A solid little collection of human stories. Clever themes, tight writing, and very vibrant three dimensional characters. Something to relate to in every story, with only one stinker in the bunch. Neil Smith is Canadian, so there was a little more french in it than I was prepared for. I should probably learn at least some basic French at some point. 3.5 stars averaged, rounded up because there are some killer ones in here.
Isolettes: 4/5
Sad, but very poetic and knowing. Love this guy’s writing.
Green Fluorescent Protein: 3/5
Coming of age, dealing with the hand you’re dealt. Being comfortable with yourself.
B9ers: 3/5
Clever and cute story about pushovers and correlation. One race based plot point fell flat for me near the end.
Bang Crunch: 5/5
Really reminded me of Ted Chiang’s writing. Good stuff.
Scrapbook: 3/5
Could’ve been terrific, but ultimately left me wanting something more from it. I’m not sure what, so that may just be my fault.
The Butterfly Box: 5/5
Damn, this was beautiful and real.
Funny Ha Ha or Funny Weird: 4/5
Alcoholism and dealing with loss. Excellent follow-up on a specific secondary character from Green Fluorescent Protein.
Extremities: 1/5
Just not a good story at all. It felt more like a creative writing exercise on weird POVs.
Jaybird: 5/5
Thespian life has always seemed for the crazies. I went back and forth between loving and hating this one as I read it, ultimately I settled on loving it. Revenge against a crazy industry, and life working better when you accept who you are and work with it instead of against it.