Definitely worth 4 stars in the English version, but the Dutch translation just doesn't cut it. Half of the jokes and clever wordplay just sort of fizzle out.

Lovely world building, great characters, humour and deep questions. Amazing book, I intend to read the entire series

Excellent book for an excellent deck. The images are lovely interpretations of the rws, the card descriptions are interesting and caring. Good set of spreads too. Definitely recommended!

Finally finished this beast! Well over a 100 short stories and novellas, in small print on big pages. I'm both relieved and sad.

This book showed me, once again, that I LOVE the science fiction people wrote in the 50s, 60s and 70s. Older and newer stuff, less so. Too experimental, too preachy, too bleak

That said, this book is an amazing collection, and well worth reading if you like the genre.

Short and true and beautiful and bitter. Not enough has changed.

Erg goed geschreven. Moest een paar keer stoppen met lezen omdat het zo heftig werd. Diep respect

Funny, clever little book, with interesting characters and a nice mystery. If this was a series, I would definitely pick up the next!

Many science fiction anthologies start with an explanation that the definition of science fiction is rather blurry. This book didn't, but maybe it should have. It has helped me see that in my personal definition of science fiction, I like there to be some actual science. It doesn't even have to be tech!

This book is full of mystery, and the fantastic - the old definition of fantastic, which just means 'involving a lot of fantasy'. Lots of ghosts, a djinn, premonitions, ghosts, demons and angels, insanity, and every now and then a ghost. Not a shred of science.

It's a bit dated as well, probably has been from the start - some of the writers had been dead for 30 years when it was first published. The only story that surprised me was (of course) the one by Agatha Christie. Still, all in all, it wasn't bad, just not science fiction. Or exciting (spannend).

If mysteries with closed rooms, suspicious characters with eyes that seem to glow now and then, and maybe a ghost here and there are your cup of tea, you'll love it. If you're looking for spannende science fiction, keep looking.

Completely different than the first book in the series, and also very good and interesting. After all the exciting aerial battles from the first book, I had my doubts about this one. Well over 50% of it describes the months traveling from England to China - by boat. I had a hard time seeing how that could be very interesting, but that just goes to show why I shouldn’t write, and Naomi Novik should. Of course she managed splendidly.

Toen ik zo'n beetje Deesjes leeftijd had, vond ik dit eigenlijk wel één van de beste boeken ooit. Nu ik de leeftijd van halftante heb vind ik dat eigenlijk nog steeds wel.

Vreselijk herkenbaar, ergens tussen confronterend en opluchtend. Ik voel me in elk geval veel beter over de staat van mijn huis en eventuele kwabjes, dus dat is mooi meegenomen.

Cute little story, I liked it. Probably hard to understand if you haven't read the books.

This book loses a lot of it's potential charm in the Dutch translation. The world building is well done, it's an interesting backdrop filled with non-European ideas. Very refreshing.
The language however is stilted and clunky. Nothing anyone said sounded like things people would say, songs were super awkward and weird, descriptions were rather hit or miss.

I might read the sequel, but it would definitely have to be in the original language. This Dutch version is quite terrible, alas.

3 stars for the stories, 5 stars for the introductions to them.

This is not a pretentious book. The author is very clear that the stories were meant to be quick and fun, written in incredible amounts in very little time, mostly for money. He's also very clear they were written by a young man who didn't have much experience, either in writing or with life itself.

That means loads of manly earthmen, saving incredibly beautiful girls from evil aliens. These stories are very much a product of their time, and written with a specific audience in mind. I love science fiction, but I was obviously not that target.

The introductions to the stories are where this book shines. They are obviously written by a more mature, experienced writer, in fond memory of his hard working younger self. It's really interesting to see how the world of pulp magazines worked for a budding young writer, and Silverberg weaves in anecdotes, jokes and observations that place the stories firmly in their context. Very nicely done.

Almost 20 years ago a friend brought me this as a souvenir from London. It has moved between several homes with me because I liked the title, and I still do. It's just so.. intense.
The book itself was about as good as you'd expect. I must admit, I was hoping for some nice dramatic, super serious sf. That would have gotten 3 stars. But alas, it's trying to be a parody of basically every movie ever made, and it's just very... meh.

Sometimes life can be a bit much, and I keep hoping feel-good books will help me through it. So far, my experience has been very mixed. Or, actually, to be completely honest with you, it has mostly been very disappointing.

This book, however, was actually quite nice! It lost it's coherence a few times, trying to cram in too many endearing tales, and Ella, our protagonist, was rather daft at times.
But, you know, endearing tales are nice, even if they don't make much sense in the bigger story. And Ella was having some Pretty Big Emotions, and we all know those don't go together with logic and/or reason.

I really liked some of the characters, and some of the scenery. I don't think my feelings reached quite the intensity Mrs Binchy was aiming for, but I stayed in bath an hour longer than intended while reading, so there's that.

I won't be reading this again, but I wouldn't advise against reading it. I might even pick up something else by her!

Meh.. I guess this is a pretty nice book, if you like reading about horses, and/or about rather terrible people having sex. Lots of drama.
Not for me.

I liked this a lot! Really felt for Ricky and Uncle Hec, roughing it out together.

Very different from the movie, the book is definitely more serious. Both recommended.

Made me laugh out loud on several occasions. Too many coincidences for me, but so much silliness that it never mattered.

I can see how this book was amazingly unique when it first came out. Most of it was waaay too spiritual for me, so I glossed over the parts about crystals, pendulums, Higher Selves etcetera. If you're into all that, this book is a gold mine.

For me, a few concepts and spreads were useful. I liked her tone, and her hands-on approach. This is a good book, it just really wasn't for me.

Strange how I really liked this book, liked the story, liked the characters, liked the science, liked the jokes - and it still was a slog getting through it.
The fresh take on time travel was really nice, and although it was quite obvious who the elusive Mr. C. was, it was still interesting to see the rest of the story unfold and unravel and knit together again.

Just found and read the entire thing based on a review my friend liked. Beautiful.

Good old Clarke, writing about solid state electronics and engineered biological robots in 1973. He's also incredibly casual about women being in equal roles as the men, in a time where women mostly didn't exist in stories like these.

This is one of those science fiction books that really focus on the science, and Clarke does have a tendency to get technical - but never dry or boring. Excellent read.

Very much a product of its time, never even comes close to making the Bechdel test. Still, if you ignore that, it's an interesting story, with lots of gruff gentlemen and cigars and witty plot twists you don't see coming. I'll read the sequels.

This is a classic 'I really wanted to like it' review. I mean, this book is the start of an entire genre of morally ambiguous characters!

It turns out I appreciate that in theory, but the book itself was just... dear lord. In this case 'morally ambiguous' mostly comes down to a moping emo drama king, a very stupid arch nemesis, and a completely passive True Love.

Some of the descriptions were nice, and the world building was a bit shallow, but potentially interesting. That's the best I can do. It pains me to say, but won't read again, won't read the sequels, would not recommend.

A lovely sequel, well written. Fast paced but filled with real emotions. Looking forward to the next book, and probably anything by this author.

This reminded me a lot of Tailchaser's Song by Tad Williams, but unlike that book it's clearly not written in 1985.
Fast paced, very dark in places but a lot of positive foreshadowing, so never too scary, and I loved the stories in stories in stories. Very well done.

I'm looking forward to reading the rest of the series!

A worthy finish to the trilogy. Another lovely read, scary but not too much, sweet but not ridiculously so.
As soon as the last book of the next trilogy is finished, I'm diving in!

This is one of those books you can read when life is hard and you need something easy that basically reads itself. I've seen some reviews by people who were super disappointed by these books, but they were exactly what I expected. Is it The Best Book Ever, The Series to End All Series, filled with Deep True Emotions? Nah. Did I feel like I knew every character like a lifelong friend at the end? Nope.
Did I smile while reading, and feel like picking it up again, time and time again? Definitely. I'll pick up the next one for sure.

This book was silly, and slow, and very much a product of its time. The descriptions of everyone who is either not white or not male are... well. Like I said, product of its time.
And the horror element! Ha! I suck at horror, I had to train to be able to deal with Buffy the Vampire Slayer. This book is very obviously trying really really hard to be Strange and Horrifying and it probably did a good job a century ago. But even I was chuckling at this.

I really liked that there were Adventures, and the prose was like a thesaurus and a dictionary did their very best to produce eloquent offspring, which I very much enjoyed as well.
Also, there were some efforts to escape the thing where all characters are either Super Good or Pure Evil. There was definitely a hint of gray areas there, and Good did not automatically always win. Refreshing.
Plus, our while male heroes actually got scared every now and then! And in one single instance a woman sort of made a decision about her future by herself!

If you're interested in the genre and you'd like to see the start of some terrible cliches when they were fresh and new, you might like this. Otherwise, it's too dated to be of much interest.