The Wandering World: And Other Stories was not for me. I was unable to finish this book as it just did not draw me in.

I loved the cover for this book and it is what really drew me in. The story overall is good; I was very interested because of what was written about the book but to be honest, this was not really my cup of tea. It was nicely put together and the plot was there, but I felt like it could have been better written at parts. However, this was a fantastic idea and I am glad to have read it.

This book was first published in May of 2016 and is a collection of short stories bound only by the fact that they are science fiction. I liked several of them but many were so so. 10 stories, one slightly longer cover many segments of the science fiction genre. Maybe the hardcore scifi reader will like it better then me. I received a copy of this ARC in exchange for a fair and honest review.

I wanted to like this book, but it meanders so much that it's hard to understand what's going on. I was almost halfway into the book before I understood that centuries had elapsed from one story to the next. The whole book was just too weird for my taste.

This one didn't come across like I expected. First, it's billed in NetGalley under a single name, but once you get into it you realize there are two authors' names. Did they collaborate or did each write their own stories? I figured that out about 1/3 of the way in, when the voice and the style changed.

The first stories are very short and very incomplete. No endings, no resolution; they just stop. But they are intriguing and enjoyable so I kept on. After 3 or 4 of those I decided the "and other stories" in the title was a concept and these were a series of vignettes building a picture of a larger world that was the point of the "collection". However, once the author changed I realized that really wasn't the case. Too bad! That would've had far more impact. As it stands, I can't give it more than a "3", which means "average".

A good mix of stories set in the near and far futures. They're not all great, but certainly recommended overall.

Thanks very much for the free copy for review!

I’m so very cautious these days trying new unheard of small press authors, but this book had attracted my attention, Purely superficial appeal, maybe, lovely cover, lovely title, promise of otherworldly adventures. But in the end it just didn’t work for me, past the initial attraction. It wasn’t terrible by any means, it fact it was a very respectable try and on or above the level typically expected of this random finds. There was originality, the stories had interesting ideas conceptually, but upon presentation they just…dissolved into words. It isn’t a great explanation, but it’s the best way I can come up with to explain how it read to me. Like the forest would just dissolve into trees. Something about the way the narrative meandered just didn’t grab my attention and consistently so. The final novella made the most significant stride for coherency, but after a while…the same thing. It’s entirely possible the stories were somewhat overwritten as is often the case with new authors, too many ideas crammed into the stories, when these should have been streamlined somehow, but at any rate…didn’t work for me. Writing’s quite decent, but structurally the storytelling leaves a lot to be desired. Plus there’s also the fact that this book…I read it on Wednesday, today’s Saturday, I’ve only read two other books since and I can’t seem to recollect a single story from this book, just an overall underwhelming impression it left. It was a quick read, but obviously not a very memorable one. Thanks Netgalley.