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Audrey

more YA than I was expecting

Reviewed in the United States on August 11, 2013

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I bought this collection of short stories mainly for "A Strand in the Web" by Anne Bishop. There are also two other stories "Host of Leeches" by James Alan Gardner and "Stranded" by Anthony Francis. All of the stories were at least acceptable, some more than others. But what I didn't pick up from reading the publisher's summary is that they are also YA. Which is not, in and of itself, a major objection. But I would have liked to know ahead of time what I was getting.

"A Strand in the Web" was worth the purchase price of the book. This is a well thought out, compelling story with a strong environmental theme. What happens when a planet get a second chance - a chance to recover from massive ecological damage? A ship full of space travelers who are attempting to atone for environmental sins on another world in the distant past have one last chance to get it right. This is a powerful thought-providing work. Well written and complete in itself. Highly recommended.

"Host of Leeches" is written in a rather simplistic style. A 16 year old girl is infected with an illness of extraterrestrial origins while on Earth. She wakes up on an orbital space station populated by retired military robots, some of which are deceitful and power-hungry and other that are fond of humans. Very YA feel to the entire thing.

I took a strong dislike to "Stranded." Mainly as a result of scenes with a male teenaged bully physically abusing the young girls who had the misfortune to find themselves in his power. I don't find that type of behavior entertaining. I slogged through and eventually finished the story. Space travelers crash land after their ship malfunctions. Young female centaur trying to find herself in compensation for an overachieving grandmother discovers the wrecked ship and steps in. The story is somewhat open-ended and feels like is might be lifted from part of a series.

S. Rayball

Very good.

Reviewed in the United States on September 1, 2017

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3 different stories, 3 different authors, all very good. My favorite was Anne Bishop's entry. It's a little like a YA short story and much different than her other stuff, but after reading this I hope she does more like it.

Jane

This was good. Didn't realize it wasn't just Anne Bishop but ...

Reviewed in the United States on October 23, 2017

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This was good. Didn't realize it wasn't just Anne Bishop but the other stories were interesting. I love all of Anne Bishop's books and when I saw this jumped to purchase. I enjoyed the book.

Joyeuse

For inquiring minds who like sci fi fiction

Reviewed in the United States on October 20, 2019

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Interesting premises on all 3 stories. I didn’t realize it should have been listed as a young adult category so I didn’t identify w/the characters. The stories were well written and all showed positive outcomes.for

Karla&Sharon

I want more. Each storylines (with work) would make three good books.

Reviewed in the United States on June 8, 2020

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Each storyline has the makings (if fleshed out) of a good book for lite reading along the line of Ann Mccaffrey later dragon books. As written not worth the $10 I paid for a Anne Bishop novel.

Cathryn M. Hart

Book review

Reviewed in the United States on January 1, 2014

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This book is an anthology of 3 stories written by 3 authors. The brief given to the writers was to write a sci-fi fantasy long short story with the title "Stranded"
I can't tell you what each author did with the brief because that would give the game away, so to speak. Suffice to say each writer presents a very different take on the theme. The protagonist in each story is stranded in a different way and overcomes the inherent problems of being on their own in an abandoned situation. Recommended for all those readers who like a bit of mystery without a gory murder being the central plot.

D. Haussler

Below average teen fiction

Reviewed in the United States on May 18, 2013

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I try not to write negative reviews but this book took me by surprise (and not in a good way). I could barely finish Anne Bishop's contribution to the collection due to it's horrid set-ups and flimsy societal premise. I expected a simplistic storyline and mid-level writing as per many young adult books but I couldn't get past the petty backstabbing of 'teen girls in space'.

At one point while reading this book I had to look up just when the stories were published. I assumed I had missed something and these were tales from the 60's. The science in this fiction is just unbelievably bad. I tried to get past such things as 'video displays' and 'communication towers' but when a key plot line on a spaceship is set in motion because a warning light on a display panel is ignored and it's assumed the circuit is faulty (the person monitoring it is described as hitting it with his fist until the light goes out) it was just too hard to ignore. I mean I've got a microwave oven that isn't as archaic as that.

Gardner and Frances' stories were better but they too seemed directed towards tween girls looking for an easy read. My is review based off of the content not the Kindle formatting but it should be noted this is very poorly formatted [only Bishop's story has full chapter links in ToC].

Amazon Customer

Entertaining Short Stories

Reviewed in the United States on May 11, 2014

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I really enjoyed both Anne Bishop's "A Strand in the Web" and James Alan Gardner's "A Host of Leeches".

Both were well-written stand-alone short stories.

I'm giving the collection only four stars because I did not enjoy Anthony Francis's "Stranded" as much as the first two stories. Perhaps because it references a world he has apparently previously written about or perhaps because I found the story slightly more disjointed and/or truncated than either "A Strand in the Web" or "A Host of Leeches".

All in all, well worth the price for the Kindle version and I would not have regretted paying the for a physical copy of the book either.

Top reviews from other countries

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Sardine

Nice taster

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 27, 2018

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Lovely little tasters, different stories with different styles nicely blended together. More young adult but this old one enjoyed

Dany Mohyla

Gut geschrieben - aber zu kurz

Reviewed in Germany on January 25, 2014

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Anne Bishop gehört zu meinen liebsten Autoren. Ihre Bücher leben von vielschichtigen Charakteren, einzigartigen Welten und unmengen an liebenvollen Details. Zum Beispiel kann es vorkommen, dass die mächtigen Helden an Mutters Tisch sitzen und eins mit dem Kochlöffel überzogen bekommen - wegen einer frechen Bemerkung oder so. Ihre Bücher kann ich alle wärmstens empfehlen! Zu diesem Buch: es sind drei Kurzgeschichten, die allesamt gut bis sehr gut sind. Leider sind sie nicht miteinander verknüpft... und jede hinterlässt das Verlangen nach mehr - daher nur 3 Sterne. Wenn man zu dem Punkt kommt, wo man die Welt anfängt zu verstehen, die Charkater liebgewonnen hat folgt kurz darauf das Ende der Geschichte und es hätte noch so viel Potential ein grosser Geschichte daraus zu machen.

CrystalLady

Five Stars

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 15, 2017

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Gift.

Diane

Five Stars

Reviewed in Canada on January 22, 2016

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Good stories by good authors.

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