The thing I liked best about this anthology was how it showed the multiple facets of hard-boiled detectives. Some of them are smart-alecky ne'er-do-wells. Some of them have deep secrets. And some of them have very noir lives. The thing I liked least was that at least thee of the stories (Asaro, Reed and McDevitt's) take place in previously existing worlds, and, since I hadn't read any Asaro or McDevitt, I felt vaguely like I was missing background. In fact, the solution I came up with for the McDevitt mystery wouldn't have occurred to me if I'd read other stories in the series. I agree with the first reviewer that Gerrold's story makes this anthology worth picking up. I also liked the Reed story, one of the best I've read in his great ship series. The Asaro and McDevitt were intriguing enough to make me want to read more of their stories. The Resnick and the Sawyer were fun. ( )

Most of the time I like the SFBC. I like getting the books I would buy anyway but at a lower price and I like the special offers like Down These DARK SPACEWAYS. I enjoyed the stories. The blurb and reviews are correct; these are good mysteries with solid science fiction - not gimmicky on either part.

The jacket blurb indicates that things have changed – that they (yes, that ephemeras “they”) said mystery couldn’t blend with science fiction. The point is that most science fiction mysteries are merely “Sam Spade took his blaster out of his holster” type approaches. Okay, that’s (kind of) the first thing wrong with this book – done incorrectly (which a lot of it is) – all genre blends with science fiction are just a case of take one genre, add science fiction props, mix briskly. And this collection does almost nothing to change that. The stories are fine, but they still seem to just be adapting the mystery (in this case – per the editor’s request – “Chandler-esque tales”) to science fiction by just adding the trappings. “Guardian Angel” by editor Resnick suffers the most from this. “The City of Cries” does the same thing, this time adapting it to a Space Opera. “The Big Downtown” by Jack McDeviit comes close. It is very well written and I enjoyed the story. But in the back of my head I couldn’t keep from asking, “Is there any real reason why this has to be science fiction? What does that add?” And I think that should be the point of any collection of Chandler-esque type science fiction.

The stories are nicely written, but the book is not really worth picking up – except for one story. David Gerrold’s “In the Quake Zone” does it right. Really does it right. This story of time traveling event adjustors (my term –not his) cannot exist, cannot drive forward without the science fiction aspect. There are plenty of ideas, plenty of mind-twists, and plenty of old-time detective action. Many of the stories here are longer (80 – 100 pages), and Gerrold’s made me wish it was even longer. (In fact, the ending seemed to rush to conclusion – as if a little more time would have made a better, more complete story.) So, if you are willing to take on a book for one story, (or if you want to take it on to read well written stories – and there’s nothing wrong with that) then this is worth the time. ( )