Smart Dragons, Foolish Elves [Hardcover]

Alan Dean / Greenberg, Martin Harry Foster (Author)

Product Details

• Hardcover
• Publisher: Ace; Book Club (BCE/BOMC) edition (1991)
• ASIN: B000O93M9I
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.6 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,240,347 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Wonderful Collection of Short Stories, March 31, 2000

By 

"luloo123" (Loretto, Pennsylvania) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Smart Dragons, Foolish Elves (Paperback)

This collection of short stories is absolutely wonderful. It includes Sci/Fi stories about Hell, Trolls, and the absolute worst wish ever imagined. I've read this book a number of times and it never fails to make me burst into laughter.

4.0 out of 5 stars Be Careful About Those Old Little Curio Shops, October 7, 2011

By 

Judah (Terre Haute In USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Smart Dragons, Foolish Elves (Paperback)

The book contains 18 stories and an introduction/afterword. The theme is supposedly humor, but Foster picked out personal favorites, not always politically or scientifically correct. For example, "Thimgs" by Theodore Cogswell was published in 1958 and uses adjectives like 'crippled' and 'gimpy' for a disabled girl, and the supra-advanced technology consists of computer tape spools.

Nina Kiriki Hoffman has a story in here, "Savage Breasts", which is vaguely horrifying. Think possessed sentient breasts. Zelanzy's "Unicorn Variations" shows up, as it does in like a dozen other anthologies. Great story if you haven't read it. I enjoyed the majority of the stories to be honest, but I found a recurring theme is 'be careful what you wish for' often featuring djinn, and forgotten shops that disappear when you leave.

Overall, despite one or two duds, a collection of memorable short stories.

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars And stereotyped men and women, March 19, 2011

By 

Anne M. Hunter "Anne Hunter" (Cambridge, MA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Smart Dragons, Foolish Elves (Paperback)

I want to endorse what Steven Saus said, and wish I'd paid more attention to his review before I bought the book. The cleverness of the title and the reputations of some of the contributors just sucked me in. But just about all of these stories are sadly dated, and many of them are now painfully unfunny. I don't think we've come this far since 1991 -- I think this book was reactionary when it was published! The stories were clearly chosen from this particular subgenre. I barely made it through and hardly cracked a smile. Mostly they're dark and depressing, if well-written and creative.