Orson Scott Card's InterGalactic Medicine Show (v. 1) (Paperback)

by Orson Scott Card (Editor), Edmund R. Schubert (Editor)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
The first collection of short stories from online magazine Orson Scott Card's InterGalactic Medicine Show (www.oscims.com), launched in 2005, features noteworthy SF and fantasy stories from a bumper crop of talented new authors. Four new Enderverse stories from Card will initially draw genre fans, but the stories from lesser-known writers are the compilation's real driving force. James Maxey's provocative To Know All Things That Are in the Earth takes a decidedly skeptical look at the Rapture; David Farland's The Mooncalfe puts an interesting—and unique—spin on oft-trod Arthurian legend; and Tom Barlow's brilliantly sardonic Call Me Mr. Positive explores isolation on a deep space mission gone tragically awry. If the quality of these stories is any indication, IGMS has as much promise as the newcomers it showcases. (Aug.)
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From Booklist
This collection of 17 stories from Card’s e-zine takes its title from his belief that writers getting readers to suspend disbelief is like old-fashioned medicine-show hawkers convincing customers that their patented elixirs will work. On the whole, he and Schubert have selected well, even if 5 of the 17 are Ender universe stories by Card himself. The best of those is Pretty Boy, about one of Ender’s opponents and of a particularly horrifying form of child abuse. Highlights among the remaining dozen entries are Aaron Johnson’s comics adaptation of Card’s Fat Farm; Brad Beaulieu’s In the Eyes of the Empress’s Cat, which will not necessarily make cat lovers purr; The Mooncalfe, in which rising fantasist David Farland takes a dark look at the Matter of Britain; and David Lubar’s Hats Off, in which dealing with a bully with magic backfires amazingly quickly. Adding value are the authors’ afterwords, which disclose the remarkable diversity of ways writers reach the Web or the page and how Card influences new writers. --Roland Green

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Product Details

• Paperback: 432 pages
• Publisher: Tor Books; 1st edition (August 5, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0765320002
• ISBN-13: 978-0765320001
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.5 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #48,264 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars I want more!, August 26, 2008

By	Kyle Taylor (Boise, ID USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Somehow when I bought this book I assumed that it would contain the complete written works of OSC's IGMS up to this point - 8 issues. (There's 9 now, but there was 8 when the book was published.) Excluding the audio stories, essays, and interviews (which requires subscribing to the IGMS to get) this is what I expected to get in a bound paperback book:
issue #1 - 10 written stories
issue #2 - 9 written stories
issue #3 - 10 written stories
issue #4 - 10 written stories
issue #5 - 10 written stories
issue #6 - 10 written stories
issue #7 - 11 written stories
issue #8 - 10 written stories
(80 in all)

Instead I got 18 select stories out of the first 4 issues:
5 from issue #1
4 from issue #2
5 from issue #3
4 from issue #4

The book includes the artwork for each story. It also contains the new Ender stories from each of the first 4 issues. And it's 432 pages. I suspect it'd be somewhere around 2000 pages if it included all of the stories up to issue 8.
Despite my disappointment in the book's lack of completeness, I'm still glad I bought it. It's a solid collection of great stories that I can hold in my hand and read, without having to stare at a computer screen. And I'm thinking it might be worth paying an extra $2.50 to get the rest of the stories from his website.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A lot of bang for a little buck, January 28, 2009

By	A. Roger Crooks (North Carolina) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I bought this as an Orson Scott Card fan but dare I say that I found authors that rival the great OSC in this book? These stories are not very long and most can be read in a sitting. There is a lot of variety which was nice for me. I like fantasy slightly more than science fiction. This was a nice combination of both and some other unique items thrown in as well. I have been reading a story or two each night. I discovered author Eric James Stone by reading this book and finding his work has been like finding treasure. His stories were particularly enjoyed by my sixth grade son and I and I think we'll be buying any/everything with his name on it. His writing is brilliant. I saw the other reviewer comment that the Taint of Treason wasn't well recieved by him. I have been quoting a line from that story to my son for weeks which has us both laughing (in a morbid way). You'll know the line once you read the story. Thanks goes out to Schubert and Card for giving us a "sampler" of so many great writers. You really can't go wrong with this book.

5.0 out of 5 stars Great source of short scifi stories, March 12, 2009

By	Steve _G (Spokane) - See all my reviews

I liked this book a lot. Card's Ender's Game stories were what I bought it for and I was not disappointed. I also found some of the other author's stories to be very good and I hope they write more.

The book was a bit too short though. I hope there will be more volumes in the future.