Customer Reviews

This Is My Funniest: Leading Science Fiction Writers Present Their Funniest Stories Ever

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

 

 

I couldn't resist reading "This is My Funniest", an anthology of stories collected by Mike Resnick from some of the top science fiction writers. Authors were asked to send what they thought was their funniest story. Every story is a real winner, some I thought really funny. The hardest part about reviewing this collection is that types of humor are varied and people find different things amusing. So this is my take at what I thought were standouts because I laughed out loud when I read them. Other stories were great science fiction. In all, twenty-nine stories are included. An added bonus is each story has a letter from the author explaining their choice which are almost as fun to read as the stories themselves.

The top story in my list is a time travel romance between a husband and wife on their tenth anniversary, titled "Present", by Kristine Kathryn Rusch. It's humorous and horrific both and trust me, this is one premise you won't want to try at home.

Next is "Too Hot to Hoot" by Spider Robinson. It starts with hot sex and a wife nine and a half months pregnant and uses realistic details of their life to find humor, especially with the added twist of an alien.
I think I laughed hardest at "The Soul Selects Her Own Society" by Connie Willis, but then, I fancy myself a poet. An academic paper, this story explains how Emily Dickinson dealt with aliens. Don't forget to read the footnotes.

"A Delightful Comedic Premise" by Barry Malzburg tells the story of a writer seeking work in a series of letters. Several others used similar setups to produce a funny work, including "Usurper Memos" by Josepha Sherman, and "Patent Infringement" by Nancy Kress.
Nick DiCaprio's "Alien Radio" is a delightful spoof of talk radio psychologists, this one by an alien with children. Never forget the children.

In terms of stories I found delightful, "The Lemon Spaghetti-Loud Dynamite-Dribble Day" by William Tenn sent me back to the sixties, "Night of the Cooters" by Howard Waldrop, took me into western land, "The Capo of Darkness" by Laura Resnick, had me amongst mobsters, editor Mike Resnick had me giggling at his basement fairies in "Revolt of the Sugar Plum Fairies" and too many more to highlight.

I rate this anthology five stars because it's a collection worth every penny and it might even make you laugh.

Up until now I have enjoyed everything I've read from Mike Resnick (either author or editor), and thought his touch as editor of this book would be golden. I love science fiction and love humor, how could I go wrong? Aaack!

A few of the stories were genuinely funny, but most of them were marginal, and some left me wondering whether parts of the stories had accidently been deleted and no one had noticed. Or perhaps they had fallen into the pile of stories for this book from a pile of stories collected for The Most Pointless Short Stories Ever Published.

Perhaps the humor is in the fact that I bought it... a big practical joke on the science fiction community.

This collection was a bit of a disappointment to me...when I think "funniest" it's generally NOT these stories. Some were fantastic, some were "meh", and others were just plain boring to me.

Not something I'd go out of my way to get again.

Maybe I had high expectations from the title of the book or from previous work of Mike Resnick, but this book is disappointing. Some of the stories at most can be categorized as "goofy" but nothing jumps out as being "funny", let alone "funniest".

As the working mother of an active pre-k aged young child who has not been to a movie with a rating higher than G in 2 years, and the wife of a TV channel flipper who only stops at auto shows, sports events or war dramas, my personal entertainment moments are few and treasured. So I am draggingly through the first three stories in this collection, and have hardly a snicker as yet and am getting discouraged. But maybe I need to keep reading - as the previous reviewer said, "types of humor are varied and people find different things amusing..." SO maybe i just havent found the story in this book that clicks with my sense of humor yet.

I truly want to give this book a chance, I think I generally like Mike Resnick's stuff and want to give him the benefit of the doubt as an anthology editor. I am unfamiliar with the works of the first authors, and am looking forward to reading the stories included by authors that I know, so will continue with a few more before I reconsider returning it to the bookseller as "not as advertised." (maybe I should just jump to those authors I know?) I will come back here and revise my review if i do find my personal hidden chuckles in this book. I want to give it a better review but We Are Not Amused as of yet...

gotta run, daycare is closed today and I am supposed to be working from home while also entertaining Junior but he says his train tracks are broken and he cant fix them with out help... he wont go away. And no, we are not going to the "Thomas the Train" website on Mommy's computer... sigh.