This is officially the book that’s taken me the longest to read, at over two years! Partly that’s because of the sheer intimidating size of the collection, containing over 150 stories, but, to be fair, I would also put it down and not pick it up again for long stretches of time.
I’m not sure how you go about reviewing such a big book. I do wish it had been arranged chronologically, rather than alphabetically by author. That way, it would be easier to trace thematic changes over time, but as it is, you just get samples of individual authors’ works. One thing that does stick in the mind though, is how many dystopian/downbeat stories that there are. Mind you, stories that you like less may be more likely to stick in the mind, and I don’t like that sort of story, which is another reason for how long it’s taken me to get through it.
There’s a lot of big names in the book. It seems that just about everyone has written for Tor.com, who have become one of the biggest publisher of short fiction around at the moment. If you dip in and out, you’re bound to find something that you like, but if you read it all the way through, good luck in having anything stick out.
