A review by krakentamer
The Very Best of Tad Williams by Tad Williams

5.0

Possibly one of the most unexpectedly delightful collections that I've read all year. From the cover and blurb I was actually a bit hesitant to jump into this book, as I'd never read anything by the author, and the write-up focused on his fantasy writings. In general, I'm not a fan of straight-up sword and sorcery books (although my Read shelf might show otherwise). But there was actually not a lot of old school fantasy in this collection; if anything, it skewed quite significantly toward science fiction.

There were 3 duds in here that I could not finish:
The Boy Detective of Oz: An Otherland Story: Since I'd not read the Otherland series, I immediately could tell that I wouldn't get much out of this story, so I bailed.
A Stark and Wormy Knight: I could not get into the pidgin-dragon speak.
Black Sunshine: I hate reading scripts

But other than that, there were some really solid stories that I enjoyed immensely. My ratings averaged out to 4.6, which I'll gladly round up to 5 stars.

The Old Scale Game: 5 Stars
The Storm Door: 4 Stars
The Stranger’s Hands: 5 Stars
Child of an Ancient City: 4 Stars
The Boy Detective of Oz: An Otherland Story: DNF
Three Duets for Virgin and Nosehorn: 2 Stars
Not with a Whimper, Either: 5 Stars
Some Thoughts Re: DARK DESTRUCTOR: 5 Stars
Z is for... : 5 Stars
Monsieur Vergalant’s Canard: 5 Stars
The Stuff that Dreams Are Made Of: 5 Stars
A Fish Between Three Friends: 5 Stars
Every Fuzzy Beast of the Earth, Every Pink Fowl of the Air: 5 Stars
A Stark and Wormy Knight: DNF
Omnitron, What Ho! : 5 Stars
Black Sunshine: DNF
And Ministers of Grace: 5 Stars