Review: Surprisingly Good
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 11 1, 2012
As anthologies go this one is surprisingly better than most.The good:*All stories except "Shores of the Infinite" were good or great ("The Black Ship", "Out There", and "Big Plush" being most memorable for me at least)*Nice quick reads that explore some unique spin the author comes up with*Each story was whole... with good characters, explanation of the universe, and solid action.*All have a decent non-cliffhanger endingThe bad:*Most stories are standalone. A large number of people read anthologies to discover new authors and new series. Usually these are little stories that take context in part of a larger series published by authors giving you a taste of the work without committing to 500 pages and regretting it. "The Black Ship" falls into Larson's Mech universe, but that's about it.*Only 5 stories. This is a pretty nice collection, so whoever picked it did a good job. Most anthologies have some real stinkers in them you have to get past. I was left wanting more though (and very disappointed to learn that there was no expansion upon Stackpole's "Out There").Overall I give it 4 stars (rounding down) because Shores stunk so badly.