Mixed bag, but an educational collection with a few gems.
4 stars
This was an educational assortment for me, as there are some authors I haven't heard of and some who I just automatically ignore as fiction for the masses, but now I'm a bit more appreciative, for example Tony Hillerman and Lisa Scottolini. Each story is prefaced by the editor with some background on the author, and that is sometimes more interesting than the story itself (haven't quite managed to finish the Ellery Queen one). The real gems, maybe this is personal taste, are the Twilight-zonish bordering on horror stories, including a nice one by Harlan Ellison. The older stories are a bit of a slog prose-wise but the bigger problem is diversity. There are some women (I estimate a quarter to third), but I couldn't tell that any were not white (and from some of the stories I could definitely tell they're white). Probably Tony Hillerman is the closest to …
This was an educational assortment for me, as there are some authors I haven't heard of and some who I just automatically ignore as fiction for the masses, but now I'm a bit more appreciative, for example Tony Hillerman and Lisa Scottolini. Each story is prefaced by the editor with some background on the author, and that is sometimes more interesting than the story itself (haven't quite managed to finish the Ellery Queen one). The real gems, maybe this is personal taste, are the Twilight-zonish bordering on horror stories, including a nice one by Harlan Ellison. The older stories are a bit of a slog prose-wise but the bigger problem is diversity. There are some women (I estimate a quarter to third), but I couldn't tell that any were not white (and from some of the stories I could definitely tell they're white). Probably Tony Hillerman is the closest to a non-white writer, but it would have been nice to get something from Walter Mosley, maybe.