Review: Lots of variety and worthy reads
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 08 26, 2012
This book includes seven short stories and one novella. They varied widely in style and setting. I definitely liked most of them and would recommend the book. I will review each story separately in order of my favorites to my least favorites.Clean Sweep with All the Trimmings - This is set in a 1930's kind of place with G-men, J. Edgar Hoover, fedora's and spacemen. It's written in the style of Damon Runyon, full of wit and amusing. The main character runs a clean up business and meets a doll that is almost too perfect. I'd never heard of Damon Runyon but now his book on my wish list.Six Months, Three Days - Two clairvoyants who "remember" the future decide to date. This is an excellent short story.Beauty Belongs to the Flowers - This story is set in future Nagasaki, Japan. A teenage girl with a dying father finds her love for her childhood friend is unrequited. The writing style is so descriptive it's almost atmospheric. It definitely pulled me right in. The ending was just plain weird, but I still liked it because of the style.Hello, Moto - Three black women take over the world using technology and juju and it isn't a pretty picture. The ending was a non-sequitur. This was a short entertaining read.The Dala Horse - Set in Northern Europe in the far future, a girl travels to her grandmother's house with a little protection. She's trusting and naive and nothing seems to ruffle her. This story is a very unique take on artificial intelligence.A Vector Alphabet of Interstellar Travel - The story is actually what the title says. It reads like a reference paper of different kinds of stardrives and the cultures that created them. The story's geeky but good.Shetl Days - The setting is an alternate universe where the Nazi's have taken over the entire world and completely eradicated the Jews (and the Poles). The Nazi's feel the need to create a living historical village of "Jewish" and "Polish" actors so they won't forget the enemies they once had. This story had too many references and words that were Yiddish or Hebrew. I felt like I needed a reference book and missed a good part of the story because I am not extensively familiar with Jewish culture. I found this annoying and although the story had a good point it wasn't my favorite.Ragnarok - This is written in verse and I had to reduce the font on my kindle to make sense of it. It's a story about revenge set in post-apocolyptic Iceland. I don't like reading verse. It feels stilted and because of this wasn't my favorite.