Customer Reviews

The Mammoth Book of Science Fiction

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

The stories chosen for this book are average at best. The new stories do nothing to grab the imagination and the stories from established authors just give the feeling of being chosen more for their obscurity (cheap royalties?) than the quality of the stories. The whole thing just seems to have a feel of "let's get as many words into a book as cheaply as possible".

If you're looking for something to while away the time, you've come to the right place. If you're looking for a collection of stories that either defines the genre or challenges the imagination, you'll want to look somewhere else.

In the Introduction Mike Ashley writes that science fiction is a literature of ideas. Many authors and editors who claim to work on the field these days seem to have forgotten this. (or maybe they never knew) But Mr.Ashley delivers in the grand tradition. This is an awsome collection of original ideas. The stories are varied, interesting, deep, funny, spooky - but all are good.

If you think that SF should be about original ideas and not tired cliches then this book is for you. Mr.Ashley appears to be a slightly better editor then Hartwell, and way way better then Dozois.

I enjoy those Mammoth Books, as they give the readers an overview of good contemporary science fiction, at a cheap rate too! I even discovered a novel by Ph. K. Dick I didn't know. The book doesn't fit in your pocket, though.

I think these short stories are very good. You get to the end of the story instead of reading 300or 400 pages.