Review: Some Good and Some Just Okay!
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 02 17, 2014
To begin with, let me state that I have read the complete series of the Science Fiction Megapacks and for the most part I've enjoyed the various collections.  Book Eight is an okay read and I enjoyed it.  Comparatively, I would put this collection midway in the series; it is not the worst of the collections but it is not the best.The collection is a mix of new and very old authors, and the reader can easily discern who is who in this book.  The newer authors make references to cell phones, internet, and other modern technologies that were not even thought of in classic Sci/Fi.  For the most part I found that I enjoyed both groups of authors equally.  There were some old stories that I didn't quite get and some new that I disliked.  Overall, it was a mixed bag that had a less than optimistic feel.  This started with the first story in the book, The True Darkness by Pamela Sargent (a story I disliked) and continued throughout the collection.Story that I found enjoyable and thought provoking were PERMANENT FATAL ERRORS, by Jay Lake, ADJUSTMENT TEAM, by Philip K. Dick, ROBOTS DON'T CRY, by Mike Resnick, THE PICK-UP, by Lawrence Watt-Evans, POPULATION IMPLOSION, by Andrew J. Offutt, NEFERTITI'S TENTH LIFE, by Mary A. Turzillo, and AFTER ALL, by Robert Reginald.A plus to this collection is that there is only one story repeated in it that had already been published in an earlier collection by this publisher.  That story is MONKEY ON HIS BACK, by Charles V. De Vet, which by the way is a pretty good story.  This is appreciated as previous collections in this series have reprinted up to five stories from previous books and I've often found it annoying.A concern...I noticed in the editor's comments that the publisher is thinking of producing a new book on a monthly basis.  Personally, unless the publisher gets access to some really good authors, I think the quality of the collections will suffer.  A book a year is good enough.Overall, while not an up beat collection of tales, there is a lot there that makes a person think, which in my opinion is a definite plus.  Thus I recommend this book to anyone following the series.