively avoiding picking this up and picking up other books instead, which I think is a pretty decent sign that it’s time to move on.