Netgalley Review: Miniatures – The Very Short Fiction of John Scalzi

I received an e-arc of this book from netgalley and this is my honest review.

Original Release Date:

December 31st 2016

Date I Read The Book:

November 2016

My Star Rating:

4.5 stars

Chronology:

A book of short stories

Official Summary:

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.”

My Review: (Vague Spoilers)

I’d mean meaning to read a John Scalzi book for  while, so I requested this one from Netgalley on a whim. It was really good.

In fact, I read the entire book under the desk in class between AP Lang and APUSH.

It was really funny and the stories were very well written, if you’re a fan of comedy/sci-fi you will definitely love this. I especially liked that Scalzi gave a background to how the stories came about before the stories. Though a couple of the stories fell a little flat, a little too short for me, which is why its 4.5 stars not 5.

I liked it enough that I picked up Redshirts by Scalzi and I’m loving that so far.

I highly recommend this!