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A review by childofmongreldogs
The Mad Scientist's Guide to World Domination: Original Short Fiction for the Modern Evil Genius by John Joseph Adams, Marjorie Liu
adventurous
funny
lighthearted
slow-paced
2.0
My hatred of past me for buying short story anthologies years ago continues.
There's nothing really particularly wrong with this anthology. Unlike some others that I've read, I didn't consider any of these to actually fall outside the scope of its conceptual idea. That said, I think that I just am fundamentally uninterested in the general vibe of this. I'm not too interested in campy. I'm not too interested in super hero nonsense, to be quite honest, and I'd say I'm even less interested in their evil counterparts.
There were a few stand out stories for me, though the rest were campy, over the top, and comedic. Nothing wrong with any of those things. They come with the territory. I'm not disappointed really because it's what you should expect from an anthology like this but here I am.
Letter to the Editor by David D. Levine was a great twist that was already semi-used in the Watchmen. I hate the Watchmen though and I can't stand the blue bastard in it so this was a lot more interesting for me to read.
The concept of Rocks Fall by Naomi Novik was novel and really enjoyable to me. I would say that it's probably the best out of all of these. It's kind of heartbreaking and develops a really interesting character. I wouldn't say the supervillain here borders on being an anti-hero, but the tropes seem to fit the anti-hero vibe and I can't get down with that.
There's nothing really particularly wrong with this anthology. Unlike some others that I've read, I didn't consider any of these to actually fall outside the scope of its conceptual idea. That said, I think that I just am fundamentally uninterested in the general vibe of this. I'm not too interested in campy. I'm not too interested in super hero nonsense, to be quite honest, and I'd say I'm even less interested in their evil counterparts.
There were a few stand out stories for me, though the rest were campy, over the top, and comedic. Nothing wrong with any of those things. They come with the territory. I'm not disappointed really because it's what you should expect from an anthology like this but here I am.
Letter to the Editor by David D. Levine was a great twist that was already semi-used in the Watchmen. I hate the Watchmen though and I can't stand the blue bastard in it so this was a lot more interesting for me to read.
The concept of Rocks Fall by Naomi Novik was novel and really enjoyable to me. I would say that it's probably the best out of all of these. It's kind of heartbreaking and develops a really interesting character. I wouldn't say the supervillain here borders on being an anti-hero, but the tropes seem to fit the anti-hero vibe and I can't get down with that.