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essjay's Reviews (635)
This shares a lot of the hallmarks of PKD's mid-century Americana litfic, then descends into some serious Weird territory. And even with all of the weirdness, there's still a lot to relate to.
Much like with the rest of his sff work, I find myself distracted by minutiae, like...
This was written shortly before the Mariner 4 mission determined the canals of Mars (such a huge part of Pulp and Golden Age Science Fiction) were bullshit. How different would this have been, were it written a year or two later?
Would Dick himself have received the same diagnoses, were he alive and writing now?
What does music actually sound like in the thinner atmosphere of Mars?
Would these co-op apartments have any units large enough for my family?
And so on.
So, while I read this in mostly two sittings, a good portion of said "reading" time was really just me staring into space.
Good stuff, glad I re-read it.
Much like with the rest of his sff work, I find myself distracted by minutiae, like...
This was written shortly before the Mariner 4 mission determined the canals of Mars (such a huge part of Pulp and Golden Age Science Fiction) were bullshit. How different would this have been, were it written a year or two later?
Would Dick himself have received the same diagnoses, were he alive and writing now?
What does music actually sound like in the thinner atmosphere of Mars?
Would these co-op apartments have any units large enough for my family?
And so on.
So, while I read this in mostly two sittings, a good portion of said "reading" time was really just me staring into space.
Good stuff, glad I re-read it.
A little more continuity than vol. 1, but still super repetitive. Saved by Andolfo's art, but didn't care for the additional artist stories in the middle.
I'm not sure I loved the same-iness of the vignettes (Damiano wants sex, Angelina wants to wait til marriage, rinse, repeat), but Andolfo's art style kept me flipping pages.
If you don't like body horror, you're gonna have a real bad time with this one.
(For once, the comps are spot on.)
(For once, the comps are spot on.)
The End of the World as We Know It
V. Castro, Catherynne M. Valente, Catriona Ward, Sarah Langan, Bryan Smith, Wrath James White, Poppy Z. Brite, Caroline Kepnes, C. Robert Cargill, Gabino Iglesias, Michael Koryta, Josh Malerman, Christopher Golden, Chuck Wendig, David J. Schow, Alma Katsu, Jonathan Janz, Ronald Malfi, Tananarive Due, Paul Tremblay, Joe R. Lansdale, Brian Keene, Premee Mohamed, Meg Gardiner, Alex Segura, Hailey Piper, Cynthia Pelayo, Steven Barnes, Stephen King, Maurice Broaddus, Usman T. Malik, Rio Youers, Tim Lebbon, Wayne Brady, Somer Canon, Richard Chizmar, Nat Cassidy, Bev Vincent, S.A. Cosby
I've been one of Unky Steve's Constant Readers for more than 35 years at this point. The Stand is one of those books that I've read and re-read more times than I can count (although not nearly as many times as I've read the first 3 Dark Tower books), so when I saw that this anthology was going to be a Thing, I got v excited.
There are 34 stories in this book. I gave 14 of them 4+ stars, and 11 more between 3 and 3¾. That's a pretty high success rate.
Some of the stories I rated lower felt like they could have been part of any apocalyptic anthology. Some of them I rated lower bc I just didn't like them. There were two I chose not to rate, one of which I really enjoyed, but it just felt wrong for this anthology.
What worked for me is probably not going to be the same as what works for you. The things that bothered me probably won't bother you. There is one story in particular that I cannot WAIT to read reactions to (I liked it quite a bit, but can see it being unpopular).
There are 34 stories in this book. I gave 14 of them 4+ stars, and 11 more between 3 and 3¾. That's a pretty high success rate.
Some of the stories I rated lower felt like they could have been part of any apocalyptic anthology. Some of them I rated lower bc I just didn't like them. There were two I chose not to rate, one of which I really enjoyed, but it just felt wrong for this anthology.
What worked for me is probably not going to be the same as what works for you. The things that bothered me probably won't bother you. There is one story in particular that I cannot WAIT to read reactions to (I liked it quite a bit, but can see it being unpopular).
There's not even anything wrong with this, but I was never able to get through more than a handful of pages at a time before losing interest.
It's possible I will come back to this another time, but I just really can't hang with the writing style rn.
Welp. Did NOT expect to like this as much as I did, but here we are.