I received a digital ARC of this book from Netgalley.
Wow, it has been a minute since I read this. Let's see what I remember, or can Google, as needed.

Perfidia by Lewis Shiner- This one's not supernatural, except in an alternate history kinda way. A guy who deals in antique recording and music equipment finds an old recording of Glenn Miller, dated from after Miller died. The story is about myths and truth and facing reality, even when reality is ugly.

Game by Maria Dahvana Headley- A big game hunter goes back to the village where his mentor was killed by a tigress to kill another man eating tiger. Dark and kinda dreamy, with more than one kind of fantasy or magic at play.

The Last Log of the Lachrimosa by Alastair Reynolds- Some poor space scavengers find a planet with a cave that gives off a strong sense of dread. Despite knowing better, they keep investigating. I have mixed feelings about this one. It's never quite as creepy as it wants to be, and the ending is pretty anticlimactic. But it's set in an interesting universe that I sorta want more of.

The Seventeenth Kind by Michael Marshall Smith- An alien buys something from a home shopping channel. I have only the vaguest memories of this, but apparently it was made into a short film.

Dispersed by the Sun, Melting in the Wind by Rachel Swirsky- A dark and haunting story of environmental collapse and the end of humanity. Not fun, but pretty good.

The Pile by Michael Bishop- I have no idea what the hell this is. A brother and sister pair move into an apartment. Outside of the apartment is a junk pile that the residents use to trade junk around. One day a kid leaves a dancing gorilla doll on the pile. Oh, and the kid ages at a very fast rate. I'm clearly not the audience for this.

The Bohemian Astrobleme by Kage Baker- A steampunk tale of Victorian scientists and spies. Fun but slight.

Tanglefoot by Cherie Priest- A boy living in an asylum makes an automaton out of leftover bits from a doctor's experiments. The doctor is slipping into dementia, and the little automaton starts acting with seemingly malicious intent. This is part of Priest's Clockwork Century series, that I've tended to like in theory more than actuality.

Hide and Horns by Joe R. Lansdale- I'm not the biggest fan of westerns, but this is pretty fun, mostly because of the narrator's voice and dry humor. A Black cowboy tries to bury a guy he just met, but has to deal with some racist townspeople.

Balfour and Meriwether in The Vampire of Kabul by Daniel Abraham- Another Victorian/Steampunk style story. Balfour and Meriwether are a Holmes and Watson type duo who need to keep a vampire from controlling European rulers. Something I'm noticing now is the extent that Victorian style alternate history, at least in this collection, is played very straight. This is a missed opportunity to interrogate the prejudices and biases of the time period or at least give it an interesting twist. There's a little bit of that in this story, where the narrator ruminates on Afghanistan, but it's pretty minor. I want writers to do more with Steampunk that give Victorians whiz bang weapons!

Last Breath by Joe Hill- This is the one I remember the most clearly. A family stop at a strange little museum that turns out to collect the last breaths of people, famous or otherwise. Very creepy.

Younger Women by Karen Joy Fowler- An overprotective mother realizes that her daughter's boyfriend is a vampire. I enjoyed this one mainly for pointing out how weird and creepy it is when teen girls dating hundred years old vampires is considered romantic. Dude, you're 300 years old, teenagers are like toddlers to you.

White Lines on a Green Field by Catherynne M. Valente- Whatever else you want to say about Valente, her writing isn't like anyone else's. The trickster characters Rabbit and Coyote go to high school, causing tons of mayhem and magic. I like this one better in retrospect than I did when I first read it, but I could understand why other people might not enjoy it.

The Least of the Deathly Arts by Kat Howard- In a Necropolis world, a scholar of death meets Death, the person. This is some goth fluff, if that's not oxymoronic. Kinda pretty, but there's barely a plot.

Water Can't Be Nervous by Jonathan Carroll- A recently broken up with guy reenacts conversations he had with his girlfriend with hand puppets. This is short and weird, not really a proper story. It feels like the strangeness on the end isn't really thought out, and it definitely isn't explored in any interesting way.

Valley of the Girls by Kelly Link- Set in a future where the rich have life stand ins called Faces and girls build pyramids to their egos. I like this one. It's a neat take on the ridiculousness and pointlessness of extreme privilege, with bonus pseudo-Egyptians.

Sic Him, Hellhound! Kill! Kill! by Hal Duncan- A Hellhound/Werewolf and his human handler track and kill a vampire hiding in a high school. The werewolf's voice is completely over the top, heavy metal ridiculous, but this is a fun and gory little romp.

Troublesolving by Tim Pratt- Stephen is recently divorced and suffering a string of bad luck when he meets a woman who knows his name and offers to help him, no charge. This is a cool little time travel story, fun and unpretentious.

The Indelible Dark by William Browning Spencer- This one is very weird. A loner of a writer is writing a sci-fi story and talking about his life at the same time. Turns out, an inordinate number of people this guy has met have died by suicide. Then his weird neighbor shows up to hint cryptically about some mysterious organization he was once part of. This one is more interesting than enjoyable, but just a little.

The Prayer of Ninety Cats by Caitlín R. Kiernan- A second person viewer watches a fictional movie about Elizabeth Bathory, the famous Blood Countess. Like the majority of Kiernan's work, this is more focused on mood and tone and atmosphere than any straight forward plot. Once you accept this, Kiernan's work has a lot to offer. It's beautiful and unsettling.

The Crane Method by Ian R. MacLeod- A young academic, cheated out of recognition by an older colleague who stole his ideas, finds a clue to an ancient treasure. Unfortunately, he does not get to enjoy the recognition it brings. This is fun, a little story of greed and academic sabotage. Beware college professors, folks. They can be quite ruthless.

The Tomb of the Pontifex Dvorn by Robert Silverberg- This is barely science fiction. The fact that it takes place on an alien planet is entirely incidental to the plot. Two young scholars of history get sent to a backwater town to investigate what might be a famous tomb and punch up the site a bit for tourists. They instead make some discoveries that prove it was the tomb of the ancient ruler and find artifacts and documents that haven't been seen for years and years. When this discovery gets out, one of them gets really self righteous about creating a museum and replicas of the tomb, but the other is cool with it. I get the feeling we're supposed to sympathize with the first scholar, but he reads like an ass. It's not "selling out" to create ways for regular people to understand and interact with history. Acting like historians who want their work to be known and appreciated are whores and hypocrites is just really dumb.

The Toys of Caliban (script) by George R.R. Martin- This is a script for an episode of The Twilight Zone (not Rod Serling, but the revival from the 80's). I've never seen it, but the script is pretty good, featuring a disabled boy that summons things he sees in pictures to himself. Of course, he ends up summoning some pretty horrible things. Kind of resonates with that episode, "It's a Good Life."

The Secret History of the Lost Colony by John Scalzi- This is a deleted scene from one of Scalzi's Old Man's War novels. I haven't read them, at least not yet. It's really too slight to be a proper story, just a few scenes of different races of aliens and humans having discussions on military strategy. But it has Scalzi's usual flair for dialog and characterization, so it's definitely not a waste of time.

The Screams of Dragons by Kelley Armstrong- This is one of the darker stories in the collection. A young boy has vivid dreams of a beautiful world of castles and meadows, but when he tells his grandmother about them, she becomes convinced that he's a changeling. She abuses him terribly and his parents look the other way. When the boy gets older, he becomes the monster that his grandmother thought he was. This is part of Kelley Armstrong's Cainsville series, which I should read.

The Dry Spell by James P. Blaylock- A guy is obsessed with the rain. That's all this is. A guy really wants it to rain, and eventually it does.

He Who Grew Up Reading Sherlock Holmes by Harlan Ellison- Trying too hard. Just write a damn story, Harlan Ellison. I don't want to be impressed by your cleverness. I want a story that begins and ends and has things that happen that relate to other things.

A Small Price to Pay for Birdsong by K.J. Parker- This is kind of analogous to the Silverberg story, in that it's only slightly sci-fi. But this is really good, a tale of music and vengeance and genius.

The Truth of Fact, the Truth of Feeling by Ted Chiang- This story has two threads, one about a journalist writing about a new technology that lets people access all of their memories. The other thread, which I remember nothing about, is a missionary teaching another culture about writing. Chiang is a modern speculative fiction darling, and his stuff is always really well thought out, with endings that, if not twists, definitely sneak up on you.

A Long Walk Home by Jay Lake- A caver/spelunker is exploring a cave system when he feels an earthquake. When he comes back out, all of the people are gone and the electronics are trashed. Fortunately, or perhaps not, the survivor is immortal. He spends 300 years wandering around the world until a spaceship comes. Not a lot happens in the story, and we never find out what happened to all the people, but it's interesting and melancholy, even if I did wonder if the protagonist wouldn't have gone totally crazy after that long without human contact.

Looking back on these stories, most of which I reread, I'm curious about the editor and why he picked these particular stories. Because, while it's a very wide sample, is a pretty odd mix. Only about half of these would I put in an anthology called "Best Of," but that's how it goes. I prefer Ellen Datlow's anthologies to this one, but there are definitely some gems in this collection.

I love anthologies, and I love science fiction and fantasy, so this naturally fits right in to what I enjoy reading. As with any collection, some stories resonated more than most, but overall this is a wonderful read!

This is an utterly intimidating anthology, and took me a very long time to finish. If you really want to read a bunch of different types of sci-fi to see what speaks to you then this is for you. As with most anthologies I enjoyed some of the stories and some I found incredibly boring. I'm not going to go into specifics here because I think you really do need to read this whole thing to decide for yourself.

Perfidia by Lewis Shiner - 3.5/5★ An alternate history, mixed with research and mystery uncovering, plus a little stoll in the atiques markets of Paris, explaining the disappearance of jazz musician Glenn Miller - reminded me a little of Ben Aaronovitch’s Peter Grant and his ‘jazzy’ father.

Game by Maria Dahvana Headley - 3.5/5★ A speculative fiction, inspired by the memoirs of Jim Corbett, this is a story about memories and regrets, about friendship and betrayal, written in the form of a diary alternating between present and past.

The Last Log of the Lachrimosa by Alastair Reynolds - 5/5★ The writing is flowing, the plot is very interesting, the characters are compelling and extremly well developed for a work of such a small size. Here you can find a slightly more elaborate review.

The Seventeenth Kind by Michael Marshall Smith - 3+/5★ A story about a teleshopping salesman, very easily flowing and quite funny. They even made a short movie after this story.

Dispersed by the Sun, Melting in the Wind by Rachel Swirsky - 4+/5★ An emotional post-apocalyptic story with lots of LASTs: the last man, the last lie, the last technological development, the last act of kindness, the last act of malice, the last anything. Unfortunately, rather fit for the end of humanity..

The Pile by Michael Bishop - 1/5★ A story about a haunted (?) dancing monkey.. Despite the tragedy that surrounds this work (it was written in the memory of his son, who died in the Virginia Tech massacre, and based on his notes), this work had no value for me :(

The Bohemian Astrobleme by Kage Baker - 3+/5★ The Gentlemen’s Speculative Society (I'll let you discover for yourself what this society does) is in search of a rare red stone/gem, with special properties, and sends some of its best people, including a deluxe prostitute, to find and acquire it. I rather enjoyed the writing and the (very) dry humor. The book is part of The Gentlemen's Speculative Society Series, which is a companion to The Company Series, both seemingly worth checking out.

Tanglefoot by Cherie Priest - 3.5/5★ Theoretically a horror clockwork story, but with even more interesting secondary narrative: orphan boy taken under the protection of a doctor-and-inventor who now suffers from dementia, now living in the basement of a mental institution.

Hide and Horns by Joe R. Lansdale - 4/5★ Oh, the dark humor in this one! Excellent writing; the story is a strangish western, with ‘hints’ of racism.

Balfour and Meriwether in the Vampire of Kabul by Daniel Abraham - 3+/5★ A victorian short story set during the Great Game, featuring Balfour and Meriwether (an interesting pair, alike the famous Sherlock and Dr.Watson), the entertaining Russian Czarina Maria Feodorovna, a seemingly Afghan wizard and lots of opium.

Last Breath by Joe Hill - 3.5/5★ Very interesting (and creepy) premises: a silence museum, where you can find sealed jars with connected headphones/eardrums that help you feel the last breath of different persons. There’s also a short video on Youtube made after this story.

Younger Women by Karen Joy Fowler - 2.5/5★ During the whole story I had the distinct impression that she was talking about Twilight - if this was a parody, it’s ok..

White Lines on a Green Field by Catherynne M. Valente - 3+/5★ As usual, I found Valente's writing engrossing and mysterious, I think hers is the only magical realism I actually like.. Lots of symbols and mythology, but the football and teen sex aren't that interesting to get past the 3★ "I liked it"..

The Least of the Deathly Arts by Kat Howard - 3.5+/5★ What a premises ❤!! How I would have liked to see this as a longer prose, a little less abstract and vague. As it was, it did not satisfy my need for a clearer and more concrete statement/turn of phrase..

Water Can’t be Nervous by Jonathan Carroll - 3.5/5★ A story about love and compromise, of failures and regrets, with a beautiful and compelling writing, but a rather obscure ending.

Valley of the Girls by Kelly Link - 1.5/5★ A story about privileged teenagers who have look-alikes and who build their own Egyptian pyramids for parties and afterlife, with love triangles and other confusing stuff – not my kind of thing, even though it could have been interesting..

Sic Him, Hellhound! Kill! Kill! by Hal Duncan - 3+/5★ Interesting approach to vampires and werewolves - but hey, i've got a soft spot on them! Added points for making a little fun of Twilight :D

Troublesolving by Tim Pratt - 2.5/5★ A kind of interesting noir time travel story, mixed with mystery. I liked it as I read it, but after some time, I realized I didn’t remember much about it..

The Indelible Dark by William Browning Spencer - 1-/5★ There is a possibility that the concept would be interesting, but the execution was really crappy!

The Prayer of Ninety Cats by Caitlín R. Kiernan - 3/5★ A mix between horror, dark fantasy and alternate history about the mass murderer Elisabeta Báthory (Hungarian countess), supplemented with a very interesting metafiction PoV.

The Crane Method by Ian R. MacLeod - 3.5/5★ A story about an Oxford professor who takes credit for other people’s work, a discovery and a curse. Good writing, although the outcome is predictable.

The Tomb of the Pontifex Dvorn by Robert Silverberg - 2+/5★ Why would you put so many new notions (invented places, animal names, etc) in a short story?! (L.E. I understand this is part of Majipoor series, but even so, why would it be included in an anthology if it’s clearly not standing on its one at least partly?); also, the ending was totally flat/unfinished, so I didn’t much like this one..

The Toys of Caliban (script) by George R.R. Martin - 4.5+/5★ I really liked this script-story, it was fascinating and engrossing and creepy. Apparently it is the screenplay for an episode in The New Twilight Zone TV-series.

The Secret History of the Lost Colony by John Scalzi - 3.5/5★ This is my first meeting with Scalzi’s work, and I must say I really liked it, even though it’s not really a short story, but a removed chapter of this 3rd book in the Old Man series, so you’re practically thrown in an unknown background. But, even from this little bit, his characters seem compelling, the writing is good and it clearly made me want to read his works.

The Screams of Dragons by Kelley Armstrong - 3.5+/5★ Good fantasy mixed with horror, featuring a boy who dreams of screaming dragons, verging on a psychological analogy.

The Dry Spell by James P. Blaylock - 2/5★ A magical realism story about a man conjuring rain, not bad, but odd.

He Who Grew Up Reading Sherlock Holmes by Harlan Ellison - 1/5★ Don’t even know how to describe this, but I didn’t like it a bit..
L.E. nothing comes to mind when thinking back to this story, and I really mean NOTHING.. ☹

A Small Price to Pay for Birdsong by K.J. Parker - 5/5★ Another brilliant story of Parker’s, about a professor with great knowledge about music and structure and a student with creative genius.

The Truth of Fact, the Truth of Feeling by Ted Chiang - 5/5★ Superbe writing and fascinating, thought provoking subject(s), masterfully rendered through an alternance between two plans and stories, which are somehow related, even if not directly connected.
I have NEVER raised the question of someone not knowing what a word is or how I could explain such a concept to someone - I always considered it an intrinsic concept.. The same with the fine line between righteousness and truth, or the one between a 'reliable' remembrance and the truth..

A Long Walk Home by Jay Lake - 3+/5★ Quite interesting story about loneliness: a genetically improved man is left on a distant planet after an incident where all electronic devices stopped working.


Overall, this collection had both brilliant and crappy (imo) works, but I enjoyed reading it.

2.5 Stars

As with most anthologies, this one was a mixed bag. Out of 30 stories collected for this anthology, there were only 8 that really stuck with me. And considering this one ranked in at over 700 pages, that's not very hopeful.

The Last Log of the Lachrimosa by Alastair Reynolds - This is truly classic sci-fi, where our ‘merry band of rebels’ wreck on an unknown planet that contains some very old, and very dangerous, secrets. I especially loved the switch in time-lines from the crew’s crashing on the planet and their next steps, to then essentially going to the end of the story where we have a man with a noose around his neck, being slowly killed. I enjoyed the build up to finding out how they ended up in the situation.

The Seventeenth Kind by Michael Marshall Smith - A sci-fi comedy by which we are introduced to a tv shopping channel presenter who gets more than he bargained for when an alien species calls into his show. Thoroughly entertaining!

The Pile by Michael Bishop - This story takes on a very surreal and dreamy quality to it, as the author presents us a story about an apartment complex that has a junk pile that the residents are constantly adding to and removing from, and what happens when an old singing monkey is thrown on the pile. This had a creepy, almost Twilight Zone feel to it that I enjoyed.

Sic Him, Hellhound! Kill! Kill! by Hal Duncan - A werewolf story I can get behind. The supernatural beings in this story are no sparling vampires or angsty werewolf teenagers. They are grizzly and ruthless, and I of course approve of the grotesque ways these supernatural beings haunt their prey.

Troublesolving by Tim Pratt - I don’t usually buy into time travel stories because they more often than not end up like swiss cheese. This one, however, had a great premise and I was fully able to buy into this story and found it very entertaining. This is one that I think I could read as a full-length novel, giving more opportunity to delve into the gangstalking and the origins of the time-travel safe.

The Toys of Caliban (script) by George R.R. Martin - This one might take the cake as my favorite story in the collection. Martin brings us a dark and traumatic script about a kid who has the ability to say the word “bring” to a picture or a memory of something and it manifests in front of him. When a seriously traumatic event happens in the household, we get to see the full horror of the child’s abilities. And I LOVED the ending for this one.

The Truth of Fact, the Truth of Feeling by Ted Chiang - A very relevant fictional story about what our future would look like if/when we go from an oral history, to a written history, to then a solely digital history that can’t be falsified or remembered incorrectly.

A Long Walk Home by Jay Lake - It’s quite difficult for me to say if this story, or Martin’s “The Toys of Caliban” is my favorite in this collection. For sure the collection ended on a strong note with this one. A man is underground when some unseen occurrence happens and he is the only human left on a world. He has no idea where anyone went and spends over a century wondering the entirety of the planet he is stuck on.

Copy received from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

This is a behemoth of an anthology. Utterly intimidating in its size. I never read Subterranean Magazine during its 9 years of publication, wasn't even aware of it until now (though I did know about Subterranean Press), so no idea how large those quarterlies were or how good they were, so no idea how selective Subterranean long time editor Schafer was when putting this collection together (maybe it's just all the stories previously published combined), but best seems like an appropriate title, because these stories are terrific. I was enticed by the line up, seemed like a great way to discover new genre authors, for one thing, and this one turned out well worth the epic effort. Actually, effort isn't a correct description, maybe if the book was read in a physical form. In digital, it's the sort of thing Kindle is perfect for. It did take an inordinately long time to finish, but I read a bunch of other books in between. Nothing about this book was short, even these stories aren't, more along the lines of long short fiction or even novellas, but all so good. Subterranean Press, as the name suggests, specializes in the darker aspects of genre fiction be it suspense, science fiction or scary. What surprised me was how many stories weren't definitively genre, more along the lines of speculative fiction. And all so well written, that was my favorite thing about this collection, even things I don't normally go for like paranormal suspense or fantasy still so good, so engaging. It can't be a small task to find and sustain that level of literary quality and for that kudos must be dished out and accolades thrown around. Well done, Subterranean Press. Well done me for getting through it, for that matter, I normally tend to stay away from such voluptuous volumes. Any fans of speculative literary fiction would be delighted with this collection. Every story a treasure making this essentially a treasure trove. Recommended. Thanks Netgalley.

This is a wonderful anthology from Subterranean magazine which was published from 2005 until 2014. There is an amazing inclusion of 30 stories from some of the best known authors in science fiction and fantasy. The author list from the Table of Contents alone provides a list one can use for further great reading. I don't think there was a story in the bunch that I thought shouldn't have been included. This is a must have from your Science Fiction collection.

A number of the stories, especially at the beginning, are hard to distinguish from realistic fiction, but there is also more conventional horror/fantasy/sf. Michael Marshall Smith has a quirky story about saving the earth from destruction by aliens through home shopping. Rachel Swirsky, Kage Baker, Cherie Priest, Joe R. Lansdale, Daniel Abraham (a sort of Sherlock-Holmes-with-vampires pastiche), Karen Joy Fowler, Catherynne Valente, Kelly Link, Caitlin R. Kiernan, Robert Silverberg (old-fashioned sf), George R.R. Martin (script that is an unfilmed Twilight Zone episode), John Scalzi (excised chapter from The Last Colony), Kelley Armstrong (truly disturbing story about changelings), Harlan Ellison (a mess), K.J. Parker (smaller version of Parker’s usual exquisite machineries of people harming people), and Ted Chiang (a fascinating take on the effects of writing and recording on human memory and relationships) are also represented.

I couldn't finish this behemoth of an anthology. I was about 60% finished when I realized that every time I started a story, I'd become annoyed and antsy. Subterranean Press puts out some good stuff, but I only found a handful of stories that I really liked. I'd like to think that the last few stories ended with a bang, but my patience didn't last that long. 2 1/2 stars, rounded up to 3. My thanks to Netgalley and the publishers.

A massive doorstop full of great stories

I really like this massive doorstop of a book.
It is a mixed genre anthology, and that is its greatest strength even if purists my see it as its greatest weakness. But I think you should try a look nevertheless, since most of the stories are exceptional, you get the possibility to look into other genres and you will not be disappointed.
There are so many genres, so many big talents collected in one book.
Whether it is the special voice of K. J. Parker in "Small Price to Pay ..", the magic realism of Catherynne M Valente in "White Lines..", steampunk delight by Cherie Priest and Kage Baker, swashbuckling by Daniel Abraham, and ... and .. and..
The only story that left me absolutely without a clue was "He Who Grew Up Reading Sherlock Holmes" by Harlan Ellison (posing as as a trademark instead of a human, perhaps this has to do with it?). I read this story multiple times in the hope "to get it", but to no avail. All of the other stories I read several times for the poor delight of it.

If you only buy one anthology this year, then this one should be it.

5/5 stars

My rating: 3 of 5 stars, I liked it.

I like to read anthologies, because I always find new authors to try. But like most anthologies, not every story appealed to me. Some were excellent, and I will be searching out work by the author. Some, not so much.

But if you enjoy sci-fi/fantasy, you will find something in here for you. The stories are diverse, from horror to urban fantasy. Find what appeals to you and read it! As a result, some stories hit, some missed.

Almost all of these authors were new to me, with Kelley Armstrong being the only one I had read anything (everything!) by. Yes, that also means I am one of the few folks on the planet who has not read or watched Game of Thrones. I stick pretty much to urban fantasy, so some of these stories were certainly out of my comfort zone. But that's a good thing. Now I have more authors to look for and a wider range to read!

I received a copy of this from Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.

[book:The Best of Subterranean|34593154] Is a collection of short stories/novellas, and, as with most collections, it's a mix. There's a lot more horror and magical realism than science fiction.

I think the reader's reaction to the stories are going to vary tremendously, depending on whether they're the type of stories that that person enjoys.

Just to talk specifically about a few of the stories - I particularly liked <i> The Last Log of the Lachrimosa</i> and <i>Troublesolving</i>, maybe because they were a bit more science fiction-y. <i>White Lines on a Green Field</i> was more what I would call magical realism, but it was an interesting look at teenagers and what happens with teenage culture when there are magical influences about.

<i>The Screams of Dragons</i> drew me in right away, and I thought it was an interesting take on what happens when someone has powers but is cut off from any guidance in using them. Fantasy, yes, but echoes of child rearing in general, and how important it is to teach a child how to properly use their gifts/abilities, rather than just trying to suppress anything that doesn't "fit."

<i>The Prayer of Ninety Cats</i> was compelling, in a very creepy, disturbing sort of way.

Finally, I hate to say this because I'm a huge John Scalzi fan and have read, I think, most things that he has written - but <i>The Secret History of the Lost Colony</i> was a big disappointment. A deleted chapter from one of the books in the series, I guess recycled so it wouldn't go to waste - but it didn't add anything.

Overall, I do think that almost anyone who likes any of these genres would find stories in this collection that appeal, others not so much. But, that's the way of collections!

Once, there was a great SF&F magazine from Subterranean Press, publishing reviews, news, and stories between 2005 and its final issue in 2014. What you will find here is an anthology of 30 stories spread over some 750 pages from that magazine. The stories are diversified over every field of speculative fiction, including SF comedy, magical realism, ghost stories, steampunk, weird, and horror fiction. The overall tendency is heading towards weird fiction. There is an awesome line of authors, that lures you into the book, in some cases only because of the name. how else could Scalzi's story have found the way into a Best Of anthology or a piece of arrogant crap like Ellison's puzzle for the reader? As usual, Subterranean Press adds a high price tag for which you get a nice hardcover edition.

First of all: "Best of"? I'm not convinced, as I'm missing the great novellas which I consider as the best assets of this magazine, e.g. "After the Siege" by Cory Doctorow, Ted Chiang's "The Lifecycle of Software Objects", "Grand Jeté (The Great Leap)" and "The Lady Who Plucked Red Flowers Beneath the Queen's Window" by Rachel Swirsky, or "Vacancy" by Lucius Shepard. Some of the collected pieces are questionable with regard of their status as "best of", as already mentioned.

The collection's tension bow left a lot to be desired: It started very good with stories from Shiner and Headly, but then lost traction and got lost in boredom with only a few highlights like Baker's Bohemian Astrobleme story. Some authors that I longed for really where a let down. But right at the end, when I nearly gave up all hopes, two stories pulled out the anthology's lethargy: K.J. Parker's wonderful novella and Ted Chiang's Near Future SF novelette.

There is something in it for everyone, and if you think that you don't like the setup and don't consider the book, then you might want to read at least a couple of the stories: All are still freely available online, just check out the metainformation in the reviews.

A large volume of short stories collected from the short lived magazine. As before the best thing about reading collections is being introduced to authors you've never read before. That is certainly the case here. From Sci-Fi to horror and fantasy there's something for everyone. From well known authors, like George R R Martin and Harlan Ellison and Joe Hill to Joe R Lansdale to (to me anyway) little known authors like Hal Duncan who writes the excellent Sic Him Hellhound. Kill Kill. A fantastic and large collection that is guaranteed to chill and make you think.

C/p from Goodreads:

My average rating for this collection is 3.7 stars.

1/3 of this collection is pretty stand out (There are couple authors in particular who i'll be checking out further), 1/3 is just not to my taste or interest but otherwise well written, and 1/3 was pretty dry AF.

Overall this collection wasn't bad. I think most readers would find at least a couple stories here they'd really like but because it covers such a diverse range of topics, genres, writing styles, I don't think every story is going to appeal to every reader--if that makes sense? A decent collection for those interested in surveying a lot of speculative authors. Like I mentioned above, I found a couple new names to check out.

I think the stories that worked the best were the ones that pushed the envelope. Several were just a little too...tame, a little too timid and stoic in their execution, but I can't fault the writing in any of the stories--it's all by accomplished and polished writers.

I jotted down brief thoughts about most of the short stories, though I should emphasize they are only BRIEF. My absolute favs have been bolded.

1. Perfidia *3.5
2. Game *4
<b>3. Last Log of the Lachrimosa *4.5 this was one of my favorites, super gripping, great characters, intrigue, interesting spin, would make a great movie</b>
4. The 17th King *3.75 lolz
5. Dispersed by the Sun *3.75 depressing AF
6. The Pile *3.5 good but the ending fell flat for me
7. The Bohemian Astrolabe *4 really entertaining, I would definitely read an entire series of novels set in this universe
8. Tanglefoot *3.75 creepy. there was a lot of stuff about the civil war and trying to set this in an AU that felt...sort of unnecessary and didn't tie back in
9. Hide and Horns *3.25 writing was fine but not the most engaging
<b>10. Balfour and Meriweather *4 the two protagonists were a little hard to set apart but the story itself was a lot of fun and i would totally read a series set in this universe with these characters</b>
11. Last Breath *3.5
12. Younger Women *3.75 gave me a lol
<b>13. White Lines etc *4 (this is the sort of thing I wanted to see from American Gods but which American Gods UTTERLY failed to deliver.)</b>
14. Least of the Deathly Arts *3.75 liked the world, liked the concept, weak ending
15. Water Can't be Nervous *2.5 umm, wtf
<b>16. Valley of the Girls *4 Interesting
17. Sic Him, Hellhounds! Kill! Kill! *4.5 YAS, love the twilight digs, loved the relationship</b>
18. Troublesolving *4 lot of fun and quirky
19. The Indelible Dark *4 I like parts of it
20. The Prayer of 90 Cats *3.75 the beginning is cumbersome but at its heart theres an interesting story
21. The Crane Method *3 good concept and title, eh execution
22. The Tomb of the Pontifax Dvorn *3 the beginning was PAINFULLY slow, lots of bleh exposition, abrupt rushed ending
23. The Toys of Caliban *3 JFC GRRM is a such a Nihilist
24. The Secret History etc *3 not a real short story, eh (I didnt make a note of it but I think this is the Scalzi addition that feels like it was only added so they could put his name on the cover)
25. The Screams of Dragons *4 Man that was dark
26. The Dry Spy *3.75 super boring beginning but great ending
27. He Who Grew Up reading Sherlock Holmes *3.5 eh
<b>28. A Small Price to Pay *4.5 Almost Amadeus w/ more murder</b>
29. The Truth of Fact etc *3 interesting but i found the writing soooo dry
<b>30. Long Walk Home *4.5 OMG!!!!</b>

I loved this collection! I will add more detailed thoughts later, but first I just want to say it would great to get more collections like these. :)

Great selection! Well worth grabbing a copy, even though I read the ARC, i'm picking up a copy for my shelf. This one you will be picking up and reading through again and again.

I thought this to be a collection of sci-fi and fantasy stories and it turned out that its tales are mostly from urban fantasy, horror and alternate reality. Some are stunning, some are ok, others did not appeal to me at all. However, for the above genre’s lovers I think it will be much more enjoyable than it was for me. I recommend it though because there is a wide variety of ideas and styles and it is impossible not to find something to please you. Even for the few I very much liked, I still think it was worthy of my time.

Loved Kelley Armstrong's contribution in particular!

The last log of the Lachrymosa di Alastair Reynolds è il raccont, dalle tinte nemmeno tanto vagamente horror, di una missione su un pianeta alieno - una missione che va decisamente, decisamente male;

The seventeenth kind di Michael Marshall Smith è il rutilante resoconto di una vendita televisiva dai risvolti - e dai contatti col "pubblico" - decisamente imprevisti;

lo spegnersi della razza umana è raccontato nello stupendo Dispersed by the Sun, Melting in the Wind by Rachel Swirsky;

un automa, un bambino e un geniale inventore affetto da demenza sono i protagonisti dello steampunk Tanglefoot di Cherie Priest, che nasconde una delicata rappresentazione della malattia;

Hide and Horns è la città in cui arriva il riluttante eroe western di Joe Lansdale, protagonista di un'avventura ai confini dell'horror, ma con un tocco di surreale umorismo;

Younger women di Karen Joy Fowler racconta il rapporto contrastato tra una madre e una figlia adolescente, e come il vampiro di turno, da vero parassita, riesca a sfruttarne le crepe;

Last breath di Joe Hill porta il lettore in visita a un museo molto speciale - che non tutti apprezzano, purtroppo;

White Lines on a Green Field di Catherynne M. Valente conferma il mio giudizio - e i miei dubbi - sull'autrice: il talento per una scrittura evocativa, l'abilità nel rimaneggiare miti e leggende di ogni parte del mondo, e il sospetto che usi questi suoi talenti per impacchettare splendidamente quelle che sono scatole vuote. Rimane un racconto straniante e interessante;

The Least of the Deathly Arts di Kat Howard è un'inusuale storia d'amore e poesia, fra la Morte e la giovane studiosa che si è dedicata anima e corpo al suo studio;

Water Can’t be Nervous di Jonathan Carroll è un'altra inusuale storia, ma di un amore (più amori, nei secoli) che finiscono, perché l'eternità porta inevitabilmente noia; e di come un dio faccia ammenda della sua incostanza con le sue amanti, realizzando un sogno:

The Crane Method di Ian R. MacLeod ci porta nella pericolosa giungla della vita accademica degli studiosi di storia medievale inglese - e se pensate che sia un argomento noioso, sapete meno di Jon Snow;

The Tomb of the Pontifex Dvorn di Robert Silverberg conferma il meraviglioso talento di questo scrittore; un'altra storia di passioni accademiche si trasforma nella cronaca di un sogno d'infanzia realizzato;

A Small Price to Pay for Birdsong di K.J. Parker è il racconto più bello di tutta la raccolta: una storia di musica, passione, talento e degli abissi dell'animo umano;

The Truth of Fact, the Truth of Feeling di Ted Chiang è una profonda, affascinante riflessione sulla verità e la menzogna; la verità e la menzogna dei ricordi individuali, la verità e la menzogna delle parole, orali o scritte. E il fatto che, forse, non esiste una sola, univoca verità.