Customer Reviews

The Metrognome and Other Stories

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

 

 

Fifteen short stories in a pocket-sized paperback of only 243 pages. Yeah, these stories are SHORT. All of them are "clever" but none of them strike me as being very good. They're abrupt, rough, more like story _ideas_ than actual finished stories. The plot twists are too convenient, the dialogue too facile ... of course, every writer controls events within the story in order to have things turn out the way they are supposed to. But a GOOD writer will make you believe it "just happened that way." These stories feel forced. I think Alan Dean Foster is probably much better in novels, where the long form gives him room to really stretch and develop his characters & concepts. These shorts are mildly amusing but ultimately not satisfying.

It may be a symptom of the time in which they were written (copyright date 1990) and the fact that I was in high school when this collection came out, but this really feels like a collection of high-school writing. No .. to be fair, this is a lot better than high-school writing .. but I still get that impression. It's probably just the whole 1980s vibe which is making it difficult for me to respect this work.

I'm also mystified by the cover art. The bikini-clad alien babe wading in a tranquil lake ... she has absolutely NOTHING to do with any of the stories in the book. Where did she come from?

Anyway, this book is a thoroughly ho-hum artifact from the late heyday of science-fiction publishing, notable only because it bears the name of an otherwise well-respected author in the field. I see that used copies are selling on Amazon for a penny. As long as you don't expect too much, you can't really go wrong at that price.