The idea is simple: on the last Friday of each month, post about the best book you’ve finished over the past month while visiting other bloggers doing the same. In this way, we’ll all have the opportunity to share our thoughts with other enthusiastic readers. Please join us below.
Title: Outliers of Speculative Fiction 2016
Editor: L.A. Little
Author: Tim Jefferys, Various
Genre: Science Fiction, Anthology
Pages: 150
Reading Level: Adult
Content: R (adult situations and content, mature and dark themes, doom, and violence)
I was happy to see that another volume of this series was published. While it’s not as long as the first, it’s still top quality speculative fiction with lots of diversity.
Hell Is Other People: A.I. based on mood. Good.
The Death of Mohenjo Daro: cultural- epic battle of men, greed, and faith. Good
Myra’s Last Tango: end of the world and aliens with humor. Not bad.
Downriver at the End of the World: a sad, post-apocalyptic coming-of-age tale. Excellent.
A Speck in the Sky: dangerous power, sacrifice. Excellent.
The House on No Man’s Land: ghost story with a twist. Good.
Souls in Other Space: humorous, yet scary, space opera. Excellent.
Terrible Weight: sad and scary post-apocalyptic zombie-ish story. Excellent.
Existential Crisis: weird afterlife mingled with the living. Good.
A Packhorse for Your Silly Meme: A.I., evolution, an “infant savior”. Excellent.
Grand Ideas: not sure how to describe this one. Good.
Overall, I enjoyed this anthology and only wish there had been more of it. Recommended to adult (teens with parental approval) fans of science fiction, fantasy, paranormal, and horror.
I give this book a 5.
This review has been posted to GoodReads.
If you’d like to obtain a copy of this book, try this link: Amazon
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Thank you for taking the time to read this post. If you like it let me know and share it with others. See you next time, Toi Thomas. #thetoiboxofwords
12 replies on “The Cephalopod Coffeehouse #Review: Outliers of Speculative Fiction 2016 #specfic #book”
Awesome. It’s great to see publishers supporting shorter fiction.
Yes, this guy does a great job.
Is there a unifying theme that draws through all the stories? Or, do they all stand on their own? I’ve read some spec-fic, and liked it, but sometimes it’s so “out there” that I have trouble connecting. Did you feel like you were engaged thie the characters and their stories?
Well, the genre is the connecting theme. All the stories are either sci-fi, fantasy, or horror/paranormal, but they are not generic and superficial. I did have trouble connecting with some of the stories, but I think some of that is due to cultural awareness. If you’re interested, I’d say start with the first volume and then try this one.
It’s always great to read an anthology to give you a flavour of a genre, in the hope that it will whet your appetite for more.
I think that’s what this anthology series does. It makes you, not only, want to read more of the genre but the individual authors as well.
Science fiction anthology – right up my alley!
It’s a really good series.
Always looking for something different in my Sci-fi.I’ll take a look at this.
Cool. I think you’ll like it.
It must be a good anthology if you wish it had been longer.
Love,
Janie
It’s been a while since I read an anthology or a short story for that matter. This sounds like a good one esp. since I love scifi