wonderful

A wonderful collection short stories I have listentened to many times. I recommend the collection, and every time I listen, I notice something new.

12 people found this helpful

Terrible language in all but two! Finally stopped!

Soooo unfortunate! These could have been good stories. I skipped through all of them but two! There was so much bad language! I finally stopped at the 8th story when the F word was used. If any of the other stories were any good I couldn’t tell you. It’s sad that the English language is so degraded!

9 people found this helpful

Disorganized anthology

Why does someone publish a multi author anthology and failed to idrntify the chapters?

3 people found this helpful

Good stuff

This was a brilliant conception. I really enjoyed the authors view before the story. Each story was good to great. The one that struck me the hardest was

1 person found this helpful

Mixed bag with some true gems

Across the spectrum is a nice title as the stories vary in SF/F levels. Some absolute gems such as grass, mist & sand and the one about an old Sri Lankan lady cooking. I didn’t care much for the intro’s and some American accents are hard to listen to for me. All in all, a pleasant free surprise from Audible. Oh and they kept the best die last.

1 person found this helpful

really great collection

I really enjoyed a majority of the stories involved here. I wish I could have this collection in print. can not recommend enough. even if you don't like the first story, keep listening. I'm glad I did.

Just not worth it

Very turned off by the selection of stories. The advertisements for it lead with Ursula LeGuin but her story is very short and while well written, certainly not as captivating as much else she’s written and not at all reflective of the quality of writing throughout this anthology. Also, very very offended by the civil war story that the author, likely of a category of privilege, took the time to double down on as a “good story” BECAUSE it offends decency. I love Audible but this selection really scrapes the bottom of the barrel.

These stories aren’t even good let alone great.

I listened to the first two stories, neither of which were even remotely good. I wouldn’t recommend this book to anyone, it’s probably the worst anthology book I’ve ever purchased.

Wide variety of stories

Almost all these stories were very good to excellent. I thought the collection was well diversified. There were a couple stories that were narrated in such a flat voice I wondered if it was intentional. Still not sure. I didn’t find that to complement the otherwise well selected collection.

Banality Incarnate

Okay, maybe 2.5 stars overall, with points deducted for production value.

It is likely that I would enjoy this book more while reading it myself, but, performance aside, the subject matter was geared toward a different demographic (breeders) and if one cannot identify with the story it is hard to be too interested.

Finally, I would like to suggest that one should never fake an accent for the reading of a story. If the story demands a British narrator, get a British reader.