Customer Reviews

The Best of Crank!

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I should preface this by saying I'm only a dabbler in science fiction, and had never heard of Crank prior to reading this anthology. However, I'm always interested in trying out fiction that's attempting to push the edges of genre. Of course, it should be noted that in his somewhat whiny and facile introduction, editor Cholfin rails against the concept of genre (which I'm actually rather in agreement with) and presents this anthology as "a deliberately antigenric selection" of stories. In any event, the 17 stories range from a few pages to 40+ pages in length and, as with any anthology, vary considerably in quality. Like many short stories, many are built upon gimmicks--some of which work, and some of which don't. Lisa Tuttle's ""Food Man," about the intertwining of anorexia, food, and sex is a gem, easily the best of the stories. "The Matter of Seggri." Ursula Le Guin's description of a world where women live normally and men are raised as breeders, explores many of the gender themes her novels do, and with equal success. Robert Devereaux's tale about Tinkerbell and her human-sized boyfriend is another notable contribution, albeit a little cutesy. With his two and half stories here, Jonathan Lethem continues to befuddle me. I loved his books Motherless Brooklyn and Gun, With Occasional Music and hated Amnesia Moon. Similarly I quite liked his story "Mood Bender," and very much didn't like his story "The Happy Prince," or his cowritten piece, "Receding Horizon." In the end, I can't say I feel reading this "Best of" was time well spent, but I'm sure others with different tastes will find much to enjoy within.

I purchased the collected stories of the "Best of Crank" based upon an early... review from Mike Swanwick: "CRANK! has been, from its inception, a scream against the dark night of genre and a haven for chimeric literary forms and writers who take chances. Here are stories that dance right on the edge of the abyss of the Unsayable. Some fall over, while others spread unexpected wings and fly. Here are the works that are shaping the future of science fiction."

Sounds exicting right? True, one of the stories was rather compelling, "Food Man" by Lisa Tuttle, was interesting. The rest of the stories I just could not get into.

I agree with T.Ross' most intelligent and excellent review (who was much kinder in his/her review). In sum, The Best of Crank is a little too cute for my taste. Agreeing with T.Ross, I too feel that the time reading this book could have been better spent. Others however might enjoy these works that cater to a certain type of personal preference. Maybe I'll come back to this collection of stories with a new set of eyes in the future.

It's my privilege to have kicked off the very first issue of CRANK! with my story "Clap If You Believe," which also has the honor of being included among editor Bryan Cholfin's choices for this "best of" compilation. This journal deserves all the accolades it has received, and THE BEST OF CRANK! is an anthology that moves from strength to strength. Buy it and enjoy!

I bought this book as soon as I could. The stories in each issue of "Crank" are great to begin with, so the editor's picks for the cream yield an almost unspeakably good set of reads.

Many of the positive reviews of this book make much of the fact that these are stories for "intelligent" readers of SF. I will agree with these reviewers to this extent: most of the stories in this volume are definitely clever.

Alas, with two major exceptions, cleverness is all these stories have going for them. The stories collected herein are uncompelling, bloodless, and altogether forgettable. Many "intellectual" elements, such as inventive wordplay and metafictional tropes, would be much more effective and worthwhile had they not been used in such sub-par stories.

The two major exceptions to this come from veteran writers Ursula LeGuin and Michael Bishop. LeGuin's brilliant "The Matter of Seggri" tells the story of the encounter between a galactical civilization and a backwater planet called Seggri, a world in which the two sexes live in segregation and where the lives of men are highly circumscribed. Told in the form of official reports, indigenous short fiction, and memoirs, the story explores themes of gender prejudice, the ecological basis and social function of gender roles, and the difficulties posed by change in the face of first contact.

Bishops's "I, Iscariot" is equally ingenius. A virtual trial is being held for the greatest traitor of all time, a man whose name is synonymous with betrayal, Judas Iscariot. Bishop deftly cross-examines the biblical record with surprising results. This story is particularly noteworthy because it echoes the ancient subversive ideas recently uncovered by National Geographic researchers in the so-called "Gospel of Judas." Should be required reading for any course on the New Testament.

Beyond those two luminaries, though, lies very little of note. Check it out if you must, but don't waste your money.

I got this book as a gift from my girlfriend -- turned out to be the nicest gift I've gotten in ages. I am a really hard-to-please reader. Books don't usually make me laugh out loud in pleasure. This book made me laugh in surprise/pleasure/disorientation about 200 times. It kept leading me down paths and then switching course, which I love. And most of the paths momentarily pursued were really pretty inventive. So yeah. Read this book. It's got BRAINS and it's got a SOUL, or whatever the sci-fi-book equivalent of a soul would be. Every story in it is intense, challenging, contains a wallop, speaks for itself, changes a worldview, or is somehow UNIQUE. If you thrive on kookiness, if you are bored with mainstream pulp and shudder at artsy self-conscious pretentiousness, if you gasp with orgasmic pleasure upon having your expectations truly defied, and if your ultra-super-big-brain is getting tragically stale with a general lack of input, then darn it pick up this book of short stories and romp away.

Worth every penny.

These are some of my favorite short stories:

Mood Bender: set within a disturbingly familiar future, this dark little story of puppets and economy is my favorite. The author zooms through dozens of crazy-true ideas about art, advertising, audioanimatronics, mood, money, religion, and lots more.

Clap if You Believe: if you've ever been over to your girlfriend's/boyfriend's house for dinner and been suspiciously scrutinized by your lover's parents, well, this story will twist your heart in all the right places. Ouch.

Nixon in Space: All I will say is, I have never read anything remotely like this weird short story in my life. The lunatic way McCleary mixes history and humorous fiction makes the head swim; I got tickled in a mindspot I hadn't known existed. "We want to go to the mooooooooon!!!"

I, Iscariot: Errr, I wouldn't have expected a long short story about Judas to be interesting or engaging, but this one was beautifully crafted and contains so many inventive details that I got really sucked in. Let's face it, Christianity can be so darned BORING since our culture is SATURATED with the stuff. To those of us outside the religion, most attempts by ministers and screenwriters to update the mythology for the 21st century come across as crippled in their conception. Maybe more stories like this one could rejuvenate the enterprise, make it more accessible to people who are too lazy to be atheists or run all the way to Buddhism for their worldviews. Anyway, this story is about what would happen if computer programmers designed a virtual trial for Judas (resurrected after 2000 years of posthumous infamy) to be broadcast live to a skeptical audience of millions.

I Don't Care Who Keeps the Cows: What if the world suddenly got really smart? What if everyone had more brains than they knew what to do with, more brains than could fit inside their head? What if somewhere outside this new supersmart consciousness, a group of kooks WITHOUT much intelligence came to be the puppeteers of the human race? What is this story really about?

My advice is, buy the book. Feed your brain! Booya.