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3.4 out of 5 stars
3.4 out of 5
17 global ratings
5 star
37%
4 star
16%
3 star
22%
2 star 0% (0%)
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1 star
25%
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Kalash Spooner
1.0 out of 5 stars Fix the kindle version!
Reviewed in the United States on October 24, 2017
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Typos.
That's all. There are lots of them, and they bug me.
Other than that, I love Gardner's work. The pacing is great, the perspectives are varied and believable. The wit and humor - far more prevalent in the proper League of Peoples books - still shows through most of these stories.
But for the Kindle edition... It needs a good once over by an editor to fix some things. These errors look like the book was scanned, read for major issues, and pushed out. I don't know if the print versions share this problem, but the kindle edition is a major disappointment (because I get caught up in these kind of things).
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Sara G. B. Fishman
5.0 out of 5 stars Style plus substance
Reviewed in the United States on November 3, 2014
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Style plus substance lives in science fiction! Well, okay, the first story seemed competent but somewhat pedestrian to me. The second, however, (The Children of Creche) was all style, non-stop word-and-phrase play, with a (to me) unexpected, and unexpectedly sympathetic, ending. And then there are the stories in which Gardner plays with form, and in doing so, evokes meaning beyond what could be expressed in a straightforward plot. Many of these stories are written with multiple parts and shifting viewpoints. The best example is "The Young Person's Guide to the Organism," written in the form of a fugue, which, as the author explains in his preface, is a literary nod to Benjamin Britten's "The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra." All together, a rich, tasty delight to read!
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CissaTop Contributor: Baking
TOP 1000 REVIEWER
5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent and varied stories
Reviewed in the United States on December 24, 2012
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Gardner is becoming one of my favorite authors, and i don't know how I'd overlooked him for years! I've read all his novels now, and was thrilled to find this book of short stories... and it lived up to my expectations.

All the stories were very well-written, though obviously some appealed to me more than others. None disappointed me, though. He's a thoughtful writer more than one who does action-packed, and I appreciate that- especially in sf.

I have only one small quibble: I would have preferred the forwards to the stories to be right before the stories, rather than stuck in the preface; they added a lot to the stories, and it was rather a nuisance to have to poke around to find them.
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BJ Fraser
VINE VOICE
3.0 out of 5 stars OK
Reviewed in the United States on March 12, 2017
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Like many short story collections it's hit-or-miss. Most of these don't really have anything to do with the League of Peoples novels, though a couple take place in the same universe at least. The novels are better.
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Reuben Edgar
5.0 out of 5 stars Good read! Loved the League of People stories
Reviewed in the United States on December 15, 2014
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Good read! Loved the League of People stories.
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Amazon Customer
3.0 out of 5 stars some good stories, some filler
Reviewed in the United States on June 28, 2013
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If you enjoy Gardner's novels, about half of the stories here are solid additions to them. The other half, not so much.
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Carlos From Argentina
1.0 out of 5 stars boring...boring...boring
Reviewed in the United States on September 3, 2005
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the stories are not what you called good nor imaginative. do not waste your money.
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deviated_prevert
1.0 out of 5 stars Completely lame
Reviewed in the United States on April 2, 2011
Verified Purchase
I bought this story collection after reading the rave reviews. What a disappointment. When I think of sci-fi, I think of creative geniuses such as Isaac Asimov, Philip Dick and Greg Bear. Gardner's stuff is so boring, dumb and childish, I could only suffer through about half of it before I left the book on a park bench for some other poor sap to find. Maybe some homeless guy could use it for toilet paper.
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