These John Scalzi short stories were delightfully funny. I highly recommend this book to anyone who likes science fiction, or even if you don't
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Miniatures: The Very Short Fiction of John Scalzi by John Scalzi collects 25 years of at his briefest and best, and features four never-before-printed stories. These four stories, along with fourteen other pieces, have one thing in common: they are short, sharp, and to the point—science fiction in miniature, with none of the stories longer than 2,300 words.

Miniatures: The Very Short Fiction of John Scalzi is exactly what you expect from the title. This collection of short works from John Scalzi will entertain readers that are long time fans, and give readers that have yet to explore his novels a good idea of the combination of science fiction and humor that they are missing out on. I was crawling through a reading slump and having trouble getting through much of anything, even material from my favorite authors. This book's short, highly entertaining works, help break me out of that slump. Yogurt taking over the world, Pluto speaking out about its change of status, superheroes with booking agents, alternate histories tells you all the various ways Hitler has died, a lawyer sues an interplanetary union for dangerous working conditions, and four artificial intelligence's explain, in increasingly worrying detail, how they plan not to destroy humanity- whats not to love?

Miniatures: The Very Short Fiction of John Scalzi is a great read for fans, and those that are not quite ready to commit to a Scalzi novel yet. I am still thinking about several of the stores, and think I will be for a good time to come.

Scalzi is a gifted writer
that is glaringly apparent
in this collection of short fiction.
Scalzi has the ability
to capture your attention
immediately. A gift which lends itself to short fiction.

A mixed bag, but Scalzi's writing shines. VERY entertaining, though the brief nature of these pieces will leave the reader wanting more in many cases. This is a "keep handy and grab to re-read fairly often" book. The effectiveness of humor varies from reader to reader, but there's a lot here to laugh at.

I really enjoyed John Scalzi's collection of Short Stories. I don't tend to read a lot of Science Fiction so almost all of the stories were completely new to me. It took me a while to read this book, partly because of the format of a lot of the stories. A lot of them are written like newspaper articles or interviews, and after a couple of stories I just was in the mood for a different format. So I'd pause and read something else. I really enjoyed the stories though.

John Scalzi intrigues with whimsical short science fiction stories in Miniatures.

Ahoy there me mateys! I received this sci-fi eARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. So here be me honest musings . . .

miniatures: the very short fiction of john scalzi (John Scalzi)

Title: miniatures: the very short fiction of john scalzi

Author: John Scalzi

Illustrator: Natalie Metzger

Publisher: Subterranean Press

Publication Date: December 31, 2016 (hardback/e-book)

ISBN: 9781596068124

Source: NetGalley

Okay so it may be no secret to me crew that I am kinda in love with John Scalzi's novels. He has been featured on a Broadside, had the dispatcher reviewed by both me and the First Mate, and writes a blog called Whatever, that I follow regularly. So when the man himself blogged about the release of this short story collection I knew I wanted to read it. When I was on Netgalley, I happened to see it. Then the publisher happened to grant it to me for readin'. Yay!

Since I am very familiar with the Scalzi writing style, I waited for a day that was rather blah and where I needed a pick-me-up. Cause Scalzi is funny. So the day came and I settled in me bunk for a treat. And I got exactly what I wanted.

Out of the 18 pieces, me top 3 standouts . . .

"Alien Animal Encounters" - Perhaps ye have heard of the those segments where people like Jay Leno do segments like "Jay Walking" where random people on the street are asked the Question of the Week. Well in this story, the question is "What is the most interesting encounter you've had with an alien animal species?" This is the first story of the collection and set the tone nicely. Favorite animals included the cat (duh!) and the courou.

"Denise Jones, Superbooker" - Set in the form of a transcript, this story is about a booking agent for super heroes. She answers important questions about super hero secret identities, contracts, and other secrets of the biz. The bit about Bryan Garcia made me happy. There is a related story later in the collection called "The State of Super Villainy" that was fun too.

"Your Smart Appliances Talk About You Behind Your Back" - Security systems, fridges, waffle irons . . . if they could speak what would they report about their owners. 'Nuff said.

There were a couple of stories that didn't really float me boat - one about Pluto, one about extortionists, and one about Penelope. And some that were just plain weird Scalzi - like sentient yogurt. But overall Scalzi delivers as usual. Quick and fun.

For another take by me crew member who loved it:

the green onion

So lastly . . .

Thank you Subterranean Press!

Netgalley's website has this to say about the novel:

The ex-planet Pluto has a few choice words about being thrown out of the solar system. A listing of alternate histories tells you all the various ways Hitler has died. A lawyer sues an interplanetary union for dangerous working conditions. And four artificial intelligences explain, in increasingly worrying detail, how they plan not to destroy humanity.

Welcome to Miniatures: The Very Short Fiction of John Scalzi.

These four stories, along with fourteen other pieces, have one thing in common: They’re short, sharp, and to the point—science fiction in miniature, with none of the stories longer than 2,300 words. But in that short space exist entire universes, absurd situations, and the sort of futuristic humor that propelled Scalzi to a Hugo with his novel Redshirts. Not to mention yogurt taking over the world (as it would).

Spanning the years from 1991 to 2016, this collection is a quarter century of Scalzi at his briefest and best, and features four never-before-printed stories, exclusive to this collection: “Morning Announcements at the Lucas Interspecies School for Troubled Youth,” “Your Smart Appliances Talk About You Behind Your Back,” “Important Holidays on Gronghu” and “The AI Are Absolutely Positively Without a Doubt Not Here to End Humanity, Honest.”

To visit the author’s website go to:

John Scalzi – Author

To buy the novel go to:

miniatures - Book

To add to Goodreads go to:

Yer Ports for Plunder List

ecause many fans first entry point into the sci-fi/fantasy world is Douglas Adams or Terry Pratchett, it can be easy to assume that writing funny genre pieces is something that just about anybody can do. But a look at the myriad of pale imitators who have tried and fallen short continues to prove that being funny on the printed page isn't as easy as it first appears.

Every once in a while an author comes along who is able to channel what made Adams and Pratchett work so well. And while not all of John Scalzi's works have been a "laugh riot," he has shown the capacity to land his jokes more often than not.

Not content just to make readers snicker or laugh out loud (and you will laugh out loud), Scalzi gives himself the additional challenge of not having any of the pieces in his "Miniatures" collection run more than 2,300 words. This gives Scalzi time to stretch his creative chops, all while making sure that his pieces don't overstay their welcome like too many "Saturday Night Live" sketches.

And that just about all of the entries in this collection have at least one to two moments to make you smile, if not outright snicker shows that Scalzi knows what he's doing. Among the highlights of the collection is a companion piece to his award-winning "Redshirts" that he used on the book tour to introduce the novel (added fun can be had by surfing over to YouTube and seeing Scalzi read the piece at signing with Wil Wheaton), a story looking at why having our appliances becoming sentient is probably not a good idea to a series of Tweets that Scalzi used to amuse himself and his followers while traveling by air.

Just when you think Scalzi has shown you all his tricks, he goes and pulls a few more rabbits out of his hat. "Miniatures" may not be nominated for a ton of awards, but it will certainly entertain you and it might be a great introduction to new readers of the greater rewards of reading Scalzi's other works.

Highly recommended.

In the interest of full disclosure, I received a digital ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

John Scalzi’s Miniatures is an amiable stroll through 18 pieces ranging from 400 to 300 words (the average piece is 1310 words long). The forms vary greatly, from mock memos to mock interviews (if you can’t tell, just about all aim at being funny) to Twitter posts to a poem that closes the collection as is the only serious piece. It’s all generally amusing enough, though as with most collections, the stories, most of which have appeared elsewhere, run a spectrum of quality, and with humor in particular, individual readers’ mileage may vary.

My personal favorites were:
“Pluto tells All”: An interview with Pluto after it’s been demoted. The wryly resigned voice is just perfect, as Pluto’s aggrieved sense when it talks about which other celestial denizens didn’t exactly fly to its support: “I don’t want to name names. They know who they are. Oh fine, Mercury. I got into the club, Mercury was suddenly my best buddy . . . So we hang out, get to know each other, fine, whatever. Then the IAU vote comes down and I haven’t heard from him since. Like the demotion might be catching or something . . . “

“Denise Jones: Superbooker”: An interview with the “Hero Booking Coordinator for the International Society of Super Beings.” Here, the humor derives mostly from the you-can-really-see-this-happening absurdity rather than the voice, as Jones delineates the various contractual issues involved in doing super-work, such as being put on retainer (the route most major cities take) and being indemnified against property damage for when, say, “Class Four monsters claw through skyscrapers looking for people to snack on. A super being shouldn’t be on the hook for that . . . The Crimson Valkyrie defeated the Gelatinous Menace and then lost everything she had . . She works in a Jersey tollbooth now.”

These two stood out for their voice and each felt just a bit more present as stories from me, richer. Others were charmingly amusing, such as his Twitter-run on watching a trainee gremlin try to sabotage his plane wing, or mostly so, such as “Your Smart Appliances Talk About You Behind Your back” which had lots of good moments and a few meh ones. Some were fine but felt a bit obvious, one or two had issues where the humor felt a little forced. Generally, none overstayed their welcome; Scalzi shows a deft sense of knowing where to end the pieces before the humor grew stale (he should bottle that and sell it to the skit shows). Between the relatively short overall length and my varying responses to the separate pieces, and the fact that even the funny ones aren’t generally the kind of writing to linger in the mind, either stylistically or content-wise, I’d call it a good book to check out of the local library or pick up on sale (though I can’t say the current six dollar cost is overpriced).

This was a fun collection of short stories - mostly humorous, and many with the general premise that humans have been around aliens for awhile, and what kind of questions /problems are there. I think my very favorites were the commentaries by the smart appliances, and the alien/human school announcements. Well and the little "skit" that could accompany Redshirts. Lots of fun stuff in here, and it is a quick, easy read- well worth checking out.

This is SUCH a fun book. Classic Scalzi, from older to newer - and it's all funnier than heck.

There's a bit of a story that he reads in public with friends - find the YouTube with him and Wil Wheaton...I laughed my head off.

The guide to working with aliens might be my favorite, but there are a lot of favorites here!

Minatures (2016) is an amusingly absurd collection of seventeen super-short science fiction/fantasy sketches, plus one serious poem, about Penelope, the wife of Odysseus. In large part, these works don’t have any discernible plot; they’re humorous, idea-driven short pieces: what kind of snarky things would your smart appliances have to say about you if they could speak? What if artificial intelligences had a debate about what to do with humans? What if yogurt became sentient and took over the world? If a retail store sent out a memo to employees on how to deal with alien shoppers, what would it say? Perhaps this:

"If a Manxtse adult asks to purchase your canned white salmon, be aware that this adult may in fact be proposing betrothal, and is also probably mentally disturbed in some way. Under no circumstances should you respond affirmatively, as the betrothal ritual begins immediately after an acceptance, and the first act is a loud, piercing bellow that acts to warn away other suitors. Such noise is obviously disruptive of our other customers’ shopping experience."

Some of my favorites were:

“Denise Jones, Superbooker”: A mock transcript of an interview with Denise Jones, booker for superhero appearances, who explains the difficulties involved in booking precisely the right superhero for the particular monster attacking your city, and the troubles when the owners of destroyed property try to sue the superhero for negligence (after that, those cities’ calls for help tend not to get returned by the superbooker).

“The State of Super Villainy”: A companion piece, because “villains need love too!” An analyst explains, in a question-and-answer session, how large companies plan for super villain attacks, so they can better plan their investments and asset management.

A: … But this is my point. The overwhelming majority of super villain plans fail and fail hard. We weren’t too concerned about Colonel Unbelievable actually bringing down Iceland. The man’s 0 for 14 in his super villain plans. He didn’t take over Liberia either, which he had planned a year before. He also didn’t revive the zombie Jefferson Davis, turn the world’s oceans to marshmallow or release Guns N Roses’ long-delayed Chinese Democracy album, all of which were on his schedule.
Q: Chinese Democracy did get released, though.
A: Yes, but not with subliminal sonic pain generators encoded into the tracks.
Q: Some would argue.
A: Fine.

“Your Smart Appliances Talk About You Behind Your Back”: The home air ionizer complains about its owner, who eats far too many lentils. The thermostat grumbles about a couple who passively aggressively fight over the temperature of the home, ignoring that it has dual climate zone controls. The intelligent toilet and bidet wails about its life in general (“WHY WOULD ANYONE EVEN THINK TO GIVE A TOILET INTELLIGENCE WHAT HORRIBLE PERSON WOULD DO THAT WHY IS THIS MY LIFE”). The self-cleaning cat box is not impressed with the toilet’s difficulties.

Most of these short works were previously published, but a few are new and exclusive to this collection. Miniatures is quite short ― not just the individual pieces, but the entire collection. Personally I would have liked more plot-driven stories, but there are so many laugh-out-loud moments here. This would be a great bathroom book read … hopefully, however, not on an intelligent toilet.