Reviews

• Finally, a fitting anthology of Bishop' shorter fiction

  Up front, Michael Bishop is my favorite living fiction writer. A little late to the game myself, I have been reading and enjoying his work for 30 years now and cannot fathom that his work is not better known and more widely read. "Ghettoized" as a "Science Fiction" writer, he had been ignored by the mainstream; a master, he is often ignored within the genre as "too literary". It is heartbreaking to see his novels and story collections go out of print and sit wanting on shelves and selling for less than peanuts on sites such as this one. Routinely nominated and awarded, even lauded throughout his career, he readership has always lagged far behind. That magnificent novels like "No Enemy But Time," "Ancient of Days," and "Brittle Innings," among a dozen others are out of print is simply sad. Not to mention the collections of his marvelous short fiction. But that brings us here. It took a while to get it to market, but this is worth whatever wait it required. Bishop's short fiction is every bit as strong, nuanced, thought-provoking and humane as his novels and this collection, while hardly all-inclusive, is a wonderful, well-chosen collection, especially delightful for its collecting of a number of more recent stories that have not previously appeared between hard covers. This collection runs from his earliest published work through the present and while there are some personal favorites I'd love to have seen here, I cannot complain about the inclusion of any. Michael Bishop's work is intelligent, thoughtful, provoking, humane, witty. He is a master storyteller and literary stylist. He deserves a major readership. Here is yet more proof. Not sure? Don't want to invest this much on someone you're not familiar with? Click on Bishop's name up top. Look around at the handful of his books that are still available - almost certainly you can find a used copy for next to nothing. Click, buy and read. You'll be back here shortly.

• Two Stars

  Door Gunner humorous; other stories are very strange. Left unsatisfied after most.

• A rare gem among SF authors

  Michael Bishop weaves a blend of delicately moral, ironic characters, unusual plot tangents, and dictionary-sophisticate vocabulary that makes for refreshing reading. He is also humorous about absurd details of life. I first became acquainted with Bishop when he stopped by for an impromptu talk in my college creative writing class while he was in town for a SF convention. I picked up a collection that contained Blooded on Arachne and his visionary world made an indelible impression. This anthology isn't perfect because it doesn't contain all of the author's stories but it has many that I have enjoyed and others I look forward to reading. Worth the price.

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